andymac-2008 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Just seen on E-bay its up to issue 70! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Colin_McLeod Posted May 2, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 2, 2015 It had to happen sometime. Hatchete coaches stripped for spares!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-of-Hachette-BR-mk1-coach-sides-and-glazing-spares-BR-Maroon-/201337493295?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ee0a6572f Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
talisman56 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 It had to happen sometime. Hatchete coaches stripped for spares!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-of-Hachette-BR-mk1-coach-sides-and-glazing-spares-BR-Maroon-/201337493295?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ee0a6572f Probably wanted a coach other than an SK and put ANOther's sides on... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violets49 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Just found this and frankly I'd forgotten about this. I thought it had gone west long ago. I bought three of issue one to get the coaches. If i recall they were Bachmann with a basic paint job and underorated but excellent value for £1:99 The proprietor of a certain Glasgow model shop is reputed to have bought the entire stock from W.H.Smith's in Argyle street and sold them on at a lot more than £1:99. He certainly had some on sale. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D808Centaur Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 It had to happen sometime. Hatchete coaches stripped for spares!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-of-Hachette-BR-mk1-coach-sides-and-glazing-spares-BR-Maroon-/201337493295?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ee0a6572f This seller regularly breaks down models into component parts for sale on eBay, at quite a premium too. Just acquired one of the coaches in a job lot. Took a while to identify it, having not seen them before, and having no manufacturer or running number to go on! Very nice flush glazing and good quality wheelsets... ...but I'll stick with the assorted Bachmann, Hornby, Mainline, Replica, and Tri-ang Mk 1 collection I already have! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted June 6, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 6, 2015 Just seen on E-bay its up to issue 70! It's nearly complete. They have just commissioned some more articles for the final issues of the accompanying magazine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Huw Griffiths Posted June 7, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 7, 2015 It's nearly complete. They have just commissioned some more articles for the final issues of the accompanying magazine. Let's guess: How to assemble a Mk.1 corridor third, from the parts which come free with the final 11 issues. This time, you get the floor - next time, the roof - then the left side - then the right - then the interior - then the bogie frames (spread over 2 issues) - and finally the wheelsets (spread over 4 issues). How to improve the chassis trussing under the floor of said Mk.1 TK. This article is for advanced readers only - probably not the target audience for any partwork - so we'll probably forget this one. How to connect your new layout to a controller. To keep things easy to follow, both of the wires to the track come with a different edition of the magazine - same goes for the power clip. How to find the next run of this series in the shops, in a few months' time. No repeat run? Those pesky kitbashers on the forum sites will be so disappointed. Never mind - they can always get some clapped out preloved "bashing fodder", minus its blue or red box, from the "bring up and buy" merchants at a local model railway show (or some internet auction site) - either that, or visit a model shop and probably get something worth having (which might be new or secondhand). How to update the new layout to more recent times. By this, I mean "post Beeching" - with rail services replaced by buses an ancient converted breadvan (with tatty fibreglass body and windows roughly cut out out of the sides), running once a week. If (by some miracle) rail services had survived as far as the 1980s, shudder as a "loco and 5 coaches" train gets replaced by a Pacer - rattling, squealing and wheezing its way along the line. Cue another partwork - Great British Railbuses - replaced, after a long delay, by another magnum opus - British Rail Replacement Buses. My apologies for the slightly caustic tone of some of these suggestions - I'm afraid I've never held "first part" works in particularly high regard. OK - some people will argue that partworks lead regular readers by the hand, spoonfeeding different concepts in "bite sized chunks". I'm not disputing that - but how long do they take to do this - and at what cost? Even if all this stuff isn't a problem, they're still not going to be much use to a total beginner who might have come along a year or two after the series started (even if they were prepared to cough up a grand or so in one go, for the whole series). Everyone's entitled to their own views - but my personal view is that mainstream model railway magazines and forum sites could be well placed to cater for beginners / returners to the hobby. OK - doing this properly might involve some adjustments or innovations - but nothing particularly scary: Beginner's Guide to Railway Modelling - A number of mainstream magazines have had "beginner friendly" project features - often serialized over 6 months, a year, or whatever. These have usually been written / edited by people who've got a pretty good idea what to look for in a starter layout - how to build it - and how to explain it, in terms inexperienced people would understand. I'm all for this sort of stuff - but why not go further? How about grouping a whole series of these articles together, in one "bookazine" - with a companion DVD, in which the person / people who wrote the articles also shows how to do the stuff they're talking about? Publications of this nature are not particularly radical - Everyday Practical Electronics have been doing themed Electronics Teach-In bookazines for years (albeit without a "we show you how" DVD). Meanwhile, there've also been a number of modelmaking themed bookazines - again, without "show you how" DVDs. I'm not aware of one based on a project layout or "getting started" guide, aimed at model railway beginners - but I don't think one would be out of place. Similar comments could also apply to a follow up guide, covering more advanced stuff (like different types of soldering), which could probably make use of existing BRM / "BRM TV" content. Another possibility might be to make such a guide available afterwards, through bookshops - with an occasional "plug" in its "parent" magazine (like once a year, at Christmas). "Getting Started" section on model railway themed forum sites - I suspect that something like this could be feasible on a site like RMweb - especially if it were launched to tie in with a "beginner's" feature in BRM or, better still, as an "extension" of a similarly themed bookazine. OK - so BRM (or other mainstream magazines) aren't about to stick a "stripped out" Mk.1 TK to the front cover of some future issue. Actually, I'm not too upset about this - "freebies" like this aren't of use to everyone (not even everyone modelling British outline OO) - and, sooner or later, there'd be a price to pay. However, this isn't really the point. A lot of people don't actually have the space to build an oval of (approximately) "3rd radius" track - even if they do, they might be more interested in DMUs, freight, overhead electrics or even trams. For that matter, not everyone can afford the time and money needed to build the sort of layout that was featured in YMRV. I'm not saying that everyone's got to build microlayouts either - but one of these could make an alternative project layout. Another thought concerns where any "beginner friendly" content might come from - whether in magazines, bookazines, or on sites like this. A lot of it probably already exists. Even where it doesn't, there are a number of people (including you), with proven track records of putting together suitable articles. Other people - already members of sites like this - would be more than capable of authoring articles on their own "specialist subjects", or answering questions in a beginners' section of the site. There are quite a few people here - with craft, engineering or training backgrounds - people who've run training sessions as part of their jobs (past or present). Meanwhile, a number of site members have shown themselves to be very effective at demonstrating different skills at exhibitions. I don't know if there might be potential to video some of these people doing seminars / scripted demos / Q&A sessions at exhibitions. Whether they'd feature on a bookazine DVD, or on a "standard" magazine DVD is another matter - but I wonder if this sort of thing might work. OK - as I've already said, everyone's got their own ideas. It's possible that my ideas might be a load of rubbish - fair enough. Whatever the score, I hope that magazines - and members of sites like this one - can find sensible, constructive, ways of moving forward (and using series like YMRV as a springboard). Time will tell. Huw. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
YK 50A Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 ...and good quality wheelsets... It's not a Hachette then! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Just a thought. If anyone has nearly completed the YMRV partwork, it would be nice to see some pics of their efforts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted June 7, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 7, 2015 Huw, perhaps you haven't seen the French partworks from Atlas featuring railcars. Most are really good models and as far as I can make out there are three different sets of models with separate series for 'Michelin' and urban stock. I have some models and find them to be very good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Huw, perhaps you haven't seen the French partworks from Atlas featuring railcars. Most are really good models and as far as I can make out there are three different sets of models with separate series for 'Michelin' and urban stock. I have some models and find them to be very good. I think those are slightly different, more like the Great British Railway Locomotives series. With partworks like those, if you stop buying them after say six or ten editions you've got a decent collection of models to put on display. I've got about four of the GBRL locos and as display models (which is all I want them for) they're fine. I did buy the Atlas "Mobylette" autorail (off ebay) with half an eye to conversion to a working model but even if I never get round to that it's a nice display item. The catch with the "Build a model of the Titanic" or "Build a Tiger Tank" type of partwork is that if you don't take them to the end, which the vast majority of people don't, you've got nothing to show for a fairly large outlay of money and probably effort apart from various bits and pieces of a never to be completed model and quite possibly disillusionment with a branch of modelling you might have enjoyed . The Model Railway Village partwork is slightly better in that the majority of people who don't get to the end will at least have some of the makings of a model railway to show for their outlay, though some might need to look beyond the partwork to realise that. The publisher could also surely have come up with a more inspiring project layout than this one which at 4ft by 8ft is pretty large for a first layout and despite that offers very limited operating potential. I can't help thinking that buying a simple boxed trainset, then gradually adding some building kits and extra track could easily better it at half the cost. This was more or less the approach taken by Loco-Revue's beginners' magazine "Clés pour le train miniature" in its first year. Six articles spread out over the year (the magazine is bi monthly and at €3.50 under half the price of mainstream monthly model railway magazines) each came with a shopping list of about €50 of things that you'd need to progress the layout to the next stage. It started with the standard door blank that would form the baseboard. The end result, for an outlay of €300 or less- would be a very good first layout for anyone, a roundy round with a fiddle yard capable of realistic operation. While these articles were taking readers through the project layout the rest of the magazine introduced the wider world of railway modelling including various people's layouts at an appropriate level and such topics as how to buy second hand rolling stock wisely and what is and isn't worth buying that way. I think the real difference is that Editions L-R wants to encourage people to become railway modellers because, in the long term, that is their future market. A part-work publisher on the other hand has no real interest beyond the partwork itself. It makes no difference to them whether someone takes however many editions a typical buyer gets to and becomes a life long modeller or never wants to see another railway, ship, tank, or plane, model again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy2 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 What scale were the Atlas models? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 What scale were the Atlas models? The models in the Atlas "Michelines et Autorails" series are1:87 (H0) scale and I believe, subject to the limitations of simple plastic moulding, pretty good to scale. Some of the autorails are metre gauge prototypes so presumably H0m based on 12mm gauge (in theory metre gauge in 1:87 scale should be 11.49mm gauge but I've never heard of anyone worrying about the half millimetre) Motorisation of these models by our French opposite numbers seems to be proceeding apace. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 The best beginners guide that I've ever seen in a magazine was when Your Model Railway (ex-Model Railways/Model Railway News) built a layout from scratch in the first few issues. This was a complete layout aimed at the total beginner and included track planning, baseboards and even conversion to Zero One. Whilst it wasn't a super detailed exhibition style layout it was a couple of steps up from a trainset. It also had a section at the back of each issue which explained all the basics about model railways such as gauges and scales, as well as an extremely useful buyers guide of available models - RTR and kit. They then did a N gauge version. This was the early/mid 1980s. Jason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted June 7, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 7, 2015 What scale were the Atlas models? The models in the Atlas "Michelines et Autorails" series are1:87 (H0) scale and I believe, subject to the limitations of simple plastic moulding, pretty good to scale. Some of the autorails are metre gauge prototypes so presumably H0m based on 12mm gauge (in theory metre gauge in 1:87 scale should be 11.49mm gauge but I've never heard of anyone worrying about the half millimetre) Motorisation of these models by our French opposite numbers seems to be proceeding apace. I have 3 of the Michelines et Autorails one of which represents a narrow gauge prototype and that is mounted on a base with 12 mm gauge rails. According to the write up it was made in both metre and 3' 6" gauge. Another one from the 'Automotrices des Resaux Fancais' series, an electric railcar has a raised floor above the bogies (not on the prototype) giving space for a motor bogie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted June 8, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 8, 2015 My apologies for the slightly caustic tone of some of these suggestions - I'm afraid I've never held "first part" works in particularly high regard. So far I've covered: The Hellingly Hospital Railway Basic loco detailing Joining a model railway club Micro layouts Non-modelling products for modellers Photographing models Research Visiting an exhibition Building a wagon kit Maybe not groundbreaking stuff but all good solid pieces aimed at a different audience to the monthly magazines. I've seen the results on PDFs and the presentation is excellent. The production values are pretty high. I know I'm not the only freelancer who's worked for them either - Michael Campbell and Iain Robinson have also contributed. Looking at the mags that accompanied the Bismark series, the only one I've see on the paper all the way through, the same hold true there. Just because it isn't mainstream publishing, doesn't mean it's rubbish. In this case, YMRV is just another approach. There is loads of stuff out there for beginners. All the mags have had a go (I built Edgeworth for BRM) and bookshelves groan with the weight of books on the same subject, often writen by Cyril Freezer admitedly but there are others. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted June 8, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 8, 2015 The catch with the "Build a model of the Titanic" or "Build a Tiger Tank" type of partwork is that if you don't take them to the end, which the vast majority of people don't, Unless you work for the publisher, then this is purely anecdotal. Partworks don't have to be ABC audited, nor do they need to report numbers to advertisers, so the only way to know how many issues are sold in a series is to be in-house. In the same way there are a lot of model railways out there that don't go to exhibitions, almost certainly the majority (and that is anecdotal), you can't see the number of finished tanks or ships hidden away either built, part built or on the "one day" pile of kits we all have. Personally, I've seen at least half-a dozen Bismarks at model boat and engineering shows - there were 3 at one event alone! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Pacific231G, on 07 Jun 2015 - 18:16, said: The catch with the "Build a model of the Titanic" or "Build a Tiger Tank" type of partwork is that if you don't take them to the end, which the vast majority of people don't, Unless you work for the publisher, then this is purely anecdotal. Partworks don't have to be ABC audited, nor do they need to report numbers to advertisers, so the only way to know how many issues are sold in a series is to be in-house. In the same way there are a lot of model railways out there that don't go to exhibitions, almost certainly the majority (and that is anecdotal), you can't see the number of finished tanks or ships hidden away either built, part built or on the "one day" pile of kits we all have. Personally, I've seen at least half-a dozen Bismarks at model boat and engineering shows - there were 3 at one event alone! Not entirely anecdotal. According to the news-trade, half of the revenue from partworks comes from retail sales and, given that newsagents normally stop selling them relatively early in their run so they'd have to be bought by subscription, that would imply that only a minority of the people who were buying them from newsagents actually go on to complete subscriptions. Most of us have unbuilt kits but I doubt if many of them have cost well over five hundred pounds. I'm sure there are a significant number of people who do complete their models from partworks but If you're really saying that amounts to over say a quarter of the people who get far enough into them to have made a significant outlay I'd be very surprised; if not I stand by my "vast majority" comment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter220950 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Not entirely anecdotal. According to the news-trade, half of the revenue from partworks comes from retail sales and, given that newsagents normally stop selling them relatively early in their run 'According to the news-trade' sounds a bit like an anecdote to me Not sure whether the assumption that they stop selling them early in the run comes from, they might not be on display, but they still sell them. Our local WHS had, and still does have as far as I know, two or three four drawer filing cabinets full of partworks ordered by people who collect them from the counter on a monthly basis, you can get quite a lot of magazines in that sort of space, I speak as one who had to collect 144 Star Wars magazines and a green dinosaur kit when the kids were smaller. I know there are usually several partworks running at a time, but I suspect if you put all the railway magazines they sell in a month into the cabinets they wouldn't fill one of the drawers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy2 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I was told by the manager at WH Smith's at Victoria Station that the general practice was to run the first eight issues or so and then stop all but pre-ordered sales. Anecdote, I know, but I was there when I had the conversation with him... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joppyuk1 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I did drop into my WHSmiths today, but they hadn't heard of it either, however it was suggested that I try again on Wednesday, as that is when they get their partworks. Watch this space! When I worked for them some years ago, these part works were trialed by publishers in one area, to assess demand. Some died and never made it nationally, the rest were launched, sold well for the first few parts then sales slowly dwindled until it wasn't worth stocking on shelf, but became customer order only. This may be why some of you can't get it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 'According to the news-trade' sounds a bit like an anecdote to me Not sure whether the assumption that they stop selling them early in the run comes from, they might not be on display, but they still sell them. Our local WHS had, and still does have as far as I know, two or three four drawer filing cabinets full of partworks ordered by people who collect them from the counter on a monthly basis, you can get quite a lot of magazines in that sort of space, I speak as one who had to collect 144 Star Wars magazines and a green dinosaur kit when the kids were smaller. I know there are usually several partworks running at a time, but I suspect if you put all the railway magazines they sell in a month into the cabinets they wouldn't fill one of the drawers. Reliable data about partworks is hard to obtain for the reasons already mentioned such as no ABC returns and very tight lipped publishers. My sources included betterretailing.com, various forums and business analysis sites. There seems to be quite a lot of angst among independent retailers that they're getting a bad deal from the partwork publishers compared with the large supermarkets as it's they who carry these for customers beyond the early editions. They also have to deal with those who order them and then stop buying them and also have to put up with the publishers creaming off their later sales with direct subscription offers. I did find this quote "the ‘declining curve’ of the average partworks planogram funnels all the investment into the beginning stages of the program to maximize brand exposure, and then consumers are left to their own collecting pleasures with no further promotions beyond the initial push." Read more: http://kidscreen.com/2008/04/01/partworks-20080401/#ixzz3cU92utIr There clearly are a fair number of people who enjoy building a variety of models bought this way and have completed several of them but I'd still be surprised if completers are more than a small fraction of starters. A surprising number seem to collect all the parts before starting to build the model which does beg the question of why not just save up and pay less for a complete kit? Nevertheless , if you complete the Cutty Sark or the Millenium Falcon then with any luck you've ended up with an attractive model and acquired the skills to go on and build other models. Your Model Railway Village and its opposite numbers in Europe are a bit different because they're introducing people to a completely open ended hobby and IMHO doing that badly. I can't see a train mat setup too large for most homes that's flat, running on steel rail and rather toylike inspiring many people and they'll have paid about double what a beginner could have built a very decent first layout for in half the time. Apart from the obvious baseboard, the partwork doesn't even include the major items such as the controller and the loco so the buildr will stil have to buy those as a fairly major purchase insteand of getting the lot fairly cheaply by buying an appropriate train set. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rue_d_etropal Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I am one of those people ho are collecting the magazine. Not that I intend to build the layout as intended, but to use the buildings etc. The track being steel, and I recognise it as being Mehano or very very similar, will be sold off. I am not very keen on the trees in the magazine, but they are typical of the sort sold everywhere, and I have a need for quite a few in a jungle on a layout I am building at the moment. The articles are good, pleased to see Phil's contributions, and the fact that the magazine covers narrow gauge, and minimal space layouts will mean there are more people who understand the difference between N gauge and narrow gauge. There are also quite a few out there who claim to know a lot but show them a narrow gauge model and they are lost. By having this series of magazines I know what is being told to people following it so can answer any questions they have. The buildings are well designed, and totally different to any I have seen before. Clip together buildings are not a new idea, but I hope someone takes this range into production after the magazine has finished. They are a nice compromise between the traditions plastic kit and the r2r buildings now so popular, but giving very little build satisfaction. I had a look at some pictures of the French version of this series, which I might have tried to get if I had known about it when it started, but I don't think some of the buildings are as well designed as the UK version. One thing I would to do when the series finishes is to try and plan something using the buildings and accessories to create something different to what is described in the magazine(I never like following instructions if I don't have to). Having some small layouts build this way at exhibitions will do a lot of good for the hobby. Maybe a subsection of one of the big exhibitions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
YK 50A Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Unless you work for the publisher, then this is purely anecdotal. Partworks don't have to be ABC audited, nor do they need to report numbers to advertisers... This statement bothers me. If the publishers didn't report figures accurately then they wouldn't attract advertisers. Simple. To be dishonest would be fraud. Having worked in advertising and unless I've misunderstood the statement, I would say what you have written is 'inaccurate'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted June 8, 2015 Administrators Share Posted June 8, 2015 This statement bothers me. If the publishers didn't report figures accurately then they wouldn't attract advertisers. Simple. To be dishonest would be fraud. Having worked in advertising and unless I've misunderstood the statement, I would say what you have written is 'inaccurate'. Partworks don't include adverts inside them unlike normal magazines, so they don't have any advertisers to report the numbers too. I didn't say they reported inaccurate figures, I said they don't report any at all because they don't need to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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