Wright writes.....

[gr.king]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

 

 

 

 

It's very nice to see the Great Marquess repaired. It's equally good to see that it has not had to suffer the new indignity of a repaint into LNW black with changes of details to suit.

We are all, quite rightly, free to draw the line wherever we choose, but I always find it a little odd that somebody finds it necessary to build almost all of his locos himself in order to feel that he "owns" them, but then allows somebody else to paint them, when it would appear that he can produce a decent livery himself. I admit of course that part of my reason for doing my own painting is my reluctance to pay anybody else to do things for me......

[Jesse Sim]

So I sent a parcel to Tony a few months ago and it landed back on my doorstep. The loco was intact when it left, but it’s been completely crushed. I can’t seem to get in contact with anyone at Royal Mail, does anyone know what I could do? 

[PMP]

Parcel post claim

Here’s your starting point I think. It might need to be the sender to make the claim. Assuming it was Post, no courier/parcel company I’d look at Oz post to see what they have in terms of you as receiver for claims. When I used to do mail order, it was the senders responsibility for the claim on damage/insurance, I suspect it still is.

 

Did you take pics of it as received before opening? If so, they’ll help the claim. Anyone in a similar position should do the same, if you receive a damaged parcel take pics before opening. Obviously not likely to be first thing that comes to mind, but it’s worth doing.

Edited September 8, 2020 by PMP
Correct link

[Jesse Sim]

8 minutes ago, PMP said:

Parcel post claim

Here’s your starting point I think. It might need to be the sender to make the claim. Assuming it was Post, no courier/parcel company I’d look at Oz post to see what they have in terms of you as receiver for claims. When I used to do mail order, it was the senders responsibility for the claim on damage/insurance, I suspect it still is.

I’ll be marching up to the post office tomorrow, I might leave the knife I always carry on me for work in the car but haha

[jwealleans]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Do other people do something similar?

 

Yes, almost exactly what you've done.   There used to be a piece of software for making an inventory of your collection which you could attach photos to, but that seems to have vanished.   I've only done this for the stock which leaves home, but when you add up the replacement values it very quickly becomes very frightening.  It is handy for checking you've brought everything home after shows (after the LB 1938 weekend we rapidly discovered I'd mislaid the most expensive piece of stock I had - and it wasn't even mine....) and also if exhibition managers want lists of high value items.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Can I change the subject completely and ask people on here how they record their rolling stock fleets? I am just renewing my annual model railway insurance and have been trying to work out what I have - a job that I've been meaning to do for several years!

 

I decided to create a spreadsheet in excel with separate sheets for coaches, wagons and locos. An extract for my West Riding set is shown below. I also have columns for cost and value which I've hidden as I didn't want to be vulgar with money. I can then use the excel sort functions to see how many of each type of coach I have etc. It also reminds me of the correct order for the train. I have photographed each item of rolling stock as I've recorded it, and these photos are in a file structure with one folder for each service. There will also be some loose stock for making up all the less distinctive services.

 

I'm about 1/4 of the way through and one thing I've noticed is that I have several duplicate numbers which I thought I'd eliminated - more work!

 

Do other people do something similar? Are there any good tips for other things I should be recording as I go through the fleet? I did search elsewhere on RMWeb, but apart from a learned discussion on database packages which is far too advanced/ expensive for me, I didn't find anything.

 

 

I do something very similar with an excel spreadsheet but include all stock whether built, part built or on a wishlist.  Each item has a status code which runs from 0 for wishlist to 5 for complete. Each item is given what a librarian would call an accession number eg JMG/L/34 which is the 34th loco or kit that I've bought. Many of the columns are like yours.  One sheet for wagons with no prefix, Coaches and NPCCS have a C, Locos L road vehicles an R.  The value for insurance purposes is totalled from all the sheets.  I find it very useful indeed.   I am slowly adding trains symbols and Fiddle yard siding locations.  Like you the sort facility is very useful.  I would also like to have pictures embedded but don't have the excel skills to do that.

 

I'll try and post an extract.

 

Jamie

[Clem]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Do other people do something similar? Are there any good tips for other things I should be recording as I go through the fleet? I did search elsewhere on RMWeb, but apart from a learned discussion on database packages which is far too advanced/ expensive for me, I didn't find anything.

I put everything on an Access database many years ago and have largely kept it up to date. Tables for locos, wagons, passenger stock, chassis (plural), motors, gears, carriage parts, wagon parts, etc. A bit over the top maybe, but its saved me from buying things I've already got but forgotten about. I can run queries which identify kits, part built and completed models. It's all very helpful bit it brings it home when I look at the kits stash and the the completed models. I suppose it's my way of feeling organised (and about as close as I get).

[Tom F]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Curious, isn't it; how mentioning something can lead to something completely different? 

 

Last week I showed the mechanism of my scratch-built K4, which a friend had succeeded in dropping on the floor. Looking at it again (after well over a decade), I thought, why not try and straighten the poor thing out?

 

 

 

 

Looks superb to me Tony! I like the apple green you've used. 

I must admit, it's hard to see where the damage is! How bad was it before?

Edited September 8, 2020 by Hawin Dooiey

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Can I change the subject completely and ask people on here how they record their rolling stock fleets? I am just renewing my annual model railway insurance and have been trying to work out what I have - a job that I've been meaning to do for several years!

 

I decided to create a spreadsheet in excel with separate sheets for coaches, wagons and locos. An extract for my West Riding set is shown below. I also have columns for cost and value which I've hidden as I didn't want to be vulgar with money. I can then use the excel sort functions to see how many of each type of coach I have etc. It also reminds me of the correct order for the train. I have photographed each item of rolling stock as I've recorded it, and these photos are in a file structure with one folder for each service. There will also be some loose stock for making up all the less distinctive services.

 

I'm about 1/4 of the way through and one thing I've noticed is that I have several duplicate numbers which I thought I'd eliminated - more work!

 

Do other people do something similar? Are there any good tips for other things I should be recording as I go through the fleet? I did search elsewhere on RMWeb, but apart from a learned discussion on database packages which is far too advanced/ expensive for me, I didn't find anything.

 

 

Very similar to what you've done, Andy, but all on one tab. I also have a column for "in service", "under construction", "on order" or blank for "maybe one day", so a bit like Clem and Jamie in that regard.

 

All my locos, coaches and NPCCS have different numbers but I've given up with wagons now I no longer plan to use the number as part of the routing system. Life's too short.

Edited September 8, 2020 by St Enodoc

[Barry O]

13 minutes ago, Clem said:

I put everything on an Access database many years ago and have largely kept it up to date. Tables for locos, wagons, passenger stock, chassis (plural), motors, gears, carriage parts, wagon parts, etc. A bit over the top maybe, but its saved me from buying things I've already got but forgotten about. I can run queries which identify kits, part built and completed models. It's all very helpful bit it brings it home when I look at the kits stash and the the completed models. I suppose it's my way of feeling organised (and about as close as I get).

I have a simple excel workbook . One page has photographs of individual locos linked to the loco page, the others pages have wagon details (including where they are "loaned out", coaches then specific pages for particular layouts. I don't have details like service records but I do include items which have not been "built" yet

 

 

and clickingon a link gives

 

 

Works fine for me.. I did set up an Access data base but found I spent more time adding information to it than actually making anything.

 

Baz

[Barry Ten]

Here's another floor-diver (it's been shown on here before, but since we're talking about damage and repairs):

 

 

This is the Airfix/Craftsman Schools I built from a kit very kindly offered to me by Tony. During test-running-in it took a fall from nearly head height onto hard wooden floors, managing to derail on the only part of the layout where there wasn't a protective barrier. On the way down it managed to clip a metal radiator. The tender stayed on the rails. The chassis was undamaged, with all the major harm being done to the cab area, presumably analogous to the buttered-toast rule. The side sheets came away, with the one on this side being fractured diagonally. The front cab plate was badly damaged and needed extensive scratch-rebuilding. The boiler suffered some paint damage and all the steps were broken or lost. However, it was eventually fixed.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Barry Ten
typos

[Tony Wright]

57 minutes ago, gr.king said:

 

It's very nice to see the Great Marquess repaired. It's equally good to see that it has not had to suffer the new indignity of a repaint into LNW black with changes of details to suit.

We are all, quite rightly, free to draw the line wherever we choose, but I always find it a little odd that somebody finds it necessary to build almost all of his locos himself in order to feel that he "owns" them, but then allows somebody else to paint them, when it would appear that he can produce a decent livery himself. I admit of course that part of my reason for doing my own painting is my reluctance to pay anybody else to do things for me......

Point taken, Graham,

 

However, I can't paint to the standard I'd like; especially full-blown LNER green.

 

 

 

This standard; achieved by Ian Rathbone (sorry about the colour cast on the second picture, but the lights at the NEC are very strange). 

 

I suppose 'on a layout' my painting is 'acceptable', but compare (or really contrast) my painting below with Ian's above. 

 

 

 

 

THE GREAT MARQUESS on 'special' duty on LB. 

 

I think that the 'repairs/patch-painting/relining' have worked up to a point. 

 

One thing I'm not entirely happy with are the spectacles. The spectacle plate got buckled in the fall, and my repairs are not the best. I don't know where I obtained the etched brass surrounds, but they're not really the right shape and proportion. However, they hide some of the damage. The spectacles should be quite a bit bigger, anyway - a mistake I made in 1983 when reading the drawing. I'll live with this..................

 

Does anyone know when the bell was fitted to 3442? I photographed the loco on a railtour at Chester and I can't remember whether it was present then (the photographs were rubbish, and were chucked away). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

 

 

[Tony Wright]

21 minutes ago, Hawin Dooiey said:

 

Looks superb to me Tony! I like the apple green you've used. 

I must admit, it's hard to see where the damage is! How bad was it before?

Thanks Tom,

 

The apple green is Phoenix/Precision (dull) Doncaster green. The original paint (from 1983) was Precision, but had long since dried up. So, a decent match. It's brush-painted. 

 

I didn't take a picture of it initially showing the damage - only after I'd straightened the bits out. After my friends handed it back (with profound and profuse apologies, at one Wigan Show), I just shoved it back into its box. then left it for 12 years or more! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[TrevorP1]

2 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Can I change the subject completely and ask people on here how they record their rolling stock fleets? I am just renewing my annual model railway insurance and have been trying to work out what I have - a job that I've been meaning to do for several years!

 

I decided to create a spreadsheet in excel with separate sheets for coaches, wagons and locos. An extract for my West Riding set is shown below. I also have columns for cost and value which I've hidden as I didn't want to be vulgar with money. I can then use the excel sort functions to see how many of each type of coach I have etc. It also reminds me of the correct order for the train. I have photographed each item of rolling stock as I've recorded it, and these photos are in a file structure with one folder for each service. There will also be some loose stock for making up all the less distinctive services.

 

I'm about 1/4 of the way through and one thing I've noticed is that I have several duplicate numbers which I thought I'd eliminated - more work!

 

Do other people do something similar? Are there any good tips for other things I should be recording as I go through the fleet? I did search elsewhere on RMWeb, but apart from a learned discussion on database packages which is far too advanced/ expensive for me, I didn't find anything.

 

 

 

 

I'm working towards something similar but perhaps not so detailed. Things like this do have value and might also help loved ones if the inevitable happens sooner than we hope.

[micklner]

Talking of damaged Locos.

 

This arrived today via HERMES wrapped in a bit cardboard and some bubble wrap. The poor thing didnt journey well. Please dont use Hermes they must have a world cup standard Football team and a Rugby team working for them !!

 

A suitable refund is being given , what I now need are the building instructions for a Little Engines LNER A7 , hopefully it can be saved in due course. Not helped by whitemetal crossheads and whoever built it added a plastic sheet roof for the Cab. Any suggestions a re a source for lost wax crossheads and/or rear bogie casting please?

 

Thanks for any assistance

 

 

[Woodcock29]

Suggest Comet double slidebar crossheads from Wizard.

I would think the rear pony truck could be soldered back together? That's what I would be looking at anyway.

Andrew

[micklner]

Thanks will have a look at them. I havent stripped it down yet , it doesnt look like there is much metal around the mounting hole area . One other photo below.

 

 

 

[great central]

In my experience most parcels are transferred from one vehicle to another in the quickest way possible, often as not that means throwing them.

Then they float around in another vehicle for a while, often being kicked or stood on while searching for other parcels. I've had someone searching their van for several minutes while standing outside my house. The unwanted parcels just tossed aside.

As for the broken pony truck, I've repaired similar damage by soldering a brass strip to the remaining part and drilling for the pivot.

Edited September 8, 2020 by great central
Missing word

[Northmoor]

4 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

So I sent a parcel to Tony a few months ago and it landed back on my doorstep. The loco was intact when it left, but it’s been completely crushed. I can’t seem to get in contact with anyone at Royal Mail, does anyone know what I could do? 

When you say it landed on your doorstep, exactly what altitude was it dropped from?

My sympathies, I once sent a loco to someone and when it arrived badly damaged, I think the package had a tyre mark over it.

[Barry Ten]

I had a kitbuilt loco arrive in a damaged condition from Ellis Clarke trains. I contacted them, suggested that since I could probably fix the damage, it wasn't worth the trouble of sending it back and getting a full reimbursement, but maybe they could do me a partial refund, They asked me to suggest a figure, which I did, and then they doubled it, which I think shows a good attitude to customer care.

[Tony Wright]

Regarding lists and insurance values......................

 

I've never been good at the former (though I'm trying - very trying!), but I need to with regards to the future. I say that having tried to find new homes for models on behalf of bereaved families, where a list (or at least a starting point) would have been very useful.

 

Insurance valuations can be very tricky, though in my case it's been relatively easy. Why? How come? 

 

As a one-time professional loco builder, all I've done is to 'list' every scratch-built/kit-built loco on LB (I don't bother with RTR because nothing is worth more than £500.00). Then, all I do is factor in the cost of the components for any specific loco, plus my hourly rates for making it, then add on the price of the painting. It's frightening!

 

One has to insure (in the worst possible circumstances) against total loss; either through theft or fire/damage which can't be repaired. Ironically, 'unique' locomotives are less likely to be stolen (unless to order). This often manifests itself at shows, where those who break in overnight will tend to target the RTR stuff which is far more-easily sold-on. That said, it's heartbreaking when a hand-made loco is pinched. 

[micklner]

Well mine on further examination is basically a write off . Fitted with a looks like Triang XO4 chassis with a stripped gear !!, not worth the hassle of rebuilding with that horrid chassis. A full refund will be obtained.

[Chamby]

5 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Can I change the subject completely and ask people on here how they record their rolling stock fleets? I am just renewing my annual model railway insurance and have been trying to work out what I have - a job that I've been meaning to do for several years!

 

I decided to create a spreadsheet in excel with separate sheets for coaches, wagons and locos. An extract for my West Riding set is shown below. I also have columns for cost and value which I've hidden as I didn't want to be vulgar with money. I can then use the excel sort functions to see how many of each type of coach I have etc. It also reminds me of the correct order for the train. I have photographed each item of rolling stock as I've recorded it, and these photos are in a file structure with one folder for each service. There will also be some loose stock for making up all the less distinctive services.

 

I'm about 1/4 of the way through and one thing I've noticed is that I have several duplicate numbers which I thought I'd eliminated - more work!

 

Do other people do something similar? Are there any good tips for other things I should be recording as I go through the fleet? I did search elsewhere on RMWeb, but apart from a learned discussion on database packages which is far too advanced/ expensive for me, I didn't find anything.

 

 

 

I do something similar, with additional columns detailing the livery it is painted in, the number that I have assigned to the storage box that it is kept in when not on the layout, and the version of Kadee coupler fitted.

 

The loco spreadsheet has several additional columns, detailing the DCC chip make and model, the allocated address number, the sound file (where appropriate), and as work on my fleet is ongoing, whether crew, lamps, coal, weathering have been completed, or are still to do.  It is amazing how these sundries can all add up cost-wise, especially across the whole fleet.  I also am in the process of adding shed allocation details for the period modelled.  A very wide column is also used to keep miscellaneous notes about any modifications made to RTR stock, and the location of any reference photographs of the original.

 

It is amazing how the sundries can all add up cost-wise, especially across the whole fleet.

 

I sometimes think it’s all a bit nerdy, and a mammoth task if starting out from scratch, but once you get going it quickly all come together.  I have been amazed how often I reference the content.

[Tony Wright]

1 minute ago, micklner said:

Well mine on further examination is basically a write off . Fitted with a looks like Triang XO4 chassis with a stripped gear !!, not worth the hassle of rebuilding with that horrid chassis. A full refund will be obtained.

What is the chassis, Mick?

 

You say 'Tri-ang', but it looks to have an asymmetrical wheelbase (did any Triang ones have that feature? The ubiquitous 'Jinty' perhaps?). 

 

The Little Engines A7 I built for Manxcat came with an etched chassis. 

 

How is the loco put together, please? If glued, it should be able to be dismantled with relative ease. Then rebuilt to meet your standards.

 

Is it worth asking the vendor what he/she is prepared to accept? 

 

Just a thought.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Compound2632]

39 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

You say 'Tri-ang', but it looks to have an asymmetrical wheelbase (did any Triang ones have that feature? The ubiquitous 'Jinty' perhaps?). 

 

The Triang Jinty chassis was designed in Imperial measure: 1 7/32" + 1 9/32" = 2 1/2" (30.96 mm + 32.54 mm = 63.50 mm)

Its Hornby (1980s?) replacement was designed in metric measure: 31.0 mm + 33.0 mm = 64.0 mm.

Too short for a scale LMS Standard 3F 0-6-0T (32.0 mm + 34.0 mm = 66.0 mm) but too long for most of the other classes it has been put under.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Compound2632