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On ‎20‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 09:29, hayfield said:

This is the latest message I am getting,

Had problems ever since the last 2 Windows 10 updates

I suspect that the website, which hasn't changed for years, is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be redesigned.

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1 hour ago, PenrithBeacon said:

I suspect that the website, which hasn't changed for years, is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be redesigned.

 

In someways you are correct, but many small suppliers have limited internet presence. As the owner(s) of SEF can be seen (as many others are) "old school" relying on third parties to administer their websites whilst concentrating on business affairs. I guess when it starts having issues they have to make a choice on what to do

 

I think its something minor owing to it affecting some but not all search engines. As for how good the site is, its better than not having one  

 

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Hi,

 

47 minutes ago, hayfield said:

n someways you are correct, but many small suppliers have limited internet presence. As the owner(s) of SEF can be seen (as many others are) "old school" relying on third parties to administer their websites whilst concentrating on business affairs. I guess when it starts having issues they have to make a choice on what to do

 

I think its something minor owing to it affecting some but not all search engines. As for how good the site is, its better than not having one  

 

3 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

It looks like a few small changes might make it display on more browsers:

 

https://try.powermapper.com/Reports/523a184f-c4ba-4c5a-804c-15242d46da54/report/res/2.view.htm

 

Of course,, it's easy for me to say that. Getting it done might present a few challenges etc.

 

You are so right. SEFinecast is virtually a one man band in common with so many of our hobby's small suppliers.

 

Dave of SEF offers so many useful products and in addition finds some time to work with Branchlines, another small supplier, to resurrect the old Nu-Cast range of white metal kits.  As you suggest, an updated website is fairly low on the priority list!

 

Like many of us that relies on such suppliers we should be concerned that many of them do not have someone to carry forward things when the current owners retire. In my madder moments I wonder if we could somehow jointly sponsor some form of apprenticeship scheme? Any ideas guys?

 

Perhaps though, as have been suggested to me, the future of loco and rolling stock kits lies with 3D printing?  A wonderful technology but not as much fun or as satisfying as a brass or whitemetal kit!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

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1 hour ago, 30368 said:

Hi,

 

 

 

You are so right. SEFinecast is virtually a one man band in common with so many of our hobby's small suppliers.

 

Dave of SEF offers so many useful products and in addition finds some time to work with Branchlines, another small supplier, to resurrect the old Nu-Cast range of white metal kits.  As you suggest, an updated website is fairly low on the priority list!

 

Like many of us that relies on such suppliers we should be concerned that many of them do not have someone to carry forward things when the current owners retire. In my madder moments I wonder if we could somehow jointly sponsor some form of apprenticeship scheme? Any ideas guys?

 

Perhaps though, as have been suggested to me, the future of loco and rolling stock kits lies with 3D printing?  A wonderful technology but not as much fun or as satisfying as a brass or whitemetal kit!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

I strongly agree with all that, I have great gratitude for those, like Dave, who put in the time and effort to keep these valuable ranges going. If the demands of doing so mean that the website lags behind a bit that's a small price to pay. I wonder if it would be worth some such suppliers using a much simpler website, with an easily updated pdf of current products and prices that could be emailed (rather as Branchlines do), or even (my inner Luddite bobs to the surface) be posted, and purchases made by phone or cheque?

Looking at the loss of good kits etc by the recent disappearance of David Geen and Perseverance I reckon a bit of occasional online frustration is worth it to have them still going.

I also agree with your last sentence, smoothing 3D prints seems to me a lot less interesting than putting together a real  kit. Long may they and their much appreciated producers survive.

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Agree with both of the above. The "issue" with simple websites such as SE Finecast's is that they are so simple, modern browsers expect a bit of complexity and get upset if some later "requirements" for websites aren't included. Not fair really - there should be more backward compatibility.

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4 hours ago, 30368 said:

Hi,

 

 

 

You are so right. SEFinecast is virtually a one man band in common with so many of our hobby's small suppliers.

 

Dave of SEF offers so many useful products and in addition finds some time to work with Branchlines, another small supplier, to resurrect the old Nu-Cast range of white metal kits.  As you suggest, an updated website is fairly low on the priority list!

 

Like many of us that relies on such suppliers we should be concerned that many of them do not have someone to carry forward things when the current owners retire. In my madder moments I wonder if we could somehow jointly sponsor some form of apprenticeship scheme? Any ideas guys?

 

Perhaps though, as have been suggested to me, the future of loco and rolling stock kits lies with 3D printing?  A wonderful technology but not as much fun or as satisfying as a brass or whitemetal kit!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

Richard

 

I get on with Dave very well and he is a true gent, more than happy to sell spare parts to those like me who enjoy rebuilding old kits. He has taken over the Wills brand and moved it on to another level. I am currently building a SR P class loco and the chassis is a work of art, I also have a Wills version. There is no comparison with the chassis (even the early etched versions) and the kits seem to be cast in better quality metal. The revised kits having welcome additional parts

 

I also but 3D parts, most of which have been excellent, but do not have that extra something that whitemetal kits especially when etched brass is introduced into the mix

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2 hours ago, johnarcher said:

I strongly agree with all that, I have great gratitude for those, like Dave, who put in the time and effort to keep these valuable ranges going. If the demands of doing so mean that the website lags behind a bit that's a small price to pay. I wonder if it would be worth some such suppliers using a much simpler website, with an easily updated pdf of current products and prices that could be emailed (rather as Branchlines do), or even (my inner Luddite bobs to the surface) be posted, and purchases made by phone or cheque?

Looking at the loss of good kits etc by the recent disappearance of David Geen and Perseverance I reckon a bit of occasional online frustration is worth it to have them still going.

I also agree with your last sentence, smoothing 3D prints seems to me a lot less interesting than putting together a real  kit. Long may they and their much appreciated producers survive.

John

 

You are quite right about the sad loss of some ranges, I thought that David Geen kits were being bought by someone. The Perseverance range is up for sale, though many of the chassis kits have been duplicated (and in some cases bettered) by other companies. 

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Yes John, I find Dave a really helpful guy. Nothing is too much trouble because suppliers like him are as passionate about our hobby as we are.

 

Good luck with the "P" class a lovely little loco! My last SEFinecast effort was a "U" class 2-6-0. I have an old King Arthur bodyline  kit that I will build using one of SEF's excellent chassis kits. I have about 6 or 7 Hornby N15's in many different versions but I suspect that when I have completed the SEF kit, that will be my favourite.

 

Completing chassis for H15 30333 at present which will result in an example of every H15 in my collection.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

PS - Q class is a SEF kit with SEF chassis kit.

 

33175051_IMG_4430(3).JPG.16790ee2f1ec72eced9d5f85c8051bf0.JPG

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2 hours ago, hayfield said:

John

 

You are quite right about the sad loss of some ranges, I thought that David Geen kits were being bought by someone. The Perseverance range is up for sale, though many of the chassis kits have been duplicated (and in some cases bettered) by other companies. 

I hope both ranges continue, does the Geen sale include the Mitchell kts, or are they gone into the Waterman situation?

I suppose you're right about the Perseverance chassis, but the range included a good deal of other useful bits, and, I think, the best kit in 4mm for so popular a prototype as the 48xx.

Your remarks about the quality of current SEF kits make me tempted to revise all current plans so I can use one.

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2 minutes ago, johnarcher said:

I hope both ranges continue, does the Geen sale include the Mitchell kts, or are they gone into the Waterman situation?

I suppose you're right about the Perseverance chassis, but the range included a good deal of other useful bits, and, I think, the best kit in 4mm for so popular a prototype as the 48xx.

Your remarks about the quality of current SEF kits make me tempted to revise all current plans so I can use one.

 

 

Unless Chris had things squirrelled away I think only the chassis kits were available, some years back Chris sent me a price list, things like the loco kits had not been reinstated, pity as I would have liked one of the railcars 

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16 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Unless Chris had things squirrelled away I think only the chassis kits were available, some years back Chris sent me a price list, things like the loco kits had not been reinstated, pity as I would have liked one of the railcars 

I know someone who had a 48xx kit about 4 or 5 years ago, I don't know if they were available after that.

It would make a nice follow-up to the 517 Mr Finecast perhaps, as otherwise it's only old K's kits on eBay and even in RTR the DJ one seems to have some problems, and otherwise there's only the old Hornby/Airfix etc one.

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I wonder if the problem is that the site was generated using Microsoft Frontpage. Its coding says version 12.0 which must be really old. As far as I know microsfot no longer supports this or the program which was supposed to replace it. With newer http standards maybe it is becoming quirkier as it gets older?

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16 minutes ago, Antony Farrell said:

With newer http standards maybe it is becoming quirkier as it gets older?

 

That certainly is a factor. Having looked at the code, it would be but a few minutes' work to get it into a reasonable shape.

 

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3 hours ago, Antony Farrell said:

I wonder if the problem is that the site was generated using Microsoft Frontpage. Its coding says version 12.0 which must be really old. As far as I know microsoft no longer supports this or the program which was supposed to replace it. With newer http standards maybe it is becoming quirkier as it gets older?

A problem across the board as developers bring out changes that break something that is working in the older version. I find the breaks are usually due to the minor, unheralded, tweaks. My own personal website was changed by something in a recent Wordpress update, rather like the SE Finecast problem creating access issues.

 

It has been debated before, this is probably because I get the impression that regarding new standards there is an industry wide can't care less attitude to maintaining good backwards compatibility for the longterm. Whilst I can understand that attitude it doesn't help small businesses or individuals who need a web-presence but not the hassle of funding constant IT upgrades/retraining. 

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On 12/07/2019 at 13:07, RLWP said:

 

What operating system and browser are you using, John?

 

I think it might be more useful to ask what network provider you're using. My iPhone 5 fails to load the site on my work WiFi connection (I think managed by Virgin these days) but loads it fine if I switch off WiFi and load it through an EE 4G connection. 

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1 hour ago, sharris said:

 

I think it might be more useful to ask what network provider you're using. My iPhone 5 fails to load the site on my work WiFi connection (I think managed by Virgin these days) but loads it fine if I switch off WiFi and load it through an EE 4G connection. 

 

BT Superfast Fibre 2 Unlimited.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

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1 hour ago, Mike woods said:

just to update the list iPad, iPhone X with safari and  lenovo Thinkpad with Microsoft edge all don't work using sky .com

 

p.s neither does iMac on safari

 

I think that it is fair to say that a significant number of potential users will be unable to access this website until SEF have it updated.

 

This is bound to affect their turnover.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

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