RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2019 Maplin tried to help staff unfamiliar with product. On one occasion I bought a cheap temp controlled iron (Eurostar security were not keen at first!) and some spare Antex bits. Clearly the retail display on the EPOS indicated incompatibility. I had to reassure the chap that in my mind these were not related items! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2019 On 15/02/2019 at 17:17, RedgateModels said: I can't remember there ever being one in Nottingham or Mansfield but there was a lovely little electronics shop in Coventry in the '80s The Valve Shop in Hyson Green is still going, an amazing Aladdins cave with hints of Ronnie Barker about it! Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2019 (edited) Tandy UK was a subsidary of Radio Shack. (US): https://www.radioshack.com/ They couldn't use the name Radio Shack because there was already an established business in NW London with that name. IIRC The whole lot was sold as a going concern to Carphone Warehouse who just wanted their portfolio of well located shops. I think you will find the current Tandy is like the new Maplins, not related to the previous (Radio Shack) owned business. Edited February 19, 2019 by melmerby Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Bucoops Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2019 Last I heard (which was a while back) Radio Shack (US) was struggling too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharris Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 2 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: The Valve Shop in Hyson Green is still going, an amazing Aladdins cave with hints of Ronnie Barker about it! Mike. Do they sell fork handles? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2019 23 hours ago, sharris said: Fairchild produced the most common DTL in the 1960s with the 930 series devices. I made the Ferranti version of DTL in the late '60s Micronor: TO5 can with 8 legs 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Bucoops said: Last I heard (which was a while back) Radio Shack (US) was struggling too. https://www.radioshack.com/pages/bankruptcy-announcement! Second time! Edited February 19, 2019 by melmerby Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RedgateModels Posted February 19, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2019 6 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: The Valve Shop in Hyson Green is still going, an amazing Aladdins cave with hints of Ronnie Barker about it! Mike. Bimey, is that still going, I remember actually buying valves from there lol 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 At least twice I asked in my local Maplin for an item to be told they did not stock it and promptly had to show them the product in their catalogue, at which point they discovered they had them in stock ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharris Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 58 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said: At least twice I asked in my local Maplin for an item to be told they did not stock it and promptly had to show them the product in their catalogue, at which point they discovered they had them in stock ! Annoyingly for me their stock-control system and shelves often seemed to be in disagreement - I'd look up a part, see it was in stock in my nearest store, get there 20 minutes later and find they didn't actually have any. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 On 15/02/2019 at 16:22, melmerby said: I don't remember many places having "True" electronics shops! We had two in Huddersfield ("the radio shop" (don't know if it had a proper name) down Chapel Hill and Taylor's Available at the bottom of King St., as well as a Tandy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 I'm pretty sure City Radio in Ealing is still going. There's quite a lot of stuff bought from them on my layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 On 15/02/2019 at 15:00, rockershovel said: Strewth, are they still trading? Youll be telling me you buy your Airfix kits from Renbro’s next... Why not, I did! They did start off as an electronics retailer (if you remember the Mill Road shop, that is) - models one side, TVs on the other. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, EHertsGER said: Why not, I did! They did start off as an electronics retailer (if you remember the Mill Road shop, that is) - models one side, TVs on the other. Number 239, if memory serves? I tried to find a picture of it, but couldn’t. These days it’s probsbly subsumed into the “vibrant, quirky international scene” described by the Cambridge Evening News, which presumably means ludicrously tattooed hipsters serving small, overpriced portions of bizarre food like beetroot couscous and coffee in jam jars ... One thing I do remember about Mill Road was that the Broadway had the Polska Sklep, a Polish shop catering to the small community of refugees and their descendants who lived around the area S of Mill Road Bridge in the 1950s and 1960s. Edited June 12, 2019 by rockershovel 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EHertsGER Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 On 12/06/2019 at 01:25, rockershovel said: Number 239, if memory serves? I tried to find a picture of it, but couldn’t. These days it’s probsbly subsumed into the “vibrant, quirky international scene” described by the Cambridge Evening News, which presumably means ludicrously tattooed hipsters serving small, overpriced portions of bizarre food like beetroot couscous and coffee in jam jars ... One thing I do remember about Mill Road was that the Broadway had the Polska Sklep, a Polish shop catering to the small community of refugees and their descendants who lived around the area S of Mill Road Bridge in the 1950s and 1960s. Saturday morning haircut at Frank Bendall on Hills Road, nip over the road and down the ramp to the end of the station to watch trains, then off to Mill Rd to expend equal quantities of pocket money, father and proprietor’s patience, then lunch with Grandparents and dissection of Mother’s shopping expedition. Failure to buy at Renbros meant torturing Peter Morris at Victoria Road Post Office on the way. Pocket money MUST be spent! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted June 15, 2019 Share Posted June 15, 2019 The main thing I remember about Hills Road to Mill Road via the Station, is the periodic controversies over the War Memorial resulting from the ongoing reconstruction of the Station Road / Hills Road junction. Even now, the preferred design of this busy junction seems unresolved! From recollection, Mill Road crossed the railway S of the Station, near the coaling tower. Turning left into Devonshire Road (past the then-unmade road to the short row of houses there) led to the footbridge over the loco shed roads, into the area outside the Station (this whole area was cleared in the 1960s, a process I found quite fascinating from the viewpoint of Mill Road Bridge). Hills Road Bridge was in view but obstructed by the goods yard(?) and Spillers the Millers; turn right up Station Road and you came to Hills Road. Cambridge station always seemed to me, to have been designed by someone with no clear idea of its purpose. The various ticket windows and gates seemed laid out to obstruct each other, and the enormous single platform (the longest such in the U.K., I believe) was home at busy times to ill-tempered crowds, trying to push past each other in opposite directions or around the trestle tables of Ian Allan books which formed a sort of chicane outside W H Smith’s. I used to find expeditions by train quite entertaining but my mother hated them. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted June 15, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 15, 2019 6 minutes ago, rockershovel said: From recollection, Mill Road crossed the railway S of the Station, near the coaling tower. Turning left into Devonshire Road (past the then-unmade road to the short row of houses there) led to the footbridge over the loco shed roads, into the area outside the Station (this whole area was cleared in the 1960s, a process I found quite fascinating from the viewpoint of Mill Road Bridge). Hills Road Bridge was in view but obstructed by the goods yard(?) and Spillers the Millers; turn right up Station Road and you came to Hills Road. N .... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted June 15, 2019 Share Posted June 15, 2019 9 hours ago, 31A said: N .... Not for the first time, my mental map of Cambridge is significantly out of phase... I would never have pictured the Huntingdon Road end of Victoria Road as the W end, but it is so described... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 The first Maplins in Southampton did pretty well as it was based in student land and catered very well for people building amplifiers, PA speakers and radio equipment. There was another electronics emporium just up the road that was known as "stoneheads" due to the fact he didnt open until 11.00 and closed at 4.30. He was the "go to" supplier for project cases, transformers and monster capacitors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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