MRJ 265

[sharris]

It has arrived in WHS Ealing. WHS Ealing appear to have been taken aback by this, because their tills wouldn't recognise it.

 

It was also in the Wimbledon WHS last night. I had to wait ages to pay for it though as the till crashed and had to be rebooted before I could buy it. Did someone put a spell on the new MRJ to jinx all the tills? 

[chris p bacon]

 Did someone put a spell on the new MRJ to jinx all the tills? 

 

 

Each MRJ has a force field around it that rejects payment electronically,  cash or cheque are able to get through the field....

[John_Hughes]

I should have mentioned in my earlier post how much I enjoyed Iain Rice's loco build article. More from Iain, please!

[Izzy]

The Woodbridge WHS stock it, usually half a dozen copies.

 

Thanks Jol, I have got it from there in the past the odd time. Usually it's where I see it first, mostly Clacton (my nearest WHS) which always seems to have plenty, as does Bury St Eds. I know WHS takes a lot of flack but they do stock a lot of the smaller publications which the supermarkets won't, only wanting the big sellers or special deals/bundles. Used to get it via subs for the first couple of decades but then somehow stopped. Haven't used a cheque etc, for donkeys years.

 

After John Hughes remarks I am even more intrigued! But trying to temper my expectation as to the particular loco type as a few spring to mind.

 

Izzy

[NHY 581]

Smashing read this month. Really top hole.

 

Rob.

[Horsetan]

Each MRJ has a force field around it that rejects payment electronically,  cash or cheque are able to get through the field....

Not in Ealing, though. 265 wasn't even on their system. I had to wait for it to be programmed in.

[chris p bacon]

Not in Ealing, though. 265 wasn't even on their system. I had to wait for it to be programmed in.

 

 

Fighting hard, the force field, it was....

[Hroth]

Still to materialise at my local!

 

(Not even copies of 264 left...)

[Enterprisingwestern]

As I often travel over the still existing bridge on the line between Cockfield and Whelnetham the ‘Cockfield Thunderbolt’ intrigues me. Sadly the WHS I visited yesterday ( Ipswich) was sans any copies. Don’t often visit town centres these days, where all the WHS seem to be in this area, no one else seeming to stock MRJ, so I’ll have to be patient and wait a bit longer, another week or two. I have little doubt it will be worth it.

 

Izzy

 

Taking a subscription would alleviate such difficulties, with the added bonus of collecting the penny blacks from the envelopes!

 

Mike.

[sp1]

Taking a subscription would alleviate such difficulties, with the added bonus of collecting the penny blacks from the envelopes!

But then you would need to find a source of postal orders marked in Guineas to pay for the subscription....

 

Mike.

[Zero Gravitas]

 

Taking a subscription would alleviate such difficulties, with the added bonus of collecting the penny blacks from the envelopes!

But then you would need to find a source of postal orders marked in Guineas to pay for the subscription....

Mike.

36 Guineas 12 shillings and 0 pence, to be precise.

[Jol Wilkinson]

The Woodbridge WHS stock it, usually half a dozen copies.

Quelle surprise, no MRJ in WHS Woodbridge. Often difficult to find among the hundreds of glossy publications on their shelves, a thorough search failed to find a copy. The staff were busy unloading several crates of magazines, so it may have been awaiting display.I didn't ask in case they thought I wanted to buy a copy. I didn't as I get mine by subscription and am already enjoying reading it (although I wish the letters of W S Norris were printed in a bigger font).

[Enterprisingwestern]

(although I wish the letters of W S Norris were printed in a bigger font).

 

Too late to ask him to write bigger?

 

Mike.

[Penlan]

MRJ 265 has been in Penzance 'Smiths' a few days now, I don't know why it's not there, up Country.

[GWR8700]

Not in WHSmith Sheffield either unfortunately

[Rumblestripe]

Not in WHSmith Sheffield either unfortunately

Nor in the frozen wastelands of the North (Darlington) AND it cost me a quid to find out.

 

Grrrrrr.

 

I had to ask someone to look after me herd of Whippets 'n' all.

[drduncan]

Not in Portsmouth Smiths either

[corneliuslundie]

I am still struggling to understand everything about that vast fiddle yard/stock box affair. As it would take all three living rooms in our house to accommodate it, it is a bit academic (my current fiddle yard has one road), but I am wondering what others think about the article.

In due course I should get a view of the Towyn Wharf buildings as Trevor Hughes is a member of the local club. the layout is going to be rather larger than my Sarn (4 ft plus 2 ft 6 fiddle yard). The only thing not clear to me, not knowing the history of the place, was the identity of the Hay Barn.

In answer to a previous query, the photo on the IBC is Lower Rose Goods. There is a caption on the facing page.

And I very much like the effect achieved by Richard Butler with his scenery. I shall be very happy if I can ever do anything so effective in conveying a sense of space in so little depth.

Jonathan

[Penlan]

I am still struggling to understand everything about that vast fiddle yard/stock box affair.

Although I can see what they have done, and it's an interesting arrangement,

what surprised me is I can't see anything to aid stock re-railing itself as it goes through the yards,

if ............... 

(i) it comes off at a joint,

(ii) they've opened it all up after travelling and set a train in motion.

I find it difficult to believe nothing will come off the track during moving to/from an exhibition, let alone across all those joints.

...... from my (EM gauge) experience.

 

Edited September 11, 2018 by Penlan

[Pacific231G]

Nor in the frozen wastelands of the North (Darlington) AND it cost me a quid to find out.

 

Grrrrrr.

 

I had to ask someone to look after me herd of Whippets 'n' all.

Do you actually have to pay to go into shops in County Durham now?  I lived in the county (S.Shields) for a while many years ago but I don't remember that.

 

I bought a copy of 265 (mostly for Westcliff) in a small W.H.S. in Greenford  almost a week ago and that branch doesn't even stock Continental Modeller any more.

Edited September 11, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Swindon 123]

Although I can see what they have done, and it's an interesting arrangement,

what surprised me is I can't see anything to aid stock re-railing itself as it goes through the yards,

if ............... 

(i) it comes off at a joint,

(ii) they've opened it all up after travelling and set a train in motion.

I find it difficult to believe nothing will come off the track during moving to/from an exhibition, let alone across all those joints.

...... from my (EM gauge) experience.

 

The biggest time saving is not so much on setting up, but on the packing away. Set up still requires the 4ft sections of trains to be coupled up and in a lot of cases, a loco coupled onto a train, and checked to see there are no obvious derailments. This can take a good hour to achieve, but takes only one person to do, and can start almost as soon as the boards are erected, whilst the rest of the layout is being put up by the rest of the crew. Once the trains are all coupled up, they are given one run around the circuit, once the electrics are available, to make sure they are on the track, and the rest of the layout works. It is very rare for stock to derail after that first run. The real time saving is at the end of the show, as trains can be stored as soon as they have finished their last run. Usually one road on each circuit has a single long train running on it, which is the last to stop running. The storing trains part is usually done in the last half hour of a show, and can continue during the initial breakdown of the layout. When you consider there are 16 roads all 16ft long in the storage yard, that gives you a potential capacity of 768 wagons or 256 coaches, or a mix of the two, and that capacity is not enough when it comes to exhibition running, It would take a hell of a long time to take that amount of stock, out of stock boxes and put it all back at the start and end of an exhibition, not to mention the number of stock boxes required, and the extra space required for transporting them. Having taken layouts to exhibitions for 40 years now, it is by far the best method of taking large amounts of stock away, I have come across. But not everyone will have the space to do the same.

 

Paul J.

[Penlan]

I would have to agree re. time saving at the end of a show, I had to uncouple some 150+ 3 link couplings to pack them in stock boxes, so I was interested in what you'd achieved.  Well done.
As I've now stopped exhibiting (age, hiring a van difficulties, distance etc.,) I no longer need to pack it all away. 

[corneliuslundie]

Thanks. Yes, taking the stock out and putting it away is time consuming (though not on Lydham Heath - those who know the layout will know why). But even so, when I used to help with Childs Ercal w were annoyed if we were not on the way home within 30 minutes of the end of the show, having operated to the closing time.

But you have given me hope with my wagon fleet. I was getting worried because it has reached 150. I obviously have a long way to go!

Jonathan

[John_Hughes]

I am still struggling to understand everything about that vast fiddle yard/stock box affair. As it would take all three living rooms in our house to accommodate it, it is a bit academic (my current fiddle yard has one road), but I am wondering what others think about the article.

In due course I should get a view of the Towyn Wharf buildings as Trevor Hughes is a member of the local club. the layout is going to be rather larger than my Sarn (4 ft plus 2 ft 6 fiddle yard). The only thing not clear to me, not knowing the history of the place, was the identity of the Hay Barn.

In answer to a previous query, the photo on the IBC is Lower Rose Goods. There is a caption on the facing page.

And I very much like the effect achieved by Richard Butler with his scenery. I shall be very happy if I can ever do anything so effective in conveying a sense of space in so little depth.

Jonathan

 

The Pen-dre hay barn was stocked with stuff scythed from various lineside locations, which then provided fodder for the donkey which in earlier years had apparently pulled the parcel delivery cart around Tywyn. An extremely OOS No. 1 Talyllyn had been shoved in there to peacefully rot away in pre-preservation days, when funds for a new boiler and who knows what else were simply not available.

 

The swift arrival of the Corris locos was really all that saved the line at this point, and the true hero of the hour was the Machynlleth Station Master, who had covered both of them with tarps and concealed them at the back of the lower yard well out of sight of officialdom, or they would surely have disappeared in the post-war scrap-metal drive.

[Swindon 123]

Thanks. Yes, taking the stock out and putting it away is time consuming (though not on Lydham Heath - those who know the layout will know why). But even so, when I used to help with Childs Ercal w were annoyed if we were not on the way home within 30 minutes of the end of the show, having operated to the closing time.

But you have given me hope with my wagon fleet. I was getting worried because it has reached 150. I obviously have a long way to go!

Jonathan

Yes corneliuslundie, the getaway is always a nightmare. Hornsey Broadway, and before that Wibdenshaw, was usually ready to be loaded in the van around 40-50 minutes after the end of a show. The biggest problem was usually getting the van into a position to be able to load it. We are usually on the road about an hour after show close, but we have managed to do it in unser an hour. a good regular team of minions is always an asset.

 

Paul J.