Chuffnell Regis

[Graham T]

18 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Try F20…. Isn’t that the fade out function? It should bring the sound back.

 

Yes I gave that a try Neal, but no joy.  The loco remains utterly silent.  I've exchanged a few emails with Accurascale - who, to be fair, have replied very promptly - and after making some suggestions about CV settings, which I tried out, they've concluded that the amp on the decoder has failed.  After one day!  I pointed out to them that I am not a fan of ESU decoders (and this experience reinforces that view), but they can only replace it with another ESU item.  Clearly I'm not hugely keen on that.  It would be nice if I could reasonably expect a sound-fitted loco to make sounds for more than a day...

 

To add insult to injury the post office informed me that they were holding a parcel for me from Alan Gibson.  Value marked on the customs form = £30.  Customs fees payable to Austria = 19 euros!!!

 

Anybody want to buy a layout complete with rolling stock?

 

[Neal Ball]

26 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

Yes I gave that a try Neal, but no joy.  The loco remains utterly silent.  I've exchanged a few emails with Accurascale - who, to be fair, have replied very promptly - and after making some suggestions about CV settings, which I tried out, they've concluded that the amp on the decoder has failed.  After one day!  I pointed out to them that I am not a fan of ESU decoders (and this experience reinforces that view), but they can only replace it with another ESU item.  Clearly I'm not hugely keen on that.  It would be nice if I could reasonably expect a sound-fitted loco to make sounds for more than a day...

 

To add insult to injury the post office informed me that they were holding a parcel for me from Alan Gibson.  Value marked on the customs form = £30.  Customs fees payable to Austria = 19 euros!!!

 

Anybody want to buy a layout complete with rolling stock?

 

Annoying on all fronts Graham.

 

I’m contemplating getting more stock of Kadee couplings…. From America….

 

Rather than running the gauntlet of Spanish customs, I’m going to ask my favoured model shop here if they will order the items in for me. Typically the shops here on sell the NEM couplings.

 

Of course, you could always get A/s to exchange the Manor for a non sound fitted one and fit your own Youchoose / Zimo decoder.

[Graham T]

33 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Annoying on all fronts Graham.

 

Of course, you could always get A/s to exchange the Manor for a non sound fitted one and fit your own Youchoose / Zimo decoder.

 

Really annoying Neal, and becoming more so as the day wears on.  Accurascale are now insisting that they won't send a replacement decoder until they have received and tested the one that I have - even though, having gone through the steps as directed by their support tech, they have concluded that the amp on the decoder has failed.

 

They offered to give me a refund for my loco, and suggested that I could then buy a DCC ready one from them instead.  But I would of course have to pay to send mine back - to say nothing of the hassle and time involved.  I don't relish more and more delay before getting a working loco that I have already paid a lot of money for.  Accurascale have also said that they are closing their EU website, so I would have to buy the replacement DCC ready loco - if they still have any - through their UK website, which would mean getting stung for around 100 euros of customs fees on top of the purchase price.

 

I'm afraid to say that I'm rapidly moving from having been very pleased with the Manor when I first ran it on Tuesday, to being rather p1ssed off with Accurascale to be honest.

[Andy Keane]

Graham

I have yet to give mine a serious running in and wonder if this is a systemic fault. I know there have been comments around the volume levels too and wonder if they have just gotten the specs wrong such that the decoder is not correctly matched up to the speaker combo. It will be interesting to see how this pans out for the wider community. I was so happy with my Deltic I too opted for sound fitted and am worrying this will prove to have been a mistake.

How do Austrian customs deal with private, as opposed to trade, parcels?

Andy

[Harlequin]

Would customs still sting you for a "birthday present" sent from a friend in the UK?

 

If you could get a DCC ready one sent to me I'd be willing to fit a Zimo sound chip into it with a big speaker and send it on to you... ???

 

Edit: Andy has the same sort of idea.

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Harlequin

[McC]

If it helps Graham it’s the first time we’ve ever seen an amp failure on an ESU chip and we’ve literally delivered over 30,000 of them to customers by now. 

Unfortunately we always need the return actually back us before we can sort a replacement or refund but bear in mind when you buy on our website for EU you’re not being ‘stung’ by customs but rather just paying Vat at the point of entry. You don’t pay any vat to us / hmrc but rather you pay it to Correos or DhL there (so you pay exactly the same as a customer in the UK in the end) and we also don’t charge postage to the EU to make up for the hassle. 

Feel free to PM me if I can help !

[Gopher]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

 

Really annoying Neal, and becoming more so as the day wears on.  Accurascale are now insisting that they won't send a replacement decoder until they have received and tested the one that I have - even though, having gone through the steps as directed by their support tech, they have concluded that the amp on the decoder has failed.

 

They offered to give me a refund for my loco, and suggested that I could then buy a DCC ready one from them instead.  But I would of course have to pay to send mine back - to say nothing of the hassle and time involved.  I don't relish more and more delay before getting a working loco that I have already paid a lot of money for.  Accurascale have also said that they are closing their EU website, so I would have to buy the replacement DCC ready loco - if they still have any - through their UK website, which would mean getting stung for around 100 euros of customs fees on top of the purchase price.

 

I'm afraid to say that I'm rapidly moving from having been very pleased with the Manor when I first ran it on Tuesday, to being rather p1ssed off with Accurascale to be honest.

Sorry to hear about these problems Graham.  I was about to weather mine but I think I'll run it a bit more,  and hope the same thing does not occur.  Approx how long have you run the loco for ?    I have steam locos with Wheeltappers sound installed on ESU decoders, so far I have not had any problems, but do prefer Zimo for steam sounds. 

 

I hope you get a satisfactory conclusion 

 

 

[Nick C]

17 hours ago, Graham T said:

To add insult to injury the post office informed me that they were holding a parcel for me from Alan Gibson.  Value marked on the customs form = £30.  Customs fees payable to Austria = 19 euros!!!

That's seriously steep - by my reckoning it ought to be €7! Is there a fixed €12 admin fee on top?

[Neal Ball]

13 minutes ago, Nick C said:

That's seriously steep - by my reckoning it ought to be €7! Is there a fixed €12 admin fee on top?

If it’s anything like here in Spain, the admin fee for sorting it out is “variable” 🙁

 

At one point I read that anything under €40 was free if duty…. But that seems to vary as well.

[Graham T]

 

16 hours ago, McC said:

If it helps Graham it’s the first time we’ve ever seen an amp failure on an ESU chip and we’ve literally delivered over 30,000 of them to customers by now. 

Unfortunately we always need the return actually back us before we can sort a replacement or refund but bear in mind when you buy on our website for EU you’re not being ‘stung’ by customs but rather just paying Vat at the point of entry. You don’t pay any vat to us / hmrc but rather you pay it to Correos or DhL there (so you pay exactly the same as a customer in the UK in the end) and we also don’t charge postage to the EU to make up for the hassle. 

Feel free to PM me if I can help !

 

Thanks for that, I've sent you a PM.

[Graham T]

18 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

 

How do Austrian customs deal with private, as opposed to trade, parcels?

 

 

18 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Would customs still sting you for a "birthday present" sent from a friend in the UK?

 

Edit: Andy has the same sort of idea.

 

 

2 hours ago, Nick C said:

That's seriously steep - by my reckoning it ought to be €7! Is there a fixed €12 admin fee on top?

 

I honestly have no idea how the Austrian customs system calculates its charges.  I've given up on trying to fathom their online "help" and of course it's not possible to actually speak to anybody about it.  The post office cannot help because of course they don't set the fees.  It does seem to be pretty random though; sometimes an item will just appear in my letterbox without any interference, and at other times fees are imposed that are even more than the value of the item...

 

[Graham T]

18 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Would customs still sting you for a "birthday present" sent from a friend in the UK?

 

If you could get a DCC ready one sent to me I'd be willing to fit a Zimo sound chip into it with a big speaker and send it on to you... ???

 

Edit: Andy has the same sort of idea.

 

 

That's a very kind offer Phil, thanks!  Let's pop that on the back burner for now while I wait to hear more from Accurascale.

 

[Nick C]

4 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I honestly have no idea how the Austrian customs system calculates its charges.  I've given up on trying to fathom their online "help" and of course it's not possible to actually speak to anybody about it.  The post office cannot help because of course they don't set the fees.  It does seem to be pretty random though; sometimes an item will just appear in my letterbox without any interference, and at other times fees are imposed that are even more than the value of the item...

That's crazy (and I've heard others say similar things!) - it ought to just be 20% VAT plus whatever admin fee they charge (model railways being classed as toys and so zero-rated for duty by both UK and EU, as I understand it)

[Graham T]

As I say I've pretty much given up on it I'm afraid Nick.  I've also lost track on how UK companies are supposed to apply VAT (or not).  Some seem to send here without VAT, others charge UK VAT.  I did have one UK company who wanted a £10 fee to take the VAT off an order...

 

[NHY 581]

2 hours ago, Nick C said:

That's crazy (and I've heard others say similar things!) - it ought to just be 20% VAT plus whatever admin fee they charge (model railways being classed as toys and so zero-rated for duty by both UK and EU, as I understand it)

 

 

That's correct, Nick. I looked into this prior to ordering from Italy. 20% VAT at point of sale (ebay) and no duty as you rightly say, model railways being zero % duty. 

 

If you are charged duty on import, it should be claimed back via the carrier. 

 

None of the above helps Graham though for whom I have nothing but sympathy. 

 

However as per McC's reply,  a return should be duty free as duty has already been paid on the item so it should be a simple case of return postage to Accurascale who in turn send a replacement which again should incur no duty as it is a repair/return. 

 

Straight forward..........maybe not

 

Rob

 

 

[Graham T]

40 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

That's correct, Nick. I looked into this prior to ordering from Italy. 20% VAT at point of sale (ebay) and no duty as you rightly say, model railways being zero % duty. 

 

If you are charged duty on import, it should be claimed back via the carrier. 

 

None of the above helps Graham though for whom I have nothing but sympathy. 

 

However as per McC's reply,  a return should be duty free as duty has already been paid on the item so it should be a simple case of return postage to Accurascale who in turn send a replacement which again should incur no duty as it is a repair/return. 

 

Straight forward..........maybe not

 

Rob

 

 

 

That all makes complete sense Rob, and as you say, should be straightforward.  However, Austrian bureaucracy seems very partial to dipping its fingers into Auslander's wallets...

 

[BWsTrains]

Hi Graham,

 

I'll email you the info I was describing yesterday as copyright means I can't share it on here, even if the originals were lost in the great wipe out.

 

By some minor miracle I found I'd cross loaded those downloaded / saved files to my local PC, they provide good views of the setting and (amazement) even a plan / dimensions!

 

Hope this proves of interest.

 

Colin

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

However as per McC's reply,  a return should be duty free as duty has already been paid on the item so it should be a simple case of return postage to Accurascale who in turn send a replacement which again should incur no duty as it is a repair/return. 

 

Straight forward..........maybe not

 

Rob

 

 

I too sympathise with Graham as I have had similar issues. Spanish customs can’t deal with something that’s FOC - even a warranty return - they wanted duty for that… in excess of the original value.

 

Gifts from friends generally are ok, anything FOC from a company will have issues. 😢

[Graham T]

14 minutes ago, BWsTrains said:

Hi Graham,

 

I'll email you the info I was describing yesterday as copyright means I can't share it on here, even if the originals were lost in the great wipe out.

 

By some minor miracle I found I'd cross loaded those downloaded / saved files to my local PC, they provide good views of the setting and (amazement) even a plan / dimensions!

 

Hope this proves of interest.

 

Colin

 

Thanks very much Colin.

[Graham T]

The dead decoder is now in the post on its way to (hopefully) the UK, and so I've finished adding the detail parts to Cookham Manor.  Of course, as soon as I reassembled the tender I remembered that I might have a spare non-sound decoder that would fit.  Turns out that I did, so the loco can at least run now, albeit in stealth mode...

 

 

 

Full size cylinder fronts and cylinder guards fitted (thanks @Harlequin)

 

 

Tender coal load removed.  I've since fixed that stray cab handrail...

 

 

And etched plates fitted.

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Graham T

[Graham T]

She's also had a little run.  Ignore the fact that (a) she has no crew, and (b) she has no coal!

 

 

 

Found an old photo of her as well...

 

 

 

[checkrail]

Love those last three shots with the light reflecting from the boiler barrel.  Great sense of depth to the whole scene.

[Graham T]

Thanks John.  I do like the ID backscenes (shame about the glaring join that I left between two panels!)  The plan for CR Mk II is to have something similar, but painted by yours truly.  What could possibly go wrong!

[Graham T]

The package from Alan Gibson that I recently mentioned included the LMS tender brakes, so I made a start on fitting some of those today, beginning with the Hornby 4F.  (Thanks to @Rowsley17D for tips on how to fit them).

 

Here's the tender before butchery commenced...

 

 

Work was complicated a tad by the keeper plate for the tender pick-ups being hard-wired, so access was a bit tricky.  I cut some of the supplied brass rod to length, attached the brake hangers with CA gel, and then used the same gel to fix the brass rods to the underside of the tender.  One or two withdrawals may have been made from the profanity bank while I was trying to keep the assemblies in the correct alignment until the glue went off!

 

 

With the keeper plate back in place I can now fix some more brass rod between the lower ends of the hangers.  I'm still scratching my head a bit about how to fit the rearmost pair, as there is a blooming great chunk of plastic in the way (the NEM pocket moulding).

 

So here's how the tender looks with two-thirds of its brakes fitted.

 

 

[Rowsley17D]

With the rear brake hangers only the bottom of the hanger would be visible so that's why I didn't bother trying to fit any. For me it was the guard irons that got in the way. I did contemplate gluing the lower part of the hangers to the back of the rear steps but it would mean they were too far out of line with the wheels.