Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

I did my M.A. dissertation on the subject of recreating historical places, and specifically York railway Station in 1957 on film. A little different from modelling, but it brought up some intersting points.

 

One of the pieces I produced can be sen at: http://www.jamielochhead.co.uk/York1957/York1957Blue.mov

 

I had to produce this film in a short period of time and I did not discover that the new ends of the station roof were added in the 60's not the 50's. I intend to complete the film at some point this year. I also want to remove the modern battery light from the front of the train. I suspect that changing the paint colours to a North Eastern blue is beyond the capabilities of the CGI I am using.

 

Film is different to modelling as the resources are very expensive, but there were a number of things that came to light through my research. The factors included, how much time or money you can give to your research, why you are producing the film, a film seeing a place through a child's memory would look very different to one for an adult, and again different to one for a documentary.

 

In narrative film getting things completely accurate can be counter productive. One example is that when I showed the three  different versions of the film I made, all of which had inaccuracies, was that people make associations. Steam trains are associated with semaphore signals, however for York in 1957 the main line signalling was with light signals, yet steam engines were still in production at the time.

 

Were the piece made for a documentary on the development of the railways during the BR period then it should be as historically accurate as possiblet, but for a narrative film it is better to give the right feel. Of the 20 people who saw the three versions of the film I made, only two, who had made a model of the station set in the 1950's spotted the inaccuracy in the signalling, many people who are expert on trains did not spot this, and those in the general public did not at all. So for a film to give the right feel to a general audience it is better to include inaccuracies if it makes the plot more readable.

 

With model railways, I would suggest that the level of historical accuracy would generally be closer to the demands of documentary film or television, but even then people may want to portray an idealised version of the place they are modelling.

 

EDIT: That said for a manufacturer to have inaccuracies in a model is less forgivable, they are presenting as a specific piece of stock at a specific time. Again cost and time for research are factors, as are making a model that works for its market.

 

Jamie

Good points Jamie,

 

Thanks for posting.

 

As an aside, regarding railways in films (where they're only incidental, or even an adjunct to the plot), I doubt if there's any other form of transport where so many liberties are taken. It's almost as if any footage will do; after all, it's just a train, isn't it? I have to say, no matter how good the plot or the excitement in the film (remember From Russia With Love), the minute the trains are wrong (and I mean, really wrong), I switch over or off. 

 

Regarding accuracy in model railways, obviously people can please themselves, and run whatever they like, when they like and where they like, but if a layout is published (and it's not made clear that it's just a flight of fancy - and there is merit in that), then aren't folk likely to copy what they see, and perpetuate any bloopers for others to follow? 

 

To me (on a purely personal level), half the fun is doing the research and getting things as accurate as I can, given any resources. Where I write a 'how to' article, then the responsibility to get things right is even more imperative. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Jamiel]

Thanks Tony.

I think there is enough material out there for a whole thread on when film makers get trains wrong. Thinking about it, I suspect someone will post a link to such a thread on RMweb within the hour.

I really enjoyed 'The Theory of Everything' (the film about the late Stephen Hawking) but I am pretty sure that there was a scene where they get out of Southern Green carriages supposedly at Cambridge station. It is most likely that wherever the film was shot, the steam railway they used was the nearest and with whatever stock was available.

 

My personal favourite inaccuracy in a film involving a train is not the train itself, but what is beyond it. From 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' here is a still  showing a power station which certainly would not have been there around 1910.



These days removing it digitally would be fairly simple, bit frankly it has never spoiled my enjoyment of the film.

There are whole websites giving a list of inaccuracies in films, but most of them leave me thinking that most people just enjoy watching a film for the pleasure of it, while a tiny minority only get pleasure from picking up on unimportant inaccuracies, but then that is true in life.

I do think getting a model railway as accurate as possible is a good idea though, and I agree that a great deal of the enjoyment in that is the research. Even though my own layout is a fictional location, I spend a great deal of time doing research to make it represent how a station would have been had such a place existed.

Jamie

Edited April 15, 2018 by Jamiel

[Mallard60022]

Thanks Tony.

 

I think there is enough material out there for a whole thread on when film makers get trains wrong. Thinking about it, I suspect someone will post a link to such a thread on RMweb within the hour.

 

I really enjoyed 'The Theory of Everything' (the film about the late Stephen Hawking) but I am pretty sure that there was a scene where they get out of Southern Green carriages supposedly at Cambridge station. It is most likely that wherever the film was shot, the steam railway they used was the nearest and with whatever stock was available.

 

My personal favourite inaccuracy in a film involving a train is not the train itself, but what is beyond it. From 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' here is a still  showing a power station which certainly would not have been there around 1910.

 

 

These days removing it digitally would be fairly simple, bit frankly it has never spoiled my enjoyment of the film.

 

There are whole websites giving a list of inaccuracies in films, but most of them leave me thinking that most people just enjoy watching a film for the pleasure of it, while a tiny minority only get pleasure from picking up on unimportant inaccuracies, but then that is true in life.

 

I do think getting a model railway as accurate as possible is a good idea though, and I agree that a great deal of the enjoyment in that is the research. Even though my own layout is a fictional location, I spend a great deal of time doing research to make it represent how a station would have been had such a place existed.

 

Jamie

I wonder if that is one of the Trent Stations and that is the line from Ollerton to Lincoln? More likely to be near Elstree I suspect.

Phil

Edited April 15, 2018 by Mallard60022

[Orion]

The film was shot on the Bedford to Hitchin line

[Clive Mortimore]

I wonder if that is one of the Trent Stations and that is the line from Ollerton to Lincoln? More likely to be near Elstree I suspect.

Phil

Hi Phil

 

That is Goldington Power Station, Bedford. Opened in 1958. I was based there when I was going about failing my ONC.

 

The train that Terry Thomas landed on was hauled by the preserved Jones Goods, into Old Warden Tunnel on the Bedford to Hitchin line.

 

 

I grew up in Goldington.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Clive Mortimore

[chris p bacon]

As well as Goldington power station, there is a shot of them crossing the channel with a Sealink ferry in the background.

[Clive Mortimore]

As well as Goldington power station, there is a shot of them crossing the channel with a Sealink ferry in the background.

But wasn't it a fun film. I don't think it was ever meant to be historically correct.

[jamie92208]

I wonder if that is one of the Trent Stations and that is the line from Ollerton to Lincoln? More likely to be near Elstree I suspect.

Phil

 

I think that they used the Bedford to Hitchin line.

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

As well as Goldington power station, there is a shot of them crossing the channel with a Sealink ferry in the background.

Excellent!  That's almost as good as the Transit van in the background during one scene in The Railway Children (which doesn't spoil my enjoyment of that film in the slightest, BTW).

[CF MRC]

My pet whinge is ‘old’ films with tram lines (modern crop marks) in the fields. Quite common on a few photographic back scenes that I have seen, not so good for last century layouts.

 

Tim

[Tony Wright]

No power stations or ferries in these pictures (though the tractors aren't chained down and they're probably on the wrong wagons - work in progress). 

 

 

 

These are the current loco-building projects (though, to be fair, the J6 and the A2/3 were finished for York). The A2/2 and the A2/3 are not for Little Bytham, but the A3 and J6 are. Both the under-construction Pacifics must perform at every stage before they're completed and go off for painting. I've mentioned this before, but with some kit-built locos I've had through my hands recently, they can't possibly have been layout-tested before they're painted (and paid for?). 

 

Apologies for the wide-angle distortion. 

 

Do any others have this many locos under construction at one time? There's also another A2/2 and another J6 which I've just started as well, along with an A5 chassis rebuild, a weeny 0-4-0 and a K2 to repaint. 

[micklner]

One at a time is enough for me , easy enough to lose parts from one let alone 9 on the go !!.

 

The scary part of the photo, is the cost of what is sitting there, the Locos alone in the picture just to buy are a £1000 plus at a minimum !! 

 

I have seen DJH advertising a clearance sale on eBay , are they closing down ? 

[robertcwp]

I've been asked (and flattered) to write a further 'Comment' piece by Steve Flint for the Railway Modeller. This I've done. I'm told it might be a 'bit strident', but I don't mind; editors have a right to edit. Under Steve Flint's editorship, the RM has gone from strength to strength in my view and sets a current very high standard in presentation. 

 

My piece principally concerns 'inaccuracies' one sees on layouts and in the press nowadays. It's almost as if folk don't 'look' any more. Unless one models the current scene, then any looking must be at books, photographs and published documents, ether in print or via the interweby thingy. The resources have never been as readily available and the current models mean it's never been easier to create realism? Or is it?

 

I haven't, as yet, received my copy, but I browsed through it at Ian Wilson's this afternoon. I'm delighted with how my pictures have come out, particularly of Shap, and how my article on building the wee Pannier appeared. What caught my eye, though, was the feature layout, representing a fictitious section of the ECML in the '30s. Disregarding the Hornby-Dublo signals (yes, in 2018!), it seemed to be very interesting, and Steve's pictures were superb. Yet, as I looked closely, I was aware of some anomalies. For instance, an A1 with its number on the cab yet no bufferbeam cut-outs? The same A1, still with its high boiler fittings and cab (all right up to 1932) in the company of MALLARD (the earliest, 1938). 

 

Grantham Ally Pally 05.jpg

 

As many will know, I'm involved (in a very minor way) with Grantham. Not only is this a prototype-based layout, but the time-frame is much tighter to maintain accuracy. The Silver Jubilee has eight cars, MALLARD breaks the record and the 1938 Flying Scotsman is depicted. 

 

Grantham 13 06.jpg

 

Grantham 13 10.jpg

 

Granted, the correct lamps would (and should) be present (in every case, as they are in the RM layout), but, with its much-tighter timescale, Grantham tells a 'real' story in model form.

 

In the latest issue, someone is having a pop at a letter-writer who pointed out that there were substantial errors on a published layout, and was promptly branded 'elitist' (as was, by suggestion, Cyril Freezer). My 'Comment' piece will probably be 'attacked' by this same letter-writer when he reads it, but I really do believe there is a huge responsibility on those who have their work published to make sure they've done their research.

 

The steam-age railway which most of us love has long gone - two generations ago (at least) in many cases. If modellers pay scant regard for accuracy, either because they don't know or don't care (or both), anyone entering the hobby will just believe what they see and read and too many layouts will bear little resemblance to the real thing, especially as it used to be. 

 

Does this matter? The 'Comment' piece is designed, not just for someone to comment, but for others to comment in response. Will I be accused of being elitist or a nit-picker I wonder? 

 

As I hope has been shown on this thread, I always encourage constructive criticism (especially of my work) and it would be a sad day in my opinion if anyone writing to the model press would be dissuaded from doing so by those who don't care. 

 

Food for thought? 

This prompted me to buy Railway Modeller for the first time in several years for the Shap article. I haven't even bothered looking at the magazine for ages.

 

Accuracy does matter but sometimes it's difficult not to compromise for practical reasons. Many of us have rails that are 2.33 mm too close together for a start. Lamps are another issue. Most of my steam fleet has lamps very firmly glued on years before I discovered things such as Tacky Wax or for that matter Lanarkshire Model Supplies lamps, which are much better than over-scale Springside ones. So my engines don't change headcodes. I have a layout with a terminus with an overall roof and engines move between station and depot. So, changing lamps would be awkward anyway. Then there are tail lamps on trains. My compromise is lamps on both ends as changing them in the station would not be feasible. Diesel headcodes of necessity remain unchanged too. Most of my stock is not yet weathered and there is no real scenery on my layout but if I live to be 200 I might have got round to those things. More likely, the layout will have been replaced before then.

 

I think different modellers are offended by different things. I know someone who models very well in P4 and is brilliant at many aspects of modelling, but less knowledgeable about diesel livery time periods amongst other things. So, he focuses on different things to me. The thing that is guaranteed to put me off of looking at a layout, or even an article about a layout, is not paying attention to the passenger train formations. Issues with freight stock would pass me by. For many others, it would be the other way round. There is a very well-known and very large exhibition layout depicting a real location c1960 where the passenger trains are on the whole poor, not even taking advantage of RTR stock that would be accurate for the layout in some cases. 

 

Some exhibition layouts do have very good train formations, for example Grantham, Leicester South GC and Mostyn. Others seem to make no effort and think any set of Mark I stock is fine to show a train c1960 say. 

[Theakerr]

As the song says, 'I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then'.  There are many in-accuracies on New Waltham that are inherent to when it began some 25+ years ago.   To correct them without a major layout rebuild, which is not going to happen at my age, is simply not possible.  There are less in-accuracies with my rolling stock, but they are there.  In many cases they will not be corrected either because of time limitations or cash or they don't annoy me.  Again the internet back in 1990 was not what it is today.   What I am doing because it is possible and cheap are things like replacing the hook and bar couplings with three link couplings, weathering, adding loads (that may be in-accurate) and adding bodies to coach windows.   Such changes do not eliminate the in-acuracies but they do, as far as I am concerned, add realism and give a presence of atmosphere.  Another significant factor that affects how much time i am prepared to put into adding detail is the way model railways seem to have of introducing new challenges.  A while back after building a load of semaphore signals from Ratio plastic kits (probably about 95% accurate) I figured if I am going to have signals they should work.  So then I had to devise a mechanism that in turn led to servo's and programming.  That in turn led to Arduino's and building a station stop module.  That led to learning how to write basic c++ and the list goes on.   Having said all this there are certain things that I consider a must.  All locos must have real coal, lamps, a crew, front couplings replaced with screw link, etc.  coaches should have a semblance of a corridor connector and not require an olympic athlete to get from one coach to another.   Smaller things such as a minimum of cars and more busses, taxis, 'shank's pony' and motor cycles I have tried to replicate.  Cars back in 1955/60 were very limited.  No milk churns.  Enough

[Tony Wright]

One at a time is enough for me , easy enough to lose parts from one let alone 9 on the go !!.

 

The scary part of the photo, is the cost of what is sitting there, the Locos alone in the picture just to buy are a £1000 plus at a minimum !! 

 

I have seen DJH advertising a clearance sale on eBay , are they closing down ? 

MIck,

 

In fairness, I didn't buy them all ( I didn't steal them either!). 

 

The J6 was a test-build for the manufacturers, where I rewrote the instructions and provided photographs, and an article on its construction will appear in the RM.

 

The A2/2 is a sub-contract build, where all the parts were handed to me. 

 

I did buy the A2/3 and the A3, but the A2/3 is destined to go to a customer. 

 

All will be painted by Geoff Haynes.  

 

You're right, though, stone cold, to buy these kits and all the wheels, motors, gearboxes and what have you would be well beyond the £1,000 mark (yet folk still bleat about the price of RTR stuff!). 

 

DJH are not closing down (not if conversations I've had recently are anything to go by). Certainly, my photographs are still being used in their adverts. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[micklner]

MIck,

 

In fairness, I didn't buy them all ( I didn't steal them either!). 

 

The J6 was a test-build for the manufacturers, where I rewrote the instructions and provided photographs, and an article on its construction will appear in the RM.

 

The A2/2 is a sub-contract build, where all the parts were handed to me. 

 

I did buy the A2/3 and the A3, but the A2/3 is destined to go to a customer. 

 

All will be painted by Geoff Haynes.  

 

You're right, though, stone cold, to buy these kits and all the wheels, motors, gearboxes and what have you would be well beyond the £1,000 mark (yet folk still bleat about the price of RTR stuff!). 

 

DJH are not closing down (not if conversations I've had recently are anything to go by). Certainly, my photographs are still being used in their adverts. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Strange re DJH, I have received a couple of email from DJH recently advertising clearance of some 4mm Locos at "bargain" prices via eBay, I just wondered . Thanks.

Edited April 15, 2018 by micklner

[DougN]

 

These are the current loco-building projects (though, to be fair, the J6 and the A2/3 were finished for York). The A2/2 and the A2/3 are not for Little Bytham, but the A3 and J6 are. Both the under-construction Pacifics must perform at every stage before they're completed and go off for painting. I've mentioned this before, but with some kit-built locos I've had through my hands recently, they can't possibly have been layout-tested before they're painted (and paid for?). 

 

Do any others have this many locos under construction at one time? There's also another A2/2 and another J6 which I've just started as well, along with an A5 chassis rebuild, a weeny 0-4-0 and a K2 to repaint. 

Unfortunately I think we all have too many locos/ projects on the go at one time. I was with a few other modellers on Saturday, one of the guys had his fathers EM gauge "kit draws" that he needs to dispose of... Unfortunately all of the kits and bits had been mixed together and most started in some way. To say it saddened my heart is an understatement, his father, didnt finish very much but in not keeping things together and the general mixing of things will make disposing of all the thing incredibly time consuming. Hence we were told take what you want and a nominal amount of dollars changed hands... I think we may have cleared one draw if that. It would take weeks if not more to go through and place things together let alone place on Ebay etc. Being EM and here in Australia to find modellers to take them on is very hard. Hence  I have changed what I do and I am makeing a concerted effort to finish things I have started in P4 before opening another kit! (and I still have a lot of years ahead of me, being only in my middle ages!)  

[St Enodoc]

Unfortunately I think we all have too many locos/ projects on the go at one time. I was with a few other modellers on Saturday, one of the guys had his fathers EM gauge "kit draws" that he needs to dispose of... Unfortunately all of the kits and bits had been mixed together and most started in some way. To say it saddened my heart is an understatement, his father, didnt finish very much but in not keeping things together and the general mixing of things will make disposing of all the thing incredibly time consuming. Hence we were told take what you want and a nominal amount of dollars changed hands... I think we may have cleared one draw if that. It would take weeks if not more to go through and place things together let alone place on Ebay etc. Being EM and here in Australia to find modellers to take them on is very hard. Hence  I have changed what I do and I am makeing a concerted effort to finish things I have started in P4 before opening another kit! (and I still have a lot of years ahead of me, being only in my middle ages!)  

Sydney Convention bring-and-buy!

[DougN]

Yes, St Enodoc,  it was discussed!  The problem is the double checking in what is in each bag, box, draw, figuring out what is missing, locating, placing in bag, Pricing, labeling.... there is a very large volume! I don't think his son is really keen on the job for a couple of reasons being time, effort, emotions being draged up etc. Let alone finding the instructions which only seemed to be a 1/4 there! 

[nerron]

Yes, St Enodoc,  it was discussed!  The problem is the double checking in what is in each bag, box, draw, figuring out what is missing, locating, placing in bag, Pricing, labeling.... there is a very large volume! I don't think his son is really keen on the job for a couple of reasons being time, effort, emotions being draged up etc. Let alone finding the instructions which only seemed to be a 1/4 there! 

If the pricing is attractive some of the more experienced kit builders would be interested and not be put off by incomplete instructions and the odd missing small part.. Is there a concentration on a particular prototype?

[DougN]

Hi Ron, 

 

The point I was making is there is the kits in themselves can find homes but the time to collect and place all the bits together is the issue. There is about 20 draws of stuff mostly LNER and some Midland. As an example is there is a streamlined B17 body with a Hornby chassis with about half the wheels and a quarter of the valve gear along with a tender chassis. This did not include the motor,or the other bits. Yes if it was tidy in one box with the bits, sure easy to find a new home... but find the other bits assuming they are even there is the problem! There was another footballer in the same state and the list certainly goes on. It is something 15 years ago I would have loved to dive in and out of finding and putting the bits together but now I certainly don't! 

 

Keeping all the kits underway in their own box and not robbing from one to complete another seems to be the answer. As this was one of the groups membership who have passed in the last few years there is an excess of various things and we are all tending to agree if some one is in need of say a sprung buffer and some one has one from a collection we share them around to reduce things! As the youngest of the group also worries me as it is joked regularly that when they go.. it is just to be delivered to me! My other half rolls her eyes every time some one mentions it ! 

 

This topic no doubt is kicked around by a lot of spouse's when a partner passes away and they are left with a life time of hobby. No doubt there is a lot of males that get left with a room full of needle point, or a horse or what ever. in the same way females get left with half restored cars, Model railways, beer bottle top collections! This I would say of modellers we are a generous bunch in taking on the disposal of the lifetimes work with a less emotional view on behalf of friends. 

[Tony Wright]

Strange re DJH, I have received a couple of email from DJH recently advertising clearance of some 4mm Locos at "bargain" prices via eBay, I just wondered . Thanks.

Thanks Mick,

 

I think it's fair to say that DJH (and every other kit manufacturer?) do not sell as many 4mm kits as they used to. I know, in ordering a Class C2 to be built for Jesse Sim, I had to wait until 'enough' folk wanted one before mine would be produced. I ordered it late last year and it arrived late last month. What this might seem to suggest to me is that, in the past, numbers of kits have been produced, which end up on shelves, not sold for a time. Remember DJH (and others) do not sell through model shops any more (are there any model shops to sell through?), so surplus stock would be theirs. I know, in my days in the West Midlands, I used to order my loco kits through the late-lamented Modellers' Mecca, where Roy Millership (and, for a time, his successors) always had a shelf full of kits of all types of kits, and the bits to complete them. 

 

It would seem, then, that DJH are selling off those kits 'left-on-the-shelf' rather than have them taking up space for no financial return. Why not take advantage of it?

 

I'm merely guessing at this, so it's hardly (definitely not) an 'official' view. Though I've test-built for DJH, built some of their display models, written instructions and provided photographs, I'm not part of their business. I do know that O Gauge is of greater importance to the firm and that they don't just make model railway stuff.

[Tony Wright]

Unfortunately I think we all have too many locos/ projects on the go at one time. I was with a few other modellers on Saturday, one of the guys had his fathers EM gauge "kit draws" that he needs to dispose of... Unfortunately all of the kits and bits had been mixed together and most started in some way. To say it saddened my heart is an understatement, his father, didnt finish very much but in not keeping things together and the general mixing of things will make disposing of all the thing incredibly time consuming. Hence we were told take what you want and a nominal amount of dollars changed hands... I think we may have cleared one draw if that. It would take weeks if not more to go through and place things together let alone place on Ebay etc. Being EM and here in Australia to find modellers to take them on is very hard. Hence  I have changed what I do and I am makeing a concerted effort to finish things I have started in P4 before opening another kit! (and I still have a lot of years ahead of me, being only in my middle ages!)  

Doug,

 

I've come across this situation (though not in EM) in trying to find new homes for model railway items on behalf of bereaved families. Completed loco/stock kits and RTR tend to go quite quickly (at the right price and if the latter is in its right box!), but un-built and, particularly, part-built kits are more difficult. Even if a kit isn't started, bits will be missing (or other bits included), as will instructions. 

 

It's also very difficult to move-on the things like tools, spares, raw materials and all manner of bits and pieces most of us modellers (those who actually build things) collect over a lifetime's modeliing. What price a well-used soldering iron? Or a set of files or a nest of drills with several missing? Or a half-used bottle of flux? 

 

On several occasions, I've been handed over sets of those plastic drawer things, in some cases neatly-labelled. 'Ah, good' say I - a drawer 'full' of, say, 8BA brass nuts and bolts, only they're not all 8BA (or even BA), and they're not all nuts and bolts.

 

How does anyone end up with an odd number of driving wheels? Or, if it is a set (some chance!), out of six, only two are insulated. 

 

Mo and I do are best to get as much as we can for widows/bereaved families, but we don't have the time to spends hours and hours sorting. What we do is have 'rummage boxes' at some shows, swapmeets and here at home. No reasonable offers are refused. In some cases, I've given stuff away to clubs and fellow modellers (with the families' blessings, of course).

 

And, please, don't get me on to deceased modellers' books! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

[chris p bacon]

 

It's also very difficult to move-on the things like tools, spares, raw materials and all manner of bits and pieces most of us modellers (those who actually build things) collect over a lifetime's modeliing. What price a well-used soldering iron? Or a set of files or a nest of drills with several missing? Or a half-used bottle of flux? 

 

 

And yet that's what I prefer to look for,  I've managed to assemble a pretty decent tool kit and heaps of bits and spares by taking on the 'detritus' that everyone else ignores.  

[Jol Wilkinson]

Tony,

 

you may be correct that kit manufacturers are selling less kits, but base on the experience so far this year of one kit supplier we both know well, the opposite might be true.

 

In recent years the "lead time" from the two major etch suppliers to the model trade has increased considerably, an indication that they are dealing with greater demand. Etched kits can be produced in very small quantities, as etch sheets can, literally, be ordered one at a time. The casting process on the other hand, tends to benefit from being done in larger quantities. Perhaps that is why DJH prefer to get sufficient orders to produce a batch. If they prefer producing O gauge products with higher prices and presumably higher profits, as well as having other strings to their bow, then perhaps that is why 4mm is now less important to them. Any product line benefits from introducing new products, but I think DJH haven't done that for some time and may to some degree have exhausted some of the demand for their kits. 

 

Disposing of old kits and bits is, as you rightly say, not straightforward, especially if priced too optimistically. Ebay seems to be one way to maximise return, but is fairly labour intensive. Putting items up for sale at the most appropriate event certainly helps as I found with the items from the estate of a late friend at S4N in Wakefield this weekend (together with some of my own surplus kits). None were particularly high value items, all were complete and priced at 60% - 75% of current retail prices and everything sold through the efficiently managed B&B stand. During Saturday, it was probably the busiest of the "trade" stand for much of the time.

 

Books, as you say are not so easy. The library of the same friend, with both modelling and "prototype" titles, some quite desirable, proved difficult to sell. The specialty model railway book sellers all gave the same reaction, too many books coming onto the market, and wanted to cherry pick the collection and leave the rest. In the end I was fortunate to find one that would take everything, albeit at a price less than they would have individually brought, but the family were satisfied which made the effort worthwhile. 

 

Jol