Crantock

Pulling the two together, to blank the Tarmac" logo you would need a 13.5 X 3mm nameplate. Then you have a free range of owners. Otherwise its a case of ebay (but watch these go up in price) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-R-002-Tarmac-Aggregate-Hopper-Wagons-00-Gauge-/231209264101?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item35d52563e5. Or just using a generic hopper wagon depending on your budget from this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R6473-RailRoad-Mineral-Rolling/dp/B00260GF2Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398597433&sr=8-2&keywords=Hornby+railroad+wagons upwards. Its a good point that Hornby launched the loco without a matching wagon.even though they have PGA hoppers in their range.

Sir Henry Fowler is often misjudged. His innovations included breaking away from the standard midland wheelbase and the introduction of taper boilers. Josiah Stamp put an end to some of the more outlandish spend such as the cast numberplates and copper chimney rings seen here. Fowler 0-6-0...... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAINLINE-0-6-0-FOWLER-LOCO-WITHOUT-TENDER-/181367085323?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2a3a52190b

The simplicity of DCC is that you can hard wire almost any chip. I can hard wire a 1961 Nellie and have done. I am using different chips today to 3 years ago and expect all my chips will be obsolete in 5 years. So unless there is a standard socket that will be supported in 10 years time, we will still want to be able to unscrew and solder as well as to plug in the transient chip of today.

Well "Patience" has arrived. The weathered Tarmac is a lovely green and is simply too good to repaint. One point to flag, the buffer beam inserts I received for the weathered version are not a match for the weathered buffer beam. You would need to respray. Basically the buffer beam is heavily weathered and the inserts are a dull yellow.

Includes Tarmac ones: This is an automatic notification to inform you that we have processed your order for the following items: 1 * Hornby R3180 Class 4wDM 0-4-0 diesel Sentinel shunter in Tarmac green. Weathered (Next batch due 11th March) @ £45.00 each = £45.00 "Patience" is finally coming to allow "Nellie" to be retired. All of the resprays featured on here retain the nicely done buffer wasp stripes. It would be good to pin down the history of those. Was there a point in time they became obligatory? (I don't think so). Otherwise I propose a repaint in Sherwood green with red buffer beams to match the rest of my industrial fleet.

Well I am still waiting for my pre-ordered Tarmac from Sept. Hattons last email said on or after the 24th so any day now i should get.........another email pushing it back.

I sinfully had a layout with 3 setrack points at key locations such that I could not get rid of without changing the whole geometry. As the lesson sank in and every other point was switched to electrofrog I was left with these. I converted to electrofrog by soldering in replacements for the plastic bits. Messy but doable. Otherwise use a reach wagon permanently coupled and with pickups.

Armchair watching here. I am sort of wondering if we might see an A4 15 thou plasticard sheet of parts plus an A4 piece of paper with the same layout but numbers for the parts and a third sheet with a set of instructions. Sell at exhibitions perhaps a basic kit for ?? How much of what is now a brass etch could you do as as a Silhouette? Plastic doesn't fold but if I think of a Judith Edge "Clayton" kit it doesn't seem undoable. Something like that is motorised with Black Beetles so no risk of lubrication damage to the plasticard. For resale, what time does a 6 wheel body take to cut and so roughly what do you think a resale price might be if someone tried it commercially? £10? £20? £30? Last year was 3D, 2014 is 2D- this really is impressive.

Hattons email Tarmac now scheduled for 24 February. And lots of caveats about manufacturers lead times prone to delay....... you don't say. So its missed Xmas and my birthday. Ah well. I might name it "Patience".

You may be reading too much into that. Suppose it does hit the shops 6 January, or even a week later, then why not label it "New for 2014" on the website and make something positive of it. My glass is 2/3rds full and as it is only 7pm I am going to top it up with lemonade

Lets wait and see. After all no one else has noticed this yet and many of us have stared at the samples. i may well spray it anyway as my industrials are all in Sherwood green. Belated happy first birthday to the thread.

That must be a seller without a clue. I would guess its a Silver Fox one on a Lima chassis but you must be able to spot is a lash up. Looks professional (compared to mine) and is not unfairly priced as the body alone was £43.50. I do hope buyers don't think they are getting a Heljan one.

Does anyone have any news on the decoders? Hattons confusingly is listing this as 8 pin and offering links to their decoders. Hornby says: "Due to the limited space available, a unique decoder has been produced which is available through the Hornby Customer Care Department." But there is nothing on the website as far as I can see. Bit worried I could have a loco in late December that's going nowhere. Still I expect we will bodge a direct wire somehow.

Hattons email today suggests arriving with them on, or after, Monday 16 Dec. At least for the weathered Tarmac version. Don't see it being with me for Christmas.

Well you might expect them to be first available at some great big event on November 23/24th. I have pre-ordered a Tarmac one on the basis I can easily cover the Tarmac logo with a nameplate.

A speedy delivery via Yodel. What bugs me is the packaging: 3 X Bachmann coupling packs 2 X Hornby wheel packs That's about 3"x1.5"x5" and fairly indestructible. So why the box that's 5"x10"x4.5". I get to pick it up from the concierge but it should be a letterbox delivery. Deliveries left outside etc are not customer service.

Is it still sniffable?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-LMS040-PUG-LOCO-NO11250-IN-VGC-/141023355167 Pricing is good but look at the seller information. Would you buy from "U-NICK RAILWAYS"?

The problem is that if you click on the Argos add for one tanker for the price of 10, something in cookieworld notices your interest. The random ads that get inserted in certain blogsites are now offering me gold plated Hornby tankers from Argos.

Ok so one buyer has only bid from one seller. But that seller has 5,522 pages of feedback. That bidder is a dot in the ocean and there is no way Rails would get involved in bidding up. Reputation and low postage price?

The Triang/Hornby Nelly/Polly/Connie. I buy them occasionally at a going rate of £10-£15. They look nice if you paint them in BR Black and totally remanufacture. I have a fleet of 5 and 5 bodies. Gostude has an orignal. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIANG-Hornby-R359-0-4-0-PRIMARY-INDUSTRIAL-TANK-LOCO-/370489383878?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5642e35bc6 Probably a bit disingenuous to call it an industrial with a BR logo. Still "This loco appears brand new and unrun" The Gostude price for an R355 - £397.50. At which point buyers will no doubt consider £9.50 fair game for the post. Cant afford it - don't panic. He has another http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIANG-Hornby-R359-0-4-0-PRIMARY-INDUSTRIAL-TANK-LOCO-/370489383877?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5642e35bc5 That's £297.50 and only £8 for the post. It also "appears brand new and unrun" or to me appears resprayed and re-decalled Ah well, don't need any more.

Gostude http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R842-LMS-MAROON-4-6-0-BLACK-5-CLASS-LOCO-4657-TCS-Digital-DCC-FITTED-mv-/370633795624?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item564b7ee828 But just wrong on so many counts....

Interesting that there are "Warley Toads" on Ebay but no examples of 76114 (the BRM offer 2-6-0) up for sale.

Maybe the starting point is for someone to produce a kit that works with a standard radio controller and allows forward, reverse and speed control. Plus a battery. There are lots and lots of old diesel models where that could be installed. If it takes off then maybe its a runner. Ideally something that can charge from the rails, whether DCC or DC. Perhaps only needs one siding to be wired. I don't see it as a runner for factory production. The batteries would need to be "off the shelf". We all know that rechargeables tend to go flat. Model railways don't work on the basis of "I want to do shunting tomorrow, must charge overnight". Also batteries have a limited life, even if it is 5 years that is an irritation.

Very pleased, this has been a glaring gap. The market is served by a Genesis pewter kit that is showing its age. The cost of that (approx £15+ postage via Ebay) plus the necessary transfers (Fox £8 + postage) should make RTR easily competitive. Conversely, having got a set of Fox transfers, doing a plasticard version using Bachmann Thomson bogies (as readily available Gresley substitutes) is down as a project. I can see myself having a trio of Diesel brake tenders.