Stevelewis

Bachmann Website was updated yesterday 11 Oct to the new availability date April/May

I quite agree, not had much wrong with any Bachman purchases over the last few years wonder if the 009 rolling stock will appear as stated in Jan?

Message from Hattons delivery now APRIL - MAY 2018 Oh dear hope its not another L&B MW saga

Hattons have just lost a £400+ order from me today! Simply because it appears they will not use next day delivery anymore!* I place many orders with them ( 43 orders in 2016**), always using next day delivery so that I do not have to have someone remain at home on the offchance of a delivery. The £7 or £9 cost being less than the cost of actually travelling to their retail shop to collect. I am very disappointed with them now they do not seem to be the same company that I have dealt with for over 40 years, so from now on I will not consider them when sourcing goods as a first choice * current ads in October Mags state that Next day dely is available ** would point out that I buy on behalf of a couple of modelling friends as well as my self most order are usually three figure amounts

Did you cancel or was it Hattons due to having no stock?

I was under the impression that Smithdown Road was completely cleared out when they moved to 17 Montague Rd as the buildings were unsafe? I suppose all will be revealed eventually, I do note though that they are advertising some locos at bargain prices on the home page eg 2-EPB Blue £72 obviously this is one of the earlier editions but still a LOT less than current price, We were going to order some Peco track items but note that some we wanted currently on pre order. Still not recvd dely conf for a replacement Dapol signal having recvd Pick list last Friday! Not that it bothers me too much ( yet) _______________________________________ UPDATE Hattons replied signal despatched Friday! Not received here, unheard of for small packets to take more than 2 working days! Also no despatch info sent to me on Friday.

That is extremely interesting I was NOT aware that Hattons had more than the one warehouse! I would have assumed the 17 Montague Rd premises was big enough

I have dealt with Hattons since the late 60s and I am just a little bit surprised at the apparent 'Hiccough' which seems to be occurring! Unusually I have no orders in the system, I had 10 orders in total in July + Aug, so not wanting to upset SWMBO I called a halt in August! However I did have a faulty item ( Dapol Signal surprise surprise) which I returned 10 days ago, requesting a replacement, It was not until late Friday last I recvd a Picking list number and also a refund for the return postal costs, but since then there has been nothing from them, its not as if I am desperately waiting for the signal so I will give it a day or two before I contact them. But I find it all a little unusual!

I think I remember that, also have strong memories of a 00 layout in a boxroom? Called DONFORD I think featured class 20s . I frequented several MACF exhibitions, that where I first encountered LGB John Maxwell, ( the Grandfather in Heinz Soup TV adverts) had a large layout, the next weekend I dismantled my 00 outdoor line and bought some LGB! At that time we lived in Hazel Grove, Stockport.

Just referring to my earlier post re the 1986 Constructor annual, I have often wondered how many annuals were actually published, was the '86 one the last one? Perhaps Chris could answer this>? I must admit I cannot ever recall seeing any on sale except for the '86 one, and that was a complete fluke as we were on Holiday at Devon Cliffs Holiday park, and I think it was Exmouth WH Smiths we wandered into and I found the book on the shelves, at first I thought the cover pick was a 00 RTR loco at a glance, but was very surprised at closer examination to find it was my 0 gauge loco, identifiable by the unfinished lining and the unfinished nameplate! ( see post 11)

I was an Avid MRC reader really missed it when it ceased publication, I managed to get one of my 0 Gauge locos on the cover of Constructor Annual for 1986,

In a case like this it is probably best if you return the loco immediately to the retailer and ask, for refund or replacement and refund of your return post costs. I would also point out Howes of Oxford are the UK agents for Heljan and handle spares etc, they should be able to advise if the missing parts are actually available

I am looking for some ROCO H0e items to further expand my collection, Roco 0-8-0 +TT (Engerth) Locomotives ( livery immaterial) Roco 4 axle bogie coaches in Green Livery and also Brown Livery ( Not the Jaffa Livery!) Please PM me if you have any for sale I have done the searches on line in the UK and European outlets! Thanks Steve

Quick update the loco I ordered failed within a few minutes of running and has since been returned to Dundas Models its reported in the Heljan thread, I have also learned from NGRM forum that a member there has also returned his recently purchased loco as faulty

No loco to check now! but as far as I recall the coupling rods linked all wheels being jointed at the centre axle crank, only 2 axles are gear driven from memory these at the centre & rear ones, any one with a loco please check to confirm this!! Further photo of my now returned number 3 atached

Totally off the subject but sort of related, I have heard that 2 part adhesives are used to help fit aircraft wings? One tends to get quite a few tall stories in my locality from workers at Airbus Industries ( Aerospace) whose Broughton ( Hawarden) wing facility is but 5 miles away! We experience several Beluga loads of wings flying over our house every week at 1500', even after 20 years of the Belugas existence I still go into the Garden to watch them, wife thinks I am daft!

When N0.3 fell to pieces in the motion area I had a good look at the way the pin was retained on the crank from the extended centre axle, using magnifying glass etc and very bright light. but I could not see anything at all it looked like a push fit, (I checked to see if any sort of retaining clip had fallen off but nothing found). It was reported sometime ago when the valve gear failures started to occur that the pivot pins were secured with adhesive, the latest theory is that the lubrication which is applied at the factory (and they do seem to lubricate as far as I can tell) seems to cause the adhesive to lose its grip over time , it is particularly noticeable that all my failures have occurred on the left hand valve gear and 2 or 3 others I know of were the same left side failures, the locos were packed on receipt facing the left side of the box, so this would indicate that the adhesive on the left side would be affected more than the right hand side as gravity would draw the right hand side adhesive down and away from the valve gear, This assumes that the locos in their individual boxes are packed in to shipping cartons left side up,( which is the case in the one I saw in a retailer). We probably will never really know what the problem was caused by, but it is sad to note that there are thousands of M&W size steam locos in use in N Gauge around the world and valve gear failure on such a large scale as the MW is unheard of (correct me if I am wrong)

It has been the luck of the draw! The retailer I bought my first 2 from received 12 in total I think 2 are still uncollected! and 8 have been returned. As I reported earlier one of mine lasted around 20 hours running time, possibly a little more first one about 5 hours, the latest one this week 15 minutes.

Its a nice looking loco, and the actual chassis is smooth and powerful, with good haulage capacity, Basically I think all Heljan need to do is get a manufacturer to re design the way the valve gear is held together ( perhaps with no adhesive used) and ditch the pony pickups which I found on my previous locos were not necessary and fit the ponies with a light springing arrangement which pivots when the pony does! & Correct the way that the valve gear covers are attached, so they don't move and Foul the points! I cannot see them appearing in 3 to 4 months though I could be wrong but I reckon it will take longer

Not sure I forgot to check it

Just a quick update on my 3rd L&B Loco received a couple of days ago................ It ran fine as reported earlier, but in removing it from the layout the motion on the left side fell apart ( see Pic) This was a couple of days ago I was reluctant to reprt it at first not wanting to add more doom & Gloom, but I then considered that there may be some considering buying the locos which are still being offered from various sources. so I thought the info should be posted. The Cyano/adhesive/lubricant theory seems to be gaining ground though, this is my 3rd loco failure all failures on the left side of the loco.

For info the Kato LWB Tram chassis is OK for radii down to 7.5" possibly less

Just a quick update, I prefer to use digital control for my layouts ( irrespective of scale) I have weighed up the practicality of digitizing the Fourdees locos purchased , I have come to the conclusion that although it would be possible to fit decoders possibly in the cabs, I have decided not to proceed, so the locos are now being offered for sale. Just the St George now ........... Atlas is spoken for

For info WINCO Model Railways in Winchester stock Busch Feldbahn range Apologies if this has already been mentioned

I received mine from Dundas this morning, as I stated sometime ago I would not touch another with a bargepole, but looking around I cant find my bargpole it probably fell into the canal during the last storm! But seriously I jumped in with 2 feet when I picked up the Dundas ad in 009 News, speaking to some others in the know (apparently) it would appear that the suggested availability date of Q1 18 may be optimistic, so working on the premise that having had 2 failures already the odds on No 3 failing must be reduced so resistance became futile and I spoke to Andy ( I think that is his name??) yesterday had a nice chat about things 009 and I ordered a loco. The loco has had a test run this morning and it all seems fine, it ran on the shed layout still under construction traversing a looped 8 continuous run with 2 gradients and 6 Peco 18" points in the circuit, no derailments or anything to note. I was concerned that the tunnelled section on the line which is 6 Peco coaches long and on a 90' curve may have caused clearance problems due to the loco overhang but it was OK ( the tunnelled section was constructed using a couple of Fourdees 0-6-0 locos as a size guide which was a bit daft I suppose. I have decided to sell the Fourdees locos, as I prefer to use digital and digitizing fourdees whilst not impossible is a little fiddly.