RJS1977

On the subject of commissions, I do wonder why Hornby and Bachmann require minimum runs of 500 units for reliveries, whereas Dapol only require 100. I know of at least one potential customer who was lost to Hornby because they couldn't do as short a run as Dapol can. I can only think it must be something to do with Far East production v UK production/finishing.

Hunts of Marlow did that for a while, but they closed that department down a few years ago.

There were several signal gantries still in place in the White Waltham area when I passed through on the way to/from the Maidenhead show on 7th. Some of them had had the earth wire threaded through them....

For some time I've used a fairly basic method of uncoupling - a length of dowel running down through the baseboard with a small piece of card glued on top to perform the uncoupling itself. Worked digitally by me pushing the other end of the dowel underneath the baseboard with my finger! Shortly before Heathcote brought out their kit, I designed something similar (for places where pushing the dowel with my finger wasn't practical), using the MERG Servo Tester kit (£1.86 to MERG members) and an SG90 servo pushing up on a brass rod with card or acetate glued on the end. Coincidentally I was installing one on 'Wallingford' yesterday. Some time I will experiment with other types of servo driver but one of the good things about the MERG Servo Tester is that the servo position is controlled by a variable resistor so it is possible to raise the uncoupler different amounts for different items of rolling stock if necessary.

I have seen sets of the types I have mentioned being sold on 'Half Price Sale' at £49.99....

But if they don't produce the train sets, nobody will buy them.... The number of families I see visiting the smaller exhibitions, and the number of people who ask me for advice about buying/building a model railway/train set for their children/grandchildren suggests that potentially there is still a market there. I think the issues are (1) Price. As I mentioned in another thread, the cheaper-end products should have dropped in price when Hornby moved to China as production costs were lower, but they never seemed to. As a result, even the 0-4-0 and a couple of wagons type sets are pushing £100 RRP (yes, I know they're usually on sale for much less than that). Modern image sets cost more almost by definition. The preponderance of superdetail/premium price models in the Hornby range are also likely to put parents off. Someone walking through the ModelZone counter of WHSmith and seeing all the £100 plus locos is likely to think the hobby is too expensive and try to find a cheaper hobby for their children. (2) I think the not-always-deserved bad press the real railways have might put some parents off buying models of contemporary trains. (3) Limited follow-up items. There is very little in the Hornby range now which is aimed at juniors (and concessions etc don't tend to sell much in the way of accessories - Hornby or otherwise), so the trainset doesn't grow into a model railway in the same way mine did. So the train set remains a train going round in circles, which maybe lasts a year or so tops until the children get tired of it and it goes in the bin. Friends of the parents, who have slightly younger children, hear about this and don't buy one either.... Ultimately people can only 'return to the hobby' if they've already been in it - that flow can't continue indefinitely if children aren't getting into the hobby.

However I can't help thinking that in these days of pre-orders, the manufacturers ought to have enough information to be able to know if they need to extend a run well before it hits the shelves. i.e if the dealers pre-order books are getting so full that they can see they're going to have very few left for general sale, it's a good indication the dealers would be able to sell more if they had them available to sell. Particularly in the case of a completely new loco (like the Peckett), there are probably plenty of people like me who were waiting to see reviews etc of how one runs before ordering. Likewise there will be people who weren't going to buy one but seeing one in a shop/in a magazine changed their mind. Maybe the retailers aren't giving the manufacturers enough feedback on how their sales are going, maybe they are but the manufacturers aren't (or can't) act on it. Either way, having customers who want to buy a model but can't because they've all sold out isn't good for manufacturers, retailers or customers (but appreciated neither is having models that you can't sell).

Combine the two series and build the steam loco Doc Brown drove at the end of the trilogy! I notice GBL is still being advertised in the latest series of Still Open All Hours!

If they were built to 'modern standards' I wouldn't buy any - I can't afford them!

I didn't think he'd done a van. I know he did some open wagons a few years ago which were probably semi-authentic in that H&P did have open wagons but not necessarily to the exact same design - though the livery would have been correct. I've got most of the wagons he did for Thames Valley industries apart from that one! (I also scanned a number of them in and made them available for Microsoft Train Simulator/Open Rails via UKTrainSim.com ).

I knew it was inauthentic. I'm pretty sure the one I have (which I will get back from Reading Museum on Monday) was in a Mainline box, but as I bought it secondhand, maybe the previous owner swapped the boxes. Or maybe Mainline carried on selling them after they bought out Airfix.

That didn't stop Mainline making some, though!

I was just thinking I hadn't seen much of Allan here for a while! Welcome back, Sir!

Though presumably that would vary with event/time of year. I would expect the ratio of enthusiasts to families to be higher at Gala/vintage weekends etc than on ordinary running days. Gala attendees are likely to want to ride behind as wide a variety of locos as possible, so would not particularly want to travel back to Port behind the same loco that brought them up. If the timetables are coordinated, they might prefer to take a ride on the BF&T and catch a later train back to Port with a different loco.

It would be interesting to know what the breakdown of FfR passenger numbers is between families and enthusiasts.

Nobody expects the Spamcan Inquisition!

Something rubbing on a piece of sandpaper?

Presumably because there's nothing much to do in Blaenau when you get there... But *if* BFTR get up and running, there will be (and personally, I think that - provided the timetables work out and it's not too far to walk to wherever the BFTR station ends up) that the proposed country park at Llyn Trawsfynydd - presumably with picnic tables etc - would be a better end to a journey than a rather depressing town and a station with little in the way of facilities). Not denying that there aren't obstacles to overcome, but I think with careful co-operation it could complement the FfR quite nicely.

Not as silly an idea as it might sound, although straw gas clearly wasn't the best source.Many vehicles were converted to run on gas during WW2 (think L Cpl Jones's van!) and gas-powered buses are a common sight in Reading these days.

Yes, that's the one.

Having built a small(ish) layout based on the current Wallingford station (and collected models of most of the stock to have been seen on the C&WR since I joined - Birkinhead, NGB1 and the Collett being the principal exceptions) I have occasionally wondered about doing one based on the bay and Relief Lines at Cholsey so a Turbo would have fitted right in. That said, Wallingford is awkward enough to transport as it is!

Oh you bought it then - I thought £195 was a bit steep myself! DM will be at my show with yet another layout on 18th February. I think he's been to all ten of mine and brought a different layout each time!

I've built a controller from a MERG kit which does the same thing when I run the Lilliput Zillertalbahn diesel. In my case, there is a very slight current leakage even when the controller is turned off, which is not normally enough to power a loco but is for that particular one!

If the timetables are designed carefully to slot in with the Ffestiniog's then I could see passengers coming up on the FfR and continuing to Traws on days when the FfR is running more than one train. A 'blue' timetable has two hours between one FfR service arriving at Blaenau and the next departing, which is enough time for a round trip to Traws and something to eat. A pink or gala timetable has an hour between one arrival and the next departure which would still be enough for a round trip to Traws, I should think.

Just missed an H&P on the Twyford Dolls House stand at the Maidenhead Show today (the person in front of me bought it!) but couldn't really have afforded it ATM anyway.