Kelly

3 hours ago, AyJay said:

This is a very depressing subject to read.  Sorry if I ramble a bit.

 

Our society has become heavily dependent upon international trade and we have become reliant on products that come from overseas; just take a look at the products in your weekly food shop. I think that we are now heading into 'the perfect storm'.

The Evergiven grounding in the Suez Canal was a wake-up call as to how fragile international trade is. Now we have Russia behaving like a playground bully, the increasing cost of fuel and there is industrial action at Felixstowe.  What's going to kick-off next, I wonder?

 

We have all lived through recession, It tended to happen at times when I was out of work and my reaction was to cut back on spending to only what was absolutely essential.  Well now I am looking forward to retirement, no debts, few responsibilities and the 'grey pound' waiting in my pension pot.  Yet I think we are heading for hardships like nothing we have seen since wartime austerity.

 

Last week, The Wife and I were discussing the coming winter and heating.  We are considering just heating the kitchen - diner. I can also move my workspace to the corner of the room, where the heat that my work computer and screens chuck out, can help to keep us warm.

 

I am really concerned about how our model shops can survive as we all pull up our drawbridges?

This is of course on top of the struggles many shops suffered during the pandemic, yes some got help from the public purse, but in a number of cases small businesses and self employed didn't survive or barely did. Though we lost a number of high street brands and have been for a while now (the high street has been struggling to compete with the likes of amazon, ebay etc and the supermarkets and out of town shopping centres).

It is going to be a tough winter for many and I can't see either of the two challengers for PM doing much to really help people where it is needed most.

Personally I'm just not buying anything outside of food etc unless it can go on pay weekly/pay fortnightly. Magazine subs and other subscriptions were amongst the first things to go a while ago.

7 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

There are too many players content to collect the fat pay cheque every month and not play a game; not only at Leicester. Remember when most schoolboys, and some girls, wanted nothing more than to play for their team when they grew up? I never heard any kid say they didn't want to play football they just wanted the money. I write this having seen Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney play for ten pounds a week. 

Player saleries in general are astronomical in the top leagues these days. Given how short reletive to a persons lifespan a career might be though and how much hard work and talent it takes to get to the top levels of the game I don't begrudge them a good wage to live off to some extent. Not all of them can make it in coaching or punditry.

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

I still think that results orientated pay would make many players try a lot harder. If you've got quarter of a million quid or more coming in every week regardless of what you do what incentive is there...

 

Ask CR7! ;)

To some extent that already exists. Goalkeepers and defenders will get clean sheet bonuses. Midfielders will get assist bonuses and strikers goal bonuses as examples. There are other contract clauses that give bonuses for winning a competition, so reaching a number of games played or a number of goals/assists in a season. Their base salery is rarely what they actually get paid!

14 minutes ago, peanuts said:

Several seasons ago  we (oldham) had an under 23 academy player on loan from Man city who had not played any first team games .he was on £22k a week from what the club fans trust dug up whilst researching club finances .he has since gone on to have career playing for teams in the championship 

Very common with the top clubs, especially the financial black hole type of club like City and Chelsea. They typically have so many players on their books that are out on loan earning money and the players that don't make it to the first team typicall earn them money when they're sold on to lower division teams as they'll typically put sell on clauses to get a cut of sales later on in their career.

FIFA/UEFA have been mooting banning the loan systems used by the likes of Chelsea and City and other top clubs, but its yet to come into force. You'll see a lot of player sales quite quickly if it ever does!

23 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

As an average pensioner I have stopped buying model trains for the time being.  Thankfully I can still look forward to eventually receiving quite a few Accurascale wagons and coaches pre-ordered direct from them and prepaid.     My chosen Accurascale 37 was sold out at Accurascale and therefore pre-ordered from Rails of Sheffield and not yet paid for.  As and when Accurascale wagons and coaches arrive I will re-use the packaging for eBay selling of older items of rolling stock which have fallen out of favour.   I don't expect to get much for these items as everyone has less money to spend.    Managed decline of my collection one might say.    I can foresee the likes of Hornby will take a hit as many of their sales are to families for Christmas and birthdays etc and the typical family will have less spare cash.    Judging by the better off quartile on here who buy long rakes of Accurascale etc wagons and multiple Accurascale locos I think these smaller niche manufacturers will continue to do well, as also will those who produce small parts to assist the more serious modellers.

Smaller suppliers might be suffering however as one of the Photoetch suppliers has recently announced they're ceasing trading. Most with orders/artwork with them will probably be fine, but will face some delays and as they look for an alternative, those alternatives will have extra work. So smaller suppliers of etched items might have stock problems for a short time on top of the increased cost of etching.

9 minutes ago, cary hill said:

 

Very easy to explain:

 

1. KingPower's main business and the owning family's wealth is largely based on airport duty free sales outlets. This has taken an absolute battering due to Covid's effect on tourism. Both the family's wealth and sales turnover are down to approximately a third of pre-Covid levels.

 

 

 

7. It's almost criminal that Leicester haven't appointed a defensive set piece coach given that Rodgers has no clue in this area (remember Liverpool).

 

 

I remember the Rodgers era Liverpool only too well. Some decent players and signings, but no direction and a number of useless signings. That was blamed on Rodgers not having much say in the transfer committee's dealings. Klopp soon sorted most of that out when he came in to put things right.

I expect Leicster need a Klopp type of manager (and appropriate director of football with a clue!) now, Rodgers I think has gone as far as he can, he's by far not a Champions League, let alone Premier League winning coach, about best for mid-table at most I'd think.

2 hours ago, 45156 said:

So I seek some advice - our friends have recently bought an air fryer - a Ninja - and think it will

(a) save money

(b) cook as well as their oven, or possibly better

Any fellow ERs can assist with opinions as to whether we should obtain one - possibly a little less expensive than the Ninja.

 

We got a cheapish one from Lidl last year and it has been great. Does really good roasties and jacket spuds and uses a fraction of the power the gas hob and/or the electric oven would use.

A friend posted a link on facebook with a breakdown of the cost of cooking appliances and Air Fryer, Slow Cooker and Microwave were amongst the cheapest to run.

I suspect over the coming months, especially when winter starts to hit, the slow cooker will get more use as well as the air fryer.

Definitely worth getting an air fryer if you can find one in your budget. They can't do everything, but they can do a lot and do them pretty well.

2 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi Nova Scotian,

You clearly have not looked at the prices of electric and hybrid cars, which are a good 40-50% higher. I bought my new car last year, a diesel Peugeot 308. If I wanted the electric version, it was another £15,000 on top of what I paid. Yes, fossil fuel cars are selling at a comparable price to 10 years ago, but that is because the car industry is trying to off load as many of them before they are stopped selling them, and they have to make electric cars only. With the number of new cars held in storage due to current level of sales, it has been suggested that if all the car companies stopped making cars, no one would notice for about a year as they sold off all the stored stock. That is one of the reasons why cars can be sold off a lot cheaper. It is old new stock. This does not of course show in new technology as in electric cars, which have not had the time to build up such a stockpile and are of course being sold at eye watering prices.

How does this relate to model railways, you ask.

 

Some of the problem is related to component shortages as well. The majority of the car manufacturers cancelled their chip orders when lockdowns started to save money. That has rather backfired on them as the production companies have either sold their allocations to someone else or stopped producing that process (processes being measured in nm, most modern smartphones and PCs are on somewhere between 10nm and 3nm these days, the chips the car companies used were on 20nm+ nodes, which the companies long ago deemed obsolete and is really only used for memory chips iirc otherwise (the lockdown put a higher demand on computers, so you can see where some of that 20nm+ node capacity might have gone)).

Electric cars probably as well suffer from the problems diesel cars have suffered for decades. Less of them are sold of the overall amount, so the cost per vehicle is higher.

We're less than 8 years away from the manufacturers not being able to sell new petrol or diesel cars in 2030, and a lot of them are winding down their petrol and diesel engine car lines slowly (Volvo I think is moving to fully BEV or HEV), and after 2035, they won't be able to sell new hybrid cars. Some claim hydrogen is the answer, but there are myriad problems with that too.

It is of course not unique to the UK, most of the EU countries have similar bans planned, except germany which currently i believe has 2050 as the cut off date for sale of petrol and diesel cars.

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Thanks, Kelly.  I did the course some years ago.  Will they notice if I do it more than once?  That's food for thought, that is ....

 

Chris

When I did one a while ago, I was told you couldn't do one within 3 years of taking one. So if it is over 3 years you might be able to get one. It might be different for different police forces however. You'll still effectively have to pay the fine, but you won't have the insurance hit of having points if you can do the course. Worth checking if you can or not, the worst they'll say is no.

3 minutes ago, chrisf said:

More trouble, I am sorry to say.  Way out in the sticks between here and Hitchin there is an automatic speed camera.  Trust me to exceed the speed limit and have this heinous crime recorded for posterity on the way home from the RCTS last month.  It is probably more of a punishment to have to make sense of the paperwork than to fork out the £100 fixed penalty.  With everything else that has happened this week I am not terribly happy.  Before anyone asks, I got clobbered for an educational course a few years ago.

 

Chris

You can usually take them every 3 years iirc, so you might still be able to take one if it was indeed a few years ago.

On 24/08/2022 at 22:35, Hroth said:

 

Dunno what the main chassis might be, but the bogie is from a GWR King!

 

If I really wanted a GT3, I think I'd start with a bargain box Black 5 and a quantity of thickish styrene sheet, rather than a brown banana...

 

This is what it should look like.

 

Longitudenally straight....

 

IIRC the Golden Arrow kit was designed around a Hornby 8F chassis. Its a while since I looked at the Golden Arrow range however (I think they're still selling resin bodies on ebay occasionally and did go to ExpoEM before the pandemic, not sure if they still do).

The ECU will be doing the monitoring and will likely be keeping a log of how often, what speed/voltage for the power supply is used, how low it is drained, how long it is left on charge etc. The ECU/charging system will likely be cutting off charging at set points to protect the batteries as well as explained by others in the previous posts (following my admittedly rather simplified view of how LiOn batteries are typically succepital to degredation over time). The manufactuers will likely have written their warranties to cover them for different temperture/climate eventualities as well as these have an effect on the life and the performance of the batteries.

Of course, we'll soon probably see the next generations of batteries start to hit the market (Tesla's Cobalt batteries and Toyota's Solid State batteries), they'll potentially bring better range, weight and charging speeds. In the case of the Toyota Solid State batteries much less chance of fires (which is a real danger of current LiOn batteries if punctured) and smaller, thinner and lighter, so able to be placed other than the chassis potentially (iirc Teslas have been talking about their next generations of batteries being within the structure of the car body, which would make it much harder to replace however).

1 minute ago, boxbrownie said:

Actually a bit shocked by those warranty limitations, they do seem to be very restrictive and tbh very easy for VW to say you haven’t been charging according to the regime, and how do you prove you have been?

As I mentioned before it looks like VW are smarting from the dieselgate issues.

Written like most warranties really then. And not unique to cars, though cars are a bit unique in their own ways in terms of warranties. 

The only value warranties tend to have is for manufacturering defects. But proving they are can be difficult. 

They have of course a solution for these shortcomings,  namely extended warranties,  insurance and or leasing rather than buying. 

3 hours ago, Classsix T said:

No they sodding don't. So whilst the opportunity is there, I'll buy the physical media capable hardware over a digital only option every time.

 

C6T.

Whilst they still exist. I think we're on the precipice of the obselecence of optical/physical media in most forms right now. Music/Video is pretty much dominated by streaming these days and games is moving in that direction with things like GamesPass and GeForce Now etc.

Microsoft tried at the start to control pre-owned games sales, and that didn't go down too well. However the market has changed since and so I don't think the next generation of consoles will have disc drives most likely, but we're a ways off from those being launched just yet at least.

One thing to note is Nintendo. They have some control over the second hand market as they do a number of game releases where they're bundles, but only the first game is on the cartridge, and the others are codes, which obviously you won't get if you buy the game second hand. Plus their games seem to retain their second hand value in general to the point a lot of times, buying new makes just as much sense as second hand. Though you run the risk of Nintendo shutting down the digital services and not transferring purchases across to the next platform, which has been the case with the DS/3DS/Wii/WiiU to the Switch. We're on the cusp of the Switch getting a replacement, though I don't think they'll be breaking the backwards compatibility on that at least.

Seemingly so far of the console makers, only Microsoft seems to have carried across purchases on Xbox Live across all generations of consoles fully (With some exceptions for games removed from the store due to licences expiring etc). Sony partially does this, but their first two consoles didn't really have stores like the first Xbox did, so it is only from the PS3/PSP/Vita onwards they could offer it realistically and so far they've not that I know of and their offerings of backwards compatibility is lagging significantly still.

4 hours ago, MJI said:

 

I have spent a LOT, oh and Sony also take a cut from disc sales.

 

I just hope they don't damage the ambulance if it brakes hard.

 

And I would call them that to their faces, they are nothing but parasites on companies and people. They are giving the legal profession a terrible name.

 

I will say the same about the emission lawsuits where the companies were clean (actually a good proportion were.)

They take a much bigger cut from digital sales than disc sales. This is true across the industry. Microsoft, Nintendo, they all want you to buy from their stores as they take the most money that way.

33 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Spent time at Wakefield (where I met with @Kellyand @Natalie) which meant a fair amount of ER drivelling going on. Lots of long time acquaintances were met and lots of talk undertaken.

 

Was good to talk with you at the show,  was a good weekend. Though it felt odd being at a show again as an exhibititor. 

A very tiring weekend as expected,  but worth it. I expect to sleep most of the week! 

16 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

I'm not expecting another industrial to be announced just yet; though Accurascale are unusual in not having one in the pipeline already.

 

RSH 0-4-0ST (Dapol), Hunslet 16" 0-6-0ST (P.I), Kerr Stuart 'Victory',  NCB version of the 15xx (both Rapido), plus Ruston diesels from Hornby (88DS) and Heljan (165DS/PWM).  Probably further runs of Pecketts and Sentinels from Hornby, too.

 

Don't think I've forgotten any....*

 

That lot may possibly be enough to be going on with, though there is a long-standing opening for a Drewry 04  to a 21st century specification, and a good few of those ended up in industrial use..... 

 

John

 

* EDIT: Yes I have, Bellerophon (KR Models)...

There's also the narrow gauge diesel bagley from Bachmann coming. If Hornby ever did move into narrow gauge,  their 48ds would be a good basis for the narrow gauge versions made (I'm simplifying here though).

There are many variations of the sentinel from different engine manufacturers as well that could be done. 

7 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

I would suspect both for later this year.

 

While balance may/may not be a desirable goal the limited number of diesels left means if Accurascale wants them as a product they need to announce/have them arrive sooner than later - otherwise someone else will take them.

 

 

I agree GWR/WR would seem unlikely to be the 2nd steam loco in the range.

 

Plenty of industrial designs for battery,  electric,  diesel and steam (and even petrol).

The Hornby pecketts and 48ds as well as the sentinel have been some of their more popular releases in recent years. 

With the cost of living, a small affordable industrial locomotive (especially if it was available in ncb and could work with the wagons they already have) would be a good seller I reckon. 

Certainly an area for the smaller makers to exploit as there's so many options available to choose from and their unlikely to be copied by the bigger names. 

3 hours ago, BR traction instructor said:

A mixed bag…each charging company has specific instructions to follow on their installations. Some require registration/app and some allow payment as if buying a carton of milk at the corner shop. My experience so far is that the amount of electricity charged for is shown on a text receipt displayed on online banking. I use a Smart phone but there must be provision for non Smart phone customers.

 

As for monitoring the charging process, it is advisable due to occasional failures to charge/auto switch off mid delivery. I tend to view the process whilst sitting in the car listening to the radio and occasionally checking the display to see progress.

 

With our Nantwich and Silloth 7 kWh home chargers up and running we experienced our first ID3 non stop direct run a few days back. Leaving Nantwich with 92% charge, the headlights coming on soon after joining the M6 in the rain & staying on, we ran non stop (160 + miles) to Silloth in 3 hrs dead, 40+ miles of range left on arrival . 75 mph on the speedo display for most of the M6 work. Heating and reduced battery range in the colder Winter months will make a full 100% charge more important.

A full 100% charge is typically not advised due to the effect on the life of the battery over time. Similarly taking the battery below something like 25% is often not advised. 30-80% being the sweet spot. This is much the same as most lithium ion batteries and the same advice applies for laptops,  smartphones and tablets. 

It will vary by brand,  but some will cut off before getting to 100% and often indicated as 100% on some models when it is closer to 80% than 100%. Again for battery longevity. 

The battery will have a different level of provisioning that is not available for use to try and counter the degradation over time. 

Set up last night. A nice spacious venue. 

Looking forward to a great show. 

Always going to get complaining of some kind I think regardless of what you do. People tend to love a moan. 

Anyway,  you have done what you could given difficult circumstances and I expect most people will understand the situation. 

I think as long as you're clear about the catering situation then people will have the ability to plan accordingly. 

There's a Toby carvery not too far from the city centre that does good meals last time I visited it. Typically in the past I've tended to take my own food as the offerings are usually not cheap at a lot of shows (especially the larger shows), so taking your own can save you a fair amount to put towards the traders.

1 hour ago, d00m said:

Just looked at their site. All the tube and sub-surface stock is currently priced at £0.00!

 

As Darius says, as they've only just taken over the range, there will be lots of accumulated stock to go through, catalogue, moulds to inspect and catalogue, prices to calculate and so on. All this takes a lot of time like it did with the exKirk range and others. The fact the range has been aquired and will return is the important thing as very few companies produce such stock.

They no longer seem to be active on eBay it would seem, so potentially they've stopped selling the kits now? I know they were trying to get people to buy outside of eBay to avoid the fees however, which eBay really doesn't like.