Les1952

About 15 years ago I bought quite a lot of stuff at Hattons. At the time I was living (as now) near Newark on Trent, so I got a lot of comments of "Why not use your local model shop?". However, my daughter had gone to Liverpool to University and stayed there for three years afterwards. That made a minimum of 6 visits a year- where were her digs? On Penny Lane about 5 minutes walk from the shop making Hattons the shop with the shortest walk to get to it. Since then I've bought quite a lot of items, though nothing since the Class P came out. As others said the prices of the secondhand (and the descriptions) were a bit idiosyncratic in the early days, but at that time I also picked up three secondhand BNSF N-gauge diesels from Rails that were cheap and described as "non runners" to find they were DCC fitted and worked perfectly- Hattons weren't the only ones who had a learning curve when moving into secondhand in a big way. I wonder how many are like me and just not buying the kind of stuff Hattons (and Rails etc) stock any more? I have nothing whatever on pre-order from anyone at the moment, though there are a couple of locos that might just tempt me. I'm saddened that they are going, though not really a current customer. Les

Many Continental manufacturers issue catalogues then a seperate new items catalogue- last year's Fleischmann "Neuheiten" catalogue was over 70 pages, in N gauge only..... Les

I don't know who it was I was talking to, but I think it was when talking about J94s at Gaydon. I mentioned that a J94 would be good with 21 ton hoppers to play with and got the reply that they're on the list "somewhere". Les

He actually sorted out frame alignment issues that were affecting the stability of the 2 to 1 lever in the conjugated valve gear- note that conjugated valve gear is what Castles had, but that drove the opposite way (valve gear in the inaccessible part of the engine driving outside cylinders) and only one gear per 2 cyls making it a bit simpler. The GWR needed good alignment tools to make it work, and this is what was brought to Doncaster- together with intermediate piston and valve examinations, allowing the Gresley Pacifics to run over 100,000 miles between major overhauls- the A1s already were doing this sort of mileage. Much of the issue of the middle big ends had been sorted by then but keeping the middle cylinder from doing too much work finished the job. It is worth noting that the two guys were swapped by Headquarters at Crewe to put people without the appropriate background in charge of engineering for the two regions in the expectation that each would succeed in reducing the effectiveness of the power on those regions allowing Crewe and its products to shine. They were already having problems with B1s being cheaper to run and maintain than Black 5s (though not as robust) and the most cost effective express loco they had being the Peppercon A1. Both men then made improvements that weren't expected by higher authority.... Back to wish listing- a retooled B1 would be nice as would a double chimney Castle. I don't need any more A3s (and if I did they would be TT or N- OO ones take up too much space). Les

The Class 66 will be in Hornby's April announcements, so I would expect that there would be nothing from Arnold about their version of it this side of the Nurnberg Toy Fair. Hornby Hobbies are there, on stands B31 and C30 in Hall 7A. Dates are 30th January to 3rd February. Les

As little as that? FLYING FOX's recorded mileage at 31st Dec 1962 was 2,594,865. It continued in service for another 24 months, giving an estimated lifetime mileage of a little over 2.7 million miles. I underestimated- FLYING FOX ran almost a million miles more than the Castle that beat it..... Of the 78 Gresley non-streamlined Pacifics only 14 failed to beat Pendennis Castle's service mileage as measured up to 31/12/62, of which ten were built in 1934, and thus had ten years less in service. Even GREAT NORTHERN managed 2,078,700 miles in service to withdrawal in November 1962, and this was a comparative failure after rebuild, mostly due to spending longer periods in works each overhaul.... Les

If they announce stuff together and one part of the announcement gets held up more than another they get negative comments. If they only announce stuff when it is ready to ship they get negative comments about not taking pre-orders so not knowing what they might sell.. If they hold stuff back until everything that belongs together is in stock before releasing it they get it in the neck for having too much capital tied up in unsold stock in the warehouse.......... Heads they lose, tails they lose. Les

GREAT NORTHERN just happened to be the next unrebuilt Gresley A1 that was due for a General overhaul. Nothing more sinister than that. Les

For that matter it took an ex- LNER engineer to give the GW locos proper superheaters so that they realised a lot more of their potential.... Works both ways. Les

True, but on average each A3 ran about half a million miles more in service than the average Castle of equivalent age. And of course the steam loco with the highest service mileage of all was FLYING FOX, which famously lost the 1923 exchanges and then ran 700,000 more miles than the loco that beat it.... Les

What I would hope to see is a number of older locos (particularly diesels) re-released as railroad, preferably at prices where the RRP is well South of £100. We spend a lot of time looking at all the new stuff with eye watering price tags, and forget that the next generation of modellers just doesn't have the cash. I would also like to see CONNIE, NELLIE and POLLY reappear, as these were the best proportioned of the starter 0-4-0s - a new re-tool of these, with a DCC socket would be an entry level loco they could use for years. Les

On the topic of models selling out/not selling. Don't compare with Accurascale, Rapido etc. They don't make stuff for every model shop to have a bite at. What we DON'T know is the size of the Bachmann stockpile at Barwell to compare Hornby with...... A lot of drums being banged with little knowledge to base the opinions on. Les

Latest video- note a few more trees have appeared. I'll be taking the layout down to wire in the signals over the next couple of weeks- I'm waiting for more trees as I've run out, and also for some more people and animals. There are some pics still to process. Happy new year. les

I'll jump in again and predict three classes we WON'T see from anyone- 1. A North Eastern/LNER D20 4-4-0. 2. A North Eastern Atlantic 3. A Jersey Lily. having said that I'd like them all in TT..... Les

I'm looking onwards to 2025 and wondering.. Who is going to poke their head above the parapet and make Locomotion No.1? If it is to be released on time the work should be well on by now.... Les

Quite a bit done on the scenic side- albeit slowly. A lot of trees gone in, and even more grass tufts. The five signals have been planted but not yet wired in. This morning I ran the first train since October- and needed to add a couple of droppers to cover for where paint had got into the gaps between rails and rail joiners. I don't like soldering upside down! A lot better for the banking being finished and about a third of the trees planted.. At the other end more trees, signals and street lights. More pics in the camera Les

I'm going to jump in and say that if MOST locos perform well on a layout even with a fault on that layout, then ANY loco that doesn't is not fit for purpose. My layout NO PLACE has industrial track in the colliery- deliberately wonky because that is how collieries were in the last couple of years before they closed. I don't expect more than a select handful of locos (mainly Hornby J94s and Bachmann 03/08s) to cope with that track. On the other hand the passenger and preservation side is laid to a much higher standard and I expect ALL suitably-sized 0-6-0 or 0-4-4 tanks to cope with it. The only ones that haven't have been Bachmann Panniers where there isn't enough flexibility in the wheelbase. These have been sold on. The 15xx copes well with the layout, though it hasn't ventured into the colliery yet. A prototype observation. At Shotton Colliery less than a year before it closed in the seventies I watched as a loaded 21-ton hopper wagon was put back on the track. How? Sleepers brought over from up the yard by the engine (STAGSHAW) and laid in the mud on either side of the track. Heavy duty jacks on the sleepers with another sleeper across under the buffers of the wagon. The wagon was then lifted up clear of the rails. Sledgehammers were used to bash the rails until the track was underneath the wagon, which was then dropped onto the newly misaligned track. Industrials led a hard life. Les

The safety valve assembly on mine has broken off- rather too fragile. Talking to them at Warley they said it was an issue and they offered a replacement. As mine is the NCB one i've done what the NCB would do and substituted Ross Pops from a Triang loco in the scrap box. On QC- I've had QC issues with Heljan (buffer beams and steps that fall off (two models), a railcar where the top and bottom halves don't meet all the way round) Also with Accurascale- door bangers on wagons that aren't glued on very well and get lost on the layout and a Deltic that lost its bogie safety chains and other small details round the layout - on a 24 by 12 foot club layout things that fall off are usually never seen again. And with KR Models- I gave up on the Fell, plus Planet Industrials where the valve gear jammed straight out of the box- another one where the repaired loco was no better than before the repair, plus Bachmann locos that have gone back. In TT:120 my Hornby Blink Bonny arrived without any wheels under the cab. In N gauge I've had stripped gears, a non-functioning Deltic and A2 from Graham Farish - plus the saga of incorrectly milled wheels on their WD, where one in three (including mine) couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding because their traction tyres didn't actually touch the rails, dead-on-arrival locos from Fleischmann and Liliput, and rejected every Dapol Terrier a local dealer had in stock before eventually finding one that ran well enough. Not to mention US outline locos from three different manufacturers where handrails were visibly broken and where the locos went back without even being removed from their boxes. Rapido are a lot more up front about issues than many- the Farish traction tyres issue wasn't admitted for over two years and then only in conversation during which time I'd received a lot of stick from those who had good ones. Yet people reckon I'm less picky than most..... My take on all of this is that we have long passed the point where the detail we demand is going to survive. We pay more and more for details that can't be seen when the loco is running and which are so fragile they break without being touched. Is the hobby being driven by the wrong people? Les

Not yet been announced at Nurnberg, which is where most of the Continental shops place their orders. Les

Union Mills in N gauge all worked that way- tender drive with traction tyres on one side and pickup on the other only, with the loco picking up from the "driving" wheels on the other side (which were unpowered and free wheeling. Worked fine, even on 4-4-0s. Les

My N-gauge Black Forest line "Bregenbach im Schwarzwald" has 1 in 25 gradients which are less steep than the prototype 2 valleys South (the Hollentalbahn). My German outline locos have a pair of traction tyres each and are mostly Bo-Bo electrics. When I run a tyre-less Farish or Dapol loco it generally slips to a stand with more than two wagons. The Hollentalbahn (1 in 17.8) became part of the Freiburg S-bahn three or so years back. Until then summer holiday trains would be a rake of 6 to 7 double-deck coaches with an electric loco (nominally) on the downhill end of the train. Can you imagine modelling that without traction tyres? Les

frequently to the extent that all of my TT stuff has magnetic couplings - Dapol Easi-shunts for stuff that gets shunted and Hunt couplings for the fixed rakes. Problem solved. Les

As of 23.14 on 12th Dec Modellbahnshop Lippe have the Maersk container wagon in stock. they have DHL and ONE available to pre-order. Price is 46 euros 49. Hope this helps. Les (found by chance as I was browsing for something to add onto a signals order.)

It looks like a J94 in many ways the old Farish one just didn't quite manage,,,, That sound conversion has me thinking that if Hornby's TT one isn't good enough when it comes Broken Scar could yet be N gauge. All I need is a J50 to go with it.... Les

Looks good. That NOHABs runs very nicely. I've got the layout set up in the shed again and I've made a start on the front. The front contoured board is now finished, and painted black, which in itself is a major improvement. The white at the front is the plaster bandage for the contours here. Bregenbach is on end in the corner until next summer as its next show is currently Stafford next back end, by which time this one will have been out three times. One day later and the plaster bandage is now an improbable shade of green ready for the static grass to be put on. After that there are 25 or so more trees to add, by which time (the first?) four signals will have appeared. Taking Bregenbach im Schwarzwald to Warley gave me chance to get ideas from other layouts that were there. In particular I need to think about overhead power lines on posts and increasing the vegetation around the station and yard. To quote Mr Simon "much to do".... Les