rembrow

I wonder what will happen to the Oxford staff and operation based in Swansea. Hornby have a track record of closing the sites of UK businesses they have taken over and moving the operation to Kent. Lyndon Davies has huge links to the Swansea operation first with Mettoy Corgi , Corgi management buyout and then the setting up of Oxford Diecast in part of the Mettoy site. I hope that Swansea as a separate operation will continue.

The Port of Felixstowe website has the vessel due at Trinity Terminal at 1300 tomorrow. It may be that a space was available earlier than planned.

There has already been some transfer of items. A couple of years ago there were additional proposed resin ready to plant buildings in the Oxford range. These then appeared as Hornby Skaledale items, and dropped out of the Oxford range. I believe Oxford no longer market rtp buildings.

There is still a foot passenger ferry from Harwich to Sholtley, it also runs Harwich to Felixstowe.

Not just lorries, the forgotten cargo activity is unaccompanied trailers, from Europe. Felixstowe and Harwich have daily RoRo services. Ipswich (the third port in the Haven Ports area accessed via Harwich harbour) used to have a daily service. The terminals primarily serve vessels bringing unaccompanied trailers, which are collected by cabs on arrival. There are daily services at each port with DFDS and Stena being main operators. Two of the DFDS vessels on the Rotterdam - Felixstowe route can carry up to 250 trailers.

Thanks Chris. My pre order from the old system has now been processed and I have received the old style notification e-mail that the order is being despatched.

Not so much the channel, but the approaches to Felixstowe at the entrance to Harwich harbour are a risk if you get off channel. The route from 'the sunk' anchorage, into the harbour, has to be regularly dredged to ensure the deep draught container vessels are able to navigate. I remember a joke quoted by Sandy Toksvig on QI, about a ship's captain. It was that the Captain's officers noticed that the Captain always pulled out a pill box, when approaching any port, and checked inside. Nobody said anything, until the Captain was on his last voyage, when his Number One asked about the box, the Captain took it from his pocket and gave it to him. Number One looked inside and there was a dog eared piece of paper, which had written on it 'Port left, Starboard right'

Yes Dapol announced on their website, at the start of the delay, that they had the 'oo gauge O&K Foster Yeoman hoppers and several 'O' gauge Railcar versions, caught on board. That's why this story is in the Dapol section. Only Dapol has publicly announced this.

Another couple of questions if possible Chris. 1. Credit cards used for pre orders. The old system had these accessible on the users account, so they could be updated when the credit card was reissued or replaced, but in my account I cannot see any credit card stored info. 2. I currently have a pre order being processed. My credit card account is showing the value is being processed by the credit card company to the credit of Rails however on your site, no change is showing on the pre order. The old system would have shown "payment taken".Does the system show a pre order being processed I.e. payment taken, in process, despatched, and when does it move to an 'Order.

From what I read, it was only Hamburg that was dropped, due to the seaworthiness report at Port Said. Reuters reported a couple of hours ago, that the vessel will remain unloading at Rotterdam, till 3 August and then depart for Felixstowe. We'll have to see as this voyage has obviously subject to change. At Rotterdam it will move to the Euromax Terminal to offload the Hamburg bound containers.

Unloading will take longer as the containers that were due for discharge at Hamburg are coming off at Rotterdam, and will be transhipped. The vessel was due to sail the following day after Rotterdam arrival, for Felixstowe, but not sure if that will still happen, it's not on the Felixstowe expected list. I wonder if it will be taking on any containers at Rotterdam and Felixstowe, as it probably has to go for further examination and possible repairs.

Now at the Belgium coast, looks like on schedule for Rotterdam tomorrow.

But maybe caught by the Wreckers of Wight, as it was halted for several hours between the Isle and the French coast. Have to look on eBay for my O&K wagons. On the move again now.

According to Bachmann's website 32 682, BR green small yellow panel Class 45, Royal Tank Regiment, has arrived at Bachmann

According to a Dapol release schedule, posted by Rails today, (26 July) the Prairie tanks are currently scheduled for Aug/Sep release.

According to 'vesselfinder.com' the Ever Given has cleared the Bay of Biscay and is currently off Brest about to turn towards the north coast of France.

I don't think you lost out. My order remained extant from Oct 2014, however I found on the project update site a few years ago, that the price had increased, however there was a discount if you prepaid before the stock shipped. It also said that all pre order customers would be e-mailed. I didn't get a notification but I prepaid about 18 months ago, and paid £5 more than the original price, but £5 less than the new price. I hope these values are correct.

Yes I'm sure they will, however their system seems to be creaking, not with pressure of items, but a system that doesn't provide information. I only phoned them as: 1) I received an e-mail telling me that there was something being despatched to me. It gave no detail of the item(s) or value, and with a reference that didn't match any order, as I have several items on pre order with them, it would help to know, for budget purposes, what is coming. Anyway, I thought, no problem, I'll check my on-line account: 2) however the on line account didn't show anything that I had on pre order as having been despatched. So was concerned about the accuracy of the e-mail advice. I've had the last three pre order items sent from Kernow, not show up in my on line account as despatched. I mentioned this to the person I spoke to a couple of days ago, and he said it was an issue with their fulfillment system. When I phoned, it took the person at the other end some time to establish what had been sent, and he had to check a few systems. As far as the e-mail having no detail of the items or their value, he advised this was probably because I had pre paid. It was only then I found out it was the road vans. I wasn't concerned about the delivery, but whether the e-mail was correct and what it related to. I know now that it's unlikely my on line order history will update when future pre orders are despatched. As it was the guy I spoke to, phoned me back, very helpfully and without being asked, to tell me the order had been delayed by RM not picking up.

I phoned Kernow this morning as the e-mail I received on the 21st July didn't state what had been dispatched, and my on-line account had no update for anything being despatched. It was only then I found out it was the 3 road vans I'd ordered. A very helpful guy at Kernow has just phoned me back to say the order didn't get collected by RM until yesterday, 23rd, so should get to us early next week.

I ordered mine as soon as they were announced in 2014, however some time later the original price was increased and Kernow offered a reduced price increase for those who had pre ordered. I think I paid for mine about 18 months ago. So not sure if the despatch order is by date of original order or date of payment/prepayment. Mine was despatched on 21 July, if that helps

Ah, my misunderstanding. It looks like the cosmetic final drive and shaft is composed of two moulded pieces. There is a subframe that attaches to the bogie side and the final drive/shaft assembly is separate from the subframe. I don't know how they are fitted, but assume they plug into each other and the bogie frame. Interesting you say there are two shafts in the detail pack with the couplings. My BR green version only has the couplings in the detail pack. It looks like with yours, the shaft assemblies broke off before getting to you and were packed into the detail pack.

Have you got one or no carden shafts. The model I have is fitted with two shafts, one for each bogie. They are visible underneath the model, as they are in the open and run from the central box in the underfloor, where the motor and gears must be, out to the bogie.

Now approaching Gibralter should clear the Med and be in the Atlantic some time tonight, then the long haul north.

My pre orders have now all been rounded up to the nearest £ some by 1p some by 5p and some by 50p. Assume this is a glitch as the values now differ from their website.

At least two shipping websites have reported that Evergreen Line have advised that restrictions were placed on the vessel after it's inspection off Port Said to comply with the seaworthiness certificate issued after that inspection. The vessel has to sail at a lower speed and Hamburg had to be dropped as a port of call. I suspect that the storm that went through the eastern Med at the weekend, led to the vessel sheltering, linked to it's seaworthiness restriction.