RichardT

In general I’m in favour of the move to singles only. On a work trip for example, you can make the outward journey on the cheapest advance ticket you can get, but buy an open anytime single for the return half to cover the fact that you might be unsure when your business will be finished. Previously to get the latter flexibility you’d have had to make the whole journey on a full price open return. LNER had been operating this system for a couple of years now. That said, given the ridiculous level of DfT micromanagement of the railways, I suspect that @Michael Hodgson’s comment above captures the real motivation behind this move.

If you believe the CGI’d “Kings Cross” at the end of the BBC “ABC Murders” a few years ago (with John Malkovich as Poirot), the answer is 17. We now resume our scheduled programming. RichardT

Absolutely prototypical for the steam specials that ran over the Foss Islands Branch/Derwent Valley Railway in York during the latter’s brief experiment with steam in the late 1970s. (I suspect Ravenser knows that, but I just wanted to spell it out!) RichardT

I’m sure that the egregious Mr Hosking wouldn’t miss an income-generating opportunity for his wider interests. “Buy a Coronation observation car: fund Laurence Fox.” And the “1:1 collection” isn’t a museum, in any sense of the word. RichardT

Border Counties Line from Riccarton Junction to Hexham. Several pictures online of single Gresley brake (compo?) in crimson/cream behind an ex-NER 0-6-0 - see colour photo towards the bottom of this page. (ColourRail slide, so I’m not copying it here for copyright reasons). Richard

I have obviously missed the announcement of your appointment as Bachman’s official spokesman. Glad that you’ve “made it clear” Grahame: no need for any of the rest of us to express any other opinions. Richard

Sounds like you’re glad we’re all disappointed Grahame. I haven’t noticed many expectations for “all new” items on any N gauge fora. What I have noticed is a perfectly legitimate wish that Farish do some new runs of items for which they have existing amortised tooling, especially carriages and wagons, so that we have something to pull behind our locos. The tank wagons in this announcement are a good, but woefully unambitious, start. Richard

Getting slightly back on topic, the role of the traditional wayside goods shed in the distribution process was mentioned. A while ago I bought a very interesting book published by Historic England on railway goods sheds and warehouses (now also available here as a free download from HE - but I just like printed books better.) What struck me from the book’s introduction was a comment that the railway goods shed is now a completely obsolete type of building - the whole distribution system which it supported is now extinct! RichardT

Hi Chas I didn’t *really* want to broaden the discussion to include Beeching, but I just wanted to point out that many of his identified inefficiencies were genuine - it wasn’t just cuts for the sake of it. Beeching is the first manifestation of the application of the Information Age to British railways, and that was always going to be disruptive. If he hadn’t done it someone else would. The big change maker after him of course was TOPS: suddenly BR knew where all its stock was and how well it was being utilised! Contrast that even just to the early years of nationalisation, when the BTC didn’t have any accountancy methods which told them in any level of useful detail which activities covered their costs or not. (NB If you know an activity doesn’t cover its costs it doesn’t mean it isn’t still worth doing - there may be wider societal benefits. But at least then you know what cash subsidy you’re asking for, why, and where it should be targeted. The problem with many of Beeching’s proposals was that his political masters -deliberately? -often knew the cost of everything but the value of nothing.) Anyway, we’re well off wagonloads by now! RichardT

Another thumbs-up for this idea. I’m not entering because I’d end up replacing all the buildings with ones to suit an NER-area light Railway, and all the track with Peco bullhead, which would be a waste of the original. And I think this should go to someone who, unlike me, might find it more difficult to buy all the components. Also, I model in N - but seeing this video has made me fancy a little side-project in minimum space 00. So, double-whammy Mr Parker. Where did I put those IKEA Lack shelves… Richard T

I’m assuming that these are in 4mm. Farish have been sitting on the tooling for their N gauge Thompsons for three years now, having produced one run in “fake teak”. The fake teaks were lovely, and I bought loads, but even with my pre-nationalisation blinkers on I can see that these in maroon and crimson/cream would be far bigger sellers. Hell, I’d buy another rake in crimson/cream and shift my era to 1946-1950! This is just an open goal for Bachmann - existing tooling for a product which people buy in multiples, not just one or two. And the N Gauge Society has been offering a members-exclusive Thompson BG, produced by Farish, in all applicable liveries for years now, so long in fact that the teak and crimson/cream versions have sold out. We keep being told that cash-flow is important for business, but honestly Bachman’s attitude to easy wins in N is utterly incomprehensible to me. And all of the above goes double for N gauge Mk.1s in mainstream liveries! But I’m not interested in Mk.1s, so I’ll let others rant about the lack of those…😋 RichardT

This is the thing: the “steam-era” railway, especially pre-WW2, was inefficient by modern standards of asset utilisation. Combine that with the burden of having to be a common carrier as mentioned above (which the railways post-1918 lobbied long and hard to be released from) and the relative cheapness of labour before 1939, and you get a lot of practices that seem incredibly wasteful to our eyes, skewed as we are by instant availability of information, modern accountancy practices, and the modern logistics obsession with unitisation and avoiding double-handling of goods Beeching is a hate figure to many, but nonetheless there were genuinely a lot of inefficiencies just waiting to be cut out of the railway. (The problem with many of Beeching’s remedies was more the narrowness of his focus, largely due to his political masters.) Richard

Just to follow up my previous post, I ordered a rake of Farish Stanier carriages from Bob (at what I regard as a very fair price). Not wanting to presume I just paid the total plus p&p by PayPal. Bob got in touch the next day offering to bring them round in person, and turned up exactly when he said he would. Later that same day he refunded the p&p. The carriages are in mint condition - I think I’ve got a bargain and I’m very happy with his service. i mentioned that I’d seen him mentioned on here. He doesn’t do forums it seems, but he did say that he’s been advertising in the RM for several years. Anyway, for what it’s worth that’s my experience. I’ll definitely use him again. Richard

Good to hear about the Holden F5 - nice looking small loco, and one that will be good for shorter heritage lines (in the same way as the G5). Narrow gauge lines and locos aren’t really on my radar so that’s why I missed those new builds. However, in the context of this discussion about the cost challenges facing heritage railways, I’d class sub-3ft narrow gauge new builds as very large scale model engineering 😉 (I’m a life overseas member of the 2ft-gauge Wiscassett Waterville & Farmington Railway in Maine, so I know the high level of skill and craftsmanship that go into ng engineering.) Richard

I’m intrigued - what are they? The only genuine new builds (as opposed to kit-bashing from existing components, like all the GWR projects) I can bring to mind that have ben completed or have a realistic chance of completion in the next 24 months are “Tornado”, “Prince of Wales” and the NER G5 group. There are a couple of other new build projects that seem perpetually to be going round in circles (the B17 and the Patriot), but my information on those is probably out of date. Many of the rest seem to be fantasies. (If you haven’t got a boiler built, or the funding plan securely in place for a boiler, the project is a fantasy, no matter how many pictures of wheels, frames and smokeboxes you release to the preservation press.) Richard

Not sure I like the direction this thread is taking. Time to ignore it I feel. RT

Just to add that there are also now other manufacturers supplying N gauge British rolling stock - it’s not just Dapol & Bachmann-Farish. The main names to look out for are Rapido UK, Revolution Trains, and Sonic. (And good old Peco of course - but they don’t do locos). Rapido & Sonic items can be found via some retailers (again, try Rails of Sheffield), but Revolution largely sell direct. For Rapido UK and Revolution their own websites *are* the best sources for information on past and future projects. Sonic don’t seem to have a website - they sell primarily via Rails of Sheffield. Rapido & Revolution haven’t yet produced any N gauge steam locos - but we live in hope! Sonic have produced a GWR 56xx, and have an LNER J50 and a GWR 61xx in the pipeline. The big gap in rtr British N steam (I know, there are others) is an absence of 4-4-0 locos. Farish never reintroduced/upgraded their Compound. Dapol offer the Schools, but otherwise nothing for the most typical British loco type after the 0-6-0. During the time you were out of the hobby a small firm called Union Mills Models did offer a range of rtr British steam locos in N including several 4-4-0s, but with exquisite bad timing for you, the owner of Union Mills retired and closed the firm earlier this month 😔. EBay or other second-hand traders are now your best bet for these models. But, as the others have said, once you get used to the batch production system, things are better than they seem. You just need patience - and a cash reserve built up for when several things you want all arrive in the shops at once… Welcome back to the hobby and welcome back to N! Richard

Thanks for bringing this seller to my attention! Several things there I’m interested in. He gives his name, email and address on the site so he’s not trying to hide behind a website and a contact form. And as that info has revealed he is about 10 mins bike ride from my house I can always pop round to him if anything goes wrong with the transaction. 😁 Richard

Probably a clue in the word “smuggle”! RichardT

You can stand around wondering what heritage railways can do to appeal to younger generations, or you could get them involved: https://nymr.link/2ma RT

Until this month you had a direct worked example of the question proposed by this topic in N gauge steam: - Union Mills - a range of "basic" cast-metal "simple" locos manufactured in the Isle of Man. No outside valve gear, tender drive, relatively crude moulded-on detail, old-style Farish solid backed wheels, not DCC-ready. BUT can pull anything you hang behind them, OK-ish at "normal viewing distances", capable of being significantly improved if you are prepared to take the bodies back to basic metal and detail/repaint. The main source of rtr pre-grouping locos in N. Around £83-£90 for core 0-6-0s/4-4-0s - Dapol - better detailed plastic bodied locos, largely assembled in China (but with some UK finishing??); both "simple" and outside valve-gear locos. Can be detailed up a bit but all the core detail is there. DCC ready/DCC fitted available, but not sound (yet). £82-£130+ price range. - Farish - plastic/cast metal locos now being retooled to very high levels of detail and fidelity, assembled in China. Both simple and complex locos. All DCC ready, and now being slowly upgraded to DCC fitted plus sound. £120-£230 price range. Direct comparison - Union Mills J39 - around £87; Farish J39 DCC-ready £123. Both Union Mills, Dapol & Farish seemed to sell OK - to different markets? Seems to suggest that there is a market for less-detail, if the price differential is significant (which is the sub-text of this topic really.) However, Colin Heard of Union Mills announced his retirement a couple of weeks ago and quickly sold out of all his remaining stock, so that reference point has now been removed from the market. RichardT

TT-120, because N is "too fiddly". Obvs. 🤐🤣

I’m not sure it does. The first paragraph is about the MRC review of “Sir Dinadan”. The second paragraph is starting a new subject about which magazine’s reviews give prototype dimensions. The problem is the ambiguous word “read” - you’ve read it as “read”, whereas I read it as “read” 😉😂 (the joys of English…) RichardT

<internal monologue starts up> Keep mouth shut…keep mouth shut…keep mouth <click>

Eh??!!! Have I missed something?? RichardT