RichardT

And see also the Derwent Valley Light Railway - now Derwent Holdings (FTSE 250 property company). RT

The problem was the early issues of YMR, where they had about 16 pages of a list of RTR and kits etc in 4mm and later N Gauge. Yes, that was the thing. After CJF retired there were a few issues containing some veiled criticisms of his editorship (not a good look) and then the YMR rebrand. I stuck with it to the Dec issue and then they’d lost me. I did pick up a copy a couple of years later (after they’d reverted to the MR brand) and it was much improved, but by then I had a big mortgage and season ticket costs so spending anything more on model railways was out. Richard

Out of interest @Nearholmer where did you find that births graph? I'd be very interested in getting an attributed copy to show to the students that I mentor (and to some younger friends). One of my pet peeves is that we are too ready in this country to uncritically assume that US social trends also apply to the UK, and allow policy, politics and attitudes to be influenced by issues that apply differently in this country. (For example assuming that identifying a series of generational cohorts starting with "baby boomers" between 1945 and 1965 makes sense in the UK context. Or, more seriously, that the issues behind US racial tensions automatically map onto the British/Commonwealth experience. See "This is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter" by Tomiwa Owolade for a nuanced critique of that assumption.) Dragging this back OT: as former exhibition manager's assistant for the York Show many decades back I saw then just how much effort organising even a medium-size show takes. As Mike Cook said it's "the show that never ends". Warley have done amazingly to keep up that effort for 30 years, and the whole point of being a volunteer is that you can say "that's it, I'm done" and that's theoretically all the reason you need. Going back to the (current) York show, a couple of comments. I find it very difficult to get round York in one day and apparently it's a lot smaller than Warley. (I never went to Warley.) And yes, York doesn't have many trade stands from the large and medium-sized RTR manufacturers other than Bachmann, but it has loads of smaller "bits and pieces" suppliers. Well, that post roamed around a bit. Apologies! Richard

Good luck with trying to find a justification to avoid taking out PLI. No-one will touch you without it. RichardT

FTFY, as I believe the young shavers say…😉

I’m not entirely confident Jason that if you asked all RMWeb participants to post a photo of their layout *right this minute* you’d get anything like a 100% response. A lot of people who are self-described railway modellers do seem, when pressed, to be “still in the research stage”/“gathering equipment for a future scheme” etc etc (Puts up own hand…) RT

Absolutely. In responding to another thread on here about the various editors of “Railway Modeller” I was leafing through my bound copy of RM volume 1 1949-50 (not available in the digital RM subscribers’ library) and what did I find - a clarion call to model railway clubs to think about encouraging youngsters because otherwise the hobby was doomed. Doomed! And I suspect that the wing-collared, waistcoat-tie-and watch-chain committee members of the model railway clubs of the late 1940s also couldn’t work out why younger modellers were reluctant to join them. (Or why they wanted to listen to that be-bop jazz racket.) Richard

https://www.ianallan.com/ Still going. We all think of it as a railway publishing company but that’s the part of the business they decided to let go in favour of their other - presumably more profitable - lines. Just goes to show that our perspective isn’t always the full picture! RichardT

Yes sorry - it was the Ian Allan/Peco involvement with magazines on which I was focussing. I must admit that I moved over to Model Railways from RM when CJF jumped ship, dropping it when it became the exacerable “Your Model Railway” by which time Model Railway Journal was fortunately hoving into view. In later years I’ve backfilled my MRN/MR collection so I now have a complete set. Some of the articles in the pre-CJF 1970s MRN are very much in the style/spirit of early MRJs. Richard

I know. Receiving toy trains two days quicker is pretty much a matter of life and death. Richard

GH Lake announced his retirement as RM editor in Vol.1 No.4 (May 1950). CJF was announced as the new editor of RM on the cover of Vol.1 No.5 (Jun-Jul 1950) “as from the next issue”. He then edited RM in London under Ian Allan’s ownership until Vol.2 No.12 (Sep-Oct 1951). From Nov 1951 the magazine went monthly under the new Peco ownership and CJF went with it to Devon. MRC was a later development after Ian Allan realised they’d made a mistake getting out of the model railway magazine market. Richard

This, 100%. We may (probably are) going through one of those sea-change moments that come along in any sphere of human activity once every generation or so. One way of doing things gives way to another. Change is often disturbing and upsetting but it’s not necessarily the end of the world. The hobby has previously survived the loss of Beatties & Railmail of Watford, the MRC exhibitions at Central Hall & Wembley, the ME exhibition at Ally Pally, the closure of at least two national magazines and several manufacturers, and the deaths of many significant figures. We should be pleased that Hattons and the Warley team are managing the change in an orderly fashion and with openness and integrity. I suspect Hornby is also going through the pain of long term changes for the same reason. Many heritage railways are similarly facing up to the challenges of a different future - but often in the teeth of opposition and conspiracy theories from long-standing volunteers who can’t understand why it isn’t the 1970s anymore, so we’re lucky. The phoenix will rise again in a different form: in the meantime thank you Hattons and thank you Warley MRC for all you’ve done. Richard

I can’t help feeling that you’re over-thinking this a bit! Richard

And also bearing in mind that, unless you are made of money (or use a traverser fiddle yard), it’s much more economical to have your hidden/fiddle yard track & pointwork in 2FS or finescale N made the old fashioned way. Richard

Yes, fair enough. The data matching point made above is the key thing. Either way, it's aimed at undeclared professional traders. Richard

Being serious for a moment, the acid-free tissue suggestion for wrapping is a really good one. You can also get archival-quality closed cell foam for padding e.g. https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Conservation-Materials/Other-Materials/Archival-Polyethylene-Foam (other suppliers are available) Richard

Be aware that if you’ve lost the plastic film you’ve reduced the value of the loco to a collector by 50% 😉 What’s that you say? You tear off and throw away the tissue paper wrap around the box 🫣 <faints> Happy New Year Richard

They’ll catch commercial dealers (in all goods) who are dodging tax by selling on eBay from a private address and pretending to be casual traders. As everyone has pointed out above it’s not aimed at private individuals selling unwanted personal possessions. Where I agree with the wibble is that the £1000 pa sales revenue trigger is too low - evidence that HMRC don’t understand what hobby items cost. Dispose of some unwanted O gauge locos plus a Dublo limited edition (the kind of thing a collector would do to upgrade or thin out a collection) and you’d hit that quickly in several years. As others have said, I’d expect that limit to be raised to £5k or so pretty quickly once the volume of paperwork becomes clear to HMRC. And if they don’t - it’s an election year: complain to your MP about it. Raising the limit would be a practically cost-free pledge to make for vote-seekers! Richard

<checks calendar> 😳 RT

And too many managers who think in airline terms. Particularly affects Eurostar but the disease is spreading (see LNER floating plans for train “check-in” - an idea inherited from the bearded tax-dodger and which completely ignores that long-distance trains don’t just serve the end points but also provide intermediate journeys.) After awful experiences in 2022 with Eurostar and then Le Shuttle we no longer bother. We fly/ferry from Newcastle or Teesside to Amsterdam and plug into the continental rail system there. RichardT

I’m setting up a tin-foil hat trading business on eBay if you’re interested. RT

Wayne Kinney (Finetrax), like many niche model manufacturers, is a one-man band working his socks off producing track in several scales, not just N, and juggling family responsibilities with it. It’s also just been the Christmas holidays. I’d cut him a bit of slack re speed of communications. I’d no idea there was a Finetrax forum - I suspect it was too much for him to run. Wayne contributes regularly on the N Gauge Forum, and elsewhere on RMWeb. Many of the the turnout kits supplied by the 2mm Association are also made by Wayne. I think the advice given by others here is sound - order a turnout kit or two from Wayne (plus a bit of plain track) and make up a simple Inglenook plank to see how you like it vs Peco. There’s only so much progress and understanding you can get in a hands-on hobby like model railways through forum discussions. RichardT

Any chance we can put this canard to bed? If this was true there’d be no modellers of anything before 1948, no modellers of First World War aircraft or vehicles, no modellers of sailing ships etc etc. RichardT

Oh that’s a pity. Richard

Hang on, aren’t you at York next year? Not 2058? RichardT