RichardT

Thanks for highlighting this John - I thought it was well worth a watch. His comments about not discouraging beginners were pretty much common sense (although in reality that’s not a common quality!) but well and concisely articulated. I found his comments about what he calls “the capstone phase” the most interesting - experienced modellers who are happy where they are in the hobby and with the level they model at. You assume these people *won’t* be gatekeepers, but of course there are some who use that position to criticise anyone who takes a different approach. Richard

Yes - Sundays I believe. To protect a path for Midland Mainline (before EMT). IIRC, for a short period in the 1990s (?) York had direct train services to four London termini - KX, St Pancras, Paddington and Waterloo International. Three of the four were, of course, only served once a day or even once a week… RichardT

Yes, the LT Museum also has one example of a green diamond to go with its red Met one. Also very valuable if you find another one. RT

Given how overscale the locos were, perhaps Hornby will re-release them as TT120… RichardT

I have some photos of the diamond shaped ones at Moorgate The Met’s none-too-subtle “tribute” to the UERL symbol. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect this design might not be trademarked! RT EDIT If you ever come across any original examples in a shed or somewhere they will be worth a fortune. The ones at Moorgate are modern replicas, and LT eliminated the original Met examples - along with the “MetroLand” brand - very quickly after 1933. The LT Museum only has one example in its collection, in contrast to the hundreds of bullseyes/roundels.

I remember reading a news article in a “Railway Modeller” back issue from the early 1960s, celebrating the fact that BR had just clarified that permission was no longer needed for non-commercial photography on any part of BRB property that was normally open to the public. After 9/11 the US railway press was very active in advising enthusiasts of their rights to take train photos in the face of over-zealous law enforcers, and IIRC got the railroads to acknowledge that alert enthusiasts could help them in keeping an eye out for genuinely suspicious or dangerous activity. But here in crappy semi-privatised 2023 Britain we’re back to this b*ll*cks. The Network Rail guidelines referenced above (note GUIDELINES not rules) are classic corporate backside covering not intended ever to be applied to all cases but giving a fig leaf to cover NR removing people causing a real short-term operational nuisance e.g. by wearing hi-vis or encroaching on platform ends. The meathead civilians in plastic pretend policeman outfits objecting to you taking a photo in a publicly-owned station should be dealt with by requesting that they call a real policeman over. I’m sure BTP will think that talking to railway enthusiast photographers is a good use of their time. RichardT

I had a related FOMO-by-proxy issue a while ago during the Farish N drought. I started feeling that I must buy new releases from the new entrants to the UK N market, even if they didn’t fit my modelling period/location, because there was a sense that if we didn’t support these new entrants then they’d abandon N, and Farish would also be discouraged from the scale. Then there would be no chance of ever seeing stuff that I actually “needed” (usual caveat re “need” in this contact). Well, having blown lots of money on Revolution Pendolino coaches, EFE Claytons, Rapido Metrovicks and Sonic J50s, none of which fit my ex-NER in the 1940s plans, I’ve finally got over that “sympathetic magic” approach. It’s not produced the Revolution K class Pullmans, or Sonic shrinking their A5 to N gauge (surely a no-brainer?) nor have my purchases encouraged Farish to shrink their J72, V1/3 or new-tool V2 to N. I could have saved that money and used it on a few EFE J94s to be re-liveried into LNER. I’m now just going to wait until someone produces something I genuinely “need”, because it will happen eventually if I’m patient - see aforesaid J94s and an honourable mention here for Farish running the fake teak Thompsons. Mind you, if I think I’m badly off goodness knows what SR modellers in N feel… RichardT

This is the key. TfL are very protective of their trademarks, especially as many people think - wrongly - that things like the bullseye (“roundel” since the late 60s) and the Johnston letterform are now in the public domain and so use them for pub signs, book and record covers etc etc without asking permission. As with a lot of the earlier examples cited, it’s the difference between taking a photo for yourself, and having it published/using it for commercial purposes. If it was anything to do with security it would be enforced with a lot more stringent methods than “disapproval” and “frowning upon it”! RichardT

They were obviously taking security precautions in advance of declaring war. RichardT RichardT

Pace @The Johnster’s comments above, in the absence of anything specific in the rule book or contracts of employment, the phraseology “frowned upon” and “discouraged” suggests that this is more a matter of the informal control over employees’ lives which paternalistic companies simply assumed that they had. Very much along the lines of preferring married men with “socially-acceptable” wives for advancement in certain white collar environments. Nothing legally enforceable, but you could find your promotion prospects affected if you continued to ignore hints and “advice” from your superiors… (EDIT Of course, with stronger equalities legislation this no longer happens. <cough>) RichardT

Hmm. In the absence of any public statements from the lady herself, I remain to be convinced that her post-Hornby employment choices are any business of anyone on RMWeb. Mr Kohler has retired or “retired” or gone self-employed or something. We’ve all had our say. Time to lock this thread I feel. RichardT

There is no “customs duty” payable on model railway equipment imported from Australia (or most other countries): model railway equipment as a category of goods is exempt from import/customs duty. If you want chapter and verse from HMRC on this it’s here. Basically, quote commodity code 9503003000 “Electric trains, including tracks, signals and other accessories therefor; reduced-size (scale) model assembly kits”. What you are paying is not customs duty but UK VAT at 20%, just as if you’d bought the goods in the UK - plus (the real annoyance) a handling fee for the “courtesy” of the parcel carrier doing this for you. Contrary to popular myth there is NO tax-free amount: VAT is due on all VAT-able items bought from abroad. But there is a difference in how the VAT is collected: goods below £135 value (not £110) are supposed to have the VAT paid by the overseas supplier direct to HMRC (and, therefore, charged to you in the price you paid). Goods over £135 are charged to you VAT-free, and you pay the VAT due (plus handling fees) when the stuff arrives in the UK. Does that always happen as planned? I suspect not. Sometimes you may get lucky and a parcel gets missed by the excise man; other times you may get unlucky and pay VAT twice. And I don’t know what HMRC do about overseas suppliers who deliberately, or through ignorance, don’t pay the VAT upfront on goods worth less than £135. But anyway it’s all about VAT. RichardT

Beware! Once you’ve caught this (in my case through a project a few years ago involving railway lettering) you can never again look contentedly at model railways supposedly set in the 19thC or pre-war 20thC where the buildings and stock have been lettered with something someone’s run off their PC: especially where they’ve used the “old fashioned looking” computer letterforms… This should be pinned to the front page of RMWeb and auto-posted every time someone starts a topic asking “what Word font [aaarggghhh] is closest to what the East & West Snoring Railway used on its station signage?” RichardT

Occasionally I think that the time is long overdue that the DfT, and especially its Railway division, were told to GFT…

Replacements for the four-coach GWR “Castle” HSTs? RT

Article in Railway Gazette yesterday. Also reported with glee in the York “Press” due to previous noise and fume complaints about these sets when idling, from lineside residents. Back to overcrowded 3 car 185s? Richard EDIT Of course when I say “withdrawn” I just mean by TPEx. Wonder if anyone else will pick them up off lease?

...and that answers the question I forgot to ask about whether you are doing a souvenir vehicle for this anniversary. Will add this to the display next time I'm in. Richard

Sorry I’m not able to get down this week for the celebrations - hope to pop in on Tuesday next after my dental appointment…. Congratulations on being a year younger than me. Bought the train set that started me off on all this from Monk Bar in 1975 with my own Christmas money! I have your 40th anniversary souvenir model on display, and it *doesn’t* seem like 20 years since I bought it…aaarghh. Richard

Point of information for my honourable friend: the NER was formed in 1854 from the merger of the YNMR, the YNBR & the LNR. The SDR didn’t merge with it until 1863. Speaking of the US, I’ve noted that, when “Model Railroader” magazine talks about British railway companies, they always seem to add a superfluous “ly” to the initials: LNERly, GWRly etc. Richard

FTFY

As most of the contributors to the thread have shown. I’m as bad as the rest (see A2 comment above) but it’s astonishing how many modellers think that “I’d love a model of this” automatically = “great sales potential”! Richard

I wish to be entirely associated with the remarks made by the previous speaker. But…these magnificent grunt machines were never “ER” Pacifics! Richard

Well, if they travelled on Thomas the Time Machine perhaps. 😉 Wilbert Awdry was 10 in 1921 so some years away from ordination, and Edwin Boston not yet a twinkle in his parents’ eyes (b.1924) Lovely diorama nevertheless. Richard

“Having a go at the NRM” is a well-established enthusiast sport, and sometimes criticisms are worthwhile (mainly those from enthusiasts who realise that it’s not called the “National Locomotive Museum” and has other things on which to spend its restricted funds). But is it too much to ask that those having a go could be bothered to do some basic online searching first about what’s in the collection? Richard

I’ve just been to check the status of my (fully paid for) pre-publication order for this book on hive.co.uk and they have changed the publication date on the listing from 1st July to 1st October 2023. Now, this change is presumably based on information supplied by Crecy, but the Crecy website still says “available July 2023”. It’s OK to talk about getting in touch with the author about what’s going on, but it would be good if the publisher, who is actually in charge of the production process, could make a definitive statement. Richard