SimonBoulton

I agree with you, most European countries have similar VAT rates I believe, so it's really down to the handling fee and any additional postage costs. If the European country has a lower one then you are probably going to cover the extra costs anyway I would have thought. Purchases from Individuals on the likes of Ebay will certainly have gone up a lot though as there's no VAT for the seller to take off

I read recently that the 810 DMU’s are soon to be withdrawn by CD, wish I’d managed to travel on one

The buildings are looking really good. It's a long way back up the page but those Centoporte carriages look the same as the former Italian carriages that ended up on the DR in East Germany after the war and were still in use in the 70's

Those hoppers look really good

When did the German railways stop transporting livestock?

Saw an interesting post from someone on FB who’d seen the model at the Dortmund show. He said the colour schemes are all wrong

I use Modellbahn shop Lippe (MSL) a lot and have had no problems with them. They also do a spare part service if you have the item numbers and can't find the item in the shop listing

The Austrian Railway Group is a great group and I can highly recommend joining

I've just had a look at the instruction sheet and it's certainly not very clear how you take the cab off!

Thanks for the brilliant answer mastanec, that has made the different colour schemes clear

Whilst searching for some pics to illustrate the colour schemes I was referring to, I think I might have answered the specific one. It’s not a great pic but does illustrate the alternative light grey and red colour scheme was in use in 1969

I’m hoping that someone might be able to help me with a question about T478.1 colour schemes in era 4 and 5, and also, that my understanding is broadly correct! Looking at various pictures, it would appear that the first colour scheme was light grey with a red roof and red section on the top part of the side, possibly with some having red cab roofs and others light grey. Then the colour scheme changed to all over red body with a grey roof (late 70’s?) with a yellow band on the bottom of the cab front from 1983. The band got bigger later and went around the entire body. In the 1990’s there then seemed to be a sort of rival of the original light grey and red colour scheme. Is that broadly correct? Now, my specific question is regards the later version of light grey and red. I’ve seen a couple of Bardotka with the red side panel as the bottom half of the side rather than the top half. Was this version ever carried in era 4 or was it just a 1990’s variant? Many thanks, simon

Lovely looking model and one of my favourite locomotives

They seem to have made this all much more complicated than it needed to be. With regards to the HS codes, I recently sold a couple of bits of track to someone in Canada. Just completed the CN22 form like before Brexit with no HS codes or anything and was delivered with no problems. Have also sent some items of rolling stock to the Czech republic and there were no problems getting it delivered without the codes

Does rather sound like the Anpost is a right shambles, are they the equivalent of Royal Mail in Ireland?

I'd have love to have attended but I'm in Leipzig that day, at the big model and hobby show

I got my latest Austrian Railway Group journal delivered today and was a bit surprised to read that the ERA had organised a continental sales day with 5 layouts for today. I’d heard nothing about it, I’m sure they used to send emails when the new newsletters etc were published

I believe the £135 does not include the postage and packing, so if the goods ordered was say £130 and then you were charged £10 postage, you’d still be below the £135 for paying extra charges ”How much extra you could be charged depends on the total value of your order, also known as the ‘consignment value’, it also depends on the firm you’ve bought from. The ‘consignment value’ is the price of the goods excluding shipping and handling costs“ “ Import VAT on parcels sold to the UK – Post Brexit New rules have been introduced which apply to businesses making distance sales of goods to the UK following Brexit. These new rules apply to all packages worth GBP 135 or less (the current GBP 15 VAT and duty exemption will also cease to apply) where the seller is not currently VAT registered and makes UK supplies in any 12-month period of under the UK GBP 70,000 distance sales VAT registration requirement. The new rules will apply immediately following Brexit and registrations should be put in place as soon as possible in anticipation of this. If you are based outside the UK and sell parcels to UK buyers worth £135 or less, you must pay import VAT.Parcels include letters, packages, packets and any other article that could be sent by post, even if they are sent by different methods. To pay import VAT you can either: register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to report and pay the import VAT due yourself pay a parcel operator that offers a service to pay import VAT to HMRC on your behalf Who should register? You can register to pay import VAT if you: are based outside the UK - this includes the EU, outside of the EU and the Channel Islands intend to sell goods worth £135 or less (not including shipping, insurance and incidental costs) to UK buyers after Brexit choose to pay the import VAT yourself and not to a parcel operator You can register with HMRC before you need to start paying import VAT on parcels. HMRC may refuse to register you if they have evidence that you have not met registration rules“

It’s a funny conundrum now as some of the diesels without sound will be below that but the ones with will definitely be above, makes the factory sound an expensive addition.

The Belgium Diesels look nice though

Parcel Force seem to have got their act together pretty well now. If it's less than £135, it'll just get delivered and if above that, you'll receive a letter telling you that you need to pay VAT plus a £12 handling fee. You can do that online and arrange next day delivery

Cheers Ed, that’s what I was thinking, whilst it was okay this time, if they start checking all the parcels under £135, then there’s a risk we might start getting lots of double charging

Jack, was the item under £135 or above? I recently purchased a loco from Germany via eBay. eBay added the VAT and it arrived without any additional charges but I noticed that there didn't appear to be anything on the parcel to say the VAT had been paid

Dave, will the Czech layout be at the Nottingham MRS autumn show?

Very nice, I especially like the sound on the Bardotka