njee20

I share a train with Claude above, so theoretically no impact in the morning, although there's now an additional service running direct to London Bridge, which is nice. Coming home it looks worse on paper - timetabled to leave 15 minutes later which is a pain, but then the previous service was always c10 minutes late, so if the new 18.03 runs to time then I'll be happy. There's a new 17.03 too, which could be useful for those early getaways. Overall I'm a bit meh. We shall see.

Which has already been said.

The Germans aren’t great at alcohol-full wines...!

You appear assume that ‘established’ (by which you mean ‘have delivered one product’) businesses have unfettered access to funding...?

The pound has gained ground on the dollar lately. Any more daft speculation?! Historic prices here. We’re at a 3.5 year high.

I don’t think anyone would expect you to, it’s great there’s another source!

Fuel prices go down all the time. Diesel was 125p in 2008, we’re just back there now.

A) bit weird you've sought a post from 9 days ago to make a point and B) I don't see the issue, Hatton's are doing a good thing by releasing a high-spec OO gauge 66, and Gaugemaster are doing a good thing by opening up the sales of their commissioned liveries to other retailers, probably even more relevant for purchasers from overseas where I imagine some retailers are vastly easier to deal with than others. Neither of those points are contradictory.

Who are doing them so cheaply?!

Yes that came out before Barcelona - Mozza Models posted it last week. Ferrari just cried off that they couldn't do it before Barcelona. Interesting that teams have gone all in on the hyper soft tyre for Monaco - most teams taking the full 11 sets per driver. Maybe we'll see some more 2 stop races and it'll make for a less dull race than it usually offers!

Yep, nothing whatsoever to do with the FCA here.

Seems reasonable on all fronts.

Indeed! So... where are we up to with a 'light' version - any thoughts on viability and ball park cost?

Yeah I did think that when I posted it, but you know what I mean, your example is akin to Dave buying PCBs from Rapido, not asking Rapido to build his product.

Eh? Why would a manufacturer (Dave) ask another one to make a product for him? DToS may approach Rapido or Kato (I imagine the latter would laugh heartily at a production run of c100), but that's like saying why don't Samsung ask Sony to produce their TVs!

Although there must be a small cost associated with (for example) packaging for smaller units. I conceptually agree though. I imagine 10 would be the sweetspot for me. 14 would be too long, but 10 would still be a formidable train.

Yes, that does sound weird! I'd counsel against doing that myself, although I now have an image of Dave going mad with a baseball bat following the production of the only APTs ever. OT: How can there be so many emojis but not a simple "hmmm" one!?

You're going to get a massively biased view because people who have received a damaged one are likely to be far more vocal than those who didn't. Retailers should replace or refund faulty items. This doesn't change if 1/10,000 are broken or 1/2. You don't need a poll for that. Not sure what you will really achieve from this.

Sounds like Titan's explanation covers that - it's not to do with running direction, rather they simply alternate. Often this will coincide with running direction, but obviously wouldn't in places the lines are configured US/UF/DF/DS. Appears to be supported by this photo, where the registration arm on the US is 'facing' traffic, whilst on the adjacent UF it's 'trailing'.

Yes, that’s what I was trying to get at with saying if it needs to be £1000 to break even then simplifying the interiors is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. If however the thought was that Dave could do the best model ever, all singing all dancing with a stocked N gauge buffet, and the price was designed to ensure a reasonable margin based on tiny volumes then I think a scaled back version has a chance. I agree though that an indication would be useful. Is a 14-car going to go from £1000 to £950, or to £500?

We’re talking about triple the original price of the Pendolino. You’re totally right, things have moved on, and I don’t think anyone is saying it should be the same price, but people will draw comparisons, particularly as Pendolinos are being delivered as we speak. It’s perhaps just another area where the timing isn’t right for this sadly. Again, if we are talking 100 units then I’m just not sure it’s a viable prospect full stop.

Didn’t we do that at the time a few pages back, was published a month ago?

Mmm, if this is actually what would you model given unlimited resources, still bounded by reality then I’d say Rugby, ideally in O, present day. If we do away with the reality bit (as some seem to be doing), then let’s just model the whole WCML. To scale. In N obviously, it’d be too big otherwise

Edit: that didn't format nicely! They're here. Vettel in 4th.

Is using a browser interface part of the point? I thought the point (as you go on to explain) was to have a mimic panel with clickable icons to change points or whatever? There are plenty of ways to do this without using a browser. I get what you're saying about improving or increasing functionality, but I'm still not sure I understand how you're doing that. You seem to be doing something different for the sake of it, and actually offering less functionality than what is out there presently? There's nothing inherently wrong with that whatsoever, I can totally understand doing things for the sake of it rather than because they offer any meaningful advantage, it can be cheaper, more fun, you learn things etc. But realise that's what you're doing!