njee20

How do you swap contact details? eBay block most obvious permutations, and they do reprimand sellers, if not the buyers. And yes, I would do that, because if someone ever did that to me I’d leave them negative feedback, and then I’d not buy off someone with recent negative feedback, and that’s probably worth a lot more than £9. I really do think you’re in the minority. I’ve never cancelled an auction (why would you?!), and never had one cancelled on me. The house analogy doesn’t really stand. If you had to present a letter to an estate agent saying that you’d reneged on your last deal would you still do it as keenly? As a buyer you lose nothing other than being a massive nuisance, as a seller you stand to lose more. It’s really short sighted not to see that.

Yep, as above, also the legitimate buyer could (rightly) leave you negative feedback, so all in... it's a really stupid seller than accepts that, and a really annoying buyer who tries it. It's amazing how many of those offers are sold as a bit of a sob story too: "I really wanted your item but I couldn't bid, but I was saving a troop of girl guides from a flaming bus on a cliff edge, whilst my dog took his dying breaths. How's £20 sound?"

You mean buyers want to sell the for the most possible? Surely not? If I list an item at £100 it may linger for a month. If someone offers me £90, I may accept that as a trade off for not having it kicking about. It'll depend on the item, how aggressively I think I've priced it, how long it's been on and how popular I think it'll be. I'm disinclined to accept offers made very early in the life of the listing, you don't have a feel for the demand. I also don't tend to counter offer people who put in really stupid offers, they just get declined.

Yep, mine defaults to on, occasionally I’ll reject offers and apologise that I’m in no hurry, usually I’ll counter, most people go for it, everyone’s happy.

There’s no proof, so nothing eBay can do. Seller wanted more. If you really want the item then bid again, maybe change your mind afterward... It’s a really crap thing to do.

The ICO are basically the watchdog for data use and privacy. If you care about people's ability to sell your details or leak them online then they have a function. If you're not bothered about that sort of thing, just post your full name, address, DOB and mother's maiden name here, if you wouldn't mind!

Pleasure, be good to have some more feedback. I’m surprised it’s not proven more popular, ticked all the boxes for me!

I got a Piko 59112 set from Modellbahn Union, looks like they’ve stopped doing that one, but the 59113 is available for €450, do some research on what the bits sell for. Like I say I got reasonable money for the loco, and that was in the week of Christmas, suspect interest will have picked up now.

Thanks Martin, have got flangeways set to 0.85mm in Templot, I don't suppose you know if recent N gauge stock generally has wheels >1.75mm...? Obviously the purpose of the activity is to avoid re-wheeling stuff if at all possible! Very interesting, thanks Andy. It looks good, the F20 crossover looks excellent, that's the sort of thing I'd like to do! This is all leading toward having to just buy some stuff and have a go. Then shelving that for years before I actually build the layout! Judging by past posts code 40 roller gauges for N gauge are fairly hard to come by! Cheers, Nick

I did wonder if the smaller angles simplified things, interesting point about standard wheels dropping into the crossing, if built well (and I realise that's quite a large if) I'm assuming you could expect better running than on Peco turnouts? Looking like I may have to take the plunge and buy some bits, even if any output then gets shelved for years before I actually build a layout!

I bought one of the train packs from Germany for £400 and sold the bits - loco went for £145, track for £45 and I’ve actually not sold the coaches yet, but still quids in versus buying the ‘normal’ set. European plug too if that’s an issue. Sadly the MTB barely gets used these days, damn life getting in the way!

Impressed with my Piko unit. The only minor annoyance is that you can't choose the 'icon' for each loco outside of their defined library, which is almost entirely European prototypes. Not a huge issue. I'd not expect the ESU one to be any different, that's an ECoS feature. Battery life seems relatively poor too, but it's basically a smart phone, and I'd not expect my smart phone to have much charge after being left for a week. I keep a long micro USB cable in the garage and it's very easy to charge. I've got it synced to JMRI, which was very hassle free, I use that to operate the points and provide an additional throttle. Would definitely recommend it, having spent ages agonising over which system to buy (it replaced a ZTC 511).

Have been reading your threads Ian, and they’re looking good! My feeling is that diamonds, scissors, slips etc are far more complex than ‘normal’ pointwork, I just fear that really large points may be tougher. But I’m not sure why. Really I should just try!

Does the CRA apply on eBay transactions?

Exciting stuff, both the relatively quick delivery of the 92 and the forthcoming model!

You're quite correct Mike, was more meaning that I was intending to 'cut my teeth' on a nice simple point, as I've never so much soldered a single PCB sleeper in my life, before jumping into an HV 47.75, which I think is about 50cm long in N! I'm unsure if things like the longer switch rails associated with larger turnouts makes things far more complex, or not. If so then it'd probably be madness to start with something like that, rather than a nice simple BLT using short BH points. You also get much more gentle frog angles, 1:12+ for which cutting guides don't seem to be as readily available. Although making one doesn't look overly onerous. If Wayne did modern FB points then he'd probably have a customer in me, to be honest even if he did something as a halfway house using concrete bearers even if not half a metre long would be a significant improvement over Peco.

Like many of us I'm perpetually planning my next layout, mainly as I have so little time to actually do anything on my present layout, I can vicariously enjoy modelling through planning! I've always been tempted by handbuilt track, the main thing that appeals to me is the improved point geometry and layout. I model present day UK in N gauge, and have a fairly large space to play with on this hypothetical layout. 2FS is never going to happen, I have far too much stock, and I buy and sell too much to want to re-wheel everything. I've played with Templot fairly extensively, which is wonderfully satisfying, and got to a point (no pun intended) where I could print out a template and have a go. Given that what I'd ultimately want would be nice long (300mm+) turnouts built to N gauge standards, either using code 55 rail to match Peco's "code 55" plain track or code 40 and using Easitrac flex my question is whether that's madness for an entry into handbuilding? I'd almost certainly have a go at a 'normal' sized turnout first (ie just a FB B7 or something) to practice techniques, but is there anything inherently harder about building to N gauge standards, as opposed to EM/P4/2FS, and are larger points harder than smaller ones, or vice versa? Being as it's a modern layout I'd not be doing anything more complex than a standard crossover; no slips, diamonds, scissors, three way points etc. I'm leaning towards code 55 with Peco track, as (at risk of committing heresy) the appeal to me is not in the finer rail section and correct sleeper spacing so much as the improved geometry.

Andermatt, nice weathering on the track, but those 'train set' curves look silly, and it never looks right when people don't put the wires up:

Everything left out all the time here. In a largely insulated, but unheated garage, doesn’t get below freezing, but does get quite nippy. Wonder about a light dust sheet, but sure I’d knock loads of stuff off putting in on/off, probably better just leaving it be and giving it a clean!

Why must they? Companies do strive for good customer satisfaction, but a dominant market player like eBay, whose business model is volume based, doesn’t really care that much. It’s certainly a surprising outcome. I don’t understand how eBay we’re able to shut down a PayPal claim though - didn’t they have to sell off PayPal? For that very reason.

Awesome, didn't realise they had speakers fitted, that does simplify things.

Slightly random question... Will the chassis be common between different liveries? I'm twitching on a GBRF one (as they're now in charge of the silver bullet trains it seems rude not to), and would quite like a sound one, but would probably rather put the sound chassis in one of the EWS liveried locos. Do you know if a quick body swap is likely to be possible, or are there differences/livery elements on the chassis which will preclude that?

Obviously it depends on your exact area of interest, but n isn’t that much more limited. Also regardless of what they say, when you stand back, you can’t overlook the fact that OO all looks a bit crammed in

You won't really get any objective answers, because it's a wholly personal decision. For me... N all day long. That's a nice space for N, you can have a really good sized layout depicting (if you're so inclined) a busy main line, running scale length trains, and a good bit of landscape to lose the railway into. For OO it'll all be a lot more cramped, and you won't get as much in without it being dominated by track. That's completely moot, however, if you want a OO gauge branchline terminus. I'm going to hazard a guess that Paul is going to suggest that if you're older that OO is more suitable, but I don't really subscribe to that. The limit is how small you can make things, and in OO that limit is the same. So detail which is moulded in N is separate in OO. I don't really think N is inherently more fiddly.

Yes, that was definitely the early bird price. It may have been slightly more, but not a huge step up.