Andy Hayter

I have an apology to make. The accident rate I gave of every 20 minutes was for deer. Wild boar incidents occur every 2 minutes!

As I reported last weekend, this weekend saw the second muddling exhibition. Once again a good hours drive - but on mountain roads perhaps not as far as some might imagine. Somewhat disappointed since there were rather few layouts on display, although those there were very good and ran well. trade support was however very good and only strong will stopped me spending several Deltics worth. So that is probably that for another couple of years.

I have posted as agreeing because I think you are right about the confusion but there is still a hole. If you have an asset with a book value of 400k that never gets used then the write down of that asset, whether done incrementally or as a one-off, creates a negative impact on the final company results. You are writing down against no tangible benefit accruing from that asset.

Not fatalities, but I was surprised by the damage wild boar do to motor vehicles. ADAC in Germany (like the AA or RAC) reported being called out to rescue vehicles immobilised by boar strikes at an average rate of once every 20 minutes day and night.

The problem is, using your numbers, no matter how you dress it, you have a £400k hole. You can "hide" it through annual depreciation or you can take a one off hit with a write off. There is always the possibility that a model might be brought back for another run and until that is firmly set aside, you would probably not want to unduly depreciate a valuable asset. Remember a company is valued by its profit loss plus the value of its assets. There is also an argument that the longer you leave depreciating an asset, the less its value becomes because inflation devalues fixed values. If you had unlimited production capacity I would agree, but the choices are always there when there is a limit to what can be produced. A repeat run of that black workaday model that sold but sold rather slowly, or a model of the latest must have in colourful livery, that is likely to not only sell well and quickly but will capture the attention of the model press, modellers and collectors and so promote the Bachmann brand.

I think you might be reading too much into the write down. I know nothing about amortisation rules in China and Hong Kong but I can tell you that in Europe there are very different rules in place across different countries. For example in Germany a long-life asset would have 10% of its investment cost written down each year (1) whereas in the UK the same asset would have 10% of its residual book value written down each year (2). (1) So with no further investment in the asset, after 10 years it has zero book value. (2) So in the first year 10% of the investment value is written down. The net book value is 90% of the investment as you enter year 2, when 9% is written down leaving 81% book value for year 3 and a write down of 8.1% and so on. The asset always has book value. So what might be happening in Kader? Just some thoughts. 1. You poo-hoo the idea of only writing down when a mould is used. I however can see that that is a good way to operate (if its allowed under the legal accountancy rules). How else do you get a good view of the true profitability over time of a single model? If you write down the value of all moulds each year, then the profitability of Mk2 coaches carries the write down costs of for example the Midland 1F 0-4-4T. Does that make sense? Is it right that a successful model should carry the write down costs of (potentially if UK rules are applied) every model ever produced unless totally written off? 2; The write down might apply to moulds that have been found to have been damaged. 3. The write down might be due to moulds for models that have now been superseded by newer versions. 4. Write down is a useful and legitimate accountancy mechanism to minimise tax liability. Of course you can only use it once per asset. In the real Kader world a combination of the above plus more could well be the reason we see the results we do.

I really must invest in a copy but the publicity suggests a mid brown https://www.gehf.fr/inscriptions-et-couleurs-des-wagons-de-marchandises/

At the risk of Monty Pythonesque escalation: Stolen the sun - you were lucky. We woke up to 4cm snow. Now melting but it's pretty nippy and indoor "work" is called for today

That may be true when a Bachmann model is in direct competition with a competitor but the number of such concurrent models is quite limited across the ranges and across time.

The thing about muddling in France profound is that you can wait literally years for an exhibition and then 2 come along at once. Yesterday we travelled north to Annonay for a general muddling expo. A few railway items that were OK to really very good. Sadly the 3 rail 0 gauge layout was not working while we were there but to be honest these "collectors layouts" interesting though they can be are not really my thing. Lots of off road radio controlled 4x4s on show doing their stuff over rough terrain. The articulated radio controlled truck set up was very impressive and I could see that joystick control was just as difficult as moving the real thing. Some very nice models which I probably did not fully appreciate, with some very good driving, which I did. The powered boats were very good and perhaps the cherry on the cake was a radio controlled hot air balloon. Very appropriate for the birthplace of manned flight in a hot air balloon courtesy of the Montgolfier brothers. And French for a balloon is a Montgolfier as a consequence. And next weekend near Valence a proper muddle train exhibition - held once every 2 years, covid permitting, which it didn't.

The sack barrow would not help much even if you were allowed to use it. You would be taking the boards through the door on the wrong axis but one skate board might just do the job. I suspect 2 would be messy when you get to that raised threshold.

To be clear here. I was not expecting a full history. I would have liked some indications such as: Livery introduced with the first 1907 build specs and continued until at least 19xx Photographic evidence of this livery in use in 19xx ( and 19xx) - providing some potential limits Livery in use until the take over in 19xx where progressive change commenced. New livery introduced from roughly 19xx - either as an indicative start of end point. etc.. I don't in any way want to suggest that these anything but a are a massive step forward from where we have been with rtr, but a dearth of prototype info from the producer is a disappointment. Those who disagree are invited to keep stum the next time they see a class 66 hauling Dapmannby PO wagons on an exhibition layout. If you don't inform your purchasers they are very likely to go wrong. .

It has been mentioned obliquely but the route you will carry these is important. Doorways are a real challenge getting you and the board through at the same time. You suggest the route is at one level, without actually saying so. In that case I would consider building a small dolly say 60-90cm long and a bit wider than your boards with 4 castors underneath. Sit the board side on on the dolly and push it through to its destination. You then only have to lift on and off at each end. It may seem excessive for a few metres but it will save a lot of effort.

Andy I appreciate the sentiment of people doing some of their own research, but your suggestion is how many volumes of Turton times how much average cost per volume? I suspect it comes to a very substantial cost that will prevent many from having the resource to buy any of these wagons. I would have hoped that Rapido - or its commissioners - would have been able to provide some rough dates for its potential customers . It seems they have fallen into the Dapmannby trap of producing pretty wagons with no background data. Sorry if that sounds harsh on you and Rapido.

Which is perhaps a bit surprising given the Abbots Ripton disaster of 1876. Snow on signal arms (several in succession) set at danger, weighted the arms so that they were forced down into a quasi open position. Upper quadrant would be fail safe in the event of such a failure but it seems such a warning was ignored for many years. I wonder why the obvious lessons were not taken into account for 50 odd years.

It is a rather technical term relating to these very large vat-like barrels. Dictionaries will give you several translations of a barrel but foudre is often not among them - tonneau, fut barrique etc.. Plus the typical translation of foudre is lightning

Bi-foudres are the wagons you have with 2 (bi-) barrels (foudres) used for moving wine in bulk from principally the South of France towards the agglomerations to the North.

The American experience suggests no, it would not have any serious effect on violent crimes.

Unless of course they have already done that. There will be much going on that we will never be party to.

The problem with UPF is how to define it. Many in the UK use the basis of anything that you don't keep in the kitchen that is used in food or it's preparation makes that food UPF. So I don't have a stock of rennet or its vegan equivalent so cheese is UPF - I don't keep saltpetre, so most cured meats from bacon and ham, though salami, chorizo and mortadella are equally UPF. Both are processes used for ages to preserve produce - which in itself does not make them fully safe to consume.

😄 All of which are external and can be washed off. Acid rain - a bit old hat and almost no industry downwind this side of the Atlantic Diesel particulates - lots of diesel cars and vans in our area of 300 souls with no agglomerations anywhere near. For sure they will be there but this is rural France not semi-urban England. Dog Piddle - more likely to be cat. We have 19 just now. So we take suitable precautions. As to rat and mouse piddle - yes possible but more likely to be vole and shrew. If you want to live in a sterile environment then I think NASA may be looking for victims volunteers for their moon base.

That depends very much on the expectations when the design is made. For long runs (over a long time) then you are correct. The moulds will be cut in high quality steel. However, if the manufacturer thinks the total sales will be limited ( for example when producing a one-off limited edition model) then he may chose to use aluminium for the moulds which should be good for 5000 shots and might just last 10000.

And that is why we spend a lot of time growing a lot of our own. I know exactly what they have been treated with. Usually nothing, sometimes very dilute washing up liquid and very occasionally tincture of stinging nettle.

Ah! I assumed you would still get those freebees pushed into the letterbox. In that case use toilet paper - much the same thing in many respects. (Kitchen paper is probably more suitable.)

Always take carrots out of the plastic bag as soon as you get home. Wrap them in newspaper in small batches and place the the fridge.