Andy Hayter

Just to add, neither Whitstable nor Hastings seem to have individual registration. So even had their catches been substantial, they would be recorded at wherever the boats are registered. Ramsgate or Faversham perhaps for Whitstable, and Folkestone or Portsmouth for Hastings. You would need to look at the boat registration number which is always painted prominently on the boats. The letters give the clue to registration. http://www.navalmarinearchive.com/research/fishing_ports.html Edit to add: Note the comments opposite "OB" Oban wrt Mallaig.

I think the key point is boat registration. There are lots of minor East Coast landing points, but they tend to be aggregated to the local major port. So for example, Redcar boats are registered with Hartlepool. That sort of situation probably applies all around the cost.

You are suffering from modellers' amnesia. If I had £1 for every time I could not find a kit, a set of wheels, a set of couplings etc., I could afford for someone else to build my models and losing bits would be their problem!

Guys let's call a truce here. There are some good selling diesels and electrics and there are some good selling pre-grouping and post grouping steam locos. Equally there have been some less successful items in both regimes. Whether a model sells out in days or not is one measure of how successful a model is, but is not the be-all and end-all. If a model is released with 1000 items and sells out in days, is it more successful than a model produced as a 3500 run that sells out in 4 months? Manufacturers and commissioners will decide on the basis of their own experience which models to make and squabbling here about whether your chosen item will be the better is unlikely to influence them.

Mallaig does not appear on the official listings for 1950 http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1061/0058734.pdf This raises the question of whether it was somehow overlooked (unlikely) or whether its boats were registered and/or included with another west coast port. Whatever the reason it seems separate statistics were not available/provided.

But that is just not the case - as I posted earlier. It is smoke and mirrors. Yes the number of single use bags has dropped off a cliff. Yes there are fewer bags blowing around city centres so councils can reduce street cleaning. But the consumption of plastic has gone up and not down. Nearly all of that plastic ends up in the environment since films are rarely accepted for recycling. It ends up in land fill where it breaks up and gets distributed into the wider environment. You and the general public have been conned into believing that you have improved the environment when the reverse is true.

As already suggested different types of fish. Grimsby was at that stage the biggest UK fishing port by far. The majority of the catches were cod and haddock - at that stage already much of it being caught quite a long way off shore (as in off Norway and towards Iceland) plus herring when in season. South - West coast fish tended to be poorer in these species with Skate, Mackerel, Pilchards (aka sardines), Pollack (relative of cod but even today not widely eaten) being much more common.

Firstly, I see no signs of discounting in my limited experience. The Hattons price this morning is exactly the same as I paid on receipt of my nearly 5 year pre-order. Secondly you might be surprised that they did not sell out immediately, but perhaps Bachmann are less so. My best guess is that they produced around 2500 SECR C class in various liveries. They have probably taken into account the Hornby and the Rails Terrier releases as well as the Hornby H Class. Possibly also the Hattons P class releases. Notwithstanding Jol's comments about people buying locos but not stock to go with them, I could well imagine that Bachmann have produced more SECR birdcage sets than SECR liveried C class locos. The simple reality is, we don't know how many have been made, so the fact that there are still some on the shelves says little except that they have produced more than there is an immediate sale for. With 2 Hattons P Class versions to appear in the coming couple of months, that excess could well disappear very quickly or maybe not. But I do agree that double guessing the market is a mug's game.

​ I don't think it is overly flexible, but it was the recommended way to create a smooth ships hull over a foam based rough-out in one of the French model magazines. I have it ear marked for that elusive N Sea Ferry, but have not started the body in earnest yet. They painted on the Gesso with a large brush and sanded down once dry. There must be a little give, and I would have thought it would key into all of the holes on the foam.

Gazel is probably the best bet for non railway, non alpine models but they tend to be rural rather than urban. http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=25 http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=224 http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=42 http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=10 http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=236 http://patrick-gazel.fr/pages/produit.php?prod_id=75 are all models that could grace a layout based on Ardeche-Drome and probably large bits of Gard and Vaucluse.

While I accept the general premise that it is easier to model region 2 (Nord) than 5 or 6 (Sud-Ouest, Sud Est), it is not entirely hopeless. http://82.240.92.237/dev2000/WebPagesGB/acceuil_fer.html&&2wxBSk6c662aNxMopLGoxlCoh24ckTWak6TakT6a https://www.regionsetcompagnies.fr/media/catalogue/2018/catalogue-maquettes-carton-regions-et-compagnies-2018_web.pdf - only as far south as Bourgogne http://www.boismodelisme.com/store/ho:-1:87eme/architecture http://patrick-gazel.fr/index.php?page=catalogue&echelle=ho - a bit twee for me but can certainly be used. http://www.architecture-passion.fr/index.php?item=&action=page&group_id=20000017&page=2&lang=FR - good range of Southern railway architecture Of course you have to be picky and an alpine chalet will look wrong on the coast (west or south).

http://www.247developments.co.uk/PRE_GROUPING_1.html Any use for the coal tank?

I have never thrown a plastic bag in the sea, but I know that the bags I have used have ended up in the sea - and despite my careful placing them in the bin. If you have ever driven by a waste site you will have noted the plastic in the trees and the fences fluttering in the wind like Tibetan prayer flags. When these break away, as they will in high winds, the pieces end up in ditches and streams and then get washed into rivers and the sea. So please let's not have I am holy enough not to be culprit. So for all of you now thinking that the plastic bag restrictions was a worthwhile exercise that has improved the environment, I think I may be about to disappoint. One of the first countries in Europe to introduce a ban on carrier bags was Ireland. Ireland has no indigenous plastics industry to it is easy to track the consumption of plastics and in particular Polyethylene (PE) by virtue of its import records. Clearly stopping giving away billions of PE plastic bags every year would lead to a reduction in usage. Wrong. Consumption of PE went up. The reasons are simple. Giving away bags meant that the supermarkets ensured that these bags were optimised to within a micron. Who hasn't in the past put a box into a bag and seen the corner score down the bag opening up a big split? Bags were typically 10 microns thick, with some down to 5 microns. So with the ban, came bags we had to pay for - but these could not afford to be so optimised that they might split between the cashier and the car boot. So instead of 5 -10 micron bags we were sold 30-50 micron bags - so we stopped getting free bags but bought bags that were typically 5 times thicker using 5 times more material. Then of course there was the bag-for-life. Construction of these varies a lot but some come in at a whopping 600 micron thickness (60 times the thickness of the old freebie). So does one of these bags last 60 trips before a hole gets punched into the bottom or a handle breaks off and the bag has to be replaced? And worse; it seems that as many as 60% of the old freebies were given a second life - usually lining out waste bins in the kitchen and bathroom. So when the supply of free bags dried up, people were forced to go out and buy new bin liners. Just like the new carrier bags, those making and selling these bags could not afford for the bags to fail, so again instead of a 10 micron free sack, you have a 30 micron sack costing a few pence. Again an increase in use of plastic rather than a reduction. When the Irish ban was being proposed, the plastics manufacturers were a bit concerned and lobbied against the ban. Since then their silence speaks volumes. For them it is a double win; we consume more of their materials and because many of the free bags were imported in bulk from China because of their light weight, they would now be replaced by local production of heavier and more voluminous products that cannot be shipped around the world so cost effectively. [For anyone interested in more information, I recommend a book called "The Plastic Bag Wars" Hugo Verlome pub: 2006. He is a marine biologist and concluded the battle was worth it despite the contrary result. I strongly disagree.] If we really want to have things different we need recycle systems that take plastic films. We need waste disposal systems that do not demand that all non recyclable waste is bagged in a plastic bag. But if you are really worried by micro-plastics in the ocean then consider your acrylic, nylon and other plastics based clothing. Every time you put them through the wash, fibres break off and go straight into the drains* these will be too fine to be captured in the sewage treatment plants and are likely to be washed straight into the rivers. * If you have a tumble drier you will see the quantity of these broken fibres that did not get washed out.

You could try artists' Gesso. They use it to even out the weave on canvas before painting. I think that today it is a mix of PVA and plaster of Paris. Once dry it can be sanded.

As a buyer rather than a seller. I see Ebay prices being close to or sometimes higher than the on-line model shop. Given that the model shop will need to make a good margin, I would doubt that selling through shops will give a good return, if that is your sole criterion. They do offer a one stop off load and minimise the work you have to do, so there are advantages, but getting the best return is not one of them. Specialist auctions will attract buyers specifically interested in model railways, but doesn't Ebay do the same through category selection? For perhaps rare items an auction house would have attractions and also for collections, but as a seller you will be charged a premium - often 15-20% once VAT is taken into account. That sounds a lot more than Paypal = Ebay charges. Edited to add: One thing auction houses are good at is grouping things into lots - often combining less interesting items with more sought after ones. Ebay of course it is usual to sell each item individually and "grouped" items tend to get low returns.

I do hope these will not be "posts to UK only" when they go on sale.

A cash advance is like taking your credit card to the hole in the wall and asking for some cash. You will be charged by the credit card company for the transaction. If however instead of taking cash from the ATM, and using it to but petrol (for example); and instead you go to the garage and buy the petrol using your card, you will not be charged by the credit card company (but the filling station will have a transaction fee instead.)

I have to agree with Nick. When I was running my French exhibition layout Les Dents, I was scrupulous in keeping track and wheels clean. In addition I did use a Relco (first generation). Then I bought a Jouef TGV set and put it on the track (note not coreless motored). It stuttered and would not run well and I was about to take it back when I noticed that the lights (at that time a novelty) were flashing on and off with the stutters in the running. I disconnected the Relco and it ran perfectly - as indeed did the rest of the layout for that day and ever after with a good cleaning regime. If anyone wants one two I think I can dig them out from the (s)crap box.

Perhaps he is taking the pea Joseph. Lovely work Barry.

The problem is how do you identify a limited edition or one off in advance. Was the Bachmann C Class in SECR full fat livery a limited edition - probably, but I don't recall any advertisement saying so. Was the Hornby Wainwright H Class in SECR livery a limited edition - no - or a one-off? Possibly only time will tell. But both were sold out pretty much on release. I do sympathise with the caution about pre-ordering against unknown and uncommitted sales prices, but all shops I have dealt with have always given me the option to cancel once the price was known.

Perhaps some of us were just too polite.

I am not sure that Pithivieres counts as a trench line being situated someway South of Paris, but Froissy - Dompierre on the Somme would certainly fit the bill of a sugar beet line constructed from WW1 surplus. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froissy_Dompierre_Light_Railway

Given the difference between UK loading gauge and Continental loading gauge I would have thought this would work very well in most 00 situations.

And in addition, paints (fairly easy and transfers - anyone any suggestions for LBSCR transfers?

OK now I have got it. When I double click a photo in my files it does not open photo editor. It opens photos - which is why I have fewer options for manipulation.