knapper

Nothing mentioned, although this was just a reply to something in the comments. There social media person seems quite keen to reply to comments on there posts, so a question on there might get something.

Just for anyone who might not be on facebook, somebody asked about the J27 in reply to post about the tank wagons yesterday. Oxfords reply was "Shouldn't be too much longer." Obviously not a exact time frame, but does imply things are still on track to it arriving in the next couple of months.

I agree it is harsh, and I have a lot of sympathy for retailers, but it's something they should be on top. They do target hardware shops as well, my guess is the area around Ian Allan was generally targeted that day and they tested lots of shops. It's highly unlikely they will have specifically targeted Ian Allen, unless people were reporting them. Big retailers like B&Q are probably less of an issue than the small shops, as they are more likely to have systems in place to make sure people are challenged. Don't forget, children talk, if one finds they can buy a blade without a problem, their friends will soon find out. Nothing against Ian Allen though, I don't think they were callously turning a blind eye, just got unlucky.

It's got nothing to do with the council wanting to force them out, it's about trading standards and the council making sure shops are following the law. Having once been in hospital and sat next to some poor lad who had had their face slashed with a stanley knife, I'm pretty sure a craft knife could easily do some pretty nasty damage if someone wanted to settle a score. It's also not just about knives, but other hazardous items like glues as well.

I'm looking at LNER building colours and looked at the site mentioned above. It's very useful but for new LNER green it suggests Precision SR Middle Chrome Green. The only issue is that isn't particularly easy to get hold of. I was wondering what the closest more widely available substitute might be (Humbrol, Tamiya etc).

All that just save a £4 postage fee seems like a faff for everyone involved

It's been quite a while (over 5 years) since I did anything with my scalespeed tool, but recently noticed it was getting a few visitors to it so thought it was worth speeding a little bit of time doing a few minor tweaks. Nothing much, just added a little indication that it was running and a couple of other little bits. http://www.entwinesolutions.co.uk/scalespeed/

I would go a stage further and say it's based exactly on the music streaming model, which has effectively replaced downloads for most people for a couple of years now. It's likely that within a few years the notion of a digital download of individual magazines is going to start to become a difficult sell for publishers. It's a difficult balance, streaming means some money from the casual reader, but you do lose possible subscriptions. People have embraced streaming, across all media, there's no reason to think they won't treat magazines the same.

Two things to consider; 1) For most people Birmingham isn't an hour or two away. Most in Britain will have a journey of more than two hours, not less. I'm in the north east, it would take me well over 2 hours to drive there. Trains might get from London to Birmingham in under 2 hours, but you still have to get to the station first. 2) The time and cost of a three or four hour round trip is likely to wipe a significant amount, if not all, of any savings you'll make when you get there.

I find hattons somewhat inconsistent. You can place an order in the morning and it goes that day, a couple of months later and it can take 3 days to be dispatched. That's been the case in the last few years. Certainly this weeks order however hasn't gone well. On Sunday evening I placed an order, went to check the website on Tuesday as although I'd had the order received email, I hadn't had the order processed/awaiting picking one. Looked at my orders, no sign of it so I emailed them. Received a reply saying we're doing a stock check, we'll get it sent as soon as possible and a few minutes later I got the order processed/awaiting picking email. This morning I still hadn't received a dispatch conformation, so I sent them an email at 11:41. In that email I explained part of the order was for some items I wanted to use this weekend, and therefore if it wasn't going to be here by tomorrow to cancel the order. I got a reply at 13:38 saying sorry for the delay, it's been dispatched today and as its coming via DPD it won't be here until Monday. Even allowing for the stock check on Monday and Tuesday that's over 48 hours to get it dispatched. I've checked the website and the order has now gone and disappeared again from my account, so it seems they're having issues there. I've ended up ordering the points I need for this weekend from track shack (It's meant an extra postage charge but with the 3 points I've ordered I can get my two loops completed for my layout that I've been working on for the last 6-2 months, so quite a milestone which I'm keen to get done this weekend). I placed that order just after 2pm, I'm confident that order will be here by around lunchtime tomorrow with the postie, that's quite a difference in performance.

I've just checked the Bachmann site, and they're listed as due in the next 60 days on the new arrivals page: http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/new_arrivals.php?prod_selected=2

My word I hadn't realised it had been so long since my first entry about this project, unfortunately things keep me away from it, some modelling related, some not. To keep it modelling related, the main issue was that I had been working in the garage and traipsing down to work in an unheated wooden garage on a cold, wet evening just isn't very appealing. The problem with working in the house was that on this and the previous lowmac wagon, I'd been using a fibreglass pencil to clean the surfaces for soldering. We have 3 dogs in the house and I just really didn't want to run the risk of glass splinters ending up in noses, eyes or any other bit of them. I had a look at the alternatives and I've now got some fine 2500 grit wet and dry, and thats been working well, allowing me to now work in the house. I was delayed a few days more when I went to start back and on plugging in the draper soldering iron I been using the electrics got tripped. The following series of images show most of the progress up to now. I prefered to use blu tack to hold the roof in place rather than use solder to tack it in place while I soldered the lookout windows in position. You'll also note in the last photo I've ended up with a gap between the lookout roof and the back windows. It's around .7mm wide, I would just rely on solder to fill the gap but as I want to have the roof removable, I'll need to fill that with a thin brass strip, but other wise I've had no problems with things lining up.

After my initial foray into 0 gauge with the LNER lowmac, time for the next kit. Same stable, this time it's Jim McGeowns NER birdcage brake van. To avoid boring people I won't provide much written description and let the pictures mainly speak for themselves. The only time I'll go into detail is when I deviate from the instructions provided. The first folds. Doors done, now to get the sides and ends on and square. ] Attaching the solebars. So far I've had no real issues, apart from my somewhat suspect soldering, only 2 things spring to mind. After tack soldering the body together one corner did need redoing to get things square, and I had a momentary panic after I thought I had folded the solebars the wrong way (I was just trying to put them on backwards, but it took me far longer to realise that than it should). Neither great dramas, so so far so good.

I'm sorry you read that implication into my statement, but that isn't what I actually said. On a side note, if you got your information from the web, it's always a good idea to provide a link. In this case I've tracked down the site in question and it doesn't provide details of the scope of the checks being carried out at Hornby. To quote from the site "Hornby R3273 and R3274 Crosti Boilered 9F 2-10-0 heavy freight locos have yet again been delayed for a few more days due to quality control checks at Hornby. I have been informed they left packing yesterday so hopefully should be with us today!!". http://www.thelocoshedmcr.co.uk

I'm sorry you feel that way, but where did I say you did? Where exactly am I questioning what you posted? All I said was you didn't give details of the exact scope of the checks, I have no reason to doubt you, don't and didn't in the first place. Once again, sorry everyone, but I felt this did need a response.

Ok Ian this is my last post on this; 1) We don't know if there is a problem, again you're speculating. 2) Only one person has stated the these locomotives have been delayed by extra QC checks, that's it, and they were passing on what they had been told by a retailer. That poster gave no indication of the scope or detail of these checks, yet you jump to the conclusion it must be a check of every locomotive including a test run, that is the salient point. Yes, retailers have stated they are yet to receive any, but the general response from the retailers that have posted is they don't know what's happening, why, or know when they'll arrive with them. To everybody else, sorry for wasting your time with this.

I didn't say it wasn't possible, just unlikely. Why? cost, simple as that. Taking maybe a thousand+ plus locos out of the standard distribution system, which wasn't designed for it, testing them and them putting them back in is not the same as a retailer when he takes one locomotive off the shelf to pack it for an individual customer. Is it possible each locomotive is being tested? Yes, but you've jumped to that conclusion based on one person posting third hand about what one retailer told them, and the fact deliveries to retailers appear to have been delayed. One retailer has already mentioned that even standard items appear to be being held up at the moment. My main point is that you seem to have leapt to the conclusion all locomotives are being individually tested on next to nothing.

We don't really know. It's entirely possible the same checks were carried out on the ones for direct sale, before moving onto the rest? It could be that or they are focusing on reducing returns to retailers, while they are prepared to deal with a higher rate of returns direct? The point is that a full test on each model is not something Hornby would want to do without a very good reason, and so probably aren't.

Depends entirely on what checks are being done. QC checks doesn't necessarily mean every one is removed from its packaging and test run. Personally, I'd be surprised if that was happening, unless they thought they had a particular issue and didn't want to reject the whole batch.

Hornby said they were going to produce a complete set of tooling for each model, even if that meant duplicates, rather than have a single set of shared tooling. The idea is/was to prevent a situation where production was delayed as tool A was being used for model A, which meant model B was delayed until the tool A became available. Someone might know off hand when it was mentioned, it was in the last 12 months I believe, but I can't remember exactly when. Edit: It was here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86879-Hornby-meet-the-team/ "so there's a process underway to replicate such tooling if viable to reduce that bottleneck and all products currently approaching manufacturer will have a dedicated suite of tooling to allow the production to flow more smoothly" We should probably get back on topic now.. Edit 2: Grammer

For goodness sake, it's only a product announcement for a model locomotive. You'd think they had annonuced every one comes with a packet of cigerettes so children could produce smoke effects.

Based on knowledge or hope?

Depends if the new distribution centre also handles Hornby's direct sales for them. If so they can start dispatching direct sales as they send orders out to retailers. I'd be interested to know what the return address is on items bought direct.

Due this week..(I thought I'd get this back to top before anyone starts a another thread)