cessna152towser

1 hour ago, EddieB said:

At risk of departing from the main topic of discussion, was such a move made frequently and why?

 

I recall being puzzled at seeing a fully loaded Eurostar come into the middle road at Kensington Olympia, to reverse back out again - I have a record of the date somewhere, but certainly it was when services ran from Waterloo.

It would have been a Friday morning in April 2002 , because some lines were closed due to a signalling control centre fault, and after a wait of around 20 to 30 minutes at Kensington Olympia we went via Nunhead and Catford, somewhat slowly and following a stopping service, resulting in a Paris arrival 2 hours late and missing the TGV to Lausanne on which we had reservations.    We travelled on a later TGV which was packed with workers going home for the weekend.    We stood in the vestibule as far as Dijon where a lot of passengers alighted and we were able to find seats for the remainder of the journey.

28 minutes ago, roythebus1 said:

To revive this topic a bit, we've just seen "the tunnel" flooded. the tunnel under the Thames, not under the channel! No E* or Javelin services for a day, 32,000 people stranded in St.Pancras for over a day!

My thoughts entirely.  People stranded in the run up to Christmas due to a strike of Channel Tunnel staff and again in the run up to New Year due to a tunnel under the Thames being flooded, and with no alternative transport offered by Eurostar to their customers.   I have used Eurostar a few times in the past when it left from Waterloo so it never needed to cross the Thames (although it did so on one trip, via Chelsea Bridge, to do a reversal at Kensington Olympia) and it had a choice of several routes to reach Ashford.      I no longer use Eurostar, it has become unreliable, as have the trains to London from the north, and I prefer to fly nowadays which is cheaper and quicker, with Newcastle Airport just an hour's drive from home.

22 minutes ago, RFS said:

For the first time for over a year I've today not been offered 80% off fees. I've always been offered it every 2 weeks without fail. I wonder if it's just due to the holiday period, or whether there's been a change in Ebay policy. 

I wasn't planning on eBaying over the New Year holiday period, but when I read your post I checked in on eBay and I also found that I have no discounted fees offer for this weekend.   Like yourself, I had been receiving these offers every second week for a while now, although they had been less generous lately, having changed from 80% discount to 70% discount a few months ago.

2 hours ago, Sjcm said:

Anyway, surely for those that strive for realism a musty smelling coach is prototypical for the steam age?

Or a smelly restaurant car.   The story may be apocryphal but I recall hearing on the railway modelling circuit some years ago of someone installing in a 00 dining car a coil of thin wire which would heat when current was picked up through the wheels, and was capable of burning a tiny piece of bacon placed against it..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276220910663?hash=item40500c9c47:g:ZxcAAOSwKNVlWMfr&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwPjSqwMK%2F44Ym3uus13JhdZuzdcNxR6xMebkvOs9q7ybc6IGIM8U%2F4iplck9C8aitAQ1gmlgudBkuaH%2BwK2%2BzpAa%2FcTfKJmgXf1kBuEbAXxgLSXTNRKJLvyb2FomRUIP9eWA5H2DGVt8F%2FFauqEh6Gy%2FOOsFh3oR2288FP9C5sk2ccABm5%2Bk3atwNpaby03TAT9iblLH9mJGzM%2FctX31eRSDJaw0ykSQlMAKxdKnMccXOUGC4FEZ0ZfrD1Z3l8cEoA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5aIj-CKYw

"ITEM IS IN GOOD CONDITION. 

ITEM HAS NO DAMAGES."

I wonder where all the wheels went.

1 hour ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Imagine firing this baby up in your garden shed! 

I once had a friend who had a hobby of firing up old aeroplane engines.   Sadly no longer with us, but it wasn't his aero engines which killed him.

This is an odd looking Jaguar Mk VII - Roadrailer with 6 rail wheels?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394837464597?hash=item5bee259615%3Ag%3AHZgAAOSwZwtk6N45&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwFMnvuAWbFmXrF1E%2FUt2o06uDyJOxm6xHFDLF1Px05p4FZoXLE6wUhLatjUYYscj36z78%2FT3kKcSQC%2BjPAqDEykDGxGA93CtYRRnFWEE9teg23mYysc4UFTq%2BJ4hie2Ho8XXFRfUWWudMkNOyklCzKkz%2Bhoct%2FyliraGYnBIBP1N2wM1RA5QIz897qlP%2FHXfvKWLG2w9OOySAjGrqe4fWGML2ocK%2B4P6GDISDvhxdWiorxW%2Fca4p%2BCEo5fxmirwSlw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7awnq6JYw&LH_BIN=1

For my most recent eBay sales I have been sending by Royal Mail Tracked 48.  Postman comes and collects and brings a pre-printed label.  £3.29 each time for a small parcel, including insurance, though so far I have not had any problems with the service.

Since I bought a Hornby Loriot around a year ago from C & M Models I have been on the lookout for a suitable load.  Yesterday while my wife was browsing Christmas decorations at a local garden centre I wandered into the toys section where I spotted this Siku Tractor with excavator attachment.   As it was only £7.99 I took a gamble that it would fit.  I got lucky as it is an exact fit in terms of both width and length.  Being exact length is a particular bonus as it means that the load will not roll back and forth while the wagon is travelling and so the load does not need to be glued to the wagon.  This means I can retain the packaging for the wagon and pack it away unladen when not in use on the layout.

I had an odd experience with Global Shipping recently.   I had sold some 00 scale coaches to a buyer in Germany and sent them 48 hour tracked to the Global Shipping centre in Staffordshire.  Post Office tracking confirmed delivery, however after a week eBay tracking still showing as "Item not yet received by first mile carrier or hub".    The post office proof of delivery was a photo of a trolley load of parcels from which I could not identify the parcel which I had sent.   I contacted eBay and a very helpful assistant confirmed that as the Post Office had confirmed delivery to GSP, I would not be held liable in event of an item not received claim as GSP insurance was factored into GSP fees and would cover any loss.  The assistant promised to contact Global Shipping to look for the item and e-mailed to me a transcript of our discussion.  The item was subsequently found at GSP and forwarded and I have now been notified that final delivery to the buyer in Germany took place today.

Hornby coaches in Hattons Black Friday sale - still showing more than 10 in stock of each as at midday Sunday 26th - Mk I RBR in Raspberry Ripple or SK in Ballast Cleaner Staff livery, £11 each and some Mk3s at £15 each.

https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/bargain_list?search/sources/New/scales/OO/product-types/Coaches/brands/Hornby/bargain/true/stockstatus/InStock/sort/4

I pre-ordered my Caley 812 class from Rails and currently have 2 x Class 66 on pre-order from Accurascale.

I would NEVER again pre-order from Hornby as they have twice cancelled my pre-orders for locos.   Luckily I was able to obtain both via retailers, in one case at a lower price than originally quoted by Hornby.

Curiously, this flashed up for a fraction of a second as I was opening a page yesterday, was it here on RMWeb or on Facebook?   Either way, once the page opened I couldn't find it again - even looked all over for it on RMWeb, Facebook and Accurascale website - no trace of it, as if it was something which I had either imagined or sublime advertising or something I wasn't meant to see yet. 

I acquired one of these coaches in a recent eBay job lot purchase.  Actually Kitmaster sides and interior fitted to an old Tri-ang chassis.  I had no immediate plans for it, but after fitting modern finer scale metal wheels it has proved a useful addition to an excursion rake.  Curiously the Lima Kitchen/Restaurant vehicle which came with it is in blue and grey and I am unsure how accurate this combination would have been.   I have also run it with a Mainline Kitchen/Restaurant car but the Mainline one has a noticeably darker shade of maroon than the Kitmaster version.

53 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

People can evidently rename their accounts as there is a History feature, which tells you what an account used to be called.

I haven't been able to access this feature but I recall at one time eBay imposed on me a new user name, which I promptly changed back to the original.   This has resulted in my "About" being somewhat contradictory as to date of joining eBay:-

"eBay member since 2004, with over 3,000 positive feedbacks.

Location: United Kingdom Member since: 15 Feb, 2015"

6 hours ago, Sjcm said:

On the one hand you give them a full refund and return on an item they don't really want to return and risk bad feedback or you cut your losses and give them a discount.

Can't win either way.  Some time ago I sold a used Hornby 47.  Knowing it had been received and having heard nothing from the buyer, after a few weeks I left positive feedback.  Buyer only then responded to ask for £7 discount to cover the cost of replacing the armature.   I pointed out that he had already had the item several weeks, it was running fine at the time of sale and for all I knew he could have been running it continuously since he received it.   I said it was unfair on other bidders to ask for a discount after the item had been sold at auction and invited him to return the loco, but he insisted on keeping it.  Against my better judgement I grudgingly refunded the £7.   Then he posted negative feedback "Unhelpful seller accused me of breaking the item".   I'd be reluctant to be so soft again and would now insist on return and full refund, and I have blocked this guy from bidding on my items.

7 hours ago, WILLIAM said:

My two packs of MDW wagons arrived with a magnetic wand? Is this a mistake as I can see no tail lights?

My one pack of MDW wagons also contained a wand.

My LDV arrived early Monday morning along with an MDW triple pack in a separate box.   Very pleased with these Accurascale products but the DHL driver had dumped the boxes beside my rubbish bin, which in the meantime before I had seen the notification of delivery e-mail, had been taken by the bin man and emptied into his truck and the two parcels were also gone.   Enquiries with neighbours had drawn a blank.   Fortunately I discovered late Tuesday afternoon that the refuse collector had suspected that these two boxes might not have been intended for destruction and had kept them aside.  So I have been able to retrieve my wagons undamaged.  No thanks to DHL for their disgusting lack of care in the delivery.

It has been a while since I last bought a steam outline loco but living in Hawick where 78047 spent most of its working life this was a must have.

Another shout out for Antics.   Having been let down by Hornby over my long awaited pre-order for the BR Standard 2MT, I trawled the internet and found it advertised by Anticsonline for pre-order at a price within my budget last Saturday morning and I placed an order.  Lady from Antics phoned on Wednesday to confirm my address and loco 78047 arrived safely this morning and very well packed.

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

I prefer to bid with under 10 seconds left to bid, in my mind it has two advantages. 

 

1 Most importantly it stops me chasing bids

 

2 With seconds left stops someone bidding me up

That usually works nowadays when most of us have high speed internet.

I remember my early days on eBay almost 20 years ago when I was still on a dial-up modem.   I would bid on something two or three minutes before the end of the auction and then wait patiently to see if I won.    Occasionally the response which eventually came back from eBay would be "item no longer available" and I would find that it sold to someone else for less than I had bid.

1 hour ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Didn’t they scrap a 141 at one point? I’m not sure why, and it would have been before they acquired the 142 they have now.

If I recall correctly the Weardale Railway had three 141s, one of which was never operated but was stripped for spares and eventually scrapped by them.

1 hour ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Does this affect any longer term plans?

As far as I know there are no plans to run steam at Whitrope.  When the heritage centre was first being set up around the turn of the millenium I recall there was some talk about possibly bringing in a Black 5 which around that time was said to be in storage near Morpeth, but I don't think it ever reached the stage of serious discussion.

The 141s had their uses on the Weardale Railway.  I can recall a standing room only trip on a New Year's Day because a large group of hikers chose to ride one way between Wolsingham and Stanhope and then walk back.     Conversely another trip from Stanhope to Bishop Auckland on an August "commuter rail" service I was one of only three passengers so I can understand why this service no longer runs.

I do some volunteering at Waverley Route Heritage Association where I am an associate member.   The guys at Whitrope started out with RB004 which didn't really cut the mustard either with the public or enthusiasts as it was basically just a bus.   As there was the spectre of the owner possibly removing RB004, they took the opportunity to acquire Pacers 142 019 and 142 020 when these became available.    With one more open day remaining this season, running 142 019, they are on course for their best ever season.   Partly because the Pacer is seen as a real train by families from the surrounding area who will bring their children for the novelty of a train ride.  Also, from an enthusiast point of view, while a Pacer might not have been their choice of train, enthusiasts have visited from all over the British Isles and a few from mainland Europe, simply for the novelty of rail travel over a short section of the Waverley Route.

Steam is not an option at Whitrope as the trackbed is leased from the Forestry Commission and it is a condition of the lease that steam is not run due to the potential fire risk.

2 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Unsurprisingly 1H80 Aviemore to Kyle of Lochalsh is canceled…

Latest update on Strathspey Facebook page says Royal Scotsman stock being moved to depot for inspection, freeing up the platform so that they will be able to run trains with the Ivatt 2-6-0 later in the day.

Updated again at 1:15pm they are not running today after all.

From the top photo on the BBC link it looks more like a rough shunt when buffering up to the stock, rather than a crash or collision, media over-sensationalisation perhaps?