cessna152towser

Until a few years ago, our local railway society had a huge 00 layout in the basement of the local town hall to which I had access and indeed some of my trains lived semi-permanently on the multi-track fiddle yard, and I would buy lots of diverse 00 stock from different eras just because it would be nice to have and perhaps also the fear of missing out. However we were all getting older and the club dismantled the layout and gave up the premises and now have a small non-scenic test track in multiple gauges in a room within our local Men's Shed. Accordingly I am now restricted to my small U-shaped 00 gauge layout which I built in a room at home in 1989. The main pleasure of this layout lies in the large variety of trains which I can run on it, however these are of necessity short trains and only one can run at a time so a frustration is that more time is spent unboxing and re-packing rolling stock than actually running it. I am now in my seventies. That fear of missing out has weakened for a variety of reasons and I am currently no longer in the market for buying more new model trains. I do still have Accurascale pre-orders for a few MDW wagons, Mk2 coaches and a pair of Class 66s to look forward to and I will probably sell a few surplus items on eBay to help fund these when payment becomes due, but that's about it.

Sold a boxed Dapol wagon to a buyer in USA last month. My net proceeds from the sale after paying eBay fees and domestic postage to the Global Shipping depot in Staffordshire amounted to £1.21. I've just noted when checking my sold items that buyer paid to eBay £34.57. Not worth the hassle by the time eBay, couriers and customs have taken their share of the proceeds.

Whitrope Heritage Centre, 2nd September, 2023. The Whitrope Wagon Gang at Work, 2nd September 2023. LMS 13ton 5 plank wagon number 419057, built in 1945 spent many years on open air display at heritage centres after withdrawal from main line use. The metal chassis survived well but the wooden planks were rotted and in need of replacement. During the open day today, as only part of the team was needed to run the train, buffet and exhibition, Jim, Peter, David and Gus took the opportunity between other activities to make progress on renovating the wagon with new planking.

Wishful thinking, unfortunately. I have just been notified by Scottish Power yesterday that my monthly standing order for gas and electric is being increased by £69 per month from September "taking into account new prices applicable from 1st July and to build up a balance towards winter fuel costs". Oh well, looks like I'll be stopping buying more and more Accurascale trains, and my wife and I have decided to look into the feasability of installing a woodburner stove.

I've been caught that way. I edited my photo of the box end label from portrait to landscape so the the text on the label would display correctly. Within an hour of my listing going live with a start price of 99p I discovered that eBay had defaulted from my original draft listing to now showing the box end label as my main photo because that was the last photo which I had edited. I tried to edit the listing, but the order of the photos kept defaulting back to the box end label as main photo because in the meantime someone had put in a starting bid of 99p. The dilemma in such circumstance, as a seller, whether the listing should be allowed to run its course, or whether it would be cheaper to end the listing and pay eBay fees based on the highest bid, and then relist correctly, when a better main photo might attract more views and a better price.

eBay tells lies when it says as soon as you print off the postage label that your item is being posted. At that point I try to make a habit of messaging buyers to clarify that their item is packed and "will be taken to the post office tomorrow" or "collection has been booked for tomorrow".

Yes indeed. Even more annoying that several days later eBay now e-mails a reminder that you have not yet left feedback on this purchase. As a purchaser I refuse to leave feedback before I have received the item.

It looks like the free collection has been extended further. When I booked a collection earlier this week, I'm sure it still said free collection until 15th August 2023. Just looked again this evening and it now appears to say collection is free until 23:59 on 31st January 2024.

Arrived this morning and running perfectly. Thanks Widnes Model Centre, RMWeb and Accurascale for all the help in sourcing this model.

I'm all sorted now. Barry from Widnes Model Centre messaged me and I've just bought his last analogue 409. Many thanks to Barry and to the power of RMWeb.

Sound advice. I went to the doc about 5 years ago and had an MRI scan which showed, in the consultant's words "No significant signs of cancer but we need to keep an eye on you." Since then I have had the re-assurance of regular PSA tests twice per year, so that if my PSA goes too much above the average level for my age I would be recalled for further investigation. Best chance of survival is early diagnosis. My wife's ex wasn't diagnosed until Stage 4 by which time the cancer was spreading.

Just come back from the shops and went back onto the site again. Item was still in my basket and this time the checkout worked OK.

Just came back from a trip out to the shops for groceries and received an e-mail from KMS Railtech that my order for 37 409 has been cancelled and payment is being refunded to my Paypal account. Polite apologetic message "Sorry for not getting back earlier in the week, I've been trying to get my colleague to give me an update on the state of orders from Accurascale. I haven't been able to do this due to a family issue. At this time I think the easiest way to resolve this is to repay the order back to your account. I am sorry for this action at this time, but to enable you to get one from Accurascale in a timely manner, it will be the easiest option. Regards" Disappointed as I paid in full for this pre-order five months ago. All well and good though if Accurascale can still supply.

Just spent half an hour trying to pre-order, both via deferred payment or via partial.ly. On checkout, on the payment page, the only field which I am allowed to fill in is the name as shown on my card, even when already logged in to Accurascale. The card number, expiry date and cvc fields are locked. Then the order is repeatedly rejected because I have not given full card details. Is there is a problem with Accurascale checkout or is it just overloaded?

In 2002 I travelled on a French TGV from Paris to Vevey and a few days later from Montreux to Stresa on an Italian Pendolino which had started from Lausanne with an end destination of Venice. The TGV continued beyond Vevey but I can't recall its eventual destination. The return journey from Stresa, however, was all on Swiss trains as far as Lausanne where we boarded a TGV back to Paris.

@KMS Railtech It appears your gentleman I spoke to on Monday has also been unable to contact Accurascale re large logo 37s. I spoke to one of your ladies earlier this evening and she was going to try again to contact Accurascale. You may also wish to avail yourselves of a PM to Accurascale through RMWeb.

@McC I phoned my retailer as soon as I read this and the lady I spoke to confirmed they have still not received any of the large logo Accurascale 37s yet. She promised to take the matter up with Accurascale. As with tlm my retailer is in the North East. North East of Scotland in my case, wonder if we are speaking of the same retailer. ( @tlm My handle cessna152towser originated when I first joined the internet 20 years ago at which time I was taking flying lessons on a Cessna 152 G-BTDW.)

Good to know these are still filtering out. Today marks five months since my retailer took full payment for my 409 on 3rd March when we believed the whole of Batch 1 was imminent rather than arriving in three phases. Since then I have received my 423 in April and managed to obtain an 027 direct from Accurascale last month but as of now my retailer still has 409 "on back order".

Canceling pre-orders is par for the course with Hornby from my personal experience (Captain Tom and the 2MT) which is why I no longer pre-order direct from them.

So long as you are lucky not to be stung for additional VAT. My wife, who is German bought a 1/12 scale motorbike on eBay. It is a German brand but made in China and purchased through an Italian eBay seller. Tracking showed it was being held at the local depot "Pending payment of Customs Charges". I phoned to query this since (1) We had received no notification of any additional charges (2) An import from the EU should be free of customs tariffs and (3) Even under "Rules of Origin" scale models imported from China attract 0% tariffs. The Parcelforce guy on the phone was extremely helpful and explained that there were no customs charges, but import VAT plus collection charges were payable and he gave me a reference number to pay online. The item was then cleared and delivered next day. Be careful, I always use eBay Global Shipping Programme when exporting but not all overseas sellers use it when sending to us and even a high postal charge by the seller might not include UK VAT clearance.

I have also noticed this with my analogue 37 027.

These look really impressive. I bought the Hattons original 66 528 Madge Elliot MBE because she is a prominent local here and her son is a member of our local railway society. As I had no Freightliner stock to run it with I bought four Dapol HIAs. As my Hattons loco has full detailing on one end and a coupling on the other end, the return trip of the HIAs is always worked by a non Freightliner loco. I should put this right by ordering 66 507. Sorely tempted now that I have seen today's photos, but I need to wait till next week to see where my railway fund stands after attending a model trains auction next Monday and selling some trains on eBay next week.

I haven't found that yet. Only a cryptic eBay code in the address which you would only need if sending to a click and collect address. When I click the "see more details" button it just takes me to payments and fees.

Tracked 48 is cheaper than Second Class signed for but when you fill in the form Royal Mail asks you for the recipient's e-mail address for tracked 48 so they can notify buyer of intended delivery date, but you won't have this e-mail address now that eBay operate managed payments and discourage buyer and seller from exchanging e-mail. I've sent a few parcels by Second Class signed for recently with no problems. In event of a problem you should be covered for £50.

I wouldn't expect Accurascale would release the final stock until they can be sure that all pre-orders have been met and none lost along the way. I phoned my retailer this morning to ask where's my 37 409 and was told they have no information on it but will look into it and phone me back. So far they haven't done so.