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5 hours ago, drgj said:

The Tri-ang Hornby model was a class 81 and may be the same moulding as the Trix.

 

 

If anyone makes another electric it should be an 83 or 84 as they look a bit different and would create variety. The 81 is too similar to an 85.

No the Triang and Trix toolings are different.

The Trix / Liliput /Dapol moulding is much finer quality, especially on the front end and roof detail, the bogies, motor and pantograph are also much better

The chassis of the Hornby Dublo one is not like a class 81 at all (several say it was a class 82 chassis, but its a dinosaur). The Trix bogies are very finely detailed too, indeed even the wheel centres were detailed.

this is my left over Trix motor bogie, the wheel details,dimensions are spot on identical to Bachmann’s class 85

and the Triang one.

I have both with me, indeed I have a detailed out a Triang one, as the Trix one was hard to source, now Ive sourced one and fitted the Bachmann chassis.

This is my Triang one, obviously it’s moved on a long way from its original BR blue, but you get the idea..

and the Trix one..

bach to the Triang one..

Fitting a Bachmann class 85 chassis is an easier proposition On the Triang model, than the Trix 81 however, no need to grind out the part between the bogies, on the Triang one, I can just lop them and the buffers off, though the Trix lifting lugs are moulded to the body (like Bachmann), on Triang they are moulded into the bogie, so I’d need to make replacements. This models been a long term labour of love, but there’s no getting away from the fact the Trix/Liliput 81 sits nicer along side the 85/86/87 models. I’m in two minds to keep it & finish it, or give it up, (when I started this the Bachmann 85 didn’t exist).

One nice aspect of putting the Bachmann chassis under the Trix one, is the lights work exactly as they did on the Liliput one originally, no mods needed at all (unless you want to change it).

How much different is a class 81 to a class 85 anyway ?

This is the liliput class 81 next to a Bachmann class 85.

i think it stands up very well considering its age (ive refitted it to a Bachmann 85 chassis, as below the body they are the same), above the chassis, theres not much difference either.

On 30/03/2020 at 05:44, MGR Hooper! said:

@Charlie

Just a word of advice from a potential customer. You seem to be obsessed with degrading and ridculing Hornby's older products lately. I saw it on your Class 156 thread and I've seen it here (I can't seem to find the post now, but I can see someone has quoted it).

pot, kettle..

17 hours ago, MGR Hooper! said:

 

That explains the QC issues then... 

Sadly we seem to have lost one from the railway enthusiast fold ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-52151530

16 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

We had an egg famine here for about ten days, but a neighbour managed to get them smuggled across some invisible border and left on her doorstep at the dead of night by her father, who runs a farm about ten miles away. Now they seem in plentiful supply again, so my guess is that Surrey will see them soon.

I too saw slight improvement, local supermarket had mushrooms and cucumbers... no other fruit or veg of any kind.
 

what can you make out of that ?

11 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Oh, yes, definitely!

 

Just between you and I, when theyre all out, I even sometimes eat a small pork pie for lunch.

 

 

we live near a really nice bakery... I remeber the days when if it was quiet, I could drop my little one at school, stop off for breakfast check emails,  bring home a loaf and have an hour on my layout before the US lot woke up and bombed my inbox...whilst eating a sly scotch egg... and still have hid the evidence before 6pm.

Now its like exiting the space shuttle for a supermarket walk, checking for moon dust before returning home and doing a post shop analysis for what you could get from the shopping trip, discover what your still missing,  what you might yet still find and adding it to the checklist for the next shopping mission.

 
right now finding eggs and moon rocks in Surrey have equal odds... scotch egg is but a distant memory.

I should add with parcels, I dont let them in the house.

Let the courier leave them outside, open then with gloves place content to large Ikea bags and put them in the garage. The outer cardboard goes straight to bin.

my Hattons 66’s just came out of quarantine..first impressions they are great, but as Ive got to split cooking/cleaning three times a day, teach my daughter as well as fulltime work, plus with my wife working from home, my spare time has gone out of the window... ive been working from home for nigh on 22 years and right now Ive never had my spare time so consumed by domesticity !  -

I cant wait to have this passed so I can export the mrs back to her office, daughter to school and safely go back to having the place to myself during the day and the odd ham and cheese butty...

i’m thinking we need a room booking app to reserve bedrooms / my office for meetings during the daytime as every hour were all swapping rooms... even my 9 year old is having online socials with her class mates.

1 hour ago, charliepetty said:

So the model has legs...

is that model a final EP or a production sample ?

I wear gloves and a mask, if you have neither, wear winter gloves and scarf..

it might not offer much but it’s better than nowt.

I take my own shopping bags.

When I enter the store, I leave my wallet and phone behind, taking only the credit card (no accidental touching / handling).

Never touch anything with bare hands, place it into the bag myself.

I’m lucky in that my car can be unlocked by my foot under the boot (touchlees entry) automatically. Once bags are in the boot, I remove the gloves gel my hands, then remove the mask and bin the lot.

At home, I change clothes immediately, including shoes.

Then with fresh gloves, I remove each item with a dettol wipe, if its in suitable to remove exterior packaging I remove and bin it.

Everything wipes goes to a new bag and 3 days quarantine, fridge stuffs, I have three shelves used in rotation, 2  to use, 1 for quarantine stuff.

Am not buying frozen, for obvious reason.

Extreme... I thought so in Hong Kong in 2003 until I caught something very similar (suspect SARS)  to covid19... thats what my more careful fellow citizens were doing there then.

you take your own risks.

I think comments of older Hornby models is valid, afterall the reason the model is poor is lack of investment in that type by that manufacturer.

If they don't invest in it, doesn't mean to say everyone has to say its a good model, especially if someone is prepared to put their own money down to make a better one.

i should add its bi-directional, some comments by larger manufacturers Reps are somewhat interesting about hobbyists, its just you dont see them in print.

i should add Charlies comments in person are one of the highlights at exhibitions, I always leave with a horrified smile, so I always go back for more.

22 hours ago, toboldlygo said:

Is it a Turf burner? 

Looking at the headcode, I was guessing it was a turd burner.

If its got Deltic horns.. then it has accurate sound effects to confirm it.

Any chance of a picture of it on cement bubbles?

I really hate to say it, but you've cocked up.

The real thing in 1959 did not have wipac light clusters.

order canceled, however if you issue one in New York Central grey, with central bonnet headlamp  i’d be very interested.

Ive been trying to remember which one it was.

47145 was my first thought too, but thinking back it might have been a Euro Railfreight distribution 47 with a blue roof ( 47375 Tinsley Traction depot comes to mind too), or even 31116 or 47803 in that garish yellow.

unfortunately my memory's defeated me.

I recall the loco was posed just behind the stand selling them, and a number of retailers bought them from the stand same day (which exacerbated its selling out) and a few weeks later swapmeets were offering them at much higher prices.

21 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

It's not been released yet. Due soon I believe. Obviously depending on current events.

 

There is a video of it knocking about.

 

This is the one they are doing.

 

https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/class-57-6-57602-'restormel-castle'-gwr-green-(firstgroup)/32-756a

 

 

 

Jason

I must be lucky then... ive got mine last year, and it was pretty much the last one I could find.

dont take my word for it...

32-756a is GWR (First Group), i presume there is a difference.

32-756 57602 Restormel Castle was released December 2016.

its out of stock for sometime, though Olivias still has it.

https://www.oliviastrains.com/trains/mt/Bachmann-diesel/Bachmann-class-57/Bachmann-32-756-class-57-6-57602-restormel-castle-in-gwr-green-livery/

3 hours ago, QuoitsPlayer said:

I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to convert 2 153s back into a 155? 

For a moment there I had a flashback to the kit that was made to convert a Dapol class 150 into a 00 gauge Class 150...

it was sold as such too.. as there was a detailing pack also available... gives you an idea how bad a model it was.

22 hours ago, SouthernMafia said:

Best chance of seeing a new 155 (of which I would welcome) from Hornby is if another manufacturer announces it first....seems to be a common trait at the moment...

If someones got spare cash for a modern i age DMU i’d prefer a class 175 or a 180... kind of the same rationale to build as the 155, except more successful in execution than the class 155.

31 minutes ago, truffy said:

 

I do. Not just the wet markets and the dealing in species that are being driven to extinction, but the authorities' obsession in secrecy and not losing face. The bureaucratic ineptitude, even if it doesn't promote the spread of contagion, certainly doesn't help to curtail it.

Which country are you talking about ? China, UK or take your pick of EU countries, no heavily infected country has covered themselves in glory with this one.

Charles Darwin has demonstrated which countries are more in touch with survival and science over those focussed on economics and power.

Its too late for that however, so back to topic...

How long to Bachmanns next set of release announcements ?

I doubt there will be a backlash. There was none in 1945 against Germany, or in 1982 against Argentina.

The world, just as China is today, will be refocusing on re-starting their economies... in otherwords.. everyone will just get up in the morning and look at how they can make money again.
 

Model trains are being manufactured again in China.

If theres a spin off from this, I suspect covid19 maybe the last pandemic virus of this nature, as the $bns required for research will finally materialise to understand how to prevent them, given how much economic* loss this has caused.

* understanding the mass personal loss, but governments and businesses focus on money.

I dont blame China, Ive lived through this out there, and saw how they responded and prepared for it, the pandemic in the entire of Europe did not need to be any larger than the entire Chinese outbreak..

Europe+UK was caught naive, arrogant and flat footed, both in investment in its healthcare, emergency handling as was  government preparedness plus its execution... Some European countries have strangled this virus, but it could have been more. Whats worse, is a disjointed restart... which could just see countries playing pass the infected parcel for months on end.

So model trains will probably start arriving in Europe once more in the next few weeks/ after easter.. however the last miles to resellers, customers maybe delayed... and of course who knows what taxes, inflation, personal finances, exchange rate, personal incomes, unemployment will look like in a few months time, especially when the government £2.5k income stops and they start asking for it back.

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

 

So in three weeks time you'll be able to answer the oldest question in the book...

I was expecting something about a chicken, eggs or a fox crossing the road

on the subject of milk bottles, this reminded me of these cocktail party conversation openers... anyone remember these milk bottles...

These are actually colonial hangovers.... i actually brought these back from Hong Kong when I was living out there.
But they are the same old British school milk bottle sized.. 220ml bottles.

perfect for a blended Blueberry, Strawberry, Yoghurt & Milk smoothie today...

6 hours ago, melmerby said:

Must be urbanised foxes, ours dine on the local wildlife

I’ll trade your foxes for mine....

our local wildlife is kids coming out school.. they need eating.

Your foxes aren’t vegetarian I hope.

Our local supermarket (coop) had mushrooms and cucumbers this week.

no other fruit and veg.

Sainsburys / Morrisons is still a waste of time, after the NHS/ Pensioners are done theres nothing left, not that there was much for them either.

local farm shop closed, as did the garden centre, they cannot get any other supplies for over 8 days now. Butchers only has Bacon & Sausage in the last week, but also does coop & sainsburys. No other meat.

finally corner shop... no eggs for 3 weeks (eggs and chickens have both disappeared from Surrey), 5 loaves of bread were to last him a week, he gets milk twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays.

its an improvement, but not much of one.

loads of chocolate, sweets, crisps, enough alcohol and periodical consumables (mustard, salt etc)..

Our street coordinated to have a wholesale purchase from covent garden directly, once a week, works out about £50 a household for everything you need, including those impossible to find eggs & fruits... in short retail has collapsed around here, weve had to source our own (including our 91 and 93 year old neighbours in our group purchase, they are fitter than us)... still it beats rotating around the queues of  empty local supermarkets swapping virus mutations for hours at a time.

 inflations kicked in, £1 for a cucumber, £3 for mushrooms at Coop... they were half that 2 weeks ago.

its not all bad though..

Foxes are starving, theres much less food waste for them to scavange.

Now schools out, theres no need for the 630-8am dose of morning daily stress am getting used to a lie in.

oh and we learnt a new trick for dry bread.. wrap it in a piece of wet kitchen roll, 10 seconds in the microwave and its good to go.

Until the Realtrack one emerges, it is still the best oo gauge 142 on the market.

The Northern 144 is equally selling for similar amounts.

once the virus passes, I wonder what state the economy, taxation, exchange  rate & peoples affordability will be in for a new one. Ive already seen some big price hikes in my nearly empty local supermarkets... £1+ for a cucumber.. it was 50p two weeks ago.

Thought struck me on these,

with the servo motor being operated by a special DCC chip, how do DC buyers know if their pantograph works ?

is there a way to test (aside of buying the chip just to test it) or is it just storing up an issue for the future ?