Hroth

Oops yes.... The head-on one has a BLACK dome!

Well, they have to start somewhere. At least 6 o'clock is a cardinal point, and its a loco with lots of visual appeal. You couldn't start at 12 o'clock, while a J36 will have great interest for Scottish modellers, it might have ended up as Oxford Rails one and only model loco... Personally speaking, I feel that although a Cauliflower is a perfectly good suggestion, they could push the boat out for something like one of the pre Great War Crewe 4-6-0s. Certainly no competition on the horizon from anyone else there!

Just thinking out loud.... Perhaps they're sorting out the firebox, but to try to keep on "schedule", the final decoration example has been produced on pre-production bodies that are to hand rather than waiting for possible revised firebox samples? Ok, I'm a perennial optimist! But it does look very pretty.... Ummm I'm no shedplate guru, but isn't a number/letter combination an LMS/BR fad? According to listings on "The Great Western Archive" ( http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_gwr_sheds.htm ) 88K was used for Brecon (BCN) from 1961. I stand to be corrected.

It all boils down to brand awareness and wanting to keep buyers of one particular brand within the fold, even if logic suggests that one moves from one brand to another to get higher "quality". A situation thats worsened when the different brands are all part of the same group. So unless Lima offers a progression from their very basic train set models, through the middle ground to high end prototype fidelity then customers will switch to Rivarossi and their balance sheet will suffer. Hornby has a similar problem with the Railroad range that covers "GWR" 101 tank locos in dodgy liveries, through decent models of the GWR Hall, to Crosti-boilered 9Fs. Then there's price overlaps between similar types of loco in the Railroad and main ranges... All the Hornby railway brands need to sort out their stratification policies so the consumer doesn't get confused. How they do that is another can of worms entirely!

But not in the 17th century! However, its not beyond the realms of possibility that celebrating it 400 years-odd later might become one.....

I did ask Oxford Rail some time ago about the availability schedule quoted by Hattons, but they didn't want to confirm or deny. Given the concerns raised a few months ago by residents of this parish about the firebox shape, we might be lucky to get one by Xmas, which would then interfere with certain revised Hornby delivery dates...

The local Pound Shops have been flogging "Halloween" stuff since the end of August, its like stores doing "Back To School" before the end of the Summer term. As for the Acrid Smoke Festival, its being displaced by Halloween, probably on the grounds that celebrating the capture, torture and execution of Catholic would-be assassins is irrelevant in the 21st century and will eventually become a Hate Crime. Personally, I deplore the banning of hand-held fireworks, rip-raps and aeroplanes. Health and Safety? Pah!

I've two of the Hornby Dublo (EDL18) models, one 3-rail and the other 2-rail, the 3-rail from new and the 2-rail several years later after I'd been converted... Despite being wellt over fifty years old, both run well, the 2-rail version still makes occasional appearances on my layout! I've never seen the Lima version, but if its anything like their interpretation of the Hughes Crab, then it must be a doozey!

I never thought to ask "why" the picking list was so slow for my recent order. Yes, I ordered over the weekend so it ended up in the "Monday Morning" heap of things to do. And didn't get done. I suppose the best thing to do is order Tuesday or Wednesday on the premis that the hump will have been dealt with and it'll get picked and packed before Friday. Of course, some bright spark in Management will then discover "No-one Orders On A Weekend" and we'll never get a decent service again. Its not as if its convenient to get to the "shop" either - it might end up that the move to Montague Road was a bit of a mistake.

Seeing that Oxford Rail (on the basis of two models) are nibbling around the edges of pre-grouping locomotives in a clockwise manner, perhaps we might expect more of the same. As we've had locos from the Southern Family and the Great Western family, perhaps the North Western will get a look in. Given that Oxford haven't yet repeated a wheel arrangement, perhaps this time we might get a Jumbo 2-4-0 (sorry, "Improved Precedent"!) or a George the Fifth 4-4-0. If we don't get a Jumbo, then when the clock moves to the East, there might be a T26/E4 in prospect. But back to the LNWR, a woefully unrepresented railway, even compared to Scottish prototypes! The LNWR had a multiplicity of Really Useful Engines from the reigns of Webb, Whale, Bowen Cook and Beames. Its about time someone took up that loose ball and ran with it! And no livery problems either - they were all painted black! Looking through the list of LNWR locos on Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotives_of_the_London_and_North_Western_Railway ) I spotted Whale's "Square Saddle Tank", a rebuild of a Coal(tender) loco, a chunky robust looking loco, with a lot more character than a Derby "Jinty". We need more SSTs!

On the other hand, seeing as Oxford have gone quiet about progress towards delivery for the Belpair Dean Goods after the comments about the shape of the firebox, angle of handrail stanchions and so on, it could be that these matters are being rectified prior to production. Then again....

Which is a major consideration - even "boxshifters" can't do a Bachmann autocoach for much less than £60, a price which gets perilously close to some actual modern production locos! Admittedly if you want an up to date 14xx to go with the Bachmann, that'll cost you just shy of £100 for the Hattons commission, so new detailed stock for a WR branch line will cost about £160. Shopping around for recent Hornby examples will get the equivalent for £60 or less and unless you want DCC or subject your trains to the merciless glare of the camera lens or the equally penetrating and implacable minds eye, then justification for the more expensive options becomes moot. And, as has been mentioned above, with a Hawksworth autocoach, you're stuck with post-war, while the Airfix/Hornby Collet will take you from the mid-30s to the end of steam. Personally, I could convince myself on a new loco, but the mind revolts at the price of some modern RTR coaching stock!

Or that the "heatwave" had buckled the tracks and derailed their train of thought......

A little confusing, no doubt. However, given the rate at which Bachmann progress models through the production cycle, its possible that changes are only made to the Hattons barchart when the manufacturer says "Here's an Engineering Sample!" or whatever, so the estimated price only gets changed at that point if the manufacturer previously hoiked it upwards. If you've decided to pre-order, the ruling price will be VERY clearly stated! What would ne nice would be the inclusion of the "estimated" stocking date as displayed on the model page. For example, Oxford Rails Dean Goods (OR76DG001), proposed arrival window is quoted as July-September 2016. We're pretty much half-way through September and Oxford are being pretty coy as to when the model will break cover and Hattons only indicate it as "Decorated Samples". I should imagine that by now its going to be late November at least, but it would be helpful if the date is included on the chart, rather than having to go to the model page to check up! But it would be fun to observe the slippage. Remember when the Wickham trolley was due in 2014 at half the current price?

A very nice version of the D16/3 - it almost had me reaching for my mouse to order one, but there's a Peckett and a B12 already on the books, so I'm afraid I'll have to restrain myself!

Probably Mrs Trellis (of North Wales) on her holidays!

Yes I know the picture exhibits telephoto compression, but The Real Thing looks more like a Triang R20, and 37611 looks like it got dropped on its nose! Hat, coat, offski!!!

I usually do, but it seems that for large box sets, Royal Mail is not an option.

My order arrived this afternoon, just as I was about to go out. As it was a rather large box in its own right (Hornby R1184, Western Express), I was interested to observe the packaging. This consisted of a well secured layer of bubblewrap, encased within a stout corrugated cardboard shell, neatly wrapped in brown paper secured with sellotape. Despite its journey to Birmingham and back, the wrapping was unmarked and the contents, once released, unharmed. After hurriedly putting a couple of lengths of track together I tested the loco using an old Bachmann dcc controller from the Class 25 freight set and declare myself completely satisfied! From R1184, the loco will go into use, the coaches will go behind "Manston" and the eLink kit will remain a curiosity in the box... I suppose I'd better get out now, or I'll be late!

Ohhhhh.... Don't say things like that! (Yes, its not really important in the scale of things, but annoying nontheless!!!)

Hattons are using Interlink Express for one of their delivery couriers. My order (placed on the 27th August but only packed and dispatched on the 2nd September...) has travelled to Birmingham and back, and won't be with me until Monday! 03 Sep 2016 06:12 Liverpool Your parcel has arrived at our Liverpool depot 02 Sep 2016 22:55 Hub 2 - Bham We have your parcel, and it's on its way to our Liverpool depot 02 Sep 2016 16:53 Warrington We have your parcel and it's on its way to you I can understand that local depot-depot transfers aren't considered under the couriers transfer methodology but it's still eye-watering that they have to truck it all the way to a hub in the midlands to sort it back to a delivery depot within spitting distance of the receiving depot! Arghhhh!!!! Perhaps I should have forked out for the Mersey Tunnel and done a round trip in the car......

Very pretty - I'm just so thankful that I don't have an unreasoning desire to NEED one! There was just one teeny weeny, unrealistic aspect to the running sample. When power was applied, it didn't slip..... Lunchtime already?

I've stuff that was delivered months ago and are still marked as on the picking list. Sometimes software just doesn't want to know... Mostly Hattons are good at shipping stuff, and if you have a chat (on-line or on the phone) they can try to expedite slow items or at least confirm that they're progressing through the system. The Bank Holiday weekend doesn't help things and I don't begrudge staff taking holidays and things consequently moving at a slower pace, considering the sterling effort they put in the rest of the year!

Placed an order for Hornby R1184 Western Express on Sunday morning, before the shop opened for normal Sunday trading, and after the usual confirmatory emails I saw the status had been set to "ADDED TO PICKING LIST xxx", where its been ever since. One assumes that staff levels are reduced over the holiday period! On another note, I was browsing the Hornby Bargains and saw that R3458TTS, the Fowler 2P 4-4-0 was being offered at the "bargain" price of £114, though thats not so much a bargain as the TTS Hall 4-6-0 in the R1184 set for £125 where you get the loco plus 3 Pullman carriages, a 3rd radius oval and siding, and an elink controller and software! Of course, if you need an BR early crest 2P 4-4-0 then a GWR Hall isn't going to be much use to you......

Not knowing that much about boiler safety margins as indicated on locomotive steam pressure gauges, what pressure the safety valves were/are actually set to and how difficult it is to maintain a particular pressure, I'd hazard a guess that blowing off steam while in the station (expecially a terminus) was frowned upon and so the fireman maintained the steam pressure at a good working value for starting purposes and that a build up to full pressure would be relatively easy to achieve. Of course, if the terminus/station has an immediate incline upon starting, then the margin between keeping the engine quiet and having enough power for a vicious bit of climbing might be a bit tight! (waves hands about in a convincing manner)