Hroth

Rob: Oops! Wasn't trying to teach you to suck eggs, more just explaining where I was coming from. My first camera was a Box-Tengor from a jumble sale, and I learned black and white d&p by trial and error too, before working my way through the film formats to a 5x4 view camera. Knowing how demanding that is for landscape work, I take my hat off to the 30s photographers who used similar equipment to take pictures of moving trains! Oh go on - do at least one "box camera" snap!

By the boatload - nasty cheap high sulphur stuff. The Heritage railways had a problem with imported coal a couple of years ago, it was dissolving the boiler tubes.....

What a nice picture! But, dare I say it? Too sharp and too clean..... Unless it represents a maiden run, all silver A4s seemed to start looking quite ratty, even with the care you'd expect the cleaners to give such a prestigeous locomotive. In particular, dirt seemed to accumulate in a seemingly unremovable manner along all the rivet lines and also along the top of the loco. The shape of an A4 must have made access to much of the loco quite difficult! As for the detail in the image, to achieve the depth of field from front to back of the image with a film camera, the lens would have to be well stopped down. That means either a faster film speed or a slower shutter speed. Now, in the late 30s, a film sensitivity equivalent to about 400ASA/ISO would probably be the very best available, but grain would be noticable and of course, with a slower shutter speed, motion blur would be very apparent around the wheels in particular and the train in general. Sooooo - how about letting all the blur and grain tools in photoshop loose? It might not be as perfect, but it would be interesting to see what the "boy with a box brownie" might have captured in 1937.......

Terriers are wonderful, with bags of energy and get-up-and-go. The locos aren't bad either! I wonder if "Whitechapel" has a thing about cats?

Sooo... Manston might arrive by Xmas! Other club business. Just got the Club Winter Special. Issue 1, no less! A glossy 20 page brochure, advertising all sorts of Airfix, Scalextrix and Corgi stuff. Oh and Hornby too! Illustrating each brand on the cover, we have: Airfix: A rather snazzy biplane on skis Scalextrix: A luxury super car Corgi: Thunderbird 2 with Thunderbird 4 emerging from its pod and what exemplifies Hornby Railways? The Santa Express. When we've had so many excellent models through the year, we get a decades old imaginary toy train Its not really the right image. Admittedly, there are 7 pages of editorial covering the various brands out of the 20, and two are of railway interest. There's a two page junior section and a "your editor writes" page inside the front cover. So half isn't adverts, but I must say I'm rather underwhelmed.

I am not a number, I am a FREE MAN!!! Looks around for that damn bouncing ball...... Ummmm - they've moved the goalposts at 6 days notice. Manston is now: Estimated Arrival 18/12/2015 They're not going to arrive before Christmas now.

Following on from my previous post(#143), I bit the bullet and called Hornby to order "Manston" this morning. As Bulleidboy100 noted in his post(#147) it was a quick and easy transaction,taking no more than 150 seconds from dialling the number to putting the phone down. A confirmation email arrived within seconds. Excellent telephone service! All Hornby need do now is deliver... (Ian - we must have phoned to order "Manston" within minutes of each other!)

A very strong list. I'd have bought a good proportion if they had been made available, and seriously considered others in addition. Really, there's only a couple I'd not buy at all!

The problem with the club offering is that: There are three 0-4-0 locos of limited prototypical use, one of which is sold out. There are three 0-6-0 locos of limited prototypical use, two of which have delivery dates retreating into next year. There is one 4-6-2 loco that they don't seem to be able to shift. There is one 4-6-2 loco that has yet to see the light of day (admittedly its supposed to be here in 7 days time...) And there is also a 2 year old "collectors" 7 plank wagon that they're trying to get rid of... I suppose the 0-4-0s are relics of the day when the "free" club loco was an 0-4-0 with an implausible livery. Its about time the club locos reflected other forms of motive power other than steam, and perhaps in addition had interesting variants of goods and passenger rolling stock. Oh and were available sometime near the start of the "club year" so we can use our vouchers on something sensible!

I think that is how it works, providing the Collectors Club model you require is in stock. At present, if you want to apply the voucher for the Terriers or for Manston, you have to make a telephone order via the club helpline as "they don't take vouchers for pre-orders". No explaination, but thats what they say on the website! And via email when I asked why after the "currently" notice had been up for over six months. Its probably due to the way they keep pushing the delivery dates into the future... I'm in two minds about it. Do a phone pre-order (a faff if you ask me) or keep an eye on the listing and dive in with my voucher when the model I require is "in stock", hoping that it actually gets to that state rather than passing straight through to "sold out" because pre-orders have soaked up the entire stock. Or I could just blow the voucher on that repatriated Jinty.

A NEW B12! Yay!! *happy dance* As the D16 looks like a B12 minus a set of drivers, I hoped a modern B12 would be in the works. The price is a tad steep, I'll wait to see how much Hattons want for one....

A multi-purpose service sheet.... Perhaps its a reversion to "Design Clever"?

I now have three, in order of "modernity": Mallard, in BR Green (R2784X) ie Railroad with factory fitted DCC. Mallard in LNER Blue. A GBL body/tender body on a Triang Hornby Flying Scotsman chassis (the one with firebox glow!). This lives on a Super 4 layout. Silver King in BR Green (EDL11). a 3-rail Hornby Dublo locomotive. I don't mind A4s, its just that they're a bit of a boring shape, even with the valences cut back.. Aren't they?

Ordered the Heljan D5900 "Baby Deltic" on Wednesday. The loco was well packed, with delivery (as requested) by Royal Mail and turned up the day after ordering, which suited me fine. Ok, I like the awkward, unsuccessful Pilot Scheme locos that Heljan have specialised in, and along with other previously bought lemons, they'll fit in nicely on a Minories-inspired layout I'm working on. The other reason for D5900 is that I've a LoneStar Treble-O-Lectric D5900 in the same livery.... Unlike the LoneStar loco (which admittedly is now something like 50 years old, with perished wiring and elastic bands), the Heljan performs excellently, and NOTHING dropped off in transit! Anyhow - a big thumbs up to Hattons for getting an ordinary loco to me promptly and without fuss!

I'd given up on the Terriers and cancelled my pre-order for "Whitechapel" when they shoved delivery forward to next year. I'm in two minds now as to what I'm going to disburse my £20 voucher on, instant gratification with the repatriated Jinty or pre-order "Manston", seeing as they're sure that its going to arrive at the beginning of December and that Bulleid Light Pacifics are always in short supply? As for the club mag/booklet, I though issue 106/Autumn which arrived ummm ago was a bit skimpy. The loco colouring activity in the junior section was a good idea, though the loco outlines would have been better presented in landscape format on their own page. Gloss paper doesn't help with accurate colouring either.... Where issue 107 is concerned, we're probably due the Winter Edition in the first couple of weeks of December. Might get around to looking at it in the New Year, when it arrives along with the Terriers! (Edited for repetitive phrasing... I'm developing the short term memory of a stunned herring)

Eeek! Looks like your courier took the "Recyclable" as an instruction.... Glad the model survived - I had a Lego set which is to be a Christmas present delivered today. The box was crushed in transit and I'm in two minds to complain to the vendor about their choice of carrier (myHermes this time...). At least it was Lego - that "crushed cornflakes" sound you get when shaking the box would be heartbreaking if it were a laptop...

I've not been "annoyed" with Hattons for a long time, but on a recent order they ignored my request to send by Royal Mail and used Yodel instead. The order was picked/packed on Sunday and obviously some "helpful" person in dispatch decided that I would prefer to get it "next day" and ignored the "Royal Mail" message. (and the order wasn't an odd shape or heavy!) Thing is, Yodel operatives tend to deliver at unpredictable times, then ring the bell and run away, and you're left with a card and a promise to try again next day. As happened on Monday. I was lucky on Tuesday and collared the operative before they vanished. At least with RM, if you miss them, the parcel will be taken back to the local Delivery Office and can be collected in person, which is a 15 minute round trip compared with two hours to the Yodel depot. I'm not worried that RM will take a day or two longer to arrive. I'd rather not wait about for Yodel to turn up! And by time they've faffed about, the parcel is in my hands at about the same time as Royal Mail takes to deliver. Apart from that, Hattons were otherwise helpful and I got the models I wanted. They just need to pay a little attention to what the customer requests re delivery!

A quartet of GBL "runners" Clockwise (from the back) J39, on a Hornby 0-6-0 chassis. Might get a DCC chip if its lucky! Mallard, on a Triang-Hornby Flying Scotsman chassis. Needs its front buffer beam gluing back on and lives on a Super 4 layout. Western, All GBL (inc cast chassis) on genuine Lima motor and trailing bogies. Brush Type 4/Class 47. Fitted to Hornby TTS Class 47 chassis, replacing their Blue Large Logo body. (edited to reposition picture)

I recently knocked the chimney off my Dapol signalbox and I was going to use some brass tube (which otherwise would have gone to some more important use) to replace it. Cotton bud tube! Why didn't I think of that?

Probably one of those little places on the Sto Plains - a crossroads and a livery stable. (And now a halt too...) As for the locos - I've not seen the stamps, I was going off my hardback copy of "Raising Steam" with the zig-zagging train on the cover, the centre driver of a 9F on the endpapers and a rather oddly-proportioned 4-4-0 in the bottom right corner of the map! I still think Hornby should have done a Christmas marketing deal - old 101 would have done just fine as an incarnation of Iron Girder and a 4 wheeler coach and a coal wagon (Troll optional) would have completed the ensemble. Much better than the Santa Express...

Or a bit of hacking to make a 4-4-0 as illustrated on the map. (Going by the endpapers, you could just re-livery a 9F and call it Iron Girder...)

Here's a GBL J39 thats just about functional..... Standard Hornby 0-6-0 chassis shoehorned inside, approximately in line with the wheel arches, scratch built inside chassis for tender, with Hornby R8234 wheels modified by removing the pinpoint axle bearings at the end.... Trundles about the layout in an acceptable manner. Photographed on my part-completed roundy layout. Fits in nicely! (All it needs now is a bucket of grime and perhaps some real handrails)

Ordered a number of items on Sunday 11th and they arrived Monday afternoon. Excellent processing, packaging and handling. Even Yodel had their act together! So, an experience just like others above. Yes, but one item (new not s/h) was DOA. Return was handled effectively and I had the replacement by Friday lunchtime. Now that IS good customer service.

Looks like the principals and extras for one of those black and white "comedy" motion pictures involving a plank or pane of glass and much misapprehension/confusion.....

I see the dev team are asking for livery ideas. How about one in works lined grey? They could do another in early-60s deep grime and a couple in actual/possible company liveries. Personally, I think the "Huntly and Palmers" livery takes the biscuit! And a collection of Edwardian workmen to go with the loco would be icing on the cake... If they can bring it in at the same price slot as the Sentinels, then it'd be snapped up so quickly that they'd hurt their fingers!