Graham Walters

Is this trying to get me to play hunt the thimble ?

Thats what I love about this forum

Please let us all in on the secret

Test Valley Models will be opening on May 7th at 0900 The address is: Test Valley Models Unit 404 The Commercial Centre Picket Piece Andover SP11 6RU tel 01264 354885 There is plenty of free parking on site.

Test Valley Models is a new venture started by myself. It's an online shop that sells mainstream products, but is also attempting to bring together all those hard to find things into one place, and at prices that wont shock. We are aready stocking LEDs with prewired resistors, so if you hate soldering, then these are for you. The range at the moment isn't vast but is growing on a daily basis so it's well worth stopping by at least once a week to see if we have what you want at the price you want to pay. We offer a 30day money back guarantee on ALL our products, including second hand, all our second hand locos are tested before being despatched. We also offer free postage on orders over. All orders are posted by Royal Mail 2nd Class delvery, orders under £25 and under 750g will only cost £2.61 for anywhere in the UK, Overseas are advised to e-mail us for a quote. For our opening month of March we are offering a further 10% discount on our published prices, and the first 50 customers will get a voucher for an additional 5% discount on top of that. The shop opens on 1st March and all offers run until the 31st March, vouchers have no expiry date. Payment is by all major credit cards, paypal or through the shops own system. You can find the shop at https://testvalleymodels.com

It's only been five weeks since SWMBO mentioned that a move may be on the cards later in the year. Despite the cold, in that time I've seen the new baseboards delivered, new track and all the accessories come in brown boxes. This weekend a milestone has been reached, all the track hase been laid, the new DCC Cobalts have been installed and tested the main bus has been wired up, complete with droppers on every length of track. Next thing is to test the track, and get some trains running, then work can begin on the scenics.

Getting into the hub fiirst has nothing to do with it, it still has to be sorted and then put on another lorry to be flown or driven to the onward mail centre, where it is again sorted and taken to the local delivery office. Royal Mail has gradually moved all it's hubs away from rail and nearer to airports, so in theory this should happen to all First Class parcels, a lot also depends on whether you get it to your local Post Office before the last parcel collection, which is around 5pm, but depending on the route could be 5:30pm. A lot also depends on the type of service, if it is sent 24hr Tracked, then those parcels get accelerated through the service to arrive next day. These days when people get delays in the post, I'm sorry to say but 9/10 times it's not down to the way RM deal with the parcels.

I called in there last week, my first ever visit, my expectations were low after looking for items on their website, be warned the website does not do the shop any justice whatsoever. I was pleasantly surprised to find stock literally from floor to ceiling, and went well over my on street 30mins parking, ( but no ticket). I came out with an armful of stuff I needed, and will no doubt make the trip again when more is required

I get the feeling my monitor is playing up, this does not at all look like GWR Light and Dark stone, to my eyes the capboarding is nowhere near the colour I have been supplied by Precision Paints, that looks almost grey to me. On the subjectof Hi-Vis, a study was done recently in Australia on it's true effectiveness. Motorist were shown a video from the viewpoint of car driver and had to say how many people they saw dressed in hi-vis clothing, of the 100 people tested none got it excatly right, and over 70% only saw 50% of the people in hi-vis. The conclusion they came to was that because it is becoming more and more common, we are getting to be blind of it. The survey also noted that if the clothing wasn't spotted before a vehicle got within 100ft of the wearer, the effectiveness was lost completely. The most efficient Hi-vis colour is dayglo yellow, day or night.

You know that feeling you get when things are going well. It has happened to me more than once, and it has happened again. Just as I completed the track laying, SWMBO announced that we should go house hunting, I was not amused, it came completely out of the blue, and had never been mentioned in the previous 5 yrs, so like a developer building on a flood plain, I thought I was safe. This meant some serious thinking, all layout work came to a spark emitting grinding halt as I considered the options, the baseboards had been built as one unit, so taking it apart would be the proverbial nightmare, no allowance for moving had been made in the wiring, or in the already built bits of scenics, after a couple of anxious weeks I came to the conclusion that nothing could be done but to rip it all up and start again, this time working around the fact that we would be moving in the future. I decided that the best way to go was the skeletal baseboard route, and build it as if it had to be transported for exhibition, it was to me the only answer. Yesterday my baseboards arrived flat packed supplied by Model Railway Solutions, no the cheapest on the net, or the most expensive to save money I went for their cheaper version. Today has been spent building the three modules, I was pleased to see that there was enough of everything, pins, glue and screws for the boards, although you do have to source your own screws to fix the squared off cuts, which bring it all square and true. As tomorrow is another day off I shall no doubt be heading off to a timber merchant for some legs, and MDF to continue with the build.

I had an e-mail from Wayne today regarding my questions on his forum, and firstly I can comfirm that all is well with the company, he also apologised for not answering queries on his own forum, instead paying more attention to the threads on more popular forums. However this is what he has told me, it also clears up a few of the questions raised in this threadd: I hope this helps anyone considering on investing in this system.

The FOD was a hive of industry in it's day, I would imagine almost all the pits had their own wagons, Cannop I know did, so that is one you could put me down for three of, any more would be a bonus. The Timber distillers outside Coleford also produced charcoal for the furnaces, naptha and cordite among other things, all this had to be moved around, there were also numerous quarries supplying stone, and sawmills making the pit-props and other wooden products.

Mine turned up today, extremely well packed, and they gave me a discount on the postage, good honest shop thanks Derails, when I am next home in the Ross area I shall pay you a visit.

My sources say that more have been ordered from the N Gauge forum, so sales could be going well. My apologies it seems the cord wagons although used on standard gauge tracks were hauled by horses, or by the works own engine, and never saw the light of day on the branch on mainline, the only photo I've seen of them is in Ian Popes book "Severn & Wye Railway V2" ISBN0906867 28 2

I've ordered three of these, thanks for comissioning them. Do you have any intentions of commissioning wagons form the other pits, especially those of the Severn & Wye, such as the Cannop Ponds livery ? I would also be interested in the cord wagons for the timber distillation works, if you were ever to commission those. EDIT: I've posted this on the N Gauge forum to generate a bit more interest.

You don't mean ........ da da duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum......they even allow the Welsh in now !!

Being an exiled Herefordian I find it strange that all you furriners get into the city, let alone the shop, have they stopped asking for passports at the borders ?