ianp

Good idea. Thanks

I am considering incorporating a French, half-relief, card model of Monet's house into a layout set in France. The commercially produced model does not appear to state what scale it is. How could I calculate that for myself if I do not know the size of the original building?

I am considering incorporating a French, half-relief, card model of Monet's* house into a layout set in France. The commercially produced model does not appear to state what scale it is. How could I calculate that for myself if I do not know the size of the original building? * The famous Impressionist painter.

These are some more pics of the other side of the layout: Cezanne Ville. Any blurriness is due to my unsteady hand with a camera phone and the movement of the moving train. Any questions, please ask.

Here are a few more pics of the Cote de Cezanne layout, should you be interested.

I showed my small layout at last weekend's annual meeting of the French Railway Society. Here are a few pics. The layout is just a circle of HOm track with the front and back (Cote de Cezanne and Cezanne Ville) divided by a backscene, decorated on each side by paintings by the French Impressionist painter by Paul Cezanne: The Bellevue Plain and Village Square. The diesel railcar is the recently released Billard A80 made by the French model train manufacturer REE. The layout revolves, manually, on a large Lazy Susan bearing.

Returning to this topic, my model railcar with its Zimo decoder seems to have had its sound volume (via the CV266 setting) set in the factory at 90. Altering the value of CV266 to as much as 250 seems to set the volume at its highest permitted level. I can't go any higher. Attempting to set the volume to, say, 300 or 350 is simply not accepted by the decoder. Fair enough; I don't want to blow up my decoder or micro speaker. But two questions arise. 1) am I right in thinking that 250 is the highest volume setting? And 2) what does 250 actually mean? is it in some way correlated to decibels, or is it just some arbitrary number that means " a bit louder than the earlier setting" ?

Looking at these photos prompted a thought. How do railway companies keep track of all their locos? How do know where they should be at any one time? How do they ensure they are in the right place for the next working? If you have a simple line with a few trains it might be easy, even with pencil and paper, and with drivers/signallers/line controllers keeping track of where engines are and where they need to go next. But how is it done when there are huge main line stations and marshalling yards, all demanding a ready supply of engines day and night, many of which must, in a big country like France, end their working day many miles from where they started?

Thanks. I now have these stone arches by Noch on order, which I think will do the trick for me: https://www.noch.com/quarrystone-arcade/58260/

I thank the learned gentleman for his astute observations on this matter.

I refer the learned gentleman to my earlier reply, where he will see the relevant concept at the core of the matter: "misleading advertisement".

All these answers above miss the point. The retailer's Ebay advert said, explicitly, that VAT was included in the price. But it wasn't. So I was misled. The advert said this, in plain English, while addressing itself explicitly to UK buyers. If it had said "you will pay the UK's VAT at the sorting office" or similar I would have heeded that. But the advert didn't say that. It said VAT was included in the price. Shall I say that again? Included. Silly me for believing what the advert actually said.

Yes, I certainly have. Most lamposts seem to come with working LED lights these days, which is not what I want. Many others are not the right style (too modern) and certainly don't look French. Browsing the websites of retailers such as Pierre Dominique and Jura Modelissme reveals a deplorable lack of old-style lamposts and street lights.

Where can I find a model lamp post, in HO scale, to adorn my layout? You know, one that would have stood in a street or next to a railway station. I just can't seem to find one when I browse various UK and French websites. Thanks in advance.

Who knows? I was buying on the UK Ebay site and the advert details said explicitly that VAT was included in the price. Silly me, eh? I asked the retailer why, if it was wrong, this was stated, and they said they didn't know! So, **** them. I refused the parcel at the depot and they can have it back in exchange for my money. I don't do business with people who make misleading statements in their adverts and who then suggest it is all the buyer's fault.

My train was worth more than £150. Unfortunately the retailer's advert on Ebay said, explicitly, that VAT was included in the price even though the shop now says it was not (hence my apparent obligation to cough up).

Were you aware that you might have to pay 20% VAT on imported models, plus a handling charge to HMRC? I wasn't, but that is what has happened to me. A month ago I ordered a model for sale on Ebay from a model railway shop in northern France. The essence of the story - apart from the disdainful attitude of the retailer (it is all my fault apparently) - was that the item had been picked out at random by British customs, inspected, found to require a VAT payment, and had then been held at my local sorting office for nearly three weeks, without anyone - retailer, post office, HMRC or Ebay - telling me where it was, until today. I have now found that I will have to pay £33.66 in VAT plus the £8 handling charge to get the post office to hand over the parcel. I rejected it and it will now be sent back, with the retailer having previously offered me a refund. I had assumed that all such taxes would be paid upfront by the retailer and be included in the selling price. But I was wrong. This one was sold and sent seemingly without any VAT being charged; nor was I told I might have to pay this tax on arrival to get my item. Has anyone else has this experience?

Were you aware that you might have to pay 20% VAT on imported models, plus a handling charge to HMRC? I wasn't, but that is what has happened to me. A month ago I ordered a model for sale on Ebay from a model railway shop in northern France. The essence of the story - apart from the disdainful attitude of the retailer (it is all my fault apparently) - was that the item had been picked out at random by British customs, inspected, found to require a VAT payment, and had then been held at my local sorting office for nearly three weeks, without anyone - retailer, post office, HMRC or Ebay - telling me where it was, until today. I have now found that I will have to pay £33.66 in VAT plus the £8 handling charge to get the post office to hand over the parcel. I rejected it and it will now be sent back, with the retailer having previously offered me a refund. I had assumed that all such taxes would be paid upfront by the retailer and be included in the selling price. But I was wrong. This one was sold and sent seemingly without any VAT being charged, nor was I told I might have to pay this tax on arrival to get my item. Has anyone else has this experience?

It looks like this.

What is the tightest circle of track that I could lay sensibly using 009/HOe gauge track? The Peco setrack range offers track at a radius of 23cm. Is that the tightest functioning radius known to mankind? Or could I go a bit tighter with flexible track? I wish to model a small, rural, French, narrow gauge scene in 009/HOe. Thanks.

Problem solved. The model has a Zimo decoder and CV (configuration variable) 266 controls its sound level. I went into CV266 via the initial programming procedure and increased the value within the CV a few notches. Now the sound is louder and without distortion.

Problem solved. The model has a Zimo decoder and CV (configuration variable) 266 controls its sound level. I went into CV266 via the initial programming procedure and increased the value within the CV a few notches. Now the sound is louder and without distortion.

Thank you. But one thing is puzzling me. How, just by renumbering an existing button as F14 or F15, does that create the underlying functionality I want?

I have bought one of the Billard autorail models recently issued by the French manufacturer REE: https://www.jura-modelisme.fr/fr/autorail/38699-ree-modeles-revm001s-autorail-billard-a80-d-des-cfd-n313-2-phares-rouge-gris-perle.html My version is DCC with sound. The handbook says that function 14 (F14) turns the sounds up while F15 turns them down. But my hand-held controller, an NCE Powercab (eight years old) does not appear to offer a function with either of these numbers. And the ridiculously complex and opaque handbook doesn't explain how to create such functions either. In fact it doesn't mention controlling sound volume at all. How should I proceed?

I have bought one of the Billard autorail models recently issued by the French manufacturer REE: https://www.jura-modelisme.fr/fr/autorail/38699-ree-modeles-revm001s-autorail-billard-a80-d-des-cfd-n313-2-phares-rouge-gris-perle.html My version is DCC with sound. The handbook says that function 14 (F14) turns the sounds up while F15 turns them down. But my hand-held controller, an NCE Powercab (eight years old) does not appear to offer a function with either of these numbers. And the ridiculously complex and opaque handbook doesn't explain how to create such functions either. In fact it doesn't mention controlling sound volume at all. How should I proceed?