paul.anderson@poptel.org

More tanks! As someone almost certainly said at the Somme,

Wouldn't the cheapest option be to get a recent Hornby 0-6-0 chassis and put it under the revived body? I don't know because I've no idea how or if Hornby changed the wheel profile or indeed whether newer Hornby chassis fit under old Tri-ang Jinty bodies.

Some thoughts on prices for kit-built locomotives – a bit late, but never mind. Like a lot of people, I think, I’m a mix of builder, collector and trainset operator – and they’re often conflicting enthusiasms. I’ve been putting together a (fictional) 1920s-1930s Widened Lines layout for years, which is way off photographable though the basics work; I love building locomotives; and I can’t resist the latest RTR. I know what motive power I need for the layout; I’ve a backlog of kits and conversions to build or finish (the nearly-theres are two N1s, two J52s and a J55, a condensing C12, a GWR Large Metro and a 633 and two 97XXs – you get the picture); and I am not made of money. But I’m way behind on my schedule and need to catch up, so I sometimes shell out on a built kit, as I’ve done recently for a beautiful Fowler 2-6-2T from the Peter Lawson collection, which I’m afraid I’ve already defiled by repainting and will soon add condensing gear to complete the transgression. I also pick up second-hand RTR and kit-built that’s much too big or simply inappropriate for my layout but might be usable when I build that Hertford loop station of my dreams. Why I need a GER E4 I’m not entirely sure, though there was one in Hitchin for a time I think ... or it might be dream layout three, Derby Road Ipswich 1939, which of course is why I need a C14 GCR Atlantic tank. But what about the LNWR Precursor tank that’s sitting in the to-do box? I’m more than happy to pay £200 or £300 for a kit-built loco that works well and fits with my plans, a lot more than I’d pay for second-hand RTR, but I’m also cautious, because there’s a lot of rubbish out there at inflated prices. I’ve been burnt a couple of times by sellers on eBay offering badly made kit-built locos that simply don’t work though they look OK in the pics (and the seller says it runs). I’m as capable as anyone of putting badly glued-together whitemetal kits into boiling water to take things back to bits, and installing a new motor doesn’t faze me -- but the risk of having to do that is ever present. I would always trust you, Tony, not to flog an overpriced dud, but that doesn't apply in the market as a whole. A foible, perhaps, is that I’d never buy a big locomotive kit-built unless I needed one and it wasn’t RTR (very limited now – I’m talking NER and GCR Atlantics and GCR 4-6-0s at best). Even a really lovely Peppercorn Pacific would leave me cold. So... Kits – essential for small locomotives, the tanks and 0-6-0s and 2-4-0s, particularly those not preserved, Built kits: pretty much ditto but only if I’ve not got a kit on the go. Not so much for Pacifics and BR (and Big Four) standards. But I’ve got enough to keep me going until I’m well past 80, so I’m not in the market that much.

Tony, your how-to videos are great: they've got me doing a lot I would never have dared to even attempt.

Anyone done anything good with a Dublo/Wrenn SECR/SR R1 0-6-0T?

I think there's room for a new thread on late-1980s and early-1990s RTR and what to do with it. But I'm too lazy to set one up.

Anyone got anything to say about Hornby LBSCR/SR E2s?

It's a bit late for the time frame, but the Hornby J52 can also be turned into a very decent model with a little body modification, a new chassis and a Mainly Trains body details kit. Another Iain Rice inspiration:

You could be right! I realise I got my last big sheet six years ago...

Have you tried B&Q? They did single sheets of polystyrene insulation board not that long ago.

I'd never heard of Sayer Chaplin until yesterday - and it was based five minutes' walk from where I live in Ipswich, opposite my local post office. Can anyone direct me to a history? I'm intrigued!

D & S did dozens of cast kits back in the day (and I've still a few to make from 30 years ago). They were/are excellent! I don't remember them being cheap in the first place, but they go upwards of £40 unmade on ebay now, when you can find them.

And some of us don't have space to run double Quard-Art sets ... just saying.

If two last-second automatic sniping bids are received the winner is resolved by eBay.

I'm late to the latest eBay conversation, but I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the best way to pick up bargains on eBay -- which is to use a sniping app such as Gixen, which essentially makes your bid automatically for you (unseen by anyone else and undeclared on eBay) seconds before an auction ends. Some people say it's cheating, but it's a very easy way to avoid bidding wars. You put what you are prepared to pay into the sniping app well before the eBay auction ends and leave it. If you win, you win at a price you can afford; if someone else has sniped a bigger bid or lodged one directly, you lose. Rule of thumb: never bid more on a sniping app than Honest Tone would sell for to raise money for CRUK!

A propos of nothing much apart from maybe the power of Wright as model railway influencer. I've just noticed that a K's J3 on eBay has sold for £117.96 -- looks quite nicely built but *no motor* and with original useless plain-brass-bar chassis and equally useless wheels. So much for getting the (unbuilt) kit for £25 and making a usable layout loco on the cheap ... as Tony describes so well in the latest BRM.

I'm sorry to break the consensus on shutting up about this, but Hornby's marketing decisions are relevant to us as modellers. Hornby remains the biggest player in our game. We might wish it luck or think it hopelessly deluded (or both). And TT might be for another thread. But its business model is an issue worthy of informed discussion. Sorry if it's it's boring, but it has got everything wrong rather often as the market-leader.

I think Hornby's TT adventure is bonkers. The models might be good -- I've not seen one yet -- but it will take a miracle for the range to take off. People who are already committed to other scales are not going to change on a whim; and it's hardly a game changer for newbies or returners. I'd love to be proved wrong, but it looks to me like a classic bad market-research-led innovation. A focus group says that something smaller than OO but bigger than N would be great; some larger-group opinion-polling (still on very small samples) reinforces the focus group line; then the Big Decision is made and five years are put into developing the product, which is launched amid much hype ... to universal lack of interest. It has New Coke written all over it. But that has been Hornby for some time.

Thanks for this: I'll start filing at the weekend!

Ooooh, yes please!

I've got a K's J3 I'm reviving -- body I built 40-plus years ago, non-working K's mechanism, crap loco chassis, wrong wheelbase tender thought the shape is OK. (I don't care if the boiler is 0.5mm out.) My plan is to put a Bachmann Pannier chassis under the engine and to modify a 6'6"+6'6" Bachmann Fowler tender chassis/frame and put it under the K's tender body (much cut back). Is this crazy? And if I do it, how do I get the Pannier chassis to fit under the K's body? I can see it has been done, but I'm not sure how. Otherwise, it's build Mainly Trains J52 chassis, which I can see is sensible...

Underwhelmed. The big engine policy might make some sort of business sense, but it doesn't float my boat. I want 0-6-0s and 0-6-0Ts (and not 4fs reliveried in movie style or yet more A1Xs). But I shall save up for a Coronation set if it's any good, so maybe Hornby have got me trapped...