ruggedpeak

You are not an interested observer, no sign of observing, just naive regurgitation of GA press releases. You've come onto a modelling forum and posted only on this non-modelling topic. I wonder how many other sites you have suddenly appeared on. Quite why perfectly good units like the 360's are being replaced at huge cost remains unclear. A waste of time and money, and hardly good for the environment.

Latest signal blaming from GA: https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/service-disruptions/rural-routes-disruption-information-update Bit more honest apology from GA and NR https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/service-disruptions/statement-mark-budden-network-rail-anglia-route-director-0

Saw a 755 doing its test stop at Witham this afternoon on 5Q92. Red banners inside the doors stating it was not in public use. Stop seemed to go fine. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/F19433/2019-12-13/detailed

A few Gremlins in the print copy. See if you can spot the 'massive' screw sitting in the station yard. However the real howler is that well know railway town of "Crew" ! The articles themselves are very good, especially the how to's. Also the Peters Spares piece.

Asda website saying they are all sold out. Expecting a flurry of micro layouts on RMWeb soon!

Surely DRS have a load of route cleared 37's, 68's and mk2 coaches? They did earlier in the year!

I would hope Bachmann be responsive to current trends using existing tooling to generate sales. In the D&E sphere they have a number of items which will fit with other manufacturers' products and potential demand. The DBSO in DRS and NR colours would tie in with their own 37's, Dapol's 68's, Hornby's 31's etc. Mk2 coaches in DRS would fit the same. Easy for buyers to create an Anglian or Cumbrian short formation, or with existing nuclear flasks or Accurascale PFA's. Seems obvious (?!) since sales of DRS liveried locos over the last few years across all manufacturers must have been a noticeable chunk of the marketplace. There are other examples. Hornby have done well with yellow coaches recently, just a relivery of existing toolings to meet demand.

The key here is the OP assumes that businesses will provide a reasonable level of customer service and civility in their responses. Not all do, and despite this stay in business. There are plenty of businesses that assume or indeed require that you the customer to do a lot of the work and thinking for them, and if you don't or don't like it they aren't interested in dealing with you. Olivia's do seem to hold stocks of things that have mostly sold out elsewhere and charge high prices for them. The key here is patience, what you are looking for will turn up on Ebay etc eventually. I would also ring around smaller model shops as many are sitting on items long since sold out at larger shops. My local model store is great for that, the shelves have plenty of older stock items but as they don't sell online so it doesn't appear on web searches. And they don't update their price labels

GA probably hoping one of these new units doesn't run into one of their 90's or Mk3 DVT at low speed and create another inadvertent crashworthiness test..........

Government doesn't stop working during election "purdah", it is simply not supposed to make 'political', controverisal or long term decisions that might bind a future government to do something it might not want to e.g. signing controversial large contracts. Business as usual is supposed to continue as usual. https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/pre-election-period

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/near-miss-at-norwich-road-level-crossing Yikes

I would point out that many of the retro fitted brighter lights were/are not type approved nor road legal, which is one of the reasons for these problems. They are readily available to buy and fit as replacements for halogens despite not being legal to use on the road.

That assumes the software can and will be updated. If you want to know why managers who lack experience or understanding of complex projects and software are a dangerous combo, just look at what has happened in the aviation industry recently. Fortunately with trains they generally just stop (assume no braking software issues I guess, although there was that issue in Edinburgh recently....).

Interesting - I was hoping for a Gold that included a real mag but none of the options offered that as far as I could make out. Shame I also missed the flash sale.

Hi Jim I noticed that the TOPS number had been cleaned above. Last Saturday the Biffa liveried 66783 was on rear of the Stowmarket RHTT run on the GEML and was typically filthy. Someone had similarly cleaned just the TOPS number on the side, despite being considerably larger than above and visible through the muck (couldn't get a photo as it was off in the distance and no camera!) Is there a requirement to keep TOPS numbers clean/visible? Something for those doing weathering to consider. Tony

Great news. Just hope you will be offering interest free credit terms as I need several!

The train on bridge shots are fab

Mix of landscapes, rural and urban: Greater Anglia 153309 approaching Sudbury 21/04/2018 Matlock 11/04/2018 Grindleford 26.10.2017 142014 15884 at Grindleford Unidentified 153 at Sheffield Station 24/10/2017

That is completely normal for TV production. What you see on screen rarely bears any relation to the reality that was filmed, and if the context or background to something can't be explained in 3 seconds or less then it will be lost. I agree with the continuity issues, this episode and some of the more recent ones have become more disjointed and randomised. It is also clear actual trains are becoming less and less important to the format. That may be deliberate as in my household the non-train people like all the non-railway modelling things (volcanos etc) and would have no interest if it focused on actual trains.

I was a little surprised that the standard warnings were not issued at the start: "Mild peril, injury detail". Which included a drilled finger and the blood covered drill bit

No, I'd travelled some distance to a store specifically for this and other "bargains" and it wasn't worth the time and cost to take it back. Just dismantled it to recover parts and wiring for re-use. Once in bits you can see if it is desgined for occasional use.

Sounds like a focus on steam, but I have all my Hornby and Airfix diesel locos from 30+ years ago and they are mechanically simple and I enjoy maintaining them. Modern loco's are lovely but far too fiddly and too much electronics for me to maintain or tinker with - have loads but you need fine motors skills to work on them which I don't have! I often buy 30 year old Hornby and similar locos at shows, some tested some not. As long as you realise some will be basket cases and pay accordingly it provides a lot of enjoyment in itself. I've bought a few that the sellers thought were a lemon but I knew enough to do a simple repair and get it running well Embrace older models and you will soon develop some expertise and knowledge at a much lower cost and more enjoyment potentially than buying brand new.

I'd just say I bought the Parkside soldering iron a few years ago and it is ok for general soldering but I didn't use it that much and it died within a year.

That's a good sized model, looks fab :) Need a micro layout for it!

It was a great result, couldn't believe it. They go for silly money on auction sites. One of the reasons I go to shows, always some good bargains if you dig around, even at smaller shows