ruggedpeak

Can you provide a link to the statistics? It's just that my local model shop is run by a young lady called Heather.

Great pics of the NMT. Good luck Jim. Thanks for all the pics.

One to add to the future modelling projects list. Having seen them from a distance at the Romford PW depot, Colas liveried portacabins are now further up the GEML in a car park between the GEML and Braintree branch line at Witham. Assume this is for forthcoming weekend engineering works that is closing the line on Sundays. Note the generator and fuel tanks along side the cabins. Photos aren't great due to evening sun.

I'm not, I think it will be a bit

All sorted, thanks Colin and RMWeb

I have a thing about 'Coalfish' wagons and have managed to acquire every version of them that Hornby has produced , prefer them to the Bachmann wagons. This site has loads of good pictures of them, including showing them in yards which may help - can't show the pics as the website is locked down http://picssr.com/tags/coalfish/interesting/page6 and in use https://gingespotting.smugmug.com/Wagons/M-Tops-Code/MHA/i-7RFpHh3 The Parkside "Rudd" wagon it is a nice easy kit to build to expand your fleet, and Hattons are still doing Atlas Editions machinery cheap - http://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/3083687/1000725/Atlas_Editions_Farming_Construction/Bargain_List.aspx Ideal for repainting etc. Nice modellable yaard scene (courtesy of Smugmug https://photos.smugmug.com/Wagons/M-Tops-Code/MHA/i-8W7tnPt/0/e0568ec0/XL/MHA_394106_a_DidcotParkway_09072007-XL.jpg ) of an MHA with Warwell in the foreground and piles of sleepers and overgrown sidings behind! Not Millerhill but typical modern yard scene. Looks like as birds nest above the Warwell's bogie!

Hiding from the heat building Cambrian and Parkside kits. Too hot to be outside and have lots of diy to do, so modelling takes my mind off it. Doing odds and sods like putting brake discs on Dapol 68's too.

Bachmann haven't been gazumped, they have been asleep at the wheel. If you don't react to the market for years and years, turning out the same old model in various liveries but not reflecting market requirements for greater fidelity, taking nice profits on old tooling etc,you are sending a clear signal to the market that there is demand for 66's. The fact that there are hundreds of them in reality, they will be on our railways for the foreseeable and there is a profusion of liveries means a large sustainable market for models. Bachmann may have to "Railroad" their model or do something else. The bottom line is that various manufacturers have struggled over the last 5-10 years to adapt to a wide range of changes (well discussed on RMWeb!) and this has left the door open for the more organised and, crucially the more financially savvy/stable companies to enter the market and compete head on. Model choice is not only tactical in terms of what customers want but perhaps strategic in also making life difficult for competitors. That's business and Bachmann are having to play catch up for lost years of product and tooling development. At the moment no one seems to be tackling key Hornby models head on, which is presumably where Railroad helps them since they do a 66 but are not worried by more detailed £150+ versions. Bachmann don't have a mechanism at the moment to exploit older tooling. Anyway, very much looking forward to the ETHEL's

Depends on whether SLW have progressed a 25 project - this is clearly and early announcement from Heljan and the timing is stated as 2019, not when in 2019 so could be 18 months+ away. If SLW can move quicker........

I'm not sure that is the case. Dapol's dummy locos and DMU's are a lot cheaper than the powered versions - it is not just the parts but the time taken to assemble those parts into a functioning drive train, which is quite fiddly. The dummies are less than half the price of the powered versions. https://www.Dapol.co.uk/shop/n-gauge/dmu/class-121 This pricing differential is also replicated at well known retailers, so perhaps other manufacturers have sought to maximise profits but pretending they are not much cheaper to produce?

It has parallels with Hattons 66, other than Heljan leveraging existing design work (Hattons O gauge 66?). I think we may well see more of this as the market gets more crowded with manufacturers/commissioners. Offering lots of liveries at once is probably part of this process of shutting down potential competition. Good for us as more choice but things may toughen up for manufacturers. I also hope that this leads to less of the 'buy it now or else pay a fortune on Ebay later' approach to releases that has become the norm. With lots of liveries for say the 25's and Hatton's 66's we may have more time to buy things.

Can Heljan confirm whether the Ethel's will be non-motorised so we don't have to pay loco prices for what is essentially a wagon (a la Bachmann!). Overall great news, will have Ethels and a Tamworth. Anyone want old Hornby 25's that I was going to convert!

Or they have a warehouse full of TTTE stock they want to liquidate without major discounting since these models cost not only the manufacturing but the licence fee as well.

Taking competition out of the game is part of business. Once you've killed off the competition you can charge what you like. It relies on people being too busy/stupid/lazy to shop around locally.

Is it not your search settings? I use Ebay a lot (I rarely use Amazon as its rubbish for finding what you need - seems to be a website mainly full of things that are out of stock) for all sorts off things and searches are listed UK first then a separate section below with overseas listings. You can adjust responses on the side of the page:

Thanks to the organisers, a very enjoyable show. Visited today on my way to Sheffield. Liked Manygates and Annascaul, chatted with chap from DEMU about 3mm modelling, bought some kits.

Youve been brainwashed by the subliminal messaging hidden in the video! And if you play the video backwards it tells you to worship the devil

For the record I don't currently subscribe but I did buy this month's edition once I had perused it at WHS as it had a lot of good content. The 02 and Salmon build articles were great, pitched at the right level for myself in terms of skill level and being D+E related. The layouts were also good. The Crowdfunding article was another draw, as was the Mechanical Traveller. Overall there was well above average for content that I personally was interested in, hence the purchase. It helped that it was a special offer price of £3.99 and that it had the Scenecraft catalogue (I love flicking through catalogues). The lack of DVD was not an issue as I buy magazines to read on the train, not gawp at a screen. I watch the DVD's when doing the ironing, but would not be unduly concerned if they were not present - it is what is in the mag that counts for me. In fact no DVD and a lower price would be ideal from my perspective.

Great issue. Love reading about the railwaymen's experiences. I too wish I'd done the Far North lines when they had 37's. I did travel from Kyle once in those days but was totally hung over after a ceilidh the night before, so recall very little of the journey!

does it come with a needle, or do we have to go to Lidl for that?

The ironic bit is I have a Traction subscription and a Warner's online account set up to get BRM emails and I don't get them for some reason!

You've made several false accusations, starting with theft. Here's the definition of theft in the England & Wales: "A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly." I look forward to your explanation of how an email address constitutes "property" as defined in the legislation, and how selling it on "permanently deprives the other". If it does not meet those tests and the other things stated above it ain't theft. You also refer to fraud. Which offence under the Fraud Act 2006 were you referring to? Hiding things in small print isn't fraud. If you are going to make hyperbolic unsubstantiated and false accusations perhaps have some idea what you are talking about? The legitimate sale of email addresses does not constitute either criminal offences you refer to, but is governed by completely different legislation. Perhaps an apology is in order? That and a basic course in UK criminal and libel law. Off to read Traction magazine and eat chocolate

GPDR is about far more than selling email lists. It is a fundamental change in the way data is handled to prevent a wide range of misuse to protect individuals throughout their life and provide control over their own privacy The misuse of personal data in its entirety (email lists being one tiny part of of colossal volumes of private data being held), as we've seen with Cambridge Analytica, is exactly the sort of issue it will tackle by putting control back in the hands of individuals. The sale of email lists is part of it, but as we are increasingly seeing, is not the most important. As I said, Warners' email list is unlikely to be anywhere near the ICO's priority list for the foreseeable. There are considerable sums to be made from selling data, which is why there are already opt out regulations. If people have not opted out then, whether we like it or not, the data can in principle be sold. This is not theft.

They will probably say thanks for your report and we'll keep a note in case Warners become a major privacy threat, but we've got more important things to be tackling right now. I doubt the Russians are using RMweb email lists to brainwash you into voting for [insert your choice of political leader/party here]. It should be clear by now that Warners/RMWeb are working on it. Let's keep some perspective on how important this issue actually is in the grand scheme of things and in relation to the hobby.

Probably the most terrifying phrase in business today...........