ruggedpeak

Brilliant. Well done everyone involved.

Thanks to everyone for replying. I have the little bag with the headcodes, frost grill and coupling blanking plug, and that bag is intact. So looks like just the 2nd coupling is missing, which is not a major deal. I'll speak to them next time I'm in. Whoever put the pipes etc on did a proper job with no glue or anything, looks like it was factory fitted.

Silly question - bought 97407 yesterday at a shop. Was test run ok, but didn't look in great detail at it. On getting it home I find the brake pipes and connections are added on both ends of the loco and one coupling is installed and the other missing. On this model presumably the pipes and connectors were supplied in a little bag to be fitted by the user? At the moment it looks to me like this is in fact secondhand but wanted to check. The headcode discs are in a bag but the second coupling is AWOL and I assume was in the pipes bag on original purchase? Or are the pipes factory fitted, if so was the coupling in a separate bag? Any thoughts from others who have one appreciated. Thanks.

0-4-0 steam engine, Christmasy, tight radius curves, you say?

I agree with Nick, I think they are dropping poor sellers and low margin items ie the duds. Tooling is a red herring, now the people who didn't understand the market, customers or seemingly much else are gone they can focus on products the market wants. I don't believe the market is hooked on novelty. Pecketts aren't 'novelty', they are an brilliantly executed model that sits perfectly with the current modelling 'zeitgeist' of small shunting planks, micro layouts. And they are just beautiful. I think Hornby will still tool plenty of new models, they'll just be much better at making sure they are ones that sell. It is clear the 'right' models sell well. Hornby's ability to pick the right ones will be critical.

The standalone TTS needs its own packaging and handling and its own retailer margin, which fitted to the loco it doesn't. So add those onto £25 and £40 is spot on. Plus actual retail will be lower if £39.99 is Hornby's price. Great bit of kit, great price, will be interesting to see how it plays out. My 67 fleet will almost certainly get these fitted. Well happy

Have you seen this thread? http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117322-warley/ Tell them directly, they are all ears and I can vouch for them listening at Warley.

For info I ordered 2 this morning on Kernow's website and it took the order. Hopefully I won't get a refund on Monday! Not sure I've seen a model sell out pre-order almost universally in recent years. I wonder if Hornby will have some on their website when they arrive.

From Warley yesterday

And that is exactly what the CEO has made clear they are doing in the interview with Hornby Mag. They are fully aware of this and working on it. Indeed overstocking was one of the major issues for them under the old regime, they are aligning their manufacturing to realistic sales targets so they don't end up with a warehouse of stock that has to be discounted to generate cash.

Latest EP's arrived during the day at Warley and were on the stand. Looking good. Had a chat with Ben about Pendo's, TEA's, 321s and ancient burial sites. Also excited about OO TEA EP's which had also just arrived. With these and Hornby's positive announcements it was a good day to be at Warley

The O gauge cab has to be another teaser, surely? Or is it normal to do oversized EP's? And let's face it, everybody's diving into O gauge at the moment, so maybe that's tomorrow's announcement!

Is there a specific time for any announcement or will it be on the stand from 0915?

Unless they are politicians, in which case it is entirely reasonable. Said an 'industrial washing machine salesman'. Allegedly.

A dangerous road might be a single track, steep, numerous hairpins and about one foot of verge before a drop off a cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other (as I described). As found in many mountainous regions. Or a road deep in the Canadian Rockies in the depths of winter or a remote track in the Sahara, where getting stuck or having a breakdown could be fatal and is rather more likely than the M25 on a weekend. All of which I have driven and are dangerous by any accepted definition of the word.

Don't wear it at work?

Good luck Most mornings the 66 is ticking over next to the Shenfield Shark. Is it fired up in the morning or is it the auto stop/start kicking in?

A few years ago I witnessed this. I was in a convoy of cars driving in the Pyrenees. The lead car entered a very tight hairpin bend with a 200 foot drop on the outside. The driver then had a microsleep and woke up a few seconds later as the car was about to go off the edge. He snatched the wheel at the last second and got round. He was totally freaked out (unsurprisingly) and told us when he woke and snatched the wheel the dashboard lit up with warning signs and beeps and the car made some awful noises. I inspected the tyre marks in the gravel a couple of centimetres from the edge. You could clearly see where the car was approaching the edge and where he swerved and where the tyres had dug in as the car took over. I have no doubt the electronic traction control on the car saved him, an older vehicle would not have got round without the ETC. Moral is don't drive dangerous roads when you haven't slept properly for a week! He was one of those who thought he could burn the candle at both ends - only modern safety tech means he's still here today. We all learnt a useful lesson about fatigue that day. It was quite sobering being on an isolated road looking down a cliff wondering what we'd have done if he gone over.

Putting my ultra cautious safety hat on, neither of those were operations that probably had such a road/racetrack (i.e. non-heavy rail) like scenario of a fast straight into a sharp 90 degree bend with a visual approach of another tunnel suggesting to the unwary the line goes straight on? I am probably stretching it a bit here, but F1 would not allow such a feature on a modern circuit without suitable runoff as it is entirely foreseeable that if for whatever reason a car is unable to lose speed into the bend (and off a straight may be over 200mph) there needs to be another option other than a big crash. It is curious that on the little we know this does not seem to apply here for a public carrying vehicle. Fast straight, very tight bend, apparently no alternative or safety options if speed is too high for the bend.

This phenomenon is well documented, and there is considerable discussion and scientific work around the impact of traumatic events and recollection. This is exemplified over the current debate about to whether police officers should confer over notes after a firearms incident. Considerable learning in this field occured after a fatal and mistaken plice shooting some years ago. I do not propose to discuss that issue, but it is scientific fact that our brains do not manage to collect, retain and recall all the information about situations, and this becomes more problematic if the incident was traumatic. Upon recall the brain automatically and unconciously fills in gaps of recollection with what it decides (based on all sorts of things) is best. We have no idea which bits of information are real and which are not. That is why people can swear blind that they recall something correctly and then be proved to be entirely wrong - your brain filters information and convinces you it is right even though it is not.

Train service disruption Thursday 17 November - An Apology We are very sorry for the severe disruption affecting all services on the Great Eastern Main Line last night. The problem was caused by a train fault on the 17:50 London to Norwich service. The nature and location of the incident meant the service recovery process was particularly long and complicated, despite the efforts of our team, in partnership with Network Rail, to minimise its impact. We will be holding a review into the incident with the aims of both preventing a repetition of the train fault which was the underlying cause of the disruption and improving contingency arrangements in the event of a similar incident occurring again. https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/service-disruptions/train-service-disruption-thursday-17-november-apology Trains breaking down happens, but it should not take out the entire mainline for hours. Ooops. In happier news, on Friday the RHTT with DRS 57303 and 57007 ran on the Up Fast mid-morning with stops at Witham and Shenfield and probably elsewhere to allow trains to pass. A RHTT with topped and tailed by GBRF 66's was running on the Down Slow through Ilford. NR seem to run one of their MPV's early evening between Clapham Junction Shepherds Bush or thereabouts as it passes northbound and returns shortly thereafter southbound washing the rails.

My employer has a long list of questions that are put to anyone involved in a road collision about working patterns, when did your last shift end, when did you last sleep and eat etc. If you were not in a fit state to drive then the responsibility passes to the driver, although may be shared by supervisors if for example they knew the driver finished very late was back on shift a few hours later. Exit to remove duplication.

Because they are closed systems, whereas trams are on public roads and as we have seen already autonomous driving systems are less than 100% effective. Humans aren't exactly 100% effective either but are currently the better option in an open, uncontrolled environment.

Seen that as well, and reinforces in my view of the potential for some systemic as well as individual causes contributing to the incident.

And people who drive boats and planes operate in knots and seem to cope.