Chamby

Yes but from the employer’s perspective: Working in the office + time and money wasted commuting > working from home. Because it’s not their time and money that’s being wasted!

Whilst locomotive depot allocations are undoubtedly a valuable indicator of what might have operated where and when, for those not aware there is another resource available that pools train spotters notes of the loco’s that were logged at a particular shed on a specific day. The shedbashuk website therefore gives a useful indication of how far some locos travelled from their home shed, and where they were turned and serviced at the far end of their runs. www.shedbashuk.blogspot.com

…and according to the Hattons website (meet the staff) they had 78 employees in November. That’s a large overhead to maintain by industry standards, especially during a cost-of-living crisis when discretionary spend on hobbies is one of the first things that people will cut back on. 78 people also represents a lot of expertise in the business that supports our hobby. I hope that the other retailers and manufacturers might be able to help some of these people to move on without being lost to the hobby.

Yes, customer behaviours in the market have changed and you are certainly not the only one. But I don’t think that people have deliberately avoided Hattons to support smaller retailers. I too have spent less at Hattons of late, but it has been a subconscious behaviour in an evolving market, rather than a deliberate purchasing decision.

A big thank you to Hattons and all their staff, for services rendered.. I am genuinely saddened by today’s announcement, but also impressed by the honourable way in which the business is to be wound up.

I use expanded polystyrene or Cellotex board to build up the terrain, sometimes hobby foam board for embankment sides. I fill any gaps or irregularities with lightweight polyfilla and when this has dried and been sanded smooth, apply a top layer of old fabric (worn out shirts, sheets, denim for example) soaked in diluted PVA. It dries to a hardened finish that I find is much more durable than plaster or papier mache. Slap on a base coat of paint, then add flock, static grass etc to suit...

The same thought had occurred to me. I have been wondering whether to leave a gap of three houses, with the adjacent side walls shored up to represent bomb damage, but am unsure as to whether these would have been rebuilt by around 1950ish. I’ve also toyed with the idea of a couple of prefab’s at the end of the terrace, to further define the era… whilst Leicester was bombed during the blitz, it was relatively light compared to other midlands cities, so I’ll probably end up leaving the terrace intact.

A slow start to the modelling season this year, with family stuff getting in the way somewhat but I've finally managed to make a start on the scenery at the unfinished end of the layout. Leicester, like many industrial cities, retains a large amount of Victorian terraced housing and I decided that a representation of this was in order. So an extensive review of the available options showed that none of the available products were an exact fit for the commonest designs in Leicester, but with some modification the laser-cut kit from Scale Model Scenery would be a reasonable match. The available space allows for a street with around 32 terraced houses, sufficient to give the right visual impact. Building a long terrace meant some tweaks to the design, including a gated alley between alternate houses to give access to the back yards from the street. I also decided against the 'wraps' provided by SMS which, although very good, have a slightly glossy finish that I am keen to avoid, and wouldn't be an easy adaptation to fit the modified design. I have decided to use Redutex textured sheets as an alternative 'wrap'. Justin at SMS was very obliging and was able to provide a bulk supply of the kits (minus wraps). This is going to be a long project, as the kits are very nicely detailed... but with each sash window comprising four components, and nine windows and doors per house - all of which need cutting from their frets and assembling - that's over 1,000 parts for the windows and doors alone. I've also yet to decide how many of the houses will include interior lighting and furnishings to give a semblance of life during evening running sessions. The images below give an indication of the work in hand. It's very early days as yet and to avoid too much repetition I'll only post updates as and when things have made significant progress, but hopefully this project will not drag out beyond the next three months or so! And a happy new year to you all...

Build and install the Sh******** ? 🫣 And a very happy new year to you too! Sydney put up a very good firework display again.

Excellent shot, Tony. For me, photographs taken from the bottom of an embankment offer amongst the most realistic and evocative views. This picture triggers strong childhood memories of sitting on the lawn in my Granny’s back garden in Wilford, watching the 9F’s rattle by on the approach to Trent Bridge. Her house sat right at the foot of the bank and afforded a great view of Nottingham bound trains…. Though I also recall that she was more concerned about the amount of soot that landed on her washing, than marvelling at the sights and sounds!

I sense that we’re getting very close to the origins of the well known phrase “like **** off a hot shovel”… The diversity of content within this thread continues to amaze!

A couple of club members have started to use these… but based on their experience I have decided to stick with my Kadee’s… for now. I recommend that you buy some first to see whether they are worth the investment, and benefit from their learning to date. West Hill Wagonworks produce a range of magnetic Hunt couplings in various styles and lengths, I think Hornby and Accurascale may also have some. They have evolved over time. They appear to use small neodymium magnets that can be bought quite cheaply on Amazon, the first versions used a single magnet on each wagon end so the polarity meant they were ‘handed’ meaning you could only couple up with the wagons running in one direction. Later versions have two magnets paired side by side with opposite polarity, so that they attract whichever way round the wagon is placed. My observation is that they seem to work well as long as the weight of the train does not exceed the strength of magnetic attraction, and you don’t have curves with a tight radius, and insufficient flexibility in the coupling structure that causes the magnets to cant against each other and lose their full face-to-face magnetic force. I have also seen some derailing where the magnetic force is strong enough to maintain a rigid connection between two bogies resulting in insufficient flexibility to negotiate a curve properly. They have their advocates and do seem to work well in many cases, but I’m not yet convinced that they are a universal option. Good luck!

The sound recording, the chip and the speakers used all make a huge difference, but with care you can get some evocative steam sounds these days. The quality of recordings available has improved a lot of late, along with the improvements in chip capability, whereas earlier programmes (and chips) were a lot of less sophisticated - but they are still out there being sold, so you really do need to hear the product before you buy. When starting out, I naively bought a chip loaded with what was sold as an A3 sound file, only to find it was the chip manufacturers old library recording of a 3-cylinder German locomotive, complete with a very wrong whistle. It can all be very hit-and-miss if you don’t do your homework. My recommended starting point would be a specialist sound programme such as Locoman, on an ESU Loksound v5 chip, with 2x YouChoos 8ohm 18x13x10 Ice Cube speakers wired in parallel to give a combined 4ohm installation. These speakers are a massive improvement on the single standard sugar-cube supplied by ESU. It will be a bit more expensive than some other suppliers but I find this usually gives a well balanced set-up and can fit inside most RTR tenders. You’ll probably find other modellers out there lauding the merits of Zimo chips too, it very much comes down to personal preference and whose programmes are available for which manufacturers chips. There are other good programmes out there from a number of other specialist suppliers: You-Tube demo video’s are a useful guide. For a tender installation in an RTR model, you’ll usually have to cut away the moulded coal bunker to create enough room, but externally it doesn’t show if you retain the plastic coal load to cover the resulting hole. And a layering of crushed real coal on top, of course!

57xx, not to be confused with the Rattler that comes in pints…

PJ is rarely found on draught east of the Tamar, it’s still mostly a local delicacy and (dare I say) the better for it! It’s sister Tribute does venture further afield as a guest ale though… and tinnies are appearing upcountry on some supermarket shelves these days.

I am truly shocked by the recent ravings on this thread… you travel half-way round the globe to reach these shores, but not even a whiff of Ozzle’s Proper Job on draught??? So near… but oh so far!

It’s not just Manchester at the moment… if you’re visiting mid-Cornwall bring your wellies, the ground has been sodden for days now and it’s still raining!

On the subject of working lamps on steam locomotives, I think Hornby are trying to cater for several markets with one product, for reasons that I can understand. The single bulb with light conducting plastic installation is commonly used on continental HO scale models. It’s easily fixable, as has been mentioned. More fastidious modellers (as opposed to collectors or ‘train set’ operators) can simply either remove or modify them. I have no use for ‘Turbomotive’ on my layout but would probably fit a resistor to dim the over-brightness, and paint the lamp front with yellow lacquer (or varnish tinted with yellow paint) to correct the colour. If they continue to offend, simply remove them and fit cast Lanarkshire Models non-working ones. For commercial reasons, manufacturers have to cater for more than one sub-set of the broad spectrum that covers our hobby, especially with one-off prototypes such as Turbomotive that inevitably have a more niche application..

That would require modelling tissue in the four foot... and I’m certainly not going to that level of detail!

It’s plastic axles (especially square ones) that are the real bugbears....!

Or the cab floor is too low? However It looks like the figures are simply too small... if they were stood up, their little faces might just peer over the bottom of the cab windows. A 5’9 figure to scale, would stand 23mm tall. Replacement standing figures from ModelU or You Choos would be an improvement... though their seated figures tend to be on the small side too. I’d prefer fit ‘to scale’ figures and have to do a bit of surgery if necessary.

My first thought also, though my puerile sense of humour was more tickled by the nearby Centovalli Railway, that carries the abbreviation logo of the Ferrovie Autolinee Regionale Ticinesi... https://images.app.goo.gl/nwB2Z7wQuWVfPf2bA

The demise of a capability/willingness to ‘build it oneself’ is surely down, in part, to the removal of metalworking as a school subject all those years ago. I fondly remember my ‘double metalwork’ lessons, which alternated half-termly with woodwork, as an enjoyable part of the school curriculum until the time came to make my GCE choices. Long gone, this must have had an impact on our hobby’s character. In a way, the fact that we have a ‘wishlist’ poll at all is a reflection on the disappearing ‘ make it myself’ mindset. I spent much of my youth in the shadow of the former GC London Extension, that has inevitably formed my modelling focus and as @65179 mentions above, I have been able to build up a remarkable representation of the line from RTR items, with Sonic Models’ A5 recently filling the last major gap in the locomotive roster. Most of my own ‘build it myself’ activity has therefore revolved around the layout itself, rather than what runs on it, although that will have to change when the need to better represent coaching stock reaches the top of the ‘to do’ pile...

I wonder how many of us anticipated the need for somewhere to put boxes and stock, when planning our layout? Not for storage, but for everyday use when moving stuff on, off and around the layout, and for servicing. I certainly didn’t, but have since installed a shelf under the layout for that specific purpose, and it is in constant use. Although my baseboards are installed somewhat higher than LB’s, which helps.

With DCC, think of each locomotive’s on/off switch as being in the loco itself rather than the track’s power supply. This ‘switch’ is carried with the loco wherever it goes, and it can be turned on and off anywhere on the layout with a digital command unique to that loco. Adding section switches in a control panel, and installing the associated miles of wires and connectors across baseboard joins between each switch and it’s associated track section is therefore unnecessary. You already have the means to turn a loco off, why add another, with the associated build expense and operational complexity?