JohnR

I didnt say they are ONLY interested in preserved railways. Just that for a lot of people, a preserved line is their main interaction with a railway, and hence rejecting the use of vehicles not currently on the main line would be restricting the potential. I'm not saying dont do modern units, I'm saying dont discount the appeal of stock only available on a heritage line.

Must have been some form of locomotive to move wagons through the streets to the harbour (as you can seen in the photograph, the line in the foreground)

No, indeed not. My point is that the argument that people will only model what they see on the main line (and hence wont be interested in a 25/26/27) is a false one - given people are more likely to visit a tourist attraction where they can see those diesels close up.

A lot of people dont experience railways today on the main line. They experience them at a heritage railway.

Could someone advise whether I could renumber 25 085 to 25 083?

I've not turned my nose up at the cheap 0-4-0s that Hornby flog off at the stands - often its only to collectors club members. I've found it a useful way to buy new locos for my two boys. It probably indicates that these are too expensive to begin with - at the moment Smokey Joe is £50, and I wont be paying that for the kids to race about on their layout.

Just had the news last night that Ian Sangster of Macs Model Railroading in Kirriemuir, passed away on Sunday evening, aged 71. Thoughts with his family and friends. RIP.

I'm assuming part of the stock mountain were Class 66s - Rails now offering them at 33% off £64.95 each.

I prefer those mugs to the current design #justsaying

For further information, you cant do better than Naill Fergusson's recent book on the Dundee & Arbroath railway.

As reported by Oxford last month https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/blogs/news-1/an-update-on-taff?_kx=X_INYaM5Xx0uzP7tlRHRUMZQzzlTlBdzAR6oYq5jowA.UvyHL7

Thats probably why it will prove difficult to offload some of that stock in the Hornby warehouse - the retailers are already carrying some of it. Of course, in years past, Hattons would have taken a lot of stock of Hornby's hands (at the right price), and bailed them out of a mess. Thats not an option any more.

Peco have templates of all their points available for download from their website. Youi will find that the code 75 streamline points have a different geometry - so the track needs to be spaced aprt by 50mm, rather than 67mm, and even the small radius points have a larger radius that settrack points, so they will take up more space. You're probably going to end up taking up a lot of your trackwork in order to fit them in.

Having upgraded a Hornby 101 with updated bogie frames to get NEM pockets, I can confirm that even on the dummy car, you can swap over the frames without issue.

The other thing to note is that these cheap bargains are of the Southern Malachite livery - effectively 1946-48. The BR(S) Green ones were sold out long ago. I'm guessing Hornby made too many of the SR Malachite ones.

DCC Concepts are specifically marketing theirs as a plug and play replacement, as they took have a socket on their decoders/stay alives.

I know, and I've built some. However, I know they're not painted as well as an RTR version would be.

Given the problems with Hornby's 1/800 van, heres hoping Rapido follow up there 1/801 van with a model of that too.

I have to say I do prefer @Harlequin version - it has a much better "flow" to it, and the bay/siding is better sited with regards the run round loop.

Have you tried fitting the blanking plug the other way around?

Its hardly much of a saving, is it? Looking on ebay, a Dapol O gauge pannier "From China" is listed as £178. The Royal Mail (or whoever delivers it to your door) will charge you for the VAT - 20% - taking the total up to £213. They may charge extra as a "handling fee" - Royal Mail's is £8, others pay be cheaper or more expensive. The exact same model is in stock with a certain Sheffield based retailer for £223. So you are saving maybe £2, and loosing the customer support if something is wrong. Fault with the model, are you going to send it back to the seller in China?

A list of the locos launched by Triang: 1957 Jinty 0-6-0 GWR Castle 4-6-0 1959 Original Merchant Navy 4-6-2 Class 08 0-6-0 Class 31 1960 Britannia 4-6-2 1961 GWR Prairie 2-6-2 1963 Class 104 DMU So 8 locos released over 5-6 years.

Also worth comparing with the roll out of TT3 by Triang in the 50s. It took a few years for that to get going as well - and it seemed to be killed off before it had reached a reasonable level.

I dont think its something you've missed - its more a case of it went live too early - the TT120 announcement is next week.