4railsman

I do hope they can get the payout from the insurance company that all too readily took £30k of their money. If not, I hope they "name and shame" the company involved both in this forum and in the wider public media. The service I have consistently had from Bure Valley Model Shop over the last few years has been first class and the order always comes extremely well packed. In support of them, I have just placed a £250 order for a couple of 00-gauge Dapol flying banana railcars! I do hope that others reading this will also support Andrew Barnes, the owner of BVR and the model shop.

I'm usually a dedicated "00 gauge modeller", but this offer was far too good to refuse, so as of now they are down to just TWO sets left after my purchase.

This thread now runs to 118 pages and is well past its sell-by date with many comments totally unrelated to actual "bargains". Now we are in a new decade, it would seem to be a good time to close this particular thread and as wirey33 suggested, open a new thread of Strictly Bargain Announcements 2020 just for this years notifications, and have the moderators set it to automatically close on 31st December 2020 as the Strictly Bargain Announcements 2021 thread automatically replaces it. Making it a "Strictly" Bargain Announcements thread would enable the moderators to automatically remove any response that fails to comply with the original stated aim of the new topic. Comments anyone?

On my smartphone, I already have an application for my DVD and Blu-ray discs and am looking for something similar but purely for model railways. Does anyone know if there is a model railway database application (specifically for locomotives including EMU and DMU's) that can scan the UPC barcodes of the models you own and that also provides a good description of the product? I know the model railway retail trade uses the UPC system of barcodes for their stock control purposes, so maybe they can help me find a solution to my cataloguing requirement. Please circulate this post to anyone you think may have the answer to my dilemma.

I took advantage of this for my grandson earlier this morning for £99.50 including delivery. https://www.hawkin.com/harry-potter-hogwarts-express-Hornby-r1234m As of 12.35pm today this set was still available for £99.50 which includes the Hornby Midimat and comes with free delivery. The same set was/is available from the normal model railway outlets WITHOUT the Hornby Midimat. The difference is in the Hornby Part Number. The sets at Hawkin are R1234m. The normal sets are Part Number R1234. That last "m" in the part number is very significant and is the one that contains the midimat. Hope that clarifies what you will actually receive. Happy New Year to all.

Guess that's why no GOLD MEMBER logo/medallion appears on the posts of Phil Parker, Steve Cole and Andy Y ~ they haven't bought into it.

Ray Rippon was also the best place to buy pre-cut copperclad sleepers in 00-gauge, for building home-made copperclad trackwork. I'm not sure whether they actually manufactured them or bought them in from someone else, as the product didn't re-appear elsewhere after they closed down. I still have some of these components left and last year made some more trackwork for my new layout. The copperclad sleeper strip was still in pristine condition some 30+ years after purchase!

Listened with interest, but found the sound clarity/quality varied throughout the recording and was particularly bad during the last minute of the podcast. I think the set up of, and balancing, of the microphones prior to recording, would help to improve the clarity/quality enormously. Trying to record telephone conversations is another matter entirely, and very difficult to balance the participants for recording, especially if the telephone line is poor to start with. For me, the podcast was also far too long at nearly 30-minutes of general discussion. I would like to see if it would work better if it was to be split (i.e. edited) into a number of identifiable chunks, each of a maximum of 7-8 minutes that were titled accordingly ~ eg Hattons interview, Missenden Modellers interview etc. That way I could just listen to the bits I am actually interested in, rather than being forced to listen to a complete rambling pub-type podcast. If the above comments could be addressed over the next few weeks, I think you may have another winner.

Seems to me that Hattons are diversifying again, this time into the realms of becoming an Online Model Railway Publisher. Maybe RMweb forum members could suggest some suitable titles for Hattons to consider for the Publications Title Header/Banner. First it was as a designer/manufacturer of r-t-r models, now looking to be a digital publisher, so wonder what their next diversification will be in the coming year? Suggestions anyone?

As I said in my post on 11th October, and which no-one appears to have commented upon, I still think it would be best if both subscribers of the print edition and those who buy it over the counter received exactly the same offer, and that the title of this remains BRM ~ full stop! Warners could then produce a NEW digital only model railway title that just contains the items NOT contained in the Print editions, and make this available at the same price per issue for everyone, whether they have a regular subscription or prefer to buy just the months they want. But please do not call this new digital content BRM or the confusion will continue for ages past Brexit! Food for serious thought and a response by the BRM team, I think.

Personally, I think it would be best if both subscribers of the print edition and those who buy it over the counter received exactly the same offer, and that the title of this remains BRM ~ full stop! You then produce a NEW digital only model railway title that just contains the items NOT contained in the Print editions, and make this available at the same price per issue for everyone, whether they have a regular subscription or prefer to buy just the months they want. But please do not call this new digital content BRM or the confusion will continue for ages past Brexit! Food for thought, I think.

Anyone been to Tesco (or other supermarkets) to see if they have the November issue as a Special Edition at 99p like happened several times in the recent past?

Must say I agree it's now very confusing about the various contents to be found in particular versions of BRM on a specific month. From all the recent posts about the November issue, it seems that digital subscribers get a completely different version of BRM extending this month to some 300-pages but have to buy the Metcalfe kit for £4.99, whereas the PRINT copies on the high street include it although the magazine price is considerably higher at £5.49 and looks not to have any DVD included. I think the time has probably come to change the name of the digital download version from BRM to something else on a permanent basis, rather than just adding "Digital Download Edition Only" and hoping everyone understands the content differences between these various issues. If the BRM brand name has to remain at all costs, how about prefixing the logo as Digital BRM which would make the cover image immediately obvious that these are two very different products, albeit with some content items appearing in both versions.

Don't hold your breath ~ I haven't seen any mention of Linux being offered by BRM/Warners in any of their publications or by the moderators on this forum. It seems that far too many companies/publishers think that the General Public only use Windows or Apple Operating Systems and bury their heads in the sand when it comes to even acknowledging the existence of Linux. If only they talked to their website IT staff, they may well find that their website is actually hosted on a LINUX SERVER !!

Apologies, njee20, in my haste to comment, I missed that it was Dave who suggested the designers branding should be removed. I agree entirely with your other comments, although I must say I found the detail on the designers website quite interesting and most forum members who know nothing about how websites are developed, may also find his explanations interesting and worthy of a read. That said, and after all Dave's experience with him to date, I too would never consider using him in the event that I was unable to design my own websites.

No, I'm certainly not Steve - just someone who wanted to find out more about the person who designed the new website AND decided to leave his link on the bottom of the site despite Dave saying all the design branding was being removed before it went live.

Impressed with your new website. Steve Macey of Framed Creative Ltd has done you proud, just a shame it took so long to go live. Suggest people click on the link at the bottom of the website to read more about the freelance front end developer and web designer who crafted the new DJ Models website.

When I was looking for a 15 x 12ft wooden workshop about 10-years ago, I couldn't find any ready-made building anywhere in the South of England that had sufficient interior height at the eaves. I wanted a height of at least 6ft. The other thing I noticed was that all offerings were built to the minimum specification the manufacturers could get away with. However, I came across one small builder who built his workshops "like a tank" compared to all the others. Even he built the workshops too low for my needs, but he was prepared to build a "Special" for me and to my EXACT SPECIFICATION, deliver and erect it at my home which was some 120 miles distant. The company was Noahs Workshop based in New Milton, although he has now expanded and moved to the Bournemouth area and trades at Plowmans Garden Centre in Ferndown. Floor thickness is often insufficient, so either get the supplier to provide a thicker floor or be prepared to ADD an additional floor of 25mm thick to the inside. This needs to be taken into account PLUS any insulated roof lining you plan to install when working out your required interior height at the eaves (lowest part of the building). The roof thickness is also nearly always made of a fairly thin OSB material. My advice would be to reject this and get a proper PLYWOOD roof at least 25mm thick specified (and roof supports upgraded to suit). Roof covering is VERY IMPORTANT, most suppliers just fitting some form of roofing felt which can vary considerably in thickness and quality of membrane. The worst/lowest quality may only last a couple of seasons before needing replacement and the best quality anything up to 7-8 years. My workshops covering lasted 8-years before getting ripped off during a winter storm and the interior getting soaked ~ not ideal for a model railway room! My answer to this was to repair the roof with good quality felt and ADD a coloured aluminium roof (as used on farm-type buildings) ON TOP of this (with a 25mm gap between the two) and fit gutters to deal with drainage into water-butts. In your case, with a much larger shed, I would add this metal roof IMMEDIATELY after delivery and you will save yourself a lot of grief in later years, and give confidence that your model railway will remain dry whatever the weather throws in your direction. I had my shed supplied with a lining paper fitted and then added my own Cellotex insulation in various thickness, and covered with 12mm plywood to all sections (roof and wall). I then used plastic surface trunking to run all electrics and fit standard 5ft long fluorescent lights. So there is a lot of work to do after the basic structure is delivered and erected. The other thing to worry about is to get a solid concrete base installed and have this well above any ground level to ensure that any future flooding of your garden can't find its way into your new workshop. It may also be advisable to ADD 75mm or 100mm square bearers laid on top of this concrete base before the shed floor is laid on that. I hope these notes are helpful to you.

If you are wanting a true model railway shop, then the Bluebell Railway Shop at Sheffield Park Station is not it. They cater for the visiting public and only have very limited range of model railway items and mostly around the full RRP. However, if it's books you want, then they do have a good selection, both on full size and model railways. There is also a good second-hand bookshop on the centre platform run separately by one of the loco preservation groups. The other downside is that you have to buy a Platform Ticket (about £3) in order to get access to the shop (and their Pub) during the "running season" ~ unless you are actually travelling on one of their trains.

Neodymium magnets come in various strengths, the ones required for fitting between the rails probably being the strongest normally available. Warning ~ these type of magnets are so strong that they can literally fly when attracted to other magnetic surfaces and can also shatter easily. My magnets were provided with clear warning instructions. Treat them with great care! Remember also to remove your watch or risk damage. Even battery powered watches can be affected. I can't comment on use with Sprat and Winkle couplings, but on Kadee couplings I found I needed N52 grade 4 x 3 x 3mm in order to get them to work reliably. Previously I had tried the 3x3x3mm N35 grade without success. In both cases they are used across the track width (ie a strip of FIVE fitted between two sleepers). One strip was not enough in my scenario, and I ended up with using 4 strips and then glueing a scribed card to make a barrow crossing. Hope that helps.

As a modeller of advancing years, digital magazine subscriptions will never be for me. However, after many years subscribing to various model railway magazines, I am now much more selective on which model railway magazine I consider buying each month ~ if any ~ unless I can flip through a copy in the newsagent first. Also. those model railway magazines that regularly shrink-wrap the magazine because of so called "freebies" that I don't want, rarely get my custom. I really can't see digital subscriptions outstripping the print requirement for many, many years to come, provided publishers have the same content on both platforms. What would alienate me, would be if the publisher regularly provided items in the digital version that the buyer of a print version was prohibited from accessing unless they made further payment. There are ways that publishers can easily verify if the customer has bought a print copy, by simply asking at log-in to quote from a certain page in the current issue, for example. I think BRM for one, should consider that suggestion.

Personally, I don't think that 71000 is ever going to come back, so leaving what looks like a hacked forum subject for newcomers to come across, is not ideal for BRM or rmweb reputation. As I said in post#217, "I think the damage has already been done, both on the replacement website and on what remains of the original. Especially when all the images have also been removed! Even if 71000 did have a change of mind and tried to put back all the deleted material, I'm not sure the forum software (or the administrator) would allow him to do so, with the linking back of the images probably proving even more of a nightmare. To leave BOTH 71000's forum topics on-line in their current state makes no sense and in my view, gives a very poor public image of what the RMWEB forum is all about. Personally, I wonder whether both topics should not be closed but permanently removed by the administrator." Time for AndyY to comment on this and make an executive decision?

Hi Ian Might I suggest that it would be better if you could start another thread on the Electrics Forum and then provide a link from here, as it would be better for THIS Stoke thread to be closed and subsequently deleted

Normally, I would agree wholeheartedly with Martin's view, but on this occasion, I think the damage has already been done, both on the replacement website and on what remains of the original. Especially when all the images have also been removed! Even if 71000 did have a change of mind and tried to put back all the deleted material, I'm not sure the forum software (or the administrator) would allow him to do so, with the linking back of the images probably proving even more of a nightmare. To leave BOTH 71000's forum topics on-line in their current state makes no sense and in my view, gives a very poor public image of what the RMWEB forum is all about. Personally, I wonder whether both topics should not be closed but permanently removed by the administrator. What are other forum members views on this matter?

I'm disappointed that the thread has now been made utterly useless by the deletion of many posts made by 71000, and in particular post#98. I was actively following this thread and especially found the detail posted by 71000 of his Track Circuit Control System for DC layouts extremely interesting ~ see (TCC a NEW system of layout control). I was in the process of getting the parts needed to modify my layout, only to find all the detail has just been deleted, which is a great shame, as in truth, the full details of this system should also have been featured elsewhere on the rmweb website for posterity and not risk being lost forever. Could Andy Y please advise if there Is any way to reactivate the relevant posts on this subject and have them put in a safe and secure place. If that is not possible, could BRM editorial staff commission an article on this TCC system as it seems to warrant a much wider audience than it will ever get by being buried in a forum. Thanks