SGP

Regarding hotplates ... all locos had a hotplate in each cab. I never understood why BR started removing them at one end on 47's whilst new locos were (and still are) being built with two.

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Toilet at rear of tender - bottom! right of this picture. Not sure if curtains were fitted.

Probably not. I guess it would just be bog standard.

Okay, this month sees eBay ditching Paypal for good and using Adyen to process their own payments. 

So, that's another outfit (Dutch) that wants access to my bank account. 

It won't be cheaper for us punters but it means that eBay now get ALL of the fees instead of letting Paypal have a share. 

No more will we have to pay Paypal their percentage but eBay have upped their fees to claw in all the "savings". 

Further, don't forget that if you only use Paypal for eBay purposes, you Paypal usage will be ticking down .... if you don't use your Paypal account, you will be charged £12 per year stagnation fee. 

Make sure you use Paypal once a year on other sites to avoid the annual fee. 

I think I'll just be buying from eBay in future. No more selling for me.

Here are the crunched numbers posted on the Money Saving Expert website .... 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/11/ebay-axes-paypal-sellers-bank-accounts-upping-fees/

An annoyance that I have with eBay is when an item of mine doesn't sell, they automatically relist 7 times. 

They also change the auction duration and add the option of offers. 

I already price to the minimum I'm prepared to sell for and having to check every day for offers is an annoyance. 

Having to be available online for 7 weeks in case an item that I am not aware I'm selling gets sold is also annoyance. 

Now they've ditched Paypal, that will also become an annoyance as if I don't use Paypal for 12 months, I apparently will incur charges. 

Meanwhile, the Windows "circle of doom" is nothing compared to eBay's circle of "help links".

2091.09 looks decidedly odd since the baggage end was cut down to effectively become a large toolbox.

What's with eBay ditching Paypal? I thought they owned it. 

Would the Oxford Diecast body fit the chassis?

Regarding shill bidding .... I remember an incident on eBay from the days when we could see who was bidding and where they were based. 

A model shop (who I won't name) had a large-ish "collection only"  item for sale with two bidders (one being a friend) ding donging the price up to £900 from a 99p start. In the end the other bidder won but then refused to pay as he said he was unable to collect. That bidder lived in the same town as the seller, my friend lived a couple of hundred miles away. A second chance offer was offered at the next highest price down BUT if that other bidder was taken out of the equation, the highest bid should have been 99p. I noticed that this sort of thing was rife with local "mates" shilling up bids. Not long after, eBay hid everyone's identity so now you can't see who is shilling bids up.

I have used Hornby 00 colour light signals outside. 

I cut the post in half then inserted top and bottom into a suitable diameter tube to up the scale a bit.

Just to add that from November 2020, Malc's Models moved from their Pelham Street shop just off the bottom of Bath Street, to a larger shop in the main footfall halfway up Bath Street (or halfway down depending on which way you are facing).

The shop is now directly opposite Wilko's but due to restrictions has not been able to open properly since the move.

A tip when fumbling about inside the loco ... no need really to ever go in there apart from adding crew or doing as I did with the lights ... but when clipping the cab interior back in, make sure there are no wires trapped as it will cut them in half they are so thin. 

Luckily, the wire that I trapped and severed was to the cab light and I had snipped that anyway.

I meant Cricklewood men but the point of my post was the preferred leading cab on the ConDor traffic.

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Pretty impressive that of the entire class only 2 have not been preserved.

I think since I compiled the article, 001 has succumbed to being scrapped for spares (not sure about that).

004 is a spares donor but it is still hanging on in there.

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What did they work into the London area on the WCML?

They worked the ConDor service from Hendon to Glasgow (and return) routed along the Midland main line and cutting though the Erewash Valley line.

The class doesn't get any prettier the smaller it gets.

I never really understood the design of the narrower body area under the cabs, it looks like someone measured once and cut twice. 

I bought the recent book on the Co-Bo's by Anthony Sayer but nowhere within the pages does it mention that the ConDor locomotives were usually coupled with the Bo ends outermost as the Bo cabs were quieter and gave a better ride. If a single Co-Bo was used, it went north with the Bo cab leading and was turned for the return trip. 

Camden Cricklewood men would insist on this but when the class were dumped on Cumbrian crews, they drove them from any cab. Photos tend to support what I was told by older drivers but I have yet to see anything in writing anywhere.

 

 

So now I'm at last happy with the loco!

I'm glad that I didn't say that. Someone would've been on my case. I'm not allowed to pick fault with the 71 even when I have a valid point.

 

 

I am reminded of Hamlet, Act III, scene II line 222 (for 'lady', read 'gentleman') !

Some sort of abuse no doubt but not the courage to say outright. 

I've put my findings on here and just because it goes against what you want to read you become two of the three wise monkeys. 

Fact is ... a flimsy plastic pantograph that once broken cannot be fixed IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE even for us who don't play trains.

 

 

And don't think the Hornby panto...delicate as it is....is anything but fragile too.,,as I discovered when a slight knock caused it to self-dismantle.Re assembly is a nightmare.Hope you find it,as you say "fit for purpose"

Yes I know but at least there is a fighting chance to repair it. Once the DJM pan is broke ... it's broke. 

Good points and bad points with both. If the Hornby pan is available as a spare, fitting that to the DJM might be a good idea.

 

 

Under wires? How much wire are you proposing to install? The wires were entirely confined to yards and sidings, hence the loco would be no more than crawling every moment it was using the pan. And the pan I examined looked very finely made, only rose a realistic distance, and had the detail of the graphite inlays as per prototype. 

I'm not installing any wires. Mine was broken fresh out of the box and, examining it, I do not think it fit for purpose. Two light shunts and it would break ... or perhaps reaching across and catching your sleeve on it .... that's a Sod's Law easily done. Anyway,  I've sent mine back and will be getting the Hornby version instead.

 

Hornby provided theirs with a metal working panto-graph which can be raised up and down by hand as you like, but one can really question the wisdom there. I agree the DJM looks, feels and is more fragile but I suspect few people have modeled the marshaling yards and such a loco would probably be there just to pick up a goods train and rarely do shunting. However someone wishing to model the loco working in such a yard, then the more robust Hornby one would be recommended for this special case. In any case the panto would have popped up and down at the touch of drivers button entering or leaving such a yard. So such a model would either need to remain in the yard (up) or outside it (down) or have the hand of god come down and change it  - in all cases, not prototypical.

 

I do agree it seems to be a fragile bit of kit and have refrained from raising mine. Not problem really as on this class, the panto is definitely  going to be more decorative than functional.

 

Agreed but as mine was broken anyway, it may as well go back.

 

I sometimes don't really understand people..you get a pantograph which is overscale but can be manually manipulated that is wrong in some quarters. You get one that is nearly scale but is fragile then that is wrong.

 

Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't....

Roco don't have a problem.

 

 

Sorry to hear this and of a very few other issues but realistically there is always likely to be a very small number of faulty items in a production run. Even when they are so closely monitored. 

True, but fitting a flimsy plastic pantograph is just corner cutting and asking for trouble. Even if it isn't broken to start with (like mine was) how long will it last under wires? As far as I'm concerned, as a pantograph it is not fit for purpose. Also the fitting of the handrails and works plate is very poor. I haven't seen a good one yet. The handrails and plates I could have lived with but that pantograph, no.

Looked at mine a bit closer today and the pantograph is broken at one elbow. It looks like there are actually no pivots there, just plastic work hardening over time. Too small to see so it's going back.

 

 

What I just can't understand why you didn't go down the hacked Hornby path to start with if that is your preference?

Listen, let me spell it out. I ordered the DJ model BEFORE the Hornby 71 was even announced. When the Hornby one was announced I decided to go with the Hornby instead as it was a known quantity. When I phoned to cancel my DJ order, I was told that the DJ Model would be released before the Hornby version and that if I stayed on board there would be a 74 to follow. 

I can't see a problem with the Hornby model and because I want to repaint and renumber my 71 ... I'll be better hacking a standard Hornby rather than this DJ limited edition version. Had this been a run of the mill release, I'd be hacking the DJ one right now.

 

 

One has to wonder why you bought it in the first place? From your previous email it appeared you already wanted the cheaper option whatever that may be and had decided that the DJ model was not what you wanted. Oh, and if the booster is a problem, turn the loco through 180 degrees - problem solved.

Here we go, I can't have an opinion that goes against the crowd.  

If you read the post properly instead of selecting the bits you want to read and then adding some of your own ... you'll learn that cost is no worry to me ... the Hornby one is about the same price and the reason I bought the DJM one AND FOR NO OTHER REASON is because I want the 71 and 74 to be of the same parentage. As it is, it looks like I'll be buying two Hornby 71's and bunging this one in cheap for px. Hows that for saving money?