Jon Harbour

The Latin teacher at my high school (who looked old enough to have been alive when Latin was a living language) once told us, "remember boys, always have girlfriends in odd numbers, so if two find out about each other, you've still got at least one to fall back on!" Sexist I know... but this was the 1970s....

Given the penchant for buses - have Rapido ever thought of some 'Fallerised' bus models?

Oh my wallet! I can see that I will need two sets of these at least.... The spec is hugely impressive.

My first one arrived last Thursday. Took it along to my local club on Friday night and had it running around our exhibition N gauge layout very happily indeed. A delightful little locomotive. I love it!

North America is the continent that covers both US and Canada. Granted the OP didn't specifically say Canada, but equally they didn't say USA either.

This could be really useful for plugging in an Arduino with a phone speaker to produce sounds linked to animations... I'll be downloading some sound effects once I'm not on my work computer!

So great to see someone reminding Hornby not to rest on their laurels and continue to turn out models from 40+ years ago. More power to you Accurascale!

Have pre-ordered one - I expect I will end up coming back for more!

Got my deluxe pack pre-order in. Will also look at the W&U coach as well.

Terrence kind of takes the sheen off how cool he was really.

There seem to be even more adverts appearing on the site now... Lost about 1/8 of the screen display due to a huge banner across the top of the page which didn't seem to be there before....

Just like Kris, it looks like they re-appear after being idle for abut 30 minutes or so. I usually have RMWeb open on my web browser in the background and occasionally check for updates during quiet times in my working day. Every time I check after the session has been idle for any length of time, the pop-up appears. Clearly not once per day - I've seen at least five or six today.

Have to admit I find this new advert that pops up in the middle of the screen and prevents me from seeing anything until I close it REALLY irritating. The other adverts I have no issue with. I also dislike the idea that I have to pay to be a Gold Member to avoid this. I have to agree with this sentiment. Perhaps this new advert is a pop-up too far...

I'm also Australia based and the first time I tried to pre-order something I faced this issue too. However, I re-tried and it went through okay. Not completely sure what the issue was, but just glad it worked and I got the pre-order confirmation e-mail!.

Totally agree - the trunk system is very reliable. Whilst you could physically separate the trunk stock from the available stock, space may not allow that. There are lots of ways it can be managed - it may well be that theyy don't physically segregate the stock but their computer system manages the allocations, so if there are three units of say, a Mark 1 SK coach in the storage bin, but one is already allocated to somebody's trunk, the system recognises that only two are available for allocation to other orders. Having re-read what PJT said earlier, it may well be that this is the case and then it makes a lot of sense to ship out trunk items ahead of a stock take - the person counting the stock has no obvious means of knowing which is available and which isn't.

I also work in the supply chain industry. My job is optimising warehousing processes for the Australian and APAC sites one of the world's biggest players in the industry. Thousands of items an hour for an individual operator is optimistic in what is primarily a manual unit pick scenario. It obviously depends upon what you are picking though. By manual, I mean the operator physically going to the pick location, grabbing one (maybe two or three occasionally) and putting it in a tote for packing. You can speed it up a bit using a pick cart to pick multiple totes in one pass, which is probably one way I would implement such an operation, but I doubt Hatton's warehouse is automated to the extent where you can get four digit pick rates. It depends how much labour is thrown at it. If they have a warehouse management system that's any good - and I'm certain they do - it's doing what is a pack and hold type scenario. They confirm the items into your trunk when it is picked - they have to pick it and put it in your trunk otherwise there is a very real risk of mis-picks later on - and the system tracks what is in your trunk. Then when the time comes to ship the contents of your trunk, they would also scan it out to confirm what they have picked from there. After all, you may choose to not ship everything in your trunk. One of the earlier posters said it doesn't save any time - they are right - it adds time for the warehouse because they have to double-handle the goods - but accuracy in these scenarios are more important than speed. Hatton's believe the value added by offering this service outweighs the cost of the double handling and I agree with them. It's a brilliant facility to have when you live on the other side of the world from them. I make extensive use of it for pre-orders, as do many I expect.

The stock in people's trunk needs to be counted as part of a stock take - it's usually a requirement of the auditors. It's stock in the warehouse - albeit pre-allocated to a customer order. Therefore it makes sense to get it shipped out beforehand so that they don't have to count it. This simplifies their stock take significantly. No warehouse wants to count stock if it can be avoided, so shipping out the contents of these trunks makes a lot of sense. I don't have a problem with Hatton's request and I shipped my trunk contents fairly soon after Hattons broached the subject. I don't see what Hatton's have said as affecting the fundamentals of the trunk service. They have seen it adds value, particularly for their numerous customers outside the UK, so they will want to keep it going. I suspect they didn't think people would leave stock in their trunk for as long as they have...

Really like this layout. It gives out the suburban London Underground vibe so well. Excellent stuff!

Good Afternoon Everyone, I'm planning to fit the DCC Concepts brake van lights to this model and have come up against a big of a snag. The pickups themselves are no issue - they can be glued in place to press wipers against the wheels. My issue is actually getting wires through to the cab in order to fit the lighting circuitry. I got the roof off the model, but I couldn't find a way past the metal weight for the wiring. I tried drilling through from the internal floor to try and provide a hole to pass the wire through, but there appears to be a metal weight that fills the entire cabin width. It doesn't look like the body can be removed to free up the weight, so I'm kind of at a loss.... any suggestions? Thanks in advance, Jon

My two arrived this afternoon in Sydney. Both are superb and ran very smoothly on a piece of Flexi track using a 9V battery - don't have a layout at home. Sadly won't get a proper run-out for a while yet... six weeks into COVID lockdown in Sydney and no sign of when it might end....

I asked Hattons about this and I understand each coach needs a separate decoder, since they use standard NEM coupling pockets.

Yeah at that price worth a punt. I might look on-line at what I can find too as I live in Australia and we lose the 20% VAT on items bought from the UK... That may well give an option.... I've ordered six GWR coaches and was baulking at the thought of six * £30 decoders for them! I'm primarily planning to use the brake coaches on meat / fish van trains and milk tankers... Not all that prototypical I know, but normal brake vans weren't used on these type of trains.

Any suggestions for cheap Next18 decoders? Is there a function only Next18 decoder?

Can't understand why they didn't go down the path that the N Gauge Society took and fit a PCB with the decoder built-in that runs on DC. They've shown it can be done...

I've always found them to be very prompt and helpful in that respect. Particularly when you are on the other side of the world and it is awkward to try and call given the time differences!