Stefan88

Hornby had a few shelves of random stock for sale at Warley 2022, I remember as I spent a lot of time thinking whether or not to buy a discounted Rivarossi Austrian class 1040 electric loco with sound (in the end not). I'd imagine a good chunk of the stockpile will be European H0 - their RRPs are mad. The aforementioned Rivarossi Austrian class 1040 is about 30 years old and was part of the Lima assets, all that has been changed is a new PCB with LEDs instead of bulbs. It's still a usable model but some of the detailing isn't up to today's standards anymore. The RRP for a basic analogue model was near the price of some DCC Sound equipped models to a much higher standard of detail from competitors. Needless to say the only ones I've picked up were returns auctioned off on ebay by a UK trader, winning them for less than half the RRP.

Parcel from Italy has been delivered today, 5 days including a weekend, had it been posted a day earlier it would have arrived on Friday (sat in delivery office from just after midnight Friday night).

If you mean loco hauled passenger trains on the mainline, sadly that is likely to change quite soon as the ÖBB have ordered a huge amount of Siemens Desiro ML 'CityJet' EMUs, and more RailJet push-pull sets for long distance services (though the new ones have the drivers cab of a Vectron rather than a Taurus). The large amount of loco hauled services at present, usually with an odd mix of intercity and local 'CityShuttle' coaches, is because of a huge lack of rolling stock the ÖBB are currently experiencing, having scrapped or sold all 'excess' stock around 10 years ago and big reliability issues with existing RailJet sets (these are permanently coupled sets, so if there is a major defect in one coach the entire 7-coach set is out of use). They're hiring anything they can get hold of, hence why you'll see quite a few Swiss SBB coaches on domestic intercity services. They're also resorting to using locos with only 3 (out of 4) working motors in some cases. Where was the 'overgrown BR class 17'? I can only assume you mean a class 2045 like the brown one in my previous post here? I can't think of anywhere between Zell am See and Salzburg where there would be one parked up, with the exception of one in Lienz and another tucked away in Ampflwang the rest are all in the east near Vienna. Was it perhaps an ex-DB 211/212? The Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB) operate a number of these.

The baggage compartments, like with most similar types of locomotives (there were standard gauge tank engines - class DT1 pre-war, class 3071 post-war, a standard gauge 0-4-0 diesel - class VT70 pre-war, class 5070 post-war, and electric classes 4060 and 4061 - later 1046) were too small to fulfil their purpose, which was to remove the need of having a luggage van, and consequently usually ran a train which had a luggage van anyway. As a result the baggage compartments tended not to be used for such, usually just being used to store tools. 2091.09 had its baggage compartment cut down in size to improve driver visibility out that end, but was the only one that had this done, making it unique in the class. The first series (2091.01-07) only had a single small windshield looking out over the baggage end on the drivers side (in that direction), the second series (2091.08-12) had 2, one on each side, something Liliput sadly did not include with their models of the second series. 2091.09 also had larger (deeper) windshields installed when the baggage compartment was cut down. The 2091 weren't particularly powerful (210PS), they could manage 3 bogie coaches (or 2 bogie coaches and a bogie bicycle van) on the level at the most, 2 bogie coaches uphill. Or twice as many typical Austrian 4-wheelers. Also worth noting 2091.12 first went to the Öchslebahn before being sold to the Döllnitzbahn in 2001 to join 2091.10. 2091.01, 05 & 06 are the only ones to have been scrapped, 06 in 1973 after an engine fire and 05 in 1992 after an accident, but 04 & 07 are now parts donors, 04 at the Bregenzerwaldbahn (BWB) as a parts donor for 2091.08, and 07 at the Waldviertler Schmalspur Verein (WSV) after it suffered a failure. All the others seem to be operational.

I posed the question on an Austrian forum and someone pointed out Happy Model have a branch there: https://www.happymodel.cz/kontakty/#CeskeBudejovice

Does České Budějovice have any decent model shops? Tempted to do a day trip the next time I visit my Mum in Austria as its a 1 hour 20 min drive, or half an hours drive to Gmünd and an hour on the train from there (and only €6.20 each way). Last time I visited I didn't have the time for any border crossing, and the time before that the border was closed because of covid.

The same goes for Plzeň though as they have the Pilsner Urquell brewery, also open to tours and 'sampling'. You'll probably find you're never far from a brewery in any major Czech city or town 😉

Perhaps address it to a Zimo employee specifically and declare it as a gift? Is there an option to declare it as a return? The last time I sent something to Austria (a Peco point) I declared it as a gift to avoid complications, he still had to pay a handling fee to the Österreichische Post but no VAT and it got delivered ok. If you're travelling to Austria (but not going to Vienna) or anywhere else in the EU you could just post it from there. I have a burnt out MX648 or MX649 that I'll just drop off in person the next time I go to Vienna, I keep it with my passport so I won't forget. From what I've read they usually repair it while you wait, or at worst the same day. I seem to recall they are walking distance from Schönbrunn, and Memoba aren't far away either, so no shortages of things to kill time without venturing too far away.

I would imagine České Budějovice would be a good one as there is international traffic particularly to/from Linz (especially freight), or Plzeň with international traffic to/from Germany, with potential from both to travel to nearby satellite stations where lines split.

A surprising expected delivery date for an ebay order from Italy being sent with UPS - Monday 8th April, posted yesterday (3rd April). The reason for my surprise is that the last 2 orders from Italy (a couple of years ago, both with UPS) took over 3 weeks! Previously they sat around in UPS's Carpi facility for over 2 weeks before being sent on to the UK, so if it really does arrive on Monday (or even at any point next week) that will be a welcome development. Cost was a little under €19, by far the cheapest way of getting a parcel out of Italy.

2 things of interest to note lately: My latest Roco spare parts order was delivered by Fedex, previously it was posted with Deutsche Post and delivered by Royal Mail. Total including postage was below the equivalent of £135 so can't comment on the recent possible trend of postage being included in this amount. It took 2 and a half weeks from placing the order to parts arriving - just under 2 weeks from order to parts being posted. I can only assume the spare parts are being warehoused in Slovakia (they seem to have their European distribution centre there) or Romania (last remaining European production facilities) and sent to Germany before then being posted to the customer, hence the relatively long turn-around time. Modellbahn Union seem to have hiked their postage rates to the UK at some point recently - it used to be around 9 Euros for the UPS option, now there is only a DHL option for around 21 Euros. Still not hugely expensive but far from the cheapest now.

I would imagine it is prototypical, the IV Parteitag (4th Party (Communist) day) was in 1954. Druckvariante would refer to it being a variant with writing on it, which would narrow the period down to shortly after the Parteitag. The text itself just states 13% energy saving (i.e. reduced coal and oil consumption) is promised by the railway workforce in support of the IV Parteitag.

Package arrived and nothing on the customs declaration to suggest a reason for the duty. The postage had also been declared higher than what I paid (€26.99 instead of €19). Going to have to do some digging with ebay customer services.

I successfully claimed the VAT back just after the rules came in to force as the order was placed and sent just before they came in to force, took about a month or so to get the cheque from HMRC. This time round will depend on what the customs declaration says, which will all have been automatically generated by ebay.

The letter has arrived and it gives no explanation as to why I've been charged duty, showing the same breakdown as when I paid online, so I'll have to wait for the parcel to come on Monday and see what the customs declaration has stated the product code to be etc.

Also worth mentioning that DB AG completely pulled out of the night train market some years ago, hence why the gaps in the market existed in the first place. There is also some level of cooperation/partnership (though not sure to what extent) from SNCF and SBB, hence why you'll see their logos on the sides of some NightJet liveried rolling stock. Presumably also from NS given that their Vectrons now run the entire route from Amsterdam to Vienna (though these are leased from ELL). Wien Hauptbahnhof 30/08/2023.

Finally been able to call up, get my code and pay, took 2 days for it to clear customs and travel across Coventry from the international hub to the delivery centre, and being a Friday naturally the next available delivery day isn't until Monday. Something new - I'm being charged duty on this one! I'll await the letter but I think I'll be putting in a claim on this one as model railways shouldn't be attracting any duty, I'm curious to see what code they have put it under. I'll also see if I can get back the VAT for the postage element - this already had VAT included, then eBay put on another 20% and the total VAT charged is for the item AND the postage, so I have paid VAT 3 times on that! It only accounts for £3.90 of the VAT charged but still... I'd have been better off sending this to my freight forwarder and combined it with the 5 other items I had consolidated and shipped this morning. After working everything out with the exchange rates etc it has cost me about £20-23 more than had I gone down this route, pending any refunds on charges. Had I had it forwarded straight on to me from them (i.e. not consolidating it with anything else) then this gets more or less wiped out and there would be no difference. That said, £364 all in for something which had an RRP of €600 (now €660 with Rocos 2024 price increases!), and the lowest price I saw for it was £425 from a UK trader while it was briefly on sale (and quickly sold), its still not bad in the grand scheme of things and more or less bang on what I personally valued the set as (£200 for a loco with DCC sound and £150 for 3 coaches and a baggage van).

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I can't even do that yet as its still not been assessed by customs, only when the tracking shows it has arrived at the delivery depot can I call up and get the customs number. So far its been sat in customs for 30 hours according to the tracking...

Another package from my German freight forwarder received without any bother from Parcelforce on Monday, posted with DHL and declared as €150. On another ebay purchase I had it sent directly to me, it was an auction from one of the larger German ebay traders (der.pfiff2010) that regularly puts up new items on auction listings (seems to buy off excess unsold stock from Roco and Liliput on the cheap and puts the items up for 24 hour auctions until they're all gone). With these traders ebay will deduct the German VAT (19%) from the final auction end price if its going to the UK even on auctions and second hand goods as the trader has their VAT set up with ebay. It still puts VAT on to the postage (which will have already had this included, so paying VAT twice on that), and if its below £135 then they will automatically add the UK VAT back on. So a very nice set I won for €365 became €306.71. Postage was €19. I figured paying the UK VAT and handling fee would be more or less the same as having it sent to the German freight forwarder (€8) and then sent to me from them as part of a shipment - it is quite a large box and probably a good 3kg or so, so would have had a significant impact on postage for the shipment from the forwarders (easily another €10-20 increase). Parcelforce is showing it as awaiting customs clearance so now its the waiting game for the VAT invoice to arrive in the post. I did wonder whether this stood a chance of slipping through, but given that it was all processed through ebay its hardly surprising that the UK VAT is being charged - the exact value and declaration will have been done automatically. A spares order from Roco will be next, they deduct the VAT on their website automatically when you start adding things to your cart. Postage to the UK is €9.50, in the past these were sent with Deutsche Post and delivered by Royal Mail.

A class 642/643 diesel electric is available from Moko, no idea on price ~ https://www.moko.si/dura-posebna-ponudba/

You could try Bahnhöfe in Österreich by Mihály Kubinszky, not sure whether there are any plans of standalone goods sheds in there but lots of plans and photos of stations ~ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bahnhöfe-Österreich-Mihaly-Kubinszky/dp/3854161964 IGRA do quite a lot of different Czech goods sheds that are largely of Austrian heritage, there are others too making decent laser cut card kits. Modellbaumeister Abraham does some narrowgauge sheds that could easily be adapted to standard gauge by building them on a higher base ~ https://www.modellabraham.at/sonderanfertigungen?pgid=lepj6amd-76b7db18-b3dd-415c-abab-9a26aaaf85a3 There are some more here ~ https://www.brennpunkt.cc/Gebaeude-H0?Sortierung=4 KB-Model (Czech) have some ~ https://www.kb-model.eu/mtbmodel/eshop/5-1-Stavby-a-doplnky-laser-cut-H0/2-2-sklady-kulny-zachodky The smallish standalone goods shed in Krimml was available as an injection moulded kit from Faller or Pola I think.

Have you tried emailing them? Their products were being stocked by a retailer in Austria a couple of years ago, but not heard anything about them since 2022. The models did exist, I've seen several being made by a few people.

3D printed kits exist for the narrow gauge 740 diesel and 83 steam in H0e, running gear not included but the 740 is designed to use parts from Halling and the 83 requires a Roco 399 as a donor. Manufacturer is Skapa Model, no website but their brochures are floating on various forums ~ https://www.lokschuppen-dominik.de/Forum/skapa.modell_2021-04.pdf Narrow gauge rolling stock is non-existent both RTR or kit form as far as I'm aware. Standard gauge traction is also pretty poorly served in model form, ACME did a RTR electric loco but this is an Italian-derived loco that ran on the DC network in Slovenia. Someone was making small series models of some of the mainline American-style diesels but I can't recall the name, expensive but not too bad if you consider they are hand-made small series models. Strangely nobody does a model of the license built Swedish Rb which numbered nearly 300 and ran across most of former Yugoslavia as well as in Romania. Standard gauge rolling stock is a bit better served, ACME have done a number of coaches in JZ, HZ & SZ liveries, Roco have done a number of goods wagons in JZ, HZ & SZ liveries, and some other manufacturers have done Yugoslav rolling stock - LS Models once did a bogie goods van in JZ & SZ liveries, Albert Modell do a number of bogie tankers, Klein Modellbahn did a number of 2- & 4-axle open wagons and a 2-axle tanker in HZ livery. Not aware of anything RTR in Bosnian liveries (post-JZ). Web searches will be pretty futile (i.e. googling in english) unless you know more precisely what you're looking for and are searching in Bosnian/Croatian/Serb on search platforms in those languages.

I have 2 identical locos, 1 with an ESU Loksound 5 Micro hooked up to a pair of parallel 15x11x5mm 8ohm speakers in a shared enclosure, and one with a Zimo MS580 hooked up to a single 18x13mm 8ohm Dumbo speaker in a custom 3d printed enclosure. Volume and sound quality there is no real difference, only the quality of the sound file seems to have an effect on these (despite both being from the same provider, Zimo is better in this case). That said a pair of Dumbos in separate large enclosures will be better than a single Dumbo, but a single Dumbo is just as effective as a pair of sugar cubes.

Perhaps ask the question to Miniatur Wunderland on social media as they have a pretty extensive Mediterranean section? Alternatively I'd suggest posting your question as a topic in a layout-specific area of the forum where more people will see it - there are several coastal layouts on the exhibition circuit, you just want to add more blue rather than grey to your water!