StevieD71

I used to be a postie. We looked after parcels in my offices. I have seen and been on the end of some woeful service from couriers. I also seen and delivered a lot of woefully packaged items.

I have seen a photo of me as a toddler with a clockwork engine, but my life long love of trains and model railways started properly at Christmas 1977 (age 6)when I received the Hornby operating mail train (I still have the Class 37). My father had it already set up for me on a 6x4 board with some extra track, a siding and an H&M controller.

Not modelling, but I have been braving the heat of my shed to break down the current layout in preparation for a shed swap. The wife want to put our guinea pigs into my shed, which will allow me to fix up and enlarge the shed they are currently in. I can't extend the width, but will have an extra 4 feet of length to work with once it's done, along with the provision for full width baseboards up each side. Bascically instead of a shed adaption that i currently have, I will have a custom built and fitted out train shed

I've read this thread from the beginning over the past few days and have to say, it's a better story than many novels I've read! I love the layout and along with Llanbourne and Waverly West it is providing me with plenty of inspiration for the development of my own mod eighties layout, Hafan Graig.

Rule 1, innit.

25 034 shunts tanks in the factory sidings, viewed from the staff parking area

My 10x8 shed layout goes round the walls. The main scenic board is 2ft wide and the rest are around 9in wide. I am considering a large loop in the garden to give longer running.

So on Friday at 6pm I did my last shift at Maplin Coleraine, and, after spending Saturday at the North West 200 and doing very little yesterday, today I did my first official shift as a phone technician / sales advisor at CMC.

It's getting kind of depressing in here now, and we're not in the next round of closures (58 next week). Thank goodness tomorrow is my last day. It will be a long and boring shift.

You are absolutely correct. At the beginning of the administration process a fair few things actually went up in price. Our own discounts were better than RRP less 20% on CCTV for instance.

We are selling the small component drawers for £30 per unit complete with whatever they contained. One of them had almost £300 worth of stock in it. Our store is shrinking a bit too. Some of the gondolas and wall panels are already away. My last day is next Friday.

As things stand at the minute, yes, I will be leaving before the shop closes, but the administrators could change that at any time. The first batch of closures happened this weekend and we aren't in the second batch for March 14th either. Richard (the shop manager) reckons we will be closed by the end of May. I was originally intending to hang on until the end, but my new employer is expanding the business and is keen to get me in and up to speed as quickly as possible.

I handed in my notice today. In 2 weeks time I will no longer be a Maplineer. I'm both sad and happy at the same time.

Thanks for all the support guys. It's much appreciated. I went down this morning and formally accepted the position, with the bonus that I can continue working at Maplin until it closes so I won't lose my redundancy and at the same time for in some training at my new job, so that come the day, I'm ready to hit the ground running. Today is a good day.

So, I spoke to my prospective new boss last night and he wants me onboard. I went down for a 5 hour trial shift today to see what the job is like and if it's something I would like to do. I spent the shift with the technicians watching them do repairs and also did pdi tests on refurbished phones. Needless to say, as it involves messing about with electronics, I'm in! Mariusz (the boss) is coming over for a cup of coffee tonight and we are going to work out contract details, start date etc. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

We've had a few customers come in and grab baskets full, so we let them keep the baskets as a momento. We've had a few customers come in and grab baskets full, so we let them keep the baskets as a momento.

We have cleared our warehouse and everything is on the shop floor. We sold the green storage bins that the resistors stayed in, so they are all counted and bagged in a tote. We also sold the connector drawers and had to hang them all back up again. Any stock left in the stores that next weekend will be redistributed to locations where is will sell better. Here in Coleraine we have been one of the top 5 stores in the company based on SPR for the last 4 years and are still posting quite strong figures, despite running out of all the high end stuff.

Nothing solid yet. Had a message about another meeting but haven't been given a time or date for it yet. It's funny you should mention about Birmingham still having CCTV. That was one of the first things we sold out of. We are also out of routers, power line adapters and almost all of our smart home stock. There is a lot of own brand stock arriving. It's obviously stuff that was ordered months ago and is only now arriving in the country.

So, the end is nigh. The website will be closing on Monday and the first wave of shop closures begins next Saturday. There are 10 stores in the first wave but only the stores that are closing have been informed and so far no-one has leaked any further info.

I have a job interview in half an hour with a local mobile/computer/console sales and repair shop. Nerves are beginning to get jittery. I think it's worse because I'm friendly with the owner. He lives at the other side of my street and our daughters play together.

Must double check that tomorrow. We are still cutting cable to lengths for customers. On the whole the staff seem to be making the best of a bad situation in most stores. There is a Maplin colleagues only Facebook page with some hilarious stuff on it.