Ouroborus

Just another one to add my thanks to all at Derails for their outstanding service. And just like all great model shops, they provide you with a scaldingly hot cup of tea that takes centuries to cool down. And of course, while it's cooling..... Great to meet you all today. Will see you again soon.

What I was keen to avoid with my setup was steamers and diesels triggering the led. With hindsight, you could mount the led in the loco and the trigger in the track. (Or via DCC). But I didn't rate my modelling skills to achieve this

The difference is the supermarket operative doesn't have to design and make the can of beans as well as sell it.

Further to my previous, this is a test fit of the hall sensor and led in the track bed. Detection seems to be reliable, but the arc-ing is too slow and too long, with it continuing after the loco has passed when running wrong line. Fortunately, that's a relatively easy adjustment in the Arduino and I'll shorten the overall duration and bursts

You may well be right Keieghoff, that another run of the full fat 31 will yield some spare chassis'. I wouldn't expect Hornby to be selling them through the likes of Rails and Hattons, but they may well turn up through the likes of Peter's Spares. Ultimately, none of us know for sure and you'll frequently see opinion portrayed as fact. You get used to it.

Different premises. Malcolm's models is the one which people believe is a scam. Anyone received anything?

The dark blue should be the same all over (except where it fades on the sides). Doesn't seem that the model has captured this

+1 I bought three.

I'm not so sure about (4). I think people can remember exactly what the purchased something for, even many years on. I can recall my lms calling me about the Hornby 125 and the Bachmann 4CEP at release because they were going to be £100 and was I sure I wanted them. Whilst I might now be hazy on whether I paid £60 or £70 for a 66, I know it wasn't £160. As an aside, I think you massively under-estimate the number of impulse purchases that are made. No figures for this, but the continuing success of the bargain hunters thread ("something you don't need at a price you can't resist"), would suggest impulse purchases still factor heavily. But answer me this - if i really wanted an 85, why didn't i buy one years ago when they first came out? Or in the the re-runs? Or in the discounts where they were £80, which if i recall were just last year? Who is left that is going to suck one up at £180?? And (5) - I doubt many are against a company making a profit, but when they feel they are being fleeced in order for that company to make a profit, the goodwill goes. The notable exception to this is perhaps Apple, but toy trains and fashionable lifestyle icons are rather different things.

I don't see that anyone thinks Bachmann is behaving illegally, just an increasing number seem to be saying "enough". All of model railway spending is discretionary, despite what some may think, nobody *needs* an 85. When prices were a third of what they are now, my discretionary spending was much higher, I'd often come back with something I hadn't intended to. Despite nothing material having changed in my life, these days I'm less inclined to do this, a discretionary spend of £150 is something that just isn't happening. Now if Bachmann think smaller runs, fewer sales and charging more is one way to maximise profits, then so be it. There is of course a counter argument that says bigger runs, lower prices, more sales (the pile it high and sell it cheap). And that may also be effective - why not flog that tooling to death?. Where there seems to be a little cynicism is that Bachmann seem to have suddenly kept the lid on price increases where they have strong competition; that these price increases across the board are bigger that they need to be. The mentioned 66 seemed to be galloping away on its RRP until Hattons' announced theirs. Again, that's fine, that's business, but don't expect that people don't think about this when they come to make a discretionary spend. We've heard all the stories about Chinese wages, shipping, exchange rates, transport, metal costs ad finitum, but now we're hearing that its to do with a company trying to maximise its profits and I sense that people are generally less tolerant of this principle. Ultimately, none of us know or can foresee the future. If the 85 becomes a major player in the next sale of the millennium, we'll have our answer

The danger with this approach (as I see it) is that the excitement generated by his email fizzles out by the time the two week embargo is up so the subscribers are less inclined to post it and give him the publicity. That's fine if he wants to run all this as a private club, but it seems an odd business model. How is he going to publicise new models? Anyways, we've been here before.

Time will tell. The 85's have been a feature of clearance offers for some time. We'll reach peak rail soon

Just ran a whois check - the GoDaddy website appears to have been created today. Let the buyer beware;

https://malcolmsmodelsofswindon.com Keen prices here, but some caution advised. Cannot find evidence for a shop of this name.

That logic doesn't seem to be stopping Bachmann against hattons and accurascale

Bought my catalogue and magazine in WHSmith at Paddington. Didn't get the combo deal. Its the first catalogue I've bought in 10+ years. Well done Hornby, looks like you got me my zing back

Just looked at those wintery pictures again. They are stunning. The 16 tonners with the snow, the yard lamp in the foreground and even the grain in the image. Absolutely fabulous. Thanks for sharing them

I've been working on the same thing but using an arduino. This would be happy on DC or DCC. It uses a Hall sensor in the track (ignore the massive one in the video - this was just a proof of concept) along side an LED. Magnets are glued to the underside of electric locos and units. As the magnet passes the sensor, the program starts, firing the led for a long burst, then a couple of shorter ones. You can vary the time and interval between these and adding another sensor circuit requires a little more than a copy and paste of the code. Without a magnet, there is no trigger to start the program, so steamers and diesels should not start it. I know this may sound complicated and expensive, but what you're looking at in the video cost less than £8 and adding further sensors and leds costs pennies. The coding is the harder part. I'm new to coding and have used 'delay' to do this effect, which is a rather clumsy way around. If anyone wants to have a look at my code and advise, i'd be happy to paste it up here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT_BMZlSwBU Thanks.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/10253283/The-Shining-10-best-conspiracy-theories.html

Merry Christmas lads. Many happy memories of tumbling out of the Raven with the snow beginning to fall. From across the miles, best wishes for Christmas

I've had the same. It was reported. Using Chrome with avast http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140648-web-attack-fake-browser-update-8/

+1 A notification (very convincing) that Chrome was out of date and would automatically update. Click here if this does not happen. Chrome itself blocked the javascript.

There was a noticeable difference in the blue of the Bachmann and Hornby mk2's as well. Maybe someday we'll achieve harmony

Revell 1:72 Scale Man 7t Milgl https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0040RJ0FA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_3hOhCb6QBEDBB I've built a couple of these. They build into a really nice model

That was my point, the OP said a good optical telescope, inferring any Joe Soap could see if from earth if they had a scope. NASA has recently published photos from their LRO reporting to show the tracks of the rover. (like you say, of course they would) . But the LRO is quite a jump from being a "good telescope". And for me, that's the rub because whilst its easy to snipe at conspiracy theorists, we need to be sure of our own facts first.