Sjcm

A Triang Transcontinental diesel for 100+ pounds? To be fair I've never seen one of these in the wild, but seems a bit much for an extra motor stuck on the back. R@RE DC SOUND!!

Well I wouldn't suggest paying 20 pounds for an XO4 even if if was new old stock, or even the 2nd hand ones I see for 10+ pounds. I picked up 2 Hornby locos as spares last week. Cost me 13 pounds with postage and both XO4s run fine with strong magnets and decent brushes so cheap as chips. As you say, they are bullet proof. Think I have accumulated about 40 x04s in my spares all working and ready to go. As for failures, well I've never had one after they were serviced, and over the years I think I've received about 8 total duds, with about the same with weak magnets, but I'm not claiming performance wise they're brilliant or better than quality new motors or Peter's spares are ripping people off. Plenty of other people are trying this anyway My problem is what do people think they 're getting in reality compared to the XO4? A lot of the modern RTR 3 pole motors dont actually run very well,with no torque, limited pulling power and are much more likely to disappear in a puff of white smoke than a 2nd hand XO4 and that's the so called quality manufacturers. The supplier I saw demonstrating his set-up, well I wasn't amazed by the performance of the re-motored engine. Now the motor being offered may be miles better than say a Hornby equivalent but when you're sticking it into a basic heavy duty chassis from the 70/80's with all its limitations, compared to the sort of mechanisms it's designed for it may well have a limited shelf-life. As I said before, it's probably a good idea if you want to DCC your old locos, but in terms of performance and longevity, I'm not sure how much of an upgrade it is.

Yeah I get that, but given its not going to massively improve the performance on DC why not buy another XO4 and save 20 pounds?

I've seen a number of people try an launch an X04 motor replacement and now Ebay's Mr Spares has got into the act. Thing is i'm struggling to see the advantage. You get a non-serviceable generic motor which is 3 pole so not a massive upgrade, and from the clips I've seen of them in action (not this one), they don't produce a massive, if any improvement. The only advantage I can see is they would be they are more efficient so would suit DCC upgrade but at 30 pound a pop it would be an expensive upgrade, which begs the question, why not buy a newer model? Emperor's new clothes?

Push along I think. don't think I've seen one of these on eBay before. Can't find any sold anyway.

Anyone got a clue what this is? It's obviously original but i've never seen one of these. Shop display item? Ah found it. Triang mimic.

Yep. I love box collectors me. Salt of the earth😉

Reminds me of when I was sorting out my dad's kit built loco's in odd boxes and first becoming aware of box madness. stuck on a Rivarossi plastic case with a crack in the front for 99p = 15+ pounds. Wrenn box = 30+pounds😲 and that was back in the early 00's

😲😂😲😲.

Recently bought a job lot of 6 loco's listed as broke, by an eBay online shop (a red flag in itself as it's usually stuff they consider too far gone. Turns out they just couldn't be a**ed.) Managed to get all 6 working but the tricky one was an old Trix flying Scotsman ( renamed Singapore) compounded by the fact the loco body was never going to come off. A bit of soldering, cleaning and quartering one of the wheels and it runs fine on modern track. Even the fact that it sounds like a blocked hairdryer is endearing. Will go in the oddities collection and selling the other locos should mean I get it for a tenner👍

Probably. This was back in the mid'70s where Vesta curries were all the rage and Blue Nun was the height of sophistication

I once got brought before the headmaster because I told a few classmates that they re-painted the classrooms green to match the geography teacher's corduroy jacket. Luckily the teacher concerned had a sense of humour.

I remember the sultana's in the curry lark. An interesting concept. Going back to my school dinners (mid-70's)the only thing that made a lasting impression was a pudding called rainbow cake which was the highlight of any week, and I've never come across since sadly.Seems to be some sort of LGBT thing now😉 Custard was only used on puddings that tasted worse than the custard. Oh and the tiny class bottles of milk.

Our old friend bpsworks has taken a break from hacking up Blue Pullmans to launch his new product range. Triang Network Rail Class 08's. glow in the dark shunter

It certainly looks like someone went to a lot of trouble with the paint job and the box, but who the hell just randomly picks a shade of green together with TOPS numbering😲 I'd love to know where he gets his stock from

Ah so it was an actual character. A Google shows it as flying Scotsman in pictures numbered as 4472 so it's accurate I guess. I seem to remember a Hymek in the books but pretty sure it didn't have br crests like the Hornby ones.

I'm not really up on Thomas lore, and what loco's appeared in the books, but didn't they have their own custom liveries and numbers? Or was this a blatant cash grab by Hornby?

As a buyer, with my selling head on, I always leave feedback as a courtesy. It takes me 5 minutes seeing i'm on there anyway. In 13 years think I've left one negative for a scammer so yeah it's more a ritual than anything but if they've been helpful or I've received very good service then it's good to acknowledge it in the comments I think. As a seller I don't really care if they don't leave feedback. Some people have an objection to doing it, some thank you via messages, some are hardly on there, others forget. I just want to avoid any buyer who is not happy, doesn't contact you and then leaves bad or neutral feedback 4 weeks down the line which you see quite a lot on feedbacks

I gave up trying to fathom out feedback years ago. You get periods where everyone leaves feedback, and then nothing for a month. Some people message me when they get the item and confirm they're happy but don't leave feedback. Think I get about 2 thirds of buyers leaving feedback overall if you add in the stragglers who leave it a month or more

They seem to have cornered the market for supplying bits to repair those basketcase Heljan Garratts presumably because everyone sold them their broken ones 😂 valve gear fallen apart? That will be 75 pounds please. (More than 10 available)

Actually I have an old one to hand and it seems identical. Obviously the handrails and lights at the front are new so put on by someone else? I thought this could be a ringer judging by the quality of the handrails fitting, but maybe Hornby's QC really is that lousy😂

Oh dear. No loco deserves this

Reminds me there was a S**'s train's video that appeared on my YouTube feed recently with the title "Why did Steampunk fail? " which I'm guessing is shorthand for "Why did the nichiest niche railway product in history fail?"

I've said it before, but he's so far ahead in the chiseling game, he makes the rest look like amateurs. A thing of beauty that.

That would be some computer system. I mean the variances are astronomical just on individual models and liveries, or say one had a newer type of chassis or a motor that fails often. That sort of knowledge you can't really programme into an algorithm while bidding on someone's collection