GrumpyPenguin

I'm sorry,that's a load of twaddle & a waste of words - I said "properly engineered" which negates all of the objections you managed to come up with. And people wonder why every time I consider returning to UK modelling I see what's on offer & stick with European HO.

Thanks - I'll look at the figures later for comparison.

That's where you are well wrong - https://gb.snooper.eu/collections/truckmate I have an earlier one that I paid around £250 for - only got to "save" you once & it's paid for. Before inputting your destination you input the size/weight of your truck - easy peasey. Mine came with "updates for life" & can also be used for motorhomes/cars/motorbikes/pedal cycles & on foot.

Not quite answered my question so I'll split it into 5 & add it up myself ; Item number. Cost of the item. Shipping we know. 12.9o euros. VAT added. Any handling charges from anyone ?

Whilst agreeing that the tooling would be costly, with a littl bit of thought the coupling/connector could be used throughout the range as locomotives are produced or upgraded. Would be useful on MU's or coaches even, so the costs over time would pale to nothing. Still, all the time UK modellers accept what is on the table things won't change much.

It's an industry standard for connecting "device's" to chargers &/or data transmission - using it on models ? Just waiting for some numpty to plug the wrong things in & causing damage.

What is "clear and unambiguous" is that I suggested that the end user had a choice of which way he/she wanted to go if they had a warrenty issue - not exactly diffecult to get your head round.

Why would you need/want to adjust a properly engineered close coupling mechanism ?

As a matter of interest whould you mind quiting what the item was & the total cost to get it to your door please ?

Absolutly no excuse for substandard couplings/connectors or close coupling (apart from maybe the "Thanet Disease"). Image shows how it can be done - close coupled & 8-pole.

Apologies is this has been covered elsewhere. The rollout continues & our phone line has been converted to Digital Voice (DV)as part of installing full fibre. One of the issues with DV is that in a power cut you telephone will not work ! I raised this issue with BT (as Mrs Penguim is disabled & we have other vunerable people in the house) & was told to "make sure that we had a fully charge mobile phone for emergencies". That's all very well I told them but we are on EE (surprise, surprise now part of BC or is it the other way round ?) & we only get a signal in cerain rooms. BT do provide small battery backups for the modem but it's quite clear that they will only provide them after a fight to the death. I gave them a choice, provide a batter back up or install the modem in my office which has a 2.2kw UPS for the computers. Installing the modem in my office (the other side of the property that the existing service was) involved 4 x visits, 5 x engineers, 1 x surveyor & 1 x cherry picker - that mustr have cost them more than a small UPS. Anyway, the real point is that BT should make the fact that phones will not work during a power cut crystal clear to their customers & provide the UPS/battery backup without a fight. AFAIK there have already been a couple of preventable deaths due to phones/alarms not working through lack of power. As an aside we had a short (maybe less than a minute) power cut yesterday & just after it came back on recieved a recorded message on the landline from UKPN tlling us ! A bit late but it did show that UKPN are on the ball.

Ifg it's a case that the contact makes mechanically but not electrically then a "hint" of Track Magic may just do the trick. AFAIK it's a product based on an aerospace product.

Good points Mike. I'm begining to wonder if part of the problems are servicing the shareholders. Over the years I have dealt with a number of plc's (probably up to or near the size of Hornby plc) who have "gone public" to raise funds for expansion & when they move into profit start to buy back the shares (& they were astute enoungh to retain controlling interest). At the end of the day it seems to me that the "tennants" of a certain building at Westwood (whoever they actually are this week) go from finacial crisis to crisis like a wheel that never stops (unless the crackpin fall off).

The operative word in my post was "shared", therfore the customer would have the choice - deal with the retailer or the manufacrurer/distributor/importer. Retailers (the local model shop size) have a diffecult enough time making a living asa it is without having a considerable amount of funds tied up with dead stock (i.e. defective stock that they have paid for shunting back & forth between them & their supplier). It would be easy to set up (certainly for all of us here) ; 1) You have a faulty product. 2) You log on to the manufactures/distributor/importers webstore & obtain a returns/tracking/pre-paid label. 3) Pack & post it back to them. 4) Await your repaired/replace item. Or you could go through the retailer. If customers had a choice & went direct then I the quality control aspect would improve greatly.

Unfortunatly, it's the retailer that is ultimatly responsible to sort things out - maybe it's time that the "manufacture" shared the responsibility to sort out defective goods.

Clearly, the world of finance is something I don't really understand. What does puzzle me however is the fact that a "company" (whoever their legal entity is this week) has occupied (except for a brief period in Sandwich) occupied a facility in Westwood. Said company has been in the business of making toy, then model trains for decades. Latterly, they have other products & they are probably the only company that sells everything to produce a passible model railway using only one brand. So I just don't understand why they seem to always be stuggling - by now they should have a the sort of bank ballence where they could lend the banks/financial institutions money, a warehouse full of stock to sell as the retailers order it & a loyal customer base that buys quality products that have a very low failure rate. I do understand how business works, have run a sucessful company in the service sector & now have a smaller one with a mail order side. The principles are the same but the amount of zero's vary. Any (simple) idea's ?

Current European HO has moved well away from Pizza Cutter Flanges & Steam Roller Treads. One mans compromise is another mans nighmare - I always chuckle a little about OO modellers complaining about such things as wheel detail & axle spacing (somerimes as little as .5mm) when the wheels are too close together anyway ! Sometimes, we seem to forget that there is no such thing as a 100% perfect model railway - there will be compromises somewhere.

Thanks for the info'. Looks like I will have to get a Liliput one & remotor it.

Is that Trix BR05 a tender driven one ? I had a locomotiver drive one & it was useless from the haulage POV. I sold it reluctantly as it would not pull 10 x free running Liliput coaches on the level. If yours in tender drive can you l;ey me know the catalogue number so that I can lkook out for one please ?

Absolutely spot on.

Interesting discussions. However, where is the money coming from ? (unless I've missed that bit).

If a flywheel is causing "noise & vibration" then there is something wrong with the ballance, either the flywheel itself or the motor/flywheel assembly.

Agreed, negotiating the use of "branding" & paying the agreed fee is one of the reasons why Oxford Diecast models of the same vehicle may vary between branding.

Nobody does (AFAIK) does a smoke unit that produces thick black smoke.

Hornby also model European & North American trains - Rivarossi, Lima, Jouef, Electrotren & Arnold. European (mostly German) steam locomotives used to carry 2 x illuminated items mounted above the buffer beams on each side. Later, a third illumitated item was added higher up & central - this was to differenciate (speeling?) between road & rail traffic where unfenced railway lines run alongsidfe roads. Early lamps were in fact huge on the locomotives that were not equiped with electic generators (hope that's the correct word - may be dynamo or alternator) or some form of electrical storage (such as dry cells or lead acid). Even some of the electrically powered illuminated items were still large - they used a white painted reflector & AFAIK a 25w Pearl lamp with an ediston screw bas but I have no idea of the voltage. More or less carried over to diesel & electric but some also have a high intesity illuminated item which may or may not be called a headlamp or a headlight. AFAIK filament lamps (as the componant, not the whole fitting/lamp) are known in some parts of the world as "globes". There will of course be many variants..................