jchinuk

Just now, AY Mod said:

 

Statement of fact or just speculative opinion?

Not speculation, several model suppliers are advising of delay in shipments from China, in addition Apple, JCB & JLR are all saying shipments from China are disrupted. 

I am assuming that all shipments are subject to delays and disruption, and as 90% of Poundland's non-food stock appears to come from the Far East I think it's a reasonable assumption.

According to reports to the Shanghai stock exchange, most companies across China have serious staff shortages, mainly because people went to their home towns during the Lunar New Year and are unable to return to work.

jh

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

I'm surprised Smith's hasn't gone the way of Woolies and so many other high streets chains with their low average sales per customer. Look at their key traditional lines...

 

Print publishing - generally reducing in sales volume with increased digital sales and subscriptions. Increased supermarket sales.

Books - online and ebook competition with Waterstones rarely making much profit in competition in key locations.

Stationery - another declining market.

Music - aside from the retro market it's largely gone from towns.

 

I think they'll end up where they grew up with small but busy travel locations.

 

Do you want an almost at its sell-by date bar of chocolate with paper with yesterday's news? Nah, not any more.

I suspect WHSmiths survive as stationers, if a small office or company need a printer cartridge or paper quickly, WHS are the easiest option, someone can pop out with the petty cash.

WHSmiths have not done music (as in physical CDs) for a while, certainly not around my way.

jh

55 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Pound shops. I remember back in the 1980s there was a 50P shop in Liverpool and it was fantastic. Loads of cheap artists materials and stationery. Long before the mainstream pound shops came along. It was more like an Aladdin's Cave place where they were getting a load of junk that no one seemed to want. Things like branded mugs left over from a promotion offer.

 

You start wondering about some of the prices in WHS when you look at the competition in the high street though. It's fine for magazines and such things which are normally at a fixed price. But I can't remember the last time I bought anything else from there.

 

 

 

Jason

 With the Covid-19 disruptions Poundland will be empty of stock in a couple of weeks.

jh

1 hour ago, caradoc said:

Flicking through a magazine to see if it's worth buying is fine, I do it myself ! Standing in front of a section and reading an entire magazine from cover to cover however (and giving a disdainful look when asked politely to move) is not.

 

I agree completely.  I have seen blokes sit down (in a branch of WHSmiths) on the floor and read a magazine.

About the general point, what baffles me about WHS is that my nearest branches stock a lot of 'trade magazines' titles, which surely cannot sell that well.  Yet the branches at main stations in London rarely stock much in the way of modelling magazines, of any sort.

jh

Apologies for not being a railway related item, but I think this takes eBay madness to another level. 

Selling an empty box...

jh

20 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

I agree, they are just boring 'i am cleverer than they are' comments.

Sorry, I wasn't pointing out my cleverness (or lack thereof), rather that their own adverts were spoiling the carefully created 'jeopardy' in the programme.

jh

I noticed one mistake, though perhaps 'spoiler' is a better word.  On last night's episode the "jeopardy" was whether they would get the 9F (incidentally, not as rare as the commentary suggested) ready in time for the festival. 

Yet the adverts for the "weekend at the railway" competition featured the 9F happily chuffing away along the line.

jh

On 25/02/2020 at 09:23, GeoffBird said:

Nice that Hornby are supplying a suitably dressed Driver and fireman.  Where can one obtain similarly dressed passengers and bystanders?

Bizarrely, the forthcoming 'steam punk' figures by Hornby, under the Basset-Lowke brand, will not look totally out of place.

jh

On 24/05/2019 at 18:06, birdseyecircus said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-48398727

 

Paul

Looking at the Gov Website,

13.2 Coal

.

.

"Since the consultation, some have asked for heritage railways to be exempted from the proposed requirements. The government fully understands the importance of our nation’s heritage industry sectors that use coal as a source of fuel. As set out in the consultation, the proposals relate to fuels used for the purpose of domestic combustion, and will not apply to other uses such as for heritage railways. An exemption is not required for this use to continue."

..

...

Not an issue at present, though the cost may increase as less coal is in the market, perhaps some sort of collective purchasing deal would be sensible.

jh

My biggest disappointment with "Picard" so far is that "No.1" (his dog) seems to have been left behind on Earth.  So far, it has avoided the danger of becoming "Last of the Summer Wine" does "Star Trek".

Spoiler Alert 

"7 of 9" (Jeri Ryan) appeared in the latest episode, which might liven things up a bit.

jh

14 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

I liked "Farscape", though I feel it got a bit eccentric later in the series.

jh

14 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

I liked "Farscape", though I feel it got a bit eccentric later in the series.

jh

14 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I still think Babylon 5 is my favourite sci-fi television. Although TNG and DS9 were both pretty good. 

Recently repeated on Pick (a UK freeview channel), showing one episode per night.  I agree it's good, perhaps ripe for a remake?

Don't forget the films and the spin-off series, "Crusade", set five years after the events in B5, I don't think it was ever transmitted on terrestrial channels in the UK.

jh

23 hours ago, brossard said:

I don't think this kind of language adds anything to a drama.  Realistic?  Who knows, it's the 24th century, anything could happen between now and then.

 

John

I am not familiar enough with US culture to know if the language used is regarded as particularly strong.  I do know than 'damn' is called the 'D word' in polite US society.

jh

On 04/02/2020 at 14:23, brossard said:

I'm watching, overall I think it good.  I am taken aback by the extreme language though.  I never feel that sort of thing is appropriate for TV, and I'm no stranger to it.  Seems to me that there are people who won't watch because they are offended by the swearing.

 

John

The 'streaming' services are not defined as broadcasters and obviously the nature of the service means there is no watershed anyway, hence the language, though to be fair if I was being shot it it's possibly more realistic.

jh

20 hours ago, Half-full said:

I bought a brand new car last year, happily driving along the road a few months later I was stopped by the police, who told me that my registration plates belonged to a different car from the same manufacturer.  They impounded my car and I was taken to the police station and cautioned.  I went home, car-less and returned to the police station the next day with all the paper work from the garage I bought the car from, stating all the details of my car, plus the registration document from DVLA.

 

The police contacted the garage who initially denied all knowledge but eventually admitted they had used the same registration not only on my car, the other car they were 'registered' too, but also a third car!!!!

 

I had to arrange for the garage to re-register my car on different plates, arrange for the insurance to get updated (which I was charged for) then wait for the new V5 to come from DVLA before the police would release my car, which took almost 2 weeks and which I had to pay almost £400 for. 

 

So far the garage has offered me a free valet at my first service, but has invoiced me for the registration fee, new road tax and new plates! 

 

I'm taking this further.

 

 

Colour me cynical, but any garage (I assume a dealer for the marque?) that does that other than by accident is probably not doing much correctly.

I'd contact the manufacturer, they would not want a dodgy dealer (or staff member at the dealers) giving them a bad name.  That said, most manufacturers log cars on their computer systems, so they can send reminders of service etc.  So how did the get three entries with the same reg no?  I assume that the correct VIN numbers were on the respective log books, but the dealers only ask for reg numbers at services, recalls, etc.

jh

4 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

Other things to consider are:

audience - if primarily children then lower rather than higher

If you have a proscenium arch or lighting pelmet, the maximum height you are prepared to make this, may influence the height of the track.  (so if your lighting pelmet is a maximum 2m high due to the timber being used, a 1.5m high track height may be too high.)

 

Ultimately though Stubby has it in one. 

I remember at a show years ago, I think at the Dockyard in Chatham, they had small steps for children to carry around (I think there was a returnable deposit), but it mean small children could have as decent view of any of the layouts.

jh

On 25/01/2020 at 12:51, paulbb said:

Those of you modelling the current scene will have to paint the track VERY carefully now, witness the PW at Navigation Road Greater Manchester; see below

 

I wouldn't bother, if they are copper (or people think they are copper) they will be gone in a few weeks..

jh

Just to add a little perspective, there have been 1462 new hospital admissions and 70 deaths from seasonal flu in the UK in 2020 (up till the end of last week), those are Public Health England figures.  As a proportion of the population, those figures are far higher than the current numbers for coronavirus in China.

jh

21 hours ago, hayfield said:

...quite often the best speakers are those whose first language is not English...

The explanation is simple, those who learn English as a 'second' language are taught it like we (people in the UK) are taught French or German, from first principles.  I have an English Language O level and I don't remember being taught anything very technical about the language.

Also many UK TV shows are shown in other countries, though explaining the expressions used in "Only Fools and Horses" or "Minder" to a German with my limited German is fun.

jh

21 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

It was a case that when selling a new TV you had to give the BBC the buyers address, I doubt if that still happens

Retailers are still obliged to give the names and addresses of anyone that purchases a TV to the licencing authority, though obviously that is difficult to enforce if sales are via eBay or private sales.

jh

1 hour ago, Titan said:

To me this seems on the verge of entrapment.  It seems the product that was bought was specifically chosen to increase the chances of a knife being accidentally sold - it was part of a toolkit rather than a knife or knife set, and although the shop should have realised the toolkit contained a knife, one has to ask that if a craft knife by itself had been chosen, would the shop have refused the sale?

 

Did they target any other shops with a similar strategy and this was the only one that they managed to buy a knife?  Or did they just try this out on Ian Allan?

It's not really entrapment, the shops are obliged to ask "Are you over XX", I must admit at 62 I'm flattered when they do!  The till usually prompts the question and  I assume they need to click 'yes' or whatever for the sale to progress.

My local council (in London) regular does similar checks on alcohol sales.

jh

On 25/01/2020 at 13:26, Phil Parker said:

Much as I love the Ian Allan shop, someone made a mistake here and they got caught. If it offends you, would you have the same indignation if the culprit had been your local open all hours corner shop?

 

Knife crime is a big hit in the media at present with hysterical headlines every day. That means that those tasked with putting a sticking plaster on the problem have to be seen to be doing something. A high-ish profile case will remind a few others that they are supposed to ask the question when selling knives, that's the point of it all. 

You are quite right, the "law is the law".

The problem is that if a news media, be that printed or broadcast, got hold of the story "Shop selling knives to children" it would be blow out of all proportion.  The local council have to be able to say they are doing something, though my local council targets those selling alcohol to under 18s.

I rank it as similar to "Health & Safety gone Mad" responses, remember steam railways are one serious accident away from being banned altogether regardless of where the fault lies.  I understand following the "accident" where the train spotter got his head removed by lineside furniture, despite the warnings not to stick your head out the window, preserved railways will be obliged to introduce measures to reduce the chance of that happening. 

Remember one pilot's actions have effectively killed off privately owned retired military aircraft flying in UK air displays.

jh

20 hours ago, Dava said:

 

Today in Sainsbury's I had a lengthy inquisiton by the pharmacist when I asked for Cocodamol, including intrusive questions about why I wanted it and what alternatives I had tried. 

 

Dava

While annoying, there was a case in our local paper where a bloke was touring local pharmacies buying a bottle of some 'over the counter' cough medicine, thereby accumulating litres of the stuff.  He was banned from all the local pharmacies.

It's annoying for the likes of you & me, but some idiot with serious issues spoils it for everyone.

jh

On 20/12/2010 at 20:02, Guest Belgian said:

Why call it HS2

 

JE

It is called HS2 because what is now called the "Channel Tunnel Rail Link" was originally HS1.

The next will be HS3, if there is one.

jh