Flittersnoop

...don't use RMweb... please? Because we wouldn't want to upset Hornby by illustrating the strength of negative feeling that their actions have induced amongst their customers, not to mention the many retailers on RMweb, would we?

It must be a combination of the latter two. They're relying on new models being "must haves" - their attitude will seriously discourage me from buying their products, especially from their website. The S&D coach which I had ordered from Gaugemaster and now won't get I can do without. I wrote to Hornby in January after I had to place orders with half a dozen retailers just to get the items I wanted from their 2022 announcements. I've no idea what I'll end up with, and frankly I'm past caring, especially after the tone-deaf reply I received from Simon Kohler.

High fire risk, so the NYMR is trying to run a peak summer season service between Whitby and Pickering with two Class 37s. Three trains each way per day, pre-book only. Do you really have to pay for the whole Whitby - Pickering trip if you only want to go from Grosmont to Goathland? Not looking forward to my trip to North Yorks in two weeks quite so much now. Let's hope it rains.

A ground-breaking product would be something like a Class 120 DMU or a Maunsell U class 2-6-0, that people can run on their existing layouts. The number of UK modellers that are just sitting around thinking that what they really want to do is start a new layout for which they can buy a limited range of track and a couple of kits for buildings must be... hardly any.

My guess is that Rapido will be announcing brake vans to go with all the lovely pre-grouping RTR freight stock and locomotives that you can buy now! 🙃

Peco didn't invent TT-120, did they? They're just making track that existing Eastern European models can run on. In the current economic climate I don't think that there's a cat in Hades' chance of any company making any British outline RTR stock for TT-120.

I should probably know this, but are the projected HS2 trains going to tilt? If not, won't some of the gains due to the new line be lost on Glasgow trains by having to run slower north of Crewe?

This development seems utterly baffling. When Peco introduced the H0m track I hoped that a manufacturer would make some British or Irish 3 foot gauge models, especially when the die-cast Isle of Man loco appeared. I'm still waiting. There's still very little continental Metre gauge stuff apart from the Swiss models. Now we're to have TT gauge track - I wonder how much of it they will sell, when there's almost nothing to run on it?

So if it has little effect, cancelling the Golborne Link would seem to be a sensible move.

Reducing the number of platforms at Euston looks less controversial now...

On Saturday, 21st May I was in London with my wife, having been to the theatre in West Norwood. The car was parked at Bracknell station, so at 11pm we were on Platform 6 at Clapham Junction, waiting for the next train towards Reading. I was surprised to see that the first train was for Basingstoke, first stop Surbiton. I guessed that this was one of those rare trains that for some obscure reason uses the curve from Point Pleasant Junction to East Putney, and then the District Line to Wimbledon before regaining the South Western main line. I am a bit of a track-basher and have never been on the Point Pleasant curve, but taking that train would have made us very, very late home, so I had to forego the pleasure. Has anyone else had to pass up a similar opportunity of rare track or traction in the interests of the greater good?

I was at Birmingham University from 1982 to 1985. In the first year the line from Selly Oak into New Street was visible from the corridor in my hall of residence. The Class 50s made such a noise on the climb from BNS that I had time to dash out of my room and see the train, and thanks to the large logo livery the numbers were legible and by the end of my degree I had seen all fifty of them.

I was thinking of getting one of these. The planking means I won't bother. Hornby seem to have become very cynical about what they expect us to buy. I know it's only a toy; no big deal, just disappointing.

Not as shocking as that shade of purple! And yes, I am one of those people on Facebook. I think the loco looks hideous.

Locking the wagon turntable?

And an unrealistic place for an island platform, too.

No-one is ever forced to buy a model train. If anyone is unhappy with a model they can sell it and not order again from that manufacturer. If enough people do this, the manufacturer will cease to trade, and your problem will have disappeared, along with your hobby.

There are plenty of multiple units, electric and diesel, which Hornby could do. But then Hornby have just lost their effective monopoly on the Class 31, which they could have got many more sales from with a tiny application of effort and imagination. I have completely given up trying to rationalise the decisions taken by Hornby and Bachmann. But then Rapido have just announced a Jones Goods, when there are literally dozens of far more numerous and long-lived steam classes still to be done in RTR, so what do I know?

The most obvious candidate is the Bachmann Modified Hall, which had the glaringly wrong running plate shape beneath the smokebox door. I hadn't ordered one in advance and didn't buy one until the recent (corrected) batch became available. If I had ordered one and paid I think I would have been very annoyed, and would have tried to return the loco and get my money back, but that's because there are lots of pictures of Modified Halls, and also an earlier model version to compare it to. Another example would be the Bachmann model of Class 24 D5000 which I bought and only later became aware that it had bodyside grilles missing, as it was a non-standard loco. When the SLW model with the correct details was announced, I bought one, having sold the Bachmann version at a small loss. I suspect I have ordered a Fell - and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't read the comments on here I would never have noticed any discrepancies. i was expecting a model of a ridiculously ugly diesel loco, and I suspect that is what will be supplied. Surely the real problem is the 21st century model railway business model, where you have to order locos sight unseen, or else run the risk of not being able to lay your hands on one at all? The buyer bears some risk in that if the model turns out to be a real turkey, its re-sale value will be much less than the purchase price. However, if the model bears a convincing resemblance to the prototype, then any ultra-picky (or "knowledgable") buyer will most likely be able to resell the loco at a profit to some hapless ignoramus who hasn't had the good fortune to be educated by the good folk on RMWeb. But since this seems to be the way things work these days, we apparently have a choice to order and take one kind of risk, or delay and take a different risk. The choice, as they say, is ours. As far as I know, other hobbies are available...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133958067528?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Da20df8382583421face3c081ef1f9d68%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D133958067528%26itm%3D133958067528%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DHornby&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Ab0e83588-8789-11ec-a45b-c25d18ef5476|parentrq%3Ad0ae6c0d17e0ab9715a82abdfff55012|iid%3A1 Words fail me!

I shall find a reason to buy a rake of these - somewhere I have a Metro tank kit, reasonably complete but minus a motor. I suspect these non-corridor ones are being made first because most people are waiting for the corridor Toplights. Dare I say it, but for me this announcement is way more exciting than the whole Bachmann 2022 programme put together.

Perhaps some were sold to Longmoor?

There's a blurry old photo currently on Ebay that shows the overall roof at Jedburgh, and a narrow wooden extension to the passenger platform in the area to the right of the 4MT.

All of which I acknowledge, but batch sizes must be pretty small now, to the extent that model train manufacture is almost a cottage industry. Certainly, the prices of the mainstream manufacturers are rapidly approaching the true cottage industry suppliers like 00 Works. And of course, Peco still manufacture in the UK... It's an unsettling thought that almost an entire industry could experience mass extinction if, for instance, a newly established superpower suddenly decided to invade a nearby island.

Whilst what you say is true, it is noticeable that there are many new, innovative suppliers entering the market to the detriment, I would guess, of the biggest suppliers' profits and market share. Perhaps some of the innovation will involve the location of the manufacture, as well as being leaner and more focussed?