Helmdon

Agree with all of that overall, but whereas even people in their 40s might reasonably be expected to have first hand memories of a lot of different 37s, the same is no longer true of O4s. I'm in my 40s and I know, but then there aren't many people my age (unless they're hiding from me) who determinedly model a small corner of Northants in the early 1950s and have made it their business to know. Basically, I think the pool to fish in is a lot smaller when it comes to O4/5s and potential customers. This is also one of the reasons why my B16, L3 and N5 all came from kits.

you and I say wonderful. The 8 sub-classes (not including the O1 rebuild, which I'd argue should be included as the ninth) say 'commercially suicidal'

I can actually see their point here though. Yes, it is how it has always worked, and yes it's about booking slots, but historically there has always been a bit of wiggle room where they can keep going for a week or two, and let down the next customer by 14 days 'because reasons'. The issue at the moment is more that the entire supply chain for everything under the sun is so snarled up that even the occasional wiggle room has been crushed out. Bluntly, not that I'm sure anyone ever saw it as a favour, but the room for favours (or more accurately, 'this is selling well, can you just....?') has gone out of the window. Every line pretty well everywhere is booked for the foreseeable.

Rails' sample of the maroon one looks wonderful. Apparently due to leave the factory this month. https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/br-maroon-dynamometer-car

and with that post, the nail is hit on the head by the elephant in the room

quite - and, rightly or wrongly, I trust both of them (not had a bad experience yet) for second hand. And were in an era where a lot of second hand is quite good...

Yes and no - I tend to buy online because I live in the middle of nowhere, but I'm pretty discriminating on where I buy online *from* - second hand locos, Hattons because I trust them for second hand (and more importantly I trust their descriptions of condition when I'm over 100 miles away and buying unseen) - new locos and rolling stock, Derails, because of the customer service and because they test things.... Rails/Hattons/Kernow for exclusives etc. Obviously there are many options on line, and people will have their own preferences and relationships, but I'm very sure that I'm buying from Derails on customer service in particular, and I have tried - obviously I'm not going to name them - cheap options who were hard work to deal with.

Depends on the nature of the financial difficulties - given the bag of brands they've got it's unlikely to that they'd have a sound business case to trade on everything else without Hornby, but if they could/did think like that then selling the Hornby brand could be an asset... ...thinks of (hilarious) famous case where Vickers sold the Rolls-Royce plant to Volkswagen, then the Rolls-Royce name (on cars) to BMW...

just taken the plunge and ordered the Rails Exclusive BR Maroon one as a bit of a what if for my 1950s layout. Everything else is jam and cream but I do skate into the late 50s/early 60s occasionally...

tiny gin bottles?

Hope it's an L3 - you know there's a huge demand for Robinson's ugliest 2-6-4t...

anyone heard anything? just as we approach the final month of Q2. I'm guessing the delays that are hitting everything else are going to hit here too but someone might have heard something...

thanks - new to building loco kits. I needed an N5 and (perhaps naively) think that wheeling and engineing this might be ok....

Just a periodic plea for an L3 please!

I've just come into possession of a superbly built 4mm body and chassis of the above, even liveried correctly for my period and area*. However, days of digging - possibly not looking in the right places - and I'm still none the wiser on where I'm going to get driving wheels, motor/gears for it! Anyone got any thoughts please? *This has pretty much been the holy grail for me as a Northants modeller. The seller had it down as an N4, which going by bunker length and safety valves I would agree with, but it has been liveried/numbered as an N5, so I'm thinking change the safety valve and ignore the bunker. Woodford Halse's N5 allocation lives again!

Not only extensively discussed already, but also The Titfield Thunderbolt is a singularly bad vintage film to try it on with given the copyright situation - its director died in, er, 1999. So there's no 'almost certainly' about it!

thanks, yes I think I dimly knew that - it's the fact that they were actually colour coded that is coming as a surprise for this youngster; I've only ever seen it b&W! My period is BR early emblem though, so I'm definitely in unfitted land.

Afternoon all, trying to put together a windcutter rake for Woodford Halse area in the 1950s. However, B&W photography is still leaving me scratching my head as to whether they should be grey, bauxite, or a mix of the two. Any thoughts or clarification very welcome please!

Surprised no one has mentioned the ‘Kiddy Giddy’ which was a routine one and actually extra work for *five* signalmen…* Turning a loco at Kidderminster involved sending it light Kidderminster- Bewdley-Stourport-Hartlebury-Kidderminster (so in box terms Kidderminster-Kidderminster Jct-Bewdley South -Stourport on Severn-Hartlebury Jct -Kidderminster Jct-Kidderminster) *it’s potentially six but I can’t remember off/hand where Stourport North and South handed over to each other. At Hartlebury I think it only involves the jct signalbox.

I’m not sure that’s a useful distinction is it? The Talyllyn Railway Company Ltd is also established by act of Parliament and in continuous operation from that point (which is more than the FR has been). The TRPS dominate the board of the company, but there are still also nominees of the Jones family on the board. Feels a bit like special pleading tbh. On another reading the Talyllyn could be described as a ‘preserved railway that has never closed since the 1860s’ and the FR as a ‘proper railway rebuilt from dereliction by volunteers after years of non-running.’

*I am not suggesting this is happening here* but I have worked for companies in the past as a consultant where the insight function knew the strategy was nonsense and wanted a paper trail that they could point to in the event of takeover/boardroom coup, or indeed to show to future employers... I have also worked for companies that won't do the blindingly obvious without some research to cover their backs. Assuming (and I have said earlier in the thread that you can't easily extrapolate a whole project from one email) that it is literally a couple of groups, this is not a massive investment.

Hi all, just drifting my layout plan a couple of years to before the BR (LM) takeover. I know that BR(LM) did a very rapid paint job on building when they took over the GCLE but what were they painting from? I know Bachmann reckon their brown/cream colour scheme is right until 1947, and BR(LM) did their vandalism from 58 - but what colours are right for the years in between those two? Or didn't BR(E) repaint as quick as BR(LM) did? I'm loosely based on an amalgam of Helmdon and Culworth stations, both of which were a bit shy of colour photography in the period I'm interested in!

In addition they will pre-screen group attendees to ensure balance within the group. And groups for the rest of the non- fans or the cross will be free found (assuming they’re doing them). god knows (check my posting history) I’ve no wish to defend Hornby, but the agency doing the work are reputable (no connection, etc) and you really can’t extrapolate the nature of the project or the methodology from one targeted email. You just can’t.

Someone that does this for a living writes… other way round - you mostly use the qual to design the quant and sense check what you’re putting in before unleashing it on the masses. Of course it can be done afterwards but I’ve more typically been involved where qual is the pilot. it’s also standard practice, where you are doing both simultaneously (not saying that that’s happening here, but still) to not mention that fact out loud - so there could be some quant about to run either now or hot on the heels. and if, hypothetically, I had absolutely no idea what my customer base was thinking (beyond reading people ranting on the internet) I would DEFINITELY do the qual first. Otherwise, if I was the sort of person who only had confidence in hard natrep numbers, I wouldn’t have any confidence in the q’naire that was generating them.

The O1 is my candidate for Hornby's 'under the radar model hero' of recent times.