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PC2 on my set was dead and with no sound when I first assembled it. I remade all the the connections and it worked eventually. Please see my earlier post. Check all your conections between cars they may have worked loose. Even when they look connected they aren't necessarily.

Anyone else willing to get their silver banana out in public? :-)

Got some courage together this morning to assemble my APT. It all went OK eventually, but there were a few squeaky bottom moments on the way! Managed to assemble the four units OK. Very cautiously at first, but eventually got the 'knack'. Or so I thought! PC1's motor was running but it didn't have enough 'umph' to pull the dead PC2 along. Oh dear... Unmade and made several of the joints, several times. Even when you think they are connected they aren't! :-) It probably took an hour and an half all told but time flew! Thanks to e-link and Railmaster I thought I'd blown the whole unit at one point. But I'd had issues with them not providing power to the track before and it turned out to be all OK after I switched it all off and on again! Very, very pleased with the APT, had it racing around my temporary attic loop for quite some time earlier this afternoon, it's quite nippy! Finding all the talk of whether Rapido made a profit or not a bit crass? I'm sure that's confidential to them and probably won't be revealed in a hurry.

My DCC sound APT arrived today. Yippee! No 186. :-) I was just wondering what the loud lorry sound was outside when the door was knocked. Unpacked but not assembled yet. My grandson said, "can we put in on my Thomas set?" He was a bit disappointed when I said No. But he enjoyed the Cybermen video from Rapido as a consolation prize. Now to read the READ THIS FIRST BOOK...

Life imitating art? The newly named Virgin Azuma sporting a snoz extension just like the APT-E. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukbuses/25250889074/in/photolist-FhEXxv-FfosqC-FhQTwz-FoJShb-FoJSfh-EtkpAs-FhZihe-EtTZXt-EYPg6N-EtkyhW-EtkuKA-EtktJY-EYFKso-EYFLyb-FrfnQZ-EYFNoJ-Frfmya-Frfo4z-EtFWCX-FhRHn4-EYFN2b-FhRH4Z-EYEUpU

Only we weren't asked to pay up front in this case. We paid a £50 deposit to an off-shoot of the national museum. If the project completely failed (unlikely) I'd assumed we'd get our money back from Locomotion models. There was and is some risk that the model may not be to our liking, but Rapido are well regarded in their market. I saw this as a low risk.

Pictures please, or it never happened! :-)

Loco detection for Railmaster. I thought it would be a bit more inconspicuous than that! ;-)

Oh my what a pickle Hornby are in. I had thought with the new directors appointed a year or so back that things would be sorted by now. I've had a theory for a while that the larger investors (some of them venture capitalists) were planning on taking the company private. The move to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) being the first step. With the likely breach of banking covenants, I'm sure they could make an offer for the assets of the company to the bank? The number of companies I have seen that have had serious disasters with botched Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, mainly SAP. MFI, remember them?; British Gas, Npower to name a few. How can something that is a glorified stock control and ordering system go so badly wrong? But I think the main place they went wrong was allowing their major manufacturer be taken over by a competitor. That caused them five years of pain that I feel they never really recovered from. They effectively had to buy the tooling back from Kader, some of it never reappeared, look at the Mk3 restaurant car roof fiasco. (Removed mean spirited comment about shrinkage)

Anyone can nominate someone for an award apparently: https://www.gov.uk/honours/overview

New era Thomas R9287 is GFT01.

So something like this: http://s22.photobucket.com/user/Monpot/media/ff79a58f.jpg.html It's a good job I like Jaffa Cakes. :-)

The Hornby Percy and the Mail Train set I have says 3+. Track Packs say 14+. You're OK so long as you don't expand your train set? :-/

There's a lot of fuss about the accuracy and detail of the current and proposed Thomas and Friends range on these pages. Have you seen the issues with the current Thomas and Friends take and play and other ranges? Wrong number of wheels, shortened lengths etc, etc. I've seen Thomas as an 0-4-0. Spencer as an 0-6-0! The world has moved on from the times when Britt Allcroft criticised the Hornby offerings as inaccurate. The Thomas and Friends franchise is owned by a major toy manufacturer Mattel and they are turning out any old rubbish now. I suspect the target market for these toys are not bothered about details and are more into the playability of the items? Hornby needs Thomas and Friends to get new audiences into their train sets and accessories. I've no doubt that the licence fee is a hefty figure and some of the requests on this thread would have some of the models coming out at £150.

Your deserted car park scenario is more likely to attract doggers these days! :-)

You were all a very friendly bunch and didn't look remotely bored by the questions. Rapido have bought a breath of fresh air to the British modelling scene. More than can be said of a few of the attendees of the show.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallon My brain hurts!

A recently departed mate of mine used to rib me mercilessly saying "How on earth did they manage to come up with a ratio of 4mm to the foot, mixing two different measuring systems up!" I'd never really thought about the craziness of it before that. I guess it was much more fun than using the ratio 1:76?

To help whet you appetite for the model, here's a link to a few shots of the APT-E and APT-P. Taken by my father, Alan in the 70's and 80's. He has recently scanned a load of his 35mm slides and these were amongst them. No dates I'm afraid. https://www.flickr.com/photos/trickymundo2009/sets/72157645511424974

Was this the amphibious APT-E?

As to the perceived production quality of the video. I'd much rather have this historical event recorded than not. Think of the number of objects, buildings, people and events that have disappeared into the ether without ever being recorded. Looking at the old APT-E coverage for example what would have happened if the videographers had thought "the resolution of this is not high enough, I'll not bother" Oh, and I've reserved a sound and DCC equipped APT-E. :-) It did of course visit St. Austell! ;-)

The coverage from BBC Inside Out South West here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03v3g4x/Inside_Out_South_West_10_02_2014/ Including discussion of the Oakhampton route and a look at the restoration of the washout. Available for 6 more days.

The news story on Stafford Railway Circle appears to be gone now. I'll post the contact details for Topp Trains in case anyone fancies a trip, as they appear to be hiding their light under a bushel: Topp Trains, 28, Marston Road, Stafford, ST16 3BS. 01785 247883. Plenty of free parking nearby, although they are in the middle of a one-way system that might confuse SatNavs. No connection, just a customer keen to see them do well.

I think this may have been posted elsewhere on the site as a status, but here goes! I paid a visit to this new shop at 28 Marston Road, Stafford today after seeing it advertised on the Stafford Railway Circle website: http://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/dynamic1.php?NewsID=1096 They advertise a website www.topptrains.co.uk but this appears to be a holding page at the moment. There was lots of N gauge and OO gauge gear in there. They appear to be stocking Bachmann, Dapol, and Hornby. They don't have any PECO at the moment, but are expecting to do so soon. I had a nice browse in there as SWMBO helped demolish a tin of quality street that was on the counter! I bought an N gauge Kestrel Designs Country Station kit and a Dapol wagon. I wish them well as Stafford hasn't had a proper model shop since Bagnall's expired and the chap on the market moved away towards Nantwich.