Trains4U

Oh dear... Our stock arrived today. unfortunately 3/4 of them have damaged bodyshells. (Local delivery company perhaps, who knows?) I'd suggest any other retailers out there check theirs before shipping!

And we're back already! How about that!

Unfortunately the Trains4U.com website is currently offline. we are still here! The domain name is being re-hosted, and the name server changes take a day or two to propagate. Hopefully normal service will be resumed by Thursday, if not before. Thanks!

Had an email from Heljan today. 60s are expected to ship next week.

Had a jolly good weekend at the Peterborough show! Thanks to all those who dropped by and bought something. Feeling tired now though!

I put in my initial orders this morning. I asked about a release date, but they are unable to confirm anything at this stage.

They could have been offloaded in Rotterdam, and are now sitting on the wrong side of a very congested English Channel - How do we know?

I 'm happy to stand corrected. I was quoting the information from Heljan I'm not claiming to be an expert on 05s

Just to note We've had an e-mail stating that the A variant is due to be shipped imminently These are the locos with the smaller diameter wheels, round buffers and shallower buffer beams Class 05 shunter - 2500 D2574 BR green Class 05 shunter - 2501 D2578 BR green with wasp stripes (Preserved) Class 05 shunter - 2502 D2581 BR green with wasp stripes Class 05 shunter - 2503 CIDER QUEEN as industrial use

***Sigh*** We've been here before My response now is the same as then. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86388-rails-of-sheffield/&do=findComment&comment=1468271 Only this topic is regarding the retailer beginning with R...

I kind of agree with you here, but it is a bit unfair to place the balme squarely on the retailer, which the OP suggests. The end consumer does not have visibility of the retailer's cost prices, margins and overheads The retailer does not have visibility of the manufacturer's cost prices, margins or overheads the manufacturer probably does not have visibility of their factory's cost prices, margins and overheads The factories probably don't have visibility of their supplier's cost prices, margins and overheads etc.... Each party down the line has an impact on overall cost - and whilst the OP is clearly directed at Hatton's, it is a bit unreasonable to push the burden of blame onto them (or anyone else down the chain for that matter) when the commercial aspects are unknown.

I'm afraid this post is astonishingly unfair. We tried, for many years to avoid increasing prices on existing stocks when RRPs changed. unfortunately, the rate of inflation on model railway stock has increased dramatically, and we, as retailers, have no control over the prices charged. there are two things that must be understood here. 1. Volume of sales is down - the manufacturers need to make or improve on previous year's profits - to do so on the back of declining unit sales is to improve their margin - as with previous posts, the manufacturers are catching up with themselves, moving from subsidising product, or operating on tiny margins, to moving towards more sustainable margins. Unfortunately that has meant a squeeze on retailer margins from some quarters, or a large increase in price from others. 2. How can you expect a business to survive if it cannot afford to replace what it sells - the margins, especially when competing, are slim. Take a loco sold at £85 - RRP is £100, but it is sold at £85 as the market demands it - however it cost £70 to buy in. (I'm excluding VAT calculations for simplicity) The RRP changes to £115 The sale price is immediately increased from £85 to £98 Why? because to replace the item from the supplier would cost £81 In that instance, if the price were not increased, there would be approximately £3.30 (After VAT this time) from a sale of £85 with which to pay rent, rates, wages, utilities and invest in business growth. The business would be better off selling a few packs of rail joiners. The original argument was fair when we as retailers were facing 2-3% annual rises, but in these days of 10-25% it is just not possible to continue in that way and maintain a viable business.

I suspect Photoshop moved the rucksack!

Saying that, the catenery has survived 27 years, even if it does go up and down like a...(Insert appropriate euphemism here) Nice pics - a rake of 13 is pretty respectable for Tornado - I wonder if the limitation is down to platform length, rather than power. I wonder how many more Mk1s it could pull if popularity required it.

I popped in to TrainMaster models when working in Georgia last year. The shop was really good, though stock of locos seemed quite thin. lots of "New Old Stock" and a good used selection, and one of the more interesting in-store layouts that i've seen. Picked up an Athearn Genesis sound fitted N&S SD60MAC as a memento of my visit. Plus, it's nicely placed for some 1:1 scale action - this is just across the road... https://youtu.be/Gg3Rk2axovg

That's a little bit unfair. When moving, we amassed about 40 empty boxes, the majority for for models that were stolen and a few that were destroyed or accidentally sold without the box (at a discount, when we couldn't originally find said box) I could have skipped them, but as it is we've made a couple of hundred pounds, recouping some of the losses in the process. Surely it is good business? somebody clearly has a need/want for them so what is wrong if two or more people are prepared to bid them up? - though I do admit to being surprised at some of the prices realised (£21.50 for a Heljan 47 box anyone?)

Divide the BIN price by 10, then we might be close to getting down to what its worth.

You think that is surprising, not as surprised as I was, with this... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=331008901805#ht_1794wt_1000

I never knew fibreglass could get so rusty

<Facepalm>

I'm sure the cause of the lighting problems has already been mentioned in this thread, (But I'm not trawling 110 pages to find it) The issue is with the lighting board. There is no overload protection, so if a short circuit occurs, the integrated circuit on the board starts to overheat. I experienced this on the layout in the shop - the loco derailed and the leading bogie crossed the rails, causing a short. Bang go the lights. This is a consistent and repeatable problem. The LEDs themselves are not affected as they are protected by their resistors, but the Integrated circuit that controlls them, is ruined. Putting a DCC chip in fixes the issue (Which is why no-one running DCC has a problem) so you should have no concerns buying the model if you are running digital. But, the circuitry should be right in the first place. I did write to Dapol about this, when Richard was experiencing his problems, suggesting what I believed the cause of the problem to be, but got no response. I'm having similar silly problms with the lighting in their N gauge HSTs (Works fine on DCC but not on analogue) The model might look fabulous (and it does) and may be the most accurate ever, but it can only be a great model if the whole package (Electrics and mechanicals included) inside and out, is of the same quality.

Chewed screws is a problem for all the main RTR manufacturers. It is surprisingly common and not terribly difficult to fix. Provided you have some spare screws. I tend to drill out he screw head then lift off the bodyshell\part, then unscrew the shaft with pliers.

Draw the line round the left hand pane, and leave it from the right hand pane. then everyone will be happy... (or not) Personally, I'd leave it off. Is the glazing removable? if it is, id be more tempted to pop them out and paint the edge of the glazing panel black, for that really fine appearance.

I always feel as though they are smiling at me.