railroadbill

Thanks Keith, Looks a good web site there, ..... h'mm!!

My similar experience with buying a loco form a German shop via E Bay went very smoothly and it arrived quickly. Be interesting to here how your delivery goes, as you say ordering via E bay may not be a problem for future EU purchases. As a further experiment I've just bought some electrical connectors from a Chinese supplier via E Bay (outside EU obviously) and E Bay charged 20% UK VAT of that (total cost just over £6), paying VAT is fair enough but the "no vat under £15" that used to be has gone.

Had a Maestro once. Most practical car I've ever had, due to boxy body, and very good visibility with the large windows/screen. Did 167K miles in it. Problem at the end was the rust under the windscreen. Haven't seen one on the road for years so thought they'd all gone. Re car clubs, we've belonged to a one make camper-van club for years, made lots of friends, good magazine, been very very useful for technical knowledge and support but the AGM discussions have often been somewhat heated....

Remember seeing that at the ME exhibition, very well presented and certainly attracted a lot of attention. The steam punk versions of various other sci fi genre artifacts, like star wars spaceships etc. were good, lots of very imaginative items. Think there was there a large scale r/c steam punk Star wars style R2-D2 robot (or similar) running around? Not only was it all very well made and engineered, but the presenters looked like they were really enjoying themselves! Cracking stuff.

That's very helpful info, Ed. One thought is that it looks like it would be best to look for any wanted train items now before things get even worse.... I looked up the details of some other model railway parts I bought from a German shop via Ebay last year, (an LGB controller) and the shipping was the same price, 15 euros. But then there was no UK VAT to pay of course (VAT may or not have been paid in Germany). I've also bought a couple of railway DVDs from Germany in the past, think that was through Amazon (the UK site). Don't know what category these would now come in. Bill.

Cathy Cat has made a couple of videos about travelling on Shinkensens. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kls966FubeM https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vCvUz68sshY just join the urls up. She's very enthusiastic. There's a lot about Japanese railways on Youtube, perhaps that needs another thread!

That's very useful info, etendam, looks like buying from EU into UK could go on being OK provided it's through E-bay or similar. I haven't tried this but presumably if I bought something on Amazon.de they would deal with UK VAT in a similar way? Re CE mark. The loco I bought (Liliput from the pre-Bachmann, made in Austria, era) doesn't have CE marks and neither does the box. From comments earlier in the thread it looks as if that could be a problem for this type of purchase in the future (although that would depend on the UK attitude to CE marks or no CE marks when the CA mark comes in here). As an aside, the loco I bought is a DB class 91 2-6-0T. Took a while to track down (there's also a Fleischmann HO model of this) and I missed a couple that were UK sales on E-bay. They don't exactly come up very often (!) and there's obviously a much better chance of finding one from a German seller (being a German loco). i wanted one because these are similar to locos used on Danish private railways once upon a time and I've traveled behind one on a preserved railway. It's the closest I'm going to get to one in HO scale. It's an almost right loco that looks good running round the layout pulling some almost right coaches.....

This is the rest of the story. The package was dispatched on Monday 25 April and I received it late morning on Thursday 29 April. This was sent by DHL. So a successful purchase. As this relates to previous posts, this is what the attached customs declaration stated, 1. In the middle of my address was a reference starting GB which looked like a VAT number and finished with "code=paid". I assume that that was for the 20% UK VAT that E-bay had collected. 2. The description of content was "Toy train lok". (That was of course correct!) 3. The HS tariff number was 95030030 which has been stated on this thread as being the "toy train" one. This was all on a Deutsche Post form that had been filled in on line. There were 2 copies of the form in the clear envelope stuck to the package. I didn't have to pay any further charges to receive the package, quite correctly. What wasn't clear was if the shop itself was registered for UK VAT or E-Bay themselves did it for them as the E-bay web page for the item stated "we will collect and remit VAT where eBay is deemed supplier".

Agree about tourist angle. NHK World TV's other programs promote various aspects of Japan that would appeal to tourists. A lot of Japanese speak at least some English, it's a compulsory subject in schools. (Also signage in trains/stations etc. is in English text as well as Japanese). The episode on "new trains for 2020" is a goody as well imho.

Think it was a C12 model that was running round the layout. Ace stuff! One interesting point in the program was the preserved loco that ran up and down a short length of track powered by compressed air.

I watched it (plus other episodes) here, it's a sort of catch up thing. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/japanrailway/

I've just watched the Moka railway steam preservation one (from the on demand web page). Agree it was good to have Prof. Ryo doing a lot more of the presenting. And the model railway is great with an appropriate train running round. What intrigued me was the very short shovel they used. Ryo said it could be used one handed. Perhaps because it was a tank engine being fired? Great stuff.

Thanks for that, an interesting vehicle to look out for. I see from your wikipedia link that the M250 was awarded the Japan Railway Club Blue Ribbon award in 2005!

Just watched an episode on JR freight, "JR freight in business for the long haul" which covers the new freight centre "JR rail gate west". It's a bit of a promotional power point presentation, but very interesting in how rail and road usage has been affected by covid, for one thing. Lots of shots of JR freight locos (including a new one where a container is carried on the loco itself).

Well, having followed everyone's experience on this thread... I was "watching" a loco on e-bay being offered as buy it now by a German model shop. The potential complications now in buying it and having it sent to the UK had put me off. Anyway, they dropped the price, I bought it. 1. E-bay has charged VAT as a separate additional cost. This appears to be UK VAT, it is 20% which is the UK rate. (Germany is 19%). E-bay note is "According to the UK 2021 VAT e-commerce package, we will collect and remit VAT where eBay is deemed supplier". 2. The package is being sent by DHL, so far it's reached the stage "Weiterleitung zur Exportbearbeitung" (forwarded to export processing) which looks hopeful. The process has at least started. 3. The VAT was applied to item cost and shipping. The price is well under £135 so E-Bay was collecting the VAT as it should. I shall wait and see, hopefully everything has now been paid unless DHL come up with some further processing charge. I'll report back, hopefully favourably!

Seems to have reported for NHK world before, could well be an interesting presenter! We shall see....

What's in the next cupboard, Roythebus1? Intrigued, now. Always a danger that there will be too many projects to finish! Overwhelming!

By coincidence, I had also been sorting through boxes, and dug out... a K's L21 Q1 loco. Got given this years ago by a friend along with other bits, so hadn't made it. Having found it again, been musing about what to do with it, non-runner but looks like it's the pickups that are a problem. I've got the motor running, so seems fine. However, it's a DS13 or similar, which were powerful but high revving, gears are very high, look like 20:1 or so, and it's a very heavy loco so not the best combination. Has Romford wheels rather than K's (has cast inserts for Bulleid pattern wheel). Thinking about a different motor/gearbox perhaps, but maybe I should try to get it running as it is first. Bit of fun from the past!

Thanks for the camera info, Ray. I've got a couple of Panasonic Lumix cameras, one a bridge camera, one a compact, been playing with the settings to get the best depth of field. Aperture priority mainly and setting aperture to smallest value. Also tried my rather old Nikon dslr where the aperture can go down to f32, but the newer cameras have the edge. One problem is the layout is in the loft and there is no natural lighting, so lighting is another experiment! cheers Bill

That's very good, Ray. Your pics show the very good details on the models as well as potential problems to look out for and how to fix them, so very useful! Well worth a look. Good video as well, I'm just off to run CoN now.

Excellent Ray, that's very useful. Your pictures do show how well detailed the models are, the valve gear and wheels especially. It's a pity that some models have had the assembly problems that you've showed. Your blog shows a lot of potential problems to look out for. Your pics of the locos are very good, you get a good depth of field, I'm experimenting with that at the moment. Also the video shows how well they run. I've only got CoN so far, my one didn't have any problems (apart from top lamp iron missing) and it looks so good that it's had a lot of running since I got it! Bill

Excellent video (from the Rapido Canadian/US newsletter) , well worth a look. Very cleverly produced,

It didn't have the ringfield motor sticking out the back of the cab which did make it look better. (Same with Bristol Castle). imho of course.

And this one with forward (right) facing lion as well of course. 3 rail sitting on 2 rail track...

Mallard's loco headboard was great fun. Afraid it disappeared long ago. The 2 coaches that came with the Flying Scotsman set still have their stick-on label destination boards, though. Still got the box it came in but without the lid. 63 years ago, eh...actually the full size locos still had a few years to go when I got this as a present!