Ighten

Could anyone recommend a particular type or method for this and do they have to have there own supply or can I simply wire them to an accessories line?

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

 

Ramsbottom does sound 'oop north' and whilst urban does appeal, it would be further South, Bristol area to be precise. Ex-Midland. That said, the Aspinall saddle tanks and 0.6.0 tender locos have a certain aesthetic appeal. 

 

But Isle of Wight it is for now. 

 

Rob. 

 

I was at Ramsbottom only last week - well further down the River Irwell.. Peaceful spot until this hulk roared past

A busy morning shunting is planned -- well lets say

busy for this layout  but time to check if a few track feed adjustments are working ok..

Im getting a bit bored (fed up) at the press now concentrating on infections - it wasn't actually political when the distinction was made between easing and infections/hospitalisations it was a Sage agreement yet the press seem to be ignoring this because its not instant click bait.

3rd wave of hospitilisations = bad

3rd wave of infections = meaningless unless it become the former 

The current idea of wait and see if one relates to the other seems correct but the press seem to have lost the plot and now go out of there way to find anybody to fit there own clickbait agenda..

The BBC annoys me most in this respect - why exactly does a licence funded news company (who now seem to have more editors than reporters)  feel the need to have headlines that keep them number one on google analytics (are they preparing)

Not a lot to report other than the milliput (which has been annoying me for far to long) joining the front sleeper fences has now been hidden with more gorse and some areas have had the grass lvls increased... The fascia has also had a coat of paint stolen from my wonderful wifes collection of farrow and ball (I'm sure she must have shares).. I quite like it and more importantly so does she..

I have now cut the top piece ready to fit but what do people use for the lighting re LEDS - White or Warm and do they connect separately to the mains or can I add them to an accessory line bus from the transformer.

I sometimes wonder if some of the gearing ratios that are applied to "shall we say small little steam shunters" are just absurd and don't help the issue before the then failings of other  QC  issues come into play...   

I   returned a "Charity" Peckett to a retailer who I wont name only to be told there was nothing wrong with it as we watched it hurtle along semi smoothly with a slight disco hip move at a scale 80mph on his test track - Perfect!!!!

Anyway we need more pictures - and more baps

I have the same issue on Tunstead Moor as I look to add  a second loco.. Its designed like Robs as a small shelf diaroma type layout.. I dont really have an issue with trying to keep to one theme as its unlikely I will ever have more than one loco on the layout at a time so rule 1 applies leaving me what I thought should be lots of scope..

2 pecketts later and one terrier  I am still scratching my head and holding the credit with the local shop.. 

It doesnt help Im helping to build an n gauge layout for a friend whose tiny new class 66 (Dapol) and 37s(Bachmann Farish) run around at all speeds like smooth silk with flywheels galore..

The irony is my initial purchase to get going was  the much lamented but highly reduced in price Kernow DJ models 1361 which runs as smooth as silk even at a crawl despite its noisy all wheel  geared drive train.

Perhaps it simply comes down to anything with such short wheelbases just has to be 100% perfection QC  running on 100% perfectly laid track - but we cant do anything about the first but cross our fingers.

Morning arrival at Tunstead Moor. Another busy day (not)

Superb - I can feel the pull and temptation of n gauge starting to work into my mind... What are you using for ballast may I ask it looks super fine and excellent

1 hour ago, JohnR said:

 

However, the fact remains, that Amazon have purchased a large range of Hornby stock, and are selling it themselves.  From what has been mentioned, its nothing like the John Lewis example - there we are limited to 3 (possibly the most popular) models to purchase. 

 

Im not sure why you keep thinking this and repeating it - its not actually how it works - They dont buy and dont even employ buyers for most products- they approach and facilitate those who want to use them as warehousing services with shipping..

Heres an example of how the different wording on the right for distribution is a tool used by the vendor -- Same store in this case Hornby Store

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-R3812-Steam-Locomotive/dp/B07X477PC7?ref_=ast_sto_dp

There are several others in the Hornby Store and several other differently named stores that technically when you click through to the  sometimes store dont really sell anything and at times allow themselves to be placed in a store zone.. Its how the vendor controls input and pricing/promotion and which algorithm is used if needed..

TBF to Hornby they need a solution to the China - Distribution - Production and Pandemic problems - the best thing that can happen is they get they go back to normal when production becomes the norm - And in a way this made sense until the part where they basically take offence at others manufacturing  or being in competition. Do they think that people will abandon the alternative product and the store just because it doesnt stock red boxes anymore because thats the dumbest thinking ever - it wont make competition go away.

1 hour ago, RichardT said:

FWIW I clicked the link to the Hornby Store on Amazon, clicked on “Flying Scotsman”, and the selling page said “dispatched from and sold by Amazon”. To my simple mind that’s Hornby supplying Amazon, not using them as a shop front.

 

RT

That means that Hornby have applied and been certified to allow there items into the warehouse - its still their storefront - Amazon dont employ buyers for these areas its run normally by the trader who simply has to keep stock flowing through (it will usually say more stock coming soon etc somewhere)

At a guess and from price watching items I would say they stock the shopfront with items they need to shift - promoting the odd thing heavily as one off specials and allowing the Amazon pricing algorithm to do its work on others.. Certain items (usually newer) just match the rrp though on there own site.

What's bizarre with Hornbys attempt to do this is they have created a  store front (when you click visit the Hornbystore) that takes you to a shiny storefront menu to match the website style; yet if you click locomotives - then steam- for example, it then lists only about 20% of what they actually have on Amazon (which is a reduced range in itself) 

If you look closely you can work out which items may be affected as even though your in the same store (Hornbystore) some items will say Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. whilst others (yet still in the same store) will say Dispatched from and sold by TrainStop. If you try to click through to Trainstops storefront it doesnt exist.. From what I remember this allows the trader more controls

1 hour ago, phil gollin said:

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After all the forensic examination of Hornby's position on "tiers", can someone explain why Hornby supply Amazon ?

 

No shop, no customer personal interface, no ability to visit.

 

Strange.

 

.

Uh - They dont -- its their own store on an Amazon storefront.. Other shops and retailers do the same such as Cheltenham/Peter Spares etc

And yes - they sell the same item at different prices to there own website sometimes using the store front Algorithm to boost sales (probably on items that are not selling well & which can result in the odd bargain) or throw the odd item in as a weekend special..

I  thinK JSpencer is correct as I have seen unavailables change  back to low

1 minute ago, spamcan61 said:

Amazon aren't a small shop.

Not sure what you mean - the main user of Amazon is Hornby itself and one or two other shops who use it as a storefront rather than have there own website

9 minutes ago, Simon Lee said:

 

Quite honestly it's pretty poor, more like an Argos or Screwfix few items on display lots of floorspace to wander around after you have looked at the 3 or 4 display cases, and re examined the low value scenics they actually had on display.

 

If they assessed the staff member we dealt with then Hattons deserve the low rate, he constantly refused to make eye contact or acknowledge my partner who was paying for my Christmas presents, when she asked him a question or passed comment he either ignored her or answered me. The whole experience was like a bizarre twist of the Fawlty Towers Hotel Inspector episode involving Bernard Cribbins.

 

By contrast at Chester Model Centre we were both made welcome and treated well, despite not purchasing anything as they had no stock of what I was looking for. 

 

If we are on that area again then certainly WMC will be our first port of call.

 

 

 

 

TBF the only good thing re Hattons now is the own brand stuff(Genesis look mmmmm compared to Hornbys) the odd decent price and the trunk system(even the website is a bit messy).. The shop as I said earlier is in all practical terms non existent now and I think people seem to be under the misconception its like the old shop.  As you say the experience is exactly like a screwfix so under those reasonings I can see exactly why its Tier 3.. 

However does that excuse a tier system - well I suppose it does if your protecting smaller stores during a time of messed up production and stalled shipping but we will have to see if they remove it when normality returns

11 hours ago, SteamingWales said:

Only just seen this news and picking up on this thread so don't know if this has been mentioned before.

 

Where does this leave smaller commissioners/manufacturimg model shops, thinking Kernow and TMC for example? Will they be tier 3 as well?

 

It's evident Hattons and Rails fall into T3 as they are in direct competition with the likes of eg. Terrier and Class 66 respectively 

 

However I have alway viewed Kernow and TMC as producing left field models or regional specific, Kernow doing lots of LSWR models for example, so they fall outside of Tier 3 because they aren't on direct competition? And at what point is the line crossed?

 

 

 

 

You cant really compare Kernows to Hattons as they have proper shops.. Hattons (now) is rather like walking in to toolstation or screwfix.. I miss the old Hattons store.

Rails however does have a decent shop with nice displays and seem to be being punished solely for being competition which seems just dumb unless Im misssing something

EDIT then again wasnt Rails the other way around and they cut ties with Hornby

16 minutes ago, Ouroborus said:

It seems a strange thing that Hornby view a stores website as a big thing when Hornby's own Amazon store is poorly laid out and doesn't list many of the items that it actually sells.  If running a website is so easy but such a deal breaker, time to get its own house in order first.

 

 

This is the most ironic point --- Their own website is just about useable now but they also choose to have a discounted Amazon store front(for the same items) which is an absolute disaster unless you know a few Amazon search engine tricks

Before I tackle the buildings one thing I noticed looking back at the photos from the last update is that the scene is lacking some height and whilst I think it would be incorrect for a forest of tall pine trees to appear in the middle of the moor I have been experimenting with some smaller - half dead looking examples....

I may have play around with the positioning etc but I think they fit quite well - basically I quickly made them up out of thin wire and some bits of the briar - with a little more static grass for more thin branches added and  then the loose leaves from the briar stuck onto this..  I also wanted to find a way to hide the exit to the fiddle yard..

A little more scenic work - though before that I decided to have a look at how the whole light box - diaroma - fascia boards(whatever you want to call it ) will look just to get an idea of the scale etc.. I now cant imagine building this size of layout without framing it as I do think its important to force the viewpoint to where you want it to be.. People can spend years sometimes building layouts only for the whole thing to loose just a little something in immersion because everyone is stood staring at it from above watching roofs go by.

So you can probably also spot a few more details such as gorse and slowly starting work on the left hand side of the layout. Checking the positioning of the bridge etc...

The Gorse was a start /stop and scrap affair before starting all over again.. I initially started using Lichen I had left over and some Javis yellow powders which I soon discovered were not entirely colour locked once wet - it just looked like rubbery Lichen with  yellow paint on it so I used Woodland scenics Briar in the end and some of the same brands yellow foilage.

Anyway a quick over view for now I need to get back to finishing the ballasting/rear landscape on the left hand side - and then painting the buildings etc etc

49 minutes ago, cbrooks122000 said:

That is really interesting, I bought a Princess class loco and City of Salford loco off them for a similar price, which I couldn't understand as nobody is selling these models at those prices.

Dont those tend to come direct from Hornby and the price drops if the retailer has activated the price algorithm on Amazons Marketplace

Do we actually know if this has anything to do with anything other than the current situation though.. Container costs are rocket high - Hornby are splitting orders and production runs  downward to fill less metric case space in a container and each retailer is feeling this passed on..

Its surely going to effect those retailers who pre ordered vastly higher volumes more than those who pre ordered nominal quantities

Noob question (great photos by the way)

I'm presuming the trains are approaching you so my question is to anybody with more knowledge than myself - why does the 156 have its lights arranged as two  outsiders and a left (is marker the correct term?) 

But the 175 has a right marker (again apologies if that's the wrong terminology) 

Cold Fire _ Rush

1 minute ago, JohnR said:

When you say "more expensive version" which ones do you mean? Hornby dont have any 47s or 37s in their full main range>

Doh - my mistake - I was skimming through and mistook the class 56 - oops