SamThomas

The cynic in me wonders how many have been produced "off limited run" to be given away as freebies to favoured people.......... (& will any of these find their way to our favourite auction emporium).

It would be loud & emit a load of bovine extrement from the chimley (or should that be smokestake for Trump).

There are probably very strict rules about using "Coats of Arms" especially the one belonging to the head of the Royal Family.

& not too far away from the SVR either.

I really don't get the point(s) you are trying to get over - I'll leave it at thanks.

I've yet to meet a UK modeller who thought that early Lima was good quality (thinking HO class 33 era here)

All you need to do is to post the cheque to a branch of your bank with your account details & job done - really can't see where or why you have an issue.

Why are we even discussing this ? The tiny, tiny amount of pollution from preserved lines/locomotives will make no difference at all in the real world, especially when you consider the carbon footprints of India, China & the results of Rasputins ego trip. Whilst admitting that we do need to cut down on our environmental impact all round sometimes, I feel that the zero emmission lot ought to be told to get stuffed.

i have found that setting up decoders tends to be easier with any for of stay alive disconnected. Once set up I then reconnect the stay alives.

Hopefully, this will never happen. UK modellers experience of Lima tends to be the poor quality stuff. European Lima towards the end was pretty good quality. Late Jouef & Rivarossi is well regarded too. However, I do remember some QC issue with the Rivarossi DB58 when it came out under the HornbyRivarossi banner. Hornby should (IMHO) stick to the Railroad brand for their entry level/hobby/start models & try to promote the Electrotren & former Lima group models into the Roco/Piko/Trix arena.

I used to drive HGV's in & out of Central London & often took my breaks in the road by the Blackheath Tea Hut. The starlings & sparrows would sit on the mirror brackets waiting for an outstreatched hand with breadcrumbs on it to eat from. At night they were replaced by fox's who would almost take the food from your hands.

I'm perfectly happy with the sevice life of Curry's own brand white goods. However, I would not buy anything I.T. wise from them, for various reasons.

Thanks Neil - better make sure to use decent flicker frees then. I have a nice rake of Lilliput Rheingold Coaches that are factory lit with bulbs - I plan to replace them with LED's & may as well replace the wiper contacts with Concepts Springs as the drag means that currently few of my locomotive fleet will pull them (& I have no gradiants).

I would prefer the 1990's experience - a drive in a car with real charactor (a BMW 635i or Astra GTE for example), less traffic, less idiots on the roads & easier parking when you get there. Compared to a featureless eurobox that wants to over-ride you at every opportunity & has had the "feel" of the car engineered out of it, more traffic and less parking. To me, its a no-brainer, but then again I'm a driver not simply an operator.

Be sure to keep us updated with progress.

AFAIK the Hornby Select does not meet the NRMA specifications & there were issues with it when it first came out. Personally, I have had programming issues with various types of "stay alives" connected so I do my setting up with them disconnected & reconnect them once the locomotive is set up.

Does the data from UKMS differenciate between between traditional model shops & outlets ? I'm getting the impression that the number of traditional model shops has gone down but there has been an increase in outlets.

Some years ago when truck driving I spotted a cat in the road on a roundabout that looked like he/she had only just been hit, I went all the way round & stopped the truck just short of the cat, picked the cat up & put him/her on the verge & moved the truck off the roundabout. Going back to the cat he/she had a nametag with a phone number - the most diffecult phone call |I've ever made. I just could not bear to leave the unfortunate pet where it was to be squashed. It's nice to know I'm not the only softee.

When installing lights into HO coaches I have used the Concepts pickup springs with excellent results. Did you find replacing the original pickups alone made much difference ?

Has anyone considered that a single power car in a full set may be at full streatch to the detriment of it's service life ?

Maybe I should have added "& expanding in others". It has certainly changed in the decades that I have been railway modelling. as others have said the way we buy models as an example. I used to buy most of the available magazines such as RM & CM, also those that came & went such as MRC then I got to the point of flicking through the pages at WHS to see if there was anything of interest for me in them, buying them that had, so of course I bought less of them. Nowadays I still buy them occasionally, mostly as something to read on a long rail journey for when I get bored looking out of the window. I have no idea how magazine sales have faired over this period. Along comes the internet & there is so much available, but the magazines still sell & i hope that they will continue to do so for many years. I still prefer a paper catalogue to internet pages so maybe time to give start reading the magazines again. Talking to exhibition/show managers the footfall would appear to be down genarally but there are a number of factors at work here such as covid, the costs of travel/entrance & catering costs. Some shows may fall by the wayside or end up as shadows of their former selves, time will tell. Hopefully, as they get going again there will be some new layouts to see. Just my take, based on my own experiences, other will of course differ.

I can understand the passion for Hornby Liverpool, but apart from some half-hearted Dublo models surely there is nothing of Hornby Liverpool left in Margate apart from the name itself ? I tend to agree about the hobby diminishing to some degree - the members of my local club are getting older & spending less as their collections are nearing completion with less & less on the wants list. very few young members starting the hobby, certainly not enough to replace the old ones as they shuffle off the the great shunting yard in the sky. Being pretty active round the shows would reflect that observation.

Depending on how you work it out that's around 100 actual miles per locomotive - not bad at all. I have a particular interest in model locomotives that "work hard" for their living on long running show layouts, hence my question. Couple of years ago I ran a Piko HO Hobby Locomotive (BR185) on a test track 24/7 - pulling 10 x coaches with a 1:100 gradiant on about half speed so it covered something like 1k miles before the motor failed. A credit to modern mechanisms in both cases, I should imagine those on PW's layout would also be good for a similar distance.

Any actual data on that please Phil ?

Please tell me that's not a wind up & provide a link - I just have to have one of those.