SamThomas

A relevant question but not the "big" one - start of the fire could have been another reason. The "big" question is how to put the fire out ? EV battery fires are diffecult to extinguish - in most cases it would appear that the Fire Services have to allow a "controlled burn" & that could tie up a hell of a lot of resources. A fire with an IC vehicle is easy to extinuish when compared to one in an EV.

Never had that issue with the Roco ones, but I may at some point look at the Hunt ones, at least for comparison. If I aquire anything with Kadees the first thing I do is to get rid of them. The Fleischmann Profi's are pretty good too.

Thanks Ron, great way to start my Sunday.

Is that one of the "Inspired by Eunice" series ?

Possibly a wise rule judging by some of the drivers in that part of the world.

Wonderful, are they not ; https://uk.yahoo.com/news/experts-needed-put-electric-batteries-231540158.html Still, the fire will go out when the ship eventually sinks polluting the ocean.

Ah, is the problem with Hornby to Hornby then ?

Thanks for explaining. That can also be an issue with HO stock when using Roco to Roco- the answers are ; 1) If the couplings are tight in the pockets ease them out a fraction. 2) Use Roco to Hornby.

They said that when the first nuclear power station came on line - IIRC the words were "electricity too cheap to meter". Please excuse my cycnisism when I read/listern to the "experts".

Indeed, & that's without the additional infrastructure required to provide such houses with an additional 25kVa capacity & what about the additional infrastructure required for recharging EV's ?

Why do the Roco & the "inspired by Roco" couplers need a "remedy" ?

If they did they would be seen to be publicly admitting they had to go to A & E to have a bullet removed from one of their collective executive feet.

I used to buy it & preferred it to the CM. Although I rarely buy other magazines thesedays (maybe to read on a long train or other journey) I would probably still be buying this one if it were still available. On the subject of magazines I used to buy quite a few of the model railway ones - I would go into WHS & flick through them all - just one artical*** that interested me was reason to buy it (no point in buying a magazine with niothing of interest). *** I would sometimes buy "UK" magazines for articals on such universal subjects as we

Nice to see the 231 stretching its legs with some beautiful rolling stock. Normally, I'm not a fan of background music but in this case it was very appropriate. Thanks for posting the clip, most enjoyable.

Rule 1 RULES ! I've always liked these (not so) little locomotives & amn always on the lookout for a nice HO one (to go with my other "oddities such as the Kof & Glaskasten).

Fortunatly no-one appeared to get hurt. The driver turning right from the side street clearly did not "expect the unexpected" - the red Ute driving on the wrong side of the road. Parellel parking would allow a bit more room but then I suppose people would double park !

I do agree Sam is a bit Marmite. One thing is certain though - he enjoys himself & can be quite entertaining at times. Now, AFAIK Sam earns some cash (maybe his living) from his clips, which may be why he gets some flack & his "layout" is temporay. I stand to be corrected. Like Sam - watch his clips. Dislike Sam - move along, nothing to see here.

Actually, I do to a certain extent - on models that are out of warranty...............

Paul, You are either not reading what I actually say or deliberatly picking in order to have the last word. As regards the Heljan & Brawa locomotives - of course I reasise that not every single example of a model from any manufacture will be flawless. The point I am making is that in both cases the manufactures service fell well short of decent service. If the sevice had been anywhere close to that I have experienced from the likes of Flesichmann or Roco then I would have given their products another try. I too have spent many hours on various pre-loved locomotives but I'm takling about new, brand new that should not require fixing by the end user. I do hope you enjoy fixing things that should not require fixing when new. I'm off shortly to enjoy playing trains for a while. We will never agree, so I'm out, feel free to have the last word, I suspect it's quite important to you. Have a pleasant evening.

Viessman produce some that are quite a bit shorter in HO but close enough size wise. However, the light shown is a flameproof type with a very heavy glass cover round the tube. You could maybe make one using a white LED at either end of a straw to simulate the tube.

Personally, I would love to hear from those who are happy with their APT's, but only from those whose models as they should be out of the box.

Paul, who suggested that you sell all your Bemo,LGB etc ? Not me ! The Heljan & Brawa Locomotives were the first & last ones I purchased from that stable. Had the manufactures been a littl more pleasant to deal with they would maybe have benefitted from further business. I have had good dialogue with smaller manufactures in the past. However, larger outfits have absolutely no excuse to get it wrong or to fob off end users with shoddy goods &/or after sales service. It is my opinion that you can get as much feedback to a manufacture as you want, be it via phone calls, emails, face to face, magazines, anyway you can think of but it remains just words - for the full effect the manufacture needs to have the problem actually sitting on his desk so that whatever he does with it is his problem & it will cost him money to sort out. You are fortunate that you have the necessary skills to fettle/repair brand new stock - not everyone is either capable of doing so, wants to sees it down to them to fix issues that should not have been present. Just imagine how the QC would go up if all the defective models were returned.

Thanks Ron, looking forward to a day on the RHDR this year.

I've no doubt that there are people who are happy with their models & human nature being what it is those who have an issue shout the loudest. However, you are clearly not 100% happy with your model - otherwise why would you have removed the capacitors. Who said I was "speaking for everyone" ?

PaulRhB, I have stated elsewhere that I too have had a couple of issues with HO European manufactures such as a Heljan Nohab (no help from Heljan) & a Brawa Ludmilla. However, these went back to the manufacture as all faulty goods should & were both eventually replaced with new items & then eBayed on & since then nothing further bought from either stable no matter how much I desired their offerings. Forum. All the time people are prepared to accept faulty goods there will be no improvement. Until manufacture returns departments start sinking under the weight of returned models those manufactures will do nothing about it. Very disappointing for some people, but the only way the situation will improve is to lay the evidence of poor quality control/design at the manufactures door literally. I doubt if reviews*** will have any effect - after all, it's just a series of "0's" & "1's" on a website & nothing tangable - what will have an effect is a Royal Mail van full of returns. *** No matter how scathing.