djparkins

As has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum and in the latest edition of Model Railway Journal [303], Mike Doherty has sadly passed away. My sympathies to his wife and family.

We met in the 1980s in the course of buisiness, and he always appeared as if straight from the set of an Ealing Studios film - gentlemanly and seemingly belonging in a very slightly earlier age! But with a sharp humour.

He was a superb coach and locomotive builder and the latest MRJ cover features a Rebuilt Merchant Navy as proof of this.

As I've stated elsewhereI, feel honoured to now be the owner of the Cavalier Coaches range and we will do our very best over the time ahead to re-introduce and develop further most of the products that he created.

Some aspects will be brought into line with more current thinking on kit construction - which in this old dinosaur’s head has still not been entirely eclipsed by the ongoing march of plastic RTR coaches. In all events the detail and accuracy of Mike’s original masters will be faithfully preserved.

David Parkins

www.davidjparkins.com

17 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

"Simon" does have them in stock, but hasn't got them on to the website yet. He is at the Bristol show over the weekend with James Hudson, from whom MRJ 303 is available, so what with all the jolly banter and ribaldry (not to mention looking at model trains) they will probably not now make it up to the Titfield website until Monday, weather and wine permitting....

 

By the way, the magazine records the very sad passing of Mike Doherty, creator of Cavalier Coaches amongst much else, a great character with real wit, charm and a slightly mischievous "twinkle in his eye" who I was remembering with Nick Salzman and company at the Bristol show earler today. I will miss him very much.

 

Simon

 

 

Simon,

I totally echo your comments re-Mike Doherty.

I feel honoured to now be the owner of the Cavalier range and we will do our very best over the time ahead to re-introduce and develop further most of the products that he created.

Some aspects will be brought into line with more current thinking on kit construction - which in this old dinosaur’s head has still not been entirely eclipsed by the ongoing march of plastic RTR coaches.

In all events the detail and accuracy of Mike’s original masters will be faithfully preserved.

David Parkins

www.davidjparkins.com

2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

I did ask about it. There wasn't one on display. I was told they pretty much started the design from scratch all over again. They are expecting a new EP next month, then decorated samples in the summer. No prediction on when the model would be in the shops was given - I'm not surprised, & I didn't ask that question.

 

So don't hold your breath....

 

I agree. 
 

I fully applaud Dapol for releasing this locomotive, which in my opinion will be extremely important in terms of the longer term future of UK O Gauge. 
 

However, l still fail completely to see how they will be able to bring such a complex subject to market at anywhere near the prices they are quoting. I do hope I’m wrong though!

Also the two main GBRf schemes really need adding to the livery options

DJP

On 19/12/2023 at 15:56, Captain Kernow said:

I thought it was interesting (as per the Editorial) that they are focussing on future projects, rather than reflecting about the past. There seem to be some really good layout projects in the pipeline.

 

I agree with everyone else that it is a really good issue. Though I feel that even with the future layout projects mentioned, they are still very much reflecting about the past.

During the time of Tim Shackleton's editorship they were starting to have some more modern features [well not really modern, but post-steam!] in the magazine, but even that has decreased. Perhaps they need to get a little less cliquey in terms of their contributors.

On 31/07/2023 at 12:35, Bucoops said:

Shame. Hopefully someone can take on the range.

It may be hard as there are so many etched sheets in the kits that are on ultra-thick material, and thus very expensive now, [with the demise of Photo Etch Consultants], that I fear the end-user price may well be beyond what most customers might be prepared to pay, and for the manufacturer to make a profit. I'm pleased I have ten of the O gauge Kemilway coaches in my stash, but getting all the parts was a long and arduous business!

It is sad, as the Kemilway originator George Pring was something of a pioneer in the early years of etched kits, as I'm sure many of you will know. Just another sign of the times in the hobby.

Fortunately, our purchase of the Cavalier Coaches range from the ABS stable, will enable us to carry on with something comparable.

David Parkins

MMP/ABS 7mm Wagons/Cavalier Coaches/Classic Commercials/Wrightlines - Blah de Blah!

www.davidjparkins.com

53 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

But on books you haven't paid VAT twice @WM183.

There is no VAT in the UK. So you haven't paid it.

 

If a small supplier is too small to be VAT registered he does not charge VAT.  So you haven't paid that either.

That is true in a sense but it also means he cannot reclaim the VAT on his/her business inputs that have VAT applied, and then becomes an end-user where that VAT amount is concerned. So he has to pass it on to the customer in with the price, plus his own mark-up on top. This then comes out at maybe a slightly lower end-user price for a UK customer [as he is not paying VAT on the trader's mark-up] but a higher one for custoimers outside the UK, as the VAT paid on the input element of the sale cannot be deducted from the proportion it forms of the export purchase price. Before I reached the VAT threshold [too long ago to remember exactly!] I was constantly getting castigated by my trade customers, saying [in effect] they were sick of paying my VAT for me. They had a point, and the same applies to the example I've just given.

As for VAT registration thresholds in the UK - they seem to have risen way beyond, say, the inflation rate. There are two points of view to this. Either we become like some EU countries and the registration threshold is so low that to be any kind of trader you really have to register. This would give everyone a fair and level playing field to operate from in one sense. But then a local VAT inspector told me that 90% of VAT revenue is gained from less that 10% of businesses that are registered for VAT and he said he would like to see the threshold set at as high as £100-120,000 turnover, He was a little dejected on his visit to me, as he was suposed to collect a minimum of £1000 per day in underpaid VAT. I was short by 1p. I asked him if he wanted cash or would they send a bill? - he said he'd waive it. Really, so very kind! This bit is off-topic I know, but interesting nonetheless, I feel.

In the end I suppose it comes down to how much a trader is motivated to keep going. But all these oft-mentioned 'new-fangled' changes really are not so hard, and like many things in life are as simple or as complicated as you choose to make them. I personally moaned for a long time about the introduction of making VAT digital but now it's here and I do it, it is simplicity iteslf and just saves so much time. So I was wrong!

I think whatever you are - whether a trader or a customer, the main thing is to enjoy what you are doing whilst you are doing it. Once it stops being enjoyable - then you do have the option to quit. The world will keep turning.

40 minutes ago, CWJ said:

Well my question has certainly sparked a good conversation; thanks for all the contributions so far. Particularly interesting to hear about the export angle.

 

Just a polite request: let's leave the Brexit banter there, shall we, and stick to toy trains please? 

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

(It'll now go eerily quiet. British folk have spent the last 7 years getting used to debating nothing but Brexit 🙂)

Well even though I was on the losing side, we have left and so that is that - but regarding export we have found no problems. We export most weekdays and what were EU sales are now simply the same as the US, Canadian and any other 'rest of world' sales. They are VAT deducted and post charged as per normal. Customs paperwork for the kind of orders we process are the work of moments if you are set up for it. It really is not very difficult, and that is just as well, as with our military ranges, as well as the railway ones, around 70% of our sales are to overseas customers.

David Parkins

MMP/ABS 7mm etc.

Just an update on the various ex-Adrian Swain Ranges + stock availability.

43-two-1 Wagon kits - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=348
Both the remaining Wagon Kits and Accessory Packs are dwindling fairly rapidly and many subjects have now sold out. We now have no BR wagon kits left.

There are one or two ‘stickers’ left that we do have some quantities of – mainly the ‘boring’ open wagons, that you actually need most of! So we have reduced these subjects still further and offer even greater discounts for multiples of five [or four and three in some cases]. Some Accessory Packs have similarly been reduced.

Cavalier Coaches – https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=351
We have reduced still further the prices for the remaining Bogie Kits that are left – not many types remain now. Some are now only £4.00 per pair – Ridiculous prices I know, so get them whilst you can.

We have discovered a few more Cavalier Coach Accessory Packs and have added these to the web site. This puts some sets back into availability. Once again prices have been reduced still further on many items, whilst we keep them available.

Wrightlines - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=352
The remaining Wrightlines items are selling out fast and we have very few locos and coaches left. We still some of most types of the Talyllyn wagons available at very low prices.

To the future!
We are now preparing the first batch of re-tooled subjects from Adrian’s ranges, for release throughout the Autumn of this year and the 23/24 winter period. This involves some 25 standard gauge wagons from the 43--two-1 range , all the Wrightlines coaching stock and wagon kits plus all the smaller packs and accessories from the Classic Commercials range - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=353 -  together with FOUR variants of the much-missed BR Scammell Scarab kit.

All these subjects and those that follow will be virtually unrecognisable from what went before!

More wagons will then follow in batches, plus loco kits on a one by one basis from all the ranges – both ABS and Wrightlines.

As regards Cavalier Coaches. Our purpose in acquiring this range was never to keep available the bogie and accessory packs as previously and currently sold. We wanted these masters to form the basis a new range of coach and non-passenger coaching stock kits – but more of that anon.

So there it is – an update for those interested.

And for those of you who are fans of Adrian’s kits as he traditionally sold them – this is your final call – get all you think you will need at these current ludicrously-low prices! They won’t come again – or last very long.

Happy Modelling

DJP

38 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

What’s the metal ring with holes in it for? 😇

No - its the secret path to The Dark Web.

2 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

Surely what they were saying was to get them apart you need to move one coupling up relative to the other?

 

You can either pick the coaches up or just juggle in situ with a pair of screwdrivers.

So your A4 arrives at the head of a train using buckeye couplers, as per prototype, and on the layout you pick up a ten coach train from the track in order to uncouple the loco from the first coach?! And you can't lift the coupler enough above the horizontal with everything on the track, as there is very little clearance below the gangways [if your coach is accurate]. Sounds great. The hook won't drop or raise up enough. I've just tried it on a Darstead Thompson full brake and it won't work, so no chance on our own Mk.1s, with much tighter tolerances. It is a shame as in many ways, as stated above, they are otherwise well engineered. I would order many more sets if they would simply drop from the horizontal.

15 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Bold added - excuse me???!!! 🤔🙄 How on earth does one insert a screwdriver or stick underneath the coupler???!!! Except by lying the stock on it's sides??

The mind boggles, unfortunately. 🤯

I bought five sets of these but am seriously debating now whether to buy more. I cannot understand why you would want to raise the coupling. I can't really think of an instance why, on gangwayed stock, you would want to do this.

But even so, the much more important function is to be able to drop it from the horizontal easily and bring it back up again to that position - and the method suggested above to do this seems very far from being either easy or convenient. Apart from the ability to join two pieces of stock together via the sprung knuckles with the couplers in the horiziontal position [which I agree is nice to have], it is much easier to raise the couplings on the buckeyes in our own Mk.1 kits for example - simply by sliding through a locking pin, attached to the coach buffer beam via chain [as per prototype], with no lifting of the coupler head above the horizontal.

David Parkins,

Modern Motive Power

1 hour ago, Shed Driver said:

Were Jamieson parts not punched out?

Hayfield We must have been typing at the same time

Yes they were. I built an LMS  jubilee for a customer in the early ‘70s. Another nightmare!

On 17/02/2023 at 21:20, Bucoops said:

A good question - a quick google hasn't found much (apart from there is evidence of etching as a process during Cleopatra's time!)

Would that have been the kit for the Egyptian Railways 'Asp' Class, one of which was named 'Elizabeth Taylor' as I recall!

12 hours ago, doilum said:

Since this thread is running so well:

First CAD etched kit?

 

Can anyone get before our first CAD etched kit in 1993 [in our Flightpath range] - for 1:32nd scale F-4C/D Phantom Jet Pipes. I'm sure they probably can!

52 minutes ago, Nicktoix said:

A set of parts by TC for a Midland clerestory compo.

Nick

I bet fretting out those clerestory side panels was fun!

16 minutes ago, Nicktoix said:

Later Trevor Charlton sides had the windows cut out along with the drop lights but that was it. They also had an evil coating on the inside which was a pig to remove. You had to remove some if you wanted to solder the together.  Soldering  zinc is another experience I don't want to repeat.

Nick

This is developing into a real trip down Memory Lane! Yes I remember that green coating all too well. I had to build two rakes of Cambrian stock from those TC sides. I never thought that the window cutting, drilling of door handle/handrail locations, and the removal of that coating would end, and I could actually begin any real construction work and earn some money! And to think there are still modellers who cannot handle today's 21st century etched kits! They don't know they are born.

Thanks to Barclay for the pics of the Sayer 'kit'. It looks utterly horrendous. So possibly we can still say then that the first fully etched kits as we know them today were the George Allan ones!

8 minutes ago, Barclay said:

Sayer Chaplin were the first I believe. Circa 1950.

Ah l think l recall someone mentioning these and had completely forgotten. Can you post a photo of the contents? That would be really interesting. Thanks

34 minutes ago, doilum said:

Can anyone remember who introduced etched brass kits to the hobby?

I recall buying a Kemilway chassis kit in the early 1980s, but I don't think that it was the first..Just curious.

George Allan Models, which later became Kemilway introduced an etched footbridge kit in [I believe] 1971 and a kit for a kind of three bay awning for a goods/parcels depot. I was working in my father's model shop when we got them in and I'd never seen anything like it.

These are often referred to as being the first etched kits produced but I'm sure others might know of something earlier. I built both of the above and remember thinking how it would change the hobby. I took to them like a duck to water and could instantly see the possibilites for locomotives and rolling stock - and indeed, it wasn't that long before Kemilway/George Allan brought out their GWR Siphon kit.

I found that time in the hobby very exciting, and when the 7mm Mallard and Metalmodels kits came out things really started to get interesting to me. I should also mention the superb Colin Waite GWR kits of that period. By that time I was a full time commission builder and used to be so pleased if I got a Colin Waite kit to build for a customer as I knew everything fitted so well. The Trever Charlton coach sides and ends referred to above were just surface detail on zinc, and you had to cut out all the window apertures. Can you imagine anyone doing that today?!

I remember showing the Late Adrian Swain of ABS Models a Metalmodels Siphon F kit and telling him it would change kit design in the future. Of course Adrian just scoffed!

David Parkins,

MMP/43-two-1/Classic Commercials etc.

www.djparkins.com

6 hours ago, brylonscamel said:

I couldn't resist a scattering of border collies - my own dog insisted on it!

 

 

 

 

 

Don't you just love border collies. Those guys are ALWAYS on duty!

On 20/01/2023 at 18:41, 90164 said:

True, and it's an easy enough fix. The other thing Dapol could do would be to slightly modify their BR Vanwide chassis, which would give them the standard LMS clasp brake chassis, which could go under a whole range of wagons.

Yes but you’d still be left with a wagon with BR pattern W irons. That’s my point. Dapol really need to have versions with LMS/RCH style W irons too for all their proposed versions to be accurate. And for those who say it doesn’t matter - it matters to some of us - and it must also matter to Dapol, given their avowed intention as stated in their latest blurb about the Stroudley coaches, to make all future releases to the greatest level of accuracy possible.

I’d like 20-30 of these vans but they become a very expensive proposition if l have to design, produce, build and fit a conversion set to around 60-70 percent of the vehicles l would like to buy. The only other option is the very unlikely event that Dapol would sell the bodies separately for those who would like an accurate GWR or LMS built vehicle. 
 

David Parkins 

MMP/ABS-43two1 etc 

www.djparkins.com

1 hour ago, Sitham Yard said:

I think you are correct. however 1970's is a period that seems popular to model now and by that time different replacement axleboxes and sometimes different replacement W irons could be seen. 

Andrew

Axleboxes quite probably - but W irons probably less so and those are the most glaring error. But as l said earlier, the BR W irons will be passable for wagons in the BR period and numbered as for the pre-nationalisation designs built after 1948, for a brief period. The problem is if you wish to depict them as GWR or LMS built vehicles. 

For me, up there with the greatest, alongside John Mclaughlin [who Beck considered to be the greatest]. Unlike a lot of the Rock Elder Statesmen he didn't rest on his laurels and just got better. So pleased I saw him in Cardiff last May.

On 16/12/2022 at 11:30, proton said:

When enlarged it certainly looks like it, brown is uniform and over the ends, with no blue in sight.

In my opinion the first Siphon G is a Diag. 0.62 vehicle in rail blue that has been newly converted for Newspaper traffic, given the date of the photo.  These vehicles were either ETH fitted or piped. Note the plated-over lourves. The white 'Newpapers' branding has yet to be added.

The second Siphon G is I believe to Diag. 0.33. As cctransuk says the last livery this vehicle would have carried in non-departmental use would have been BR Maroon [BR Crimson before that] in the 1960s - never brown. Several were repainted in olive grren once they went into departmental use. I would interpret the vehicle to be in highly weathered maroon from the photo. Given the date I doubt that a vehicle painted in olive green in the late 1970s/early-mid1980s would have weathered that much - even given the fact that they were probably never cleaned.

DJP

2 hours ago, Andy Vincent said:

No - I stopped at the web page itself and noted that the only sub-menu only had aluminium tubes. Not really sure that any B2C web site at the end of 2022 should be relying on downloads rather than having a proper online presence. Aside from the obvious reason, Google ranks web page hits much higher than anything in a downloadable file so many prospective customers wont see the site listed when they search for a product.

 

That said, many thanks for all the suggestions - which reassuringly also shows that communities are still more helpful than search engines!  

 

Andy

Try this link - came up third in google when I searched Albion Alloys

https://www.albionalloys.com/en/

As can be seen on Hannants Web Site - AA do wire/rod as well, though it is not readily apparent from their Albion Alloys' own web site. They do seem more interested in selling through dealers. Excellent quality though.

https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=362490&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=&keyword_search=&setPerPage=25&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search=

DJP

5 hours ago, devonmodeller said:

As I remember Westbourne Model Supplies was in Poole Road and I think the proprietor was Greek but memory fades after time.  There was at one time another model shop in the next road over - which was a crescent round the back of the Westbourne Arcade and this may have the Dudley Dimmock connection. Regards the large scale models at the West I remember a model of an SR Breakdown Train  being in the waiting room - much used on freezing cold days - but can't remember any in the main hall. I wonder what happened to it? I bought a lot of stuff from Westbourne Model Supplies - Mastermodels, Peco track, scenic scatters. And also there was quite a good model railway section in the toy department of Beales of Bournemouth - I wonder if anyone remembers that?

Yes you are quite correct, it was the waiting room that had those models on display.  I think there were about six showcases in all. And yes, l also recall now that Dudley Dimmock’s shop was indeed on that crescent. Memory plays tricks, as you say!