Oldddudders

You are hereby absolved of any need to model the grass shown sprouting from the bridge in that image. The engineer wishes it weren't there, I'm sure!

I know "there's always someone out there who needs it" covers a lot of odd items, but this really does take some beating in the cr*p for sale stakes. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hornby-DUBLO-DOORS-SR-LONG-WHEELBASE-UTILITY-VAN-/390276063919?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5ade4422af

Really pleased to see you've resumed work on this superb layout. The sheer scope of the enterprise is daunting, and it is no surprise that you have needed a period of standing a bit further back. Hopefully the new Cravens and the success of the warehouse will get you back in the swing for 2011. Plenty of folk out here in RMWeb-land will be hoping so!

http://www.modelmasterdecals.com/Class_50T.php may be a starting point for renaming?

What all these silly-price sales prove is that there are plenty of ebayers who are simply ignorant of what is available and how much it goes for. I suspect Xmas increase the % of uninformed, too. As it happens, I'm pretty ignorant about much of the UK RTR market - but I do try box-shifter websites for an item before considering an ebay bid. Even that, of course, cannot help where the item - be it new or bargain-priced secondhand - is actually a lemon in the first place. RMWeb probably includes critical comments on most recent releases, at least among locos and coaches, but finding them isn't always straightforward. If you buy a new car, you probably did a bit of homework in magazines and online to see what others have said, and mags like Autocar have long tables of data from their roadtests in every issue. I don't think we can reasonably expect a similar compendium of data on here - who would constitute the road-test team, anyway?

Given the enormous scope of your project, I am also very pleased that something so "easy" has fallen into your laps. You have quite enough to do without scratchbuilding all the trains, too! Hopefully this is going to be one of 2011's most exciting Works In Progress. Merry Xmas and a Gratifying New Year to your brave team!

Living across the Channel, one does not expect lightning mail-order from the UK in the run up to Xmas. Ordered the Hornby Imperial Airways set on Monday - and White Van Man (French stylie, natch) delivered it at lunchtime today, Friday, Xmas Eve. Pretty smart service, thanks, Rails!

Looks somewhat - ok, so a very great deal - better than the Airfix one I made as my first plastic kit more than 50 years ago! When we lived in Kent, there was a local garage owner who had a Spitfire, and he made regular use of it over our part of the Weald, where it had probably done such good work 60 years before. One year he took it across the Channel to an air-fair at Rouen. The plane developed an engine fault, and when he tried to land he found people on the grass-strip, so elected just to hit the trees instead, knowing the inevitable outcome.......

Nice to see the Xmas Spirit is alive and well and living in St Blazey!

I wonder if your account was hi-jacked, and ebay stepped in and suspended activity?

Yes, your link to Alan Gartner's site is recommended, but this chap http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC.htm#Insulated is an RMWebber and provides lots of good advice too. I have recently wired a lot of Code 75 live frog points including a single slip as recommended there, and find the slow running is very impressive, despite a very unfriendly environment in the barn (no heating) and several months having elapsed since laying the track.

Quite right. One man's meat and all that. The basic model does have some classic status, after all, even if it isn't quite there with 21st Century detailing. Classic status is the only explanation I can imagine for the astonishing prices of Wrenn models.

Sale price unlikely to cover seller's entire Xmas budget, perhaps?

Taffson? You'll have the Welsh purists down on you! I just Googled the name, and the most coherent entry was 2009 on RMWeb....

Meanwhile - how would you define "Worldwide" when it comes to sending your sold item? Try this from a few moments ago: Item location: Peterborough, United Kingdom Dispatches to: Worldwide Excludes: Central America and Caribbean, Middle East, Russian Federation, Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Gibraltar, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Ukraine, Vatican City State, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Cote d Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bermuda, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan And, in case you care, the item was a Bachmann Class 24!

And only about half-a-dozen will post to France! Wot is an ex-pat to do?

Passenger trains in them thar days were much more than the term indicates today. Parcels and perishables traffic was prolific on both main- and branch-lines, so station dwell times could be considerable, and the WTT needed to recognise that. As GloriousNSE has pointed out, Plymouth-Penzance is a route of sinuous curves - Gwiwer's estimable model of Penhayle Bay does not mis-represent its prototype - and with regular stops within the Duchy, average speeds will always be low. Trains like the Cornish Riviera, and its SR rival the Atlantic Coast Express, had bat-out-of-hell timings leaving London, but once the stops began, the speeds simply tumbled. But that's the point - carrying folk from London to the country is what such routes are about. Penzance and Padstow are/were merely the termini, not the purpose of the train, which served Exeter, Plymouth and other stations in between. Also recall that the motorway network was a mere dream even into the '60s, so car journey times were pretty compromised, too.

I'm sure you are right - in law. Perhaps the factory closed abruptly, wages were owed and not likely to be paid, and staff seized assets in lieu. It is wrong, it is stealing, but people are human.

Can't point to any source, but ISTR some document or film somewhere in which men in "suitable" suits did indeed clean the tanks at Vauxhall from inside. I think by the time they were returned to the loading points in anything like warm weather, the milk residue would have gone quite nasty & taken twice as long to clean out.

Fleur has cattitude! Ooh, would love to cuddle her - much better than human kids any day!

Some sellers really can't be bothered to promote their own interests - look at this classic, one of several from the same seller. Note the inspired, enticing title, no picture etc. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dapol-Wagon-boxed-new-/190476795892?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2c594d3ff4 Then there's this contraption - listed under Dapol wagons! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Train-Set-Remote-Controller-Hornby-Building-Receiver-/280599822002?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item41550d7eb2

You do yourself an injustice - the photo is NOT out of focus. Both the lorry and the signalbox are in focus. Probably because of the poor light, on a wet day with slow film, you were forced to use a slow shutter speed to get the exposure you needed. Thus the loco, which was moving, has not been "stopped". Frankly, everyone knows what the loco looks like, while good detail in the gates and the signalbox might be very useful. A much more successful pic than you suggest, surely!

Clearly I am out of touch with others' realities. If, as an example, I want a Bachmann N, then I put together a search that says that. Would I really want to part with money to someone who couldn't spell Bachmann? No - let 'em stew! I found it infuriating enough that there were adverts for N #1864, which is what it says on the end of the box, while their accompanying photo showed that the cabside number is 1854. As it is, I now have 5 different Bachmann Ns in Southern railway livery, and do not feel I overpaid for any of them. As for last-minute bids, well of course. No point in showing your hand until the last hour - if that isn't inconvenient, of course. The exception is that US auctions may finish at odd times, but I've won a few, all the same - enough to make up a fair Rock Island Rocket with brass cars.

I must be missing something here. If a Hornby item is listed under Bachmann, it will not be picked up by 'Hornby' searches. If an item is listed under 'OO', it will not be included in 'N' searches. Only the most vague of search criteria would overcome those errors, and then there would be so many items the searcher would lose the will to live before finding them anyway! I do tend to assume that ebay buyers in specialist markets like ours have a very clear idea of what they want, and tailor searches accordingly, to speed the process. Advertisers need to be up to the mark to meet that precision.

Not really helpful, I know, but one of the first Granges I saw was coming off the shed at St Blazey, into Par station, and off on the up line light engine, mid-afternoon. 1961 I think. IMHO a bit of steam among the diesels adds real value. However, comma, ISTR the allocation of Bulleid pacifics to St Blazey was not significant....