oreamnos

UM's next model (to be released this November pursuant to UM's August price list) will be a LNWR "Prince of Wales" 4-6-0 in a choice of 4 liveries. I don't know what those liveries are going to be. From what I've been able to find on the net, the last four of these locos were withdraw in January of 1949 and they never received their allocated BR numbers before withdrawl. So... here is a question for someone more knowledgeable than me about these locos (which means anyone, frankly!): Did any of those last 4 receive BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering, or did they retain their LMS livery to the very end? (My undstanding is the "cycling lion" emblem didn't appear until 1950, so if true that livery would be wrong for these locos.) Colin has issued his Q2 0-8-0 in BR early emblem livery even though they were all withdrawn by 1937 and a D11 in BR green (I've got one, even though those engines never wore BR green) so as much as like him and his models, his liveries are not always correct. Anyone? Thanks! Matt

Just curious but who is the source of spare Warship wheelsets - or for that matter, wheelsets for any of the more recent Farish diesels (e.g. 24, 37)? I haven't noticed them offered by Bob Russell at BR Lines. Perhaps Peter's Spares? Thanks, Matt

Re: duty, for Americans, see my post #76 this same thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62714-hattons/page-4 In short, the US charges no duty on model trains shipped from the UK. Matt

I have a very strongly held opinion about that. I definitely always request regular airmail to California whenever it is an option, regardless of the value of the items purchased. My experiece with "signed for" for items purchased on eBay where the seller has insisted on that mode of shipping is that "signed for" is a complete waste of money and a major inconvenience as well - I work days and am never around to sign for the parcel so I have to wait until a weekend and then take the little slip they leave behind to the PO in order to collect the parcel. It's a complete PITA. Also, in my experience, items sent signed for actually take longer to arrive from the UK than those sent regular airmail. I assume that is because the PO does more record keeping with such parcels which slows down transit speed, but that is pure speculation on my part. Finally, Hattons is excellent with regard to lost parcels. If something you order does not arrive, if you wait 25 (UK) business days from the date of shipment, upon notificaiton by you, (assuming the item is in stock) Hattons will ship you a replacement via airmal post haste at no charge, and they will file a claim with Royal Mail to recoup their loss. Only one parcel they've tried to send to me never arrived and that was back in the day when its staff hand wrote addresses on parcels instead of sticking on the current fancy printed mailing labels now being used. The way the sorted out the problem was was fantastic. Anyhow - save your money and just go with standard airmail. Matt

I outright asked Colin in April when I ordered my Adams. He didn't let on at all in his reply. I suggested a Midland 115 class 4-2-2! Matt

I'm a bit late to this party but - just to add my two-cents worth - I want to say that the 1-B B-1 arrangement gets my vote for two reasons: 1.) The early BachFar releases of the 50s on the spit chassis mechanism had a sprung coupler which was proud of the buffer beam and it really looked bad. When they released "Illustrious" (and then "Glorious) in rail blue, they managed to move the whole bogie further under the body slightly by retooling the battery box to give the bogies more clearance to swing on tight radius curves. Given the the coupler box was attached to the bogie, it was pulled under the buffer beam just enough and this improved the looks of the model considerably (well, apart from its other shortcomings...), and I recall the NGS journal which reviewed "Illustrious" even commented on this fact. 2.) All my Bo-Bo diesels (24, 25, 26, 27, 33, and 42 - I don't have a latest spec 20 or a powered Hymek and my blue 22 is still in transit) are generally better runners than any of my diesels with 6 powered axles. I attibute this to a reduction of geartrain friction owing to the fact they have two fewer geared axles. I would expect a 1-Bo Bo-1 50 would benefit from the reduced friction as well. Given that the ungeard axle will still pick-up, I think this is the way to go and is a win-win. Just my two-cents. Matt

We can only speculate about the effect of smaller batch sizes on prices, I'm afraid. As I model N gauge, batch sizes are already going to be significantly lower than any given batch in OO. I cannot say I noticed any lesser amount of discount last year by Hattons and yet the shift to smaller batches was already in place, I'm sure. This year Bachmann have apparently imposed a two month moratorium after initial release on discounting, whereby shops are prohibited from selling Bachmann goods with more than a 15% markdown, so the prices for upcoming models really don't reflect the full discount shops might be willing to give. As for surplus stock again, as an N gauger I don't follow Hornby prices. I can say that that Hattons has in the past offered occasional significant discounts on older Farish releases, quite out of the blue. For instance, last year suddenly they had 6 green Class 14s (from the first batch) on offer for 49 quid. The models were both old stock and at a signicant discount. However, given that the Farish website indicated the model was out of stock with Bachmann, my suspicion is that those models were obtained by Hattons from a source other than Bachmann at significant discount. From another shop's going out of business sale, perhaps. Having said that, however, I have found that for Farish items other shops offer bigger discounts than Hattons does for old stock items. For instance, Model Railways direct is currently offering green Farish Peaks right now for less than £50, but Hatton's "bargain" price is still £67. In fact, sometimes Hattons obtains one or two examples of out of production liveries and offers them at a premium price over the current batch of the same model. The new and old batch of Dapol B17s comes to mind right now. The new one is £85, the old one is £10 more. I completely agree with you that local model shops should be supported provided they provide good service. I have read elsewhere on this board where a local UK shop insisted a newly purchased but defective loco be returned to and serviced by the manufacturer instead of replacing it pursuant to Trading Standards. From personal experience I know Hattons would not have quibbled like that and would have replaced the item immediately. Given that I live in California I really cannot give a local shop my custom, of course. Hattons have always been excellent and have a proven track-record with me. I estimate it receives about 85% of all my model rail custom as a consequence. Matt

Competition in the marketplace is good for the consumer and I would not wish to got down that road! I think we would find that were there just a single supplier, (Hatton's or otherwise) we would not see any discounts at all! Being an N gauge modeller, I also have to wonder if Bachmann would have been so quick to update the old Farish range if Dapol had not enterred the market. IMHO, I don't think it would have. I am almost certain Hattons' does not offer lower prices because it obtains surplus stock from manufacturers. Instead it purchases more inventory from the manufacturers ("buying in bulk") compared to a small shop. By taking on the risk of being stuck with bigger inventory it might be unable to sell, Hattons can negotiate a lower wholesale price with the manufacturers, which it passes along to the consumer. A few years ago Hattons included in a parcel it sent me (I don't know why) a wholesale invoice for items it had taken into inventory from one of the major manufacturers. The invoice of course included the wholesale unit prices of the items. By comparing the wholesale prices therein with the retail prices being asked by Hattons, I could see the retail markup over wholesale was about 33%. That's a significant margin and from it, I can surmise that smaller shops who compete with the big box shifters on price are simply accepting smaller profit margins given that there is certainly room there to come down. Matt

There is no U.S. customs duty to pay on any model railway item imported to the USA from the UK (and most other countries, too). See the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States at: http://hts.usitc.gov/ This was one of the very first things I researched before I switched to British outline in 2005 as I wasn't going to make the switch if I had to pay duty! Model railway items fall into Section XX "Miscellaneous manufacturerd articles," Chapter 95 "Toys, games and sports requisites; parts and accessories," Heading 9503.00.00. Scale models ("working or not") are lumped in with tricycles, dolls, puzzles, etc. The Schedule is kind of a fascinating document in its own way. For instance, you can learn there is a 3.3% general import duty per each nuclear reactor imported into the USA from any country, with some special excecptions for certain countries. Who knew? Matt

3 pictures of Union Mills' latest model, the Adams 0395 0-6-0 with sloped smokebox and square cab windows. It's a lovely little loco and a fantastic runner. Matt

Just an update about the Adams for anyone interested. This might be old news but I hadn't seen anything posted here (or elsewhere for that matter). The Adams 0395 is currently available for purchase from Colin Heard at Union Mills for £69 plus p+p. I emailed Colin (colin.h@manx.net) and ordered one today. I will post a picture of it here once I receive it. (usual disclaimer - no connection to UM or Colin, just a very happy customer). Matt

A quick question to anyone who owns one of these: Is it normal for them to growl when they run? I just received a new blue/grey ER set and have only had a couple minutes to run it, so no, it hasn't been run in properly and I won't have a chance to until lthe weekend at the earliest. Running is smooth out of the box but the gears growl loudly at all speeds. Have others noticed this and will it quiet down with use or will this be a permanent feature warranting an exchange? Apart from the noise it's a lovely model which I'm very impressed with. Thanks. Matt

Received green D5326 and it's lovely. Note that it is a model of a later build 26 and the body is different than Dapol's first green 26 release that had the SYP. It has the modified cant rail grilles of the blue 26s, like 26026 and 26040 even though it still has the connecting doors on the ends. It also has round instead of oval buffers. If this isn't clear, the best way to see what I'm trying to describe is to go to the Hattons' site and compare the pictures of D5326 with the pictures of the green 26 (without the SYP) from the first release that Hatton's still has for sale, which has the original style cant rail tooling. It comes with the same bag of bits Robert described above for blue 26040, including the two snow ploughs. Finally, and importantly, the headcode discs that come with it now have holes pre-drilled in them, so you can fit them and still see the light through them as per prototype. Nice to see Dapol make this improvement on a later release model. Matt

Yes. That is excactly what I did. And the packaging is still jolly snug. The jumper cables on the cab ends are really shoved deep into the foam. That and the little "prongs" that stick up on either side of the the coupling boxes which the sand boxes get stuck on. But none of this is anything that can't be fixed with a sharp knife. Ironically, despite all effort to secure the model in the box, the finish on mine was noticiably chafed on the perspex side, with corresponding paint rub-off on the clear plastic card that is inserted into the box lid. On careful investigation, I realized that the clear plastic card insert was fractionally too wide and too long to fit properly into the box top and the compressive force of the lid sides made the insert bow downwards towards the model. It did this with sufficient force to dispace the foam, rub against the model side and chafe it. The model would have been better off without the plastic insert. Fortunately I think the damage can be masked with a spray of matte clearcoat. One of these days. Matt

Received my blue 56 from Hattons today. It's an absolutely wonderful model. As good as the Dapol Cl 26. Maybe even better. Very smooth runner, though very slightly growl-y (like the 26). Not loud by any means, but not Kato silent either. This seems to be improving, however, with more running in. The model is heavy, at 4.2 oz. (compared to the Poole Farish 56 's weight of 3.6 oz.). Quibbles? There is zero documentation about the model in the box. The only paperwork that comes with it is a sheet about Dapol's warranty. Also, the foam insert the model is packed in is very snug, so considerable care is required to remove the model from it. But these are as I said, quibbles. I thought I'd attach some comparison pictures of the old Poole Farish 56 with this new one from Dapol. My, how far things have come! Matt

I looked at my green 26 because it was handy (I'd have to hunt for the blue one) and it has about 1mm of play fore and aft. To get even that much movement it required a bit of a tug. I also measured a Poole Farish 40, a BachFar 40 and BachFar Peak and they also had about 1mm of play (though they didn't require any tug at all) and the Peak had a bit more slop (< .5mm more) in it than did the 40s. A BachFar Class 50 had about .5mm of play, while a Warship and the Deltic prototype had no discernible play at all. The Hymeks I mentioned in my earlier post did indeed have about 3mm of play and the shift looked quite dramatic as the bogies would move with a change in direction before the rest of the body did. I've had US outline locos that did the same, too. As the bogies on the 26 are designed to pull out of the chassis with just a firm tug, I suppose you just could pull them out and see if the locating prongs are misshapen or bent. But if this is a new model you just received, since this issue concerns you perhaps you should just send it back and exchange it for a new one? Matt

I don't remember off-hand if either of my two 26s have this "feature" or not, but every Dapol Hymek I have tried (before returning them all for various defects) did this somewhat alarmingly. I know several if not most of my Bachmann-Farish locos do this - certainly all of my Class 40s have a bit of fore-and-aft play in their bogies, and I think all my Peaks do, too. I've never noticed it affecting running. IMHO I don't think its anything to worry about or to fuss over, in the 26 or any other diesel. Matt

I just received an email from Hattons stating that it now has the blue 56s in stock. Matt

Thanks Dave. Yes, you were very clear. However, it confused me, for if Hattons was going to start shipping tomorrow, then that implied that Hatton's either already had the locos in stock today ready to go tomorrow, or it knew today that it was getting the locos from Dapol tomorrow - and yet Hattons told me today that it did not know when it would be receiving the locos from Dapol! As you said, it is a strange tale. Thank you again, Matt

Funny - I actually hadn't read anything into it all until you described it as a "situation." Whatever happend is not my concern. I am just very glad it has a happy ending. However, Dave, can you please clarify "Hatton's will start shipping tomorrow"? Does that mean you think "Dapol will ship to Hatton's tomorrow," or that you think "Hatton's will ship to its customers tomorrow." I haven't pre-ordered but am now concerned I should. Many thanks, Matt

Here's the email response I received from Hattons this morning about the blue 56: "Dear Mr. Tyler, Thank you for your email. As yet, we have not received any advice from Dapol as to when this loco is likely to come into stock. However, I would imagine that, if other shops have now begun receiving their stock, it is likely to be with us very shortly. Please be assured that if you make a pre order for this model, you will be guaranteed the product once it is available. I hope this helps to reassure you that our stocks of the ND203C will be coming in soon, but if you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Regards, Alexandra Jennings Retail Assistant" So, if I am reading that correctly Dapol have not informed Hattons when Hattons will be receiving its stock of blue 56s. This seems odd to me. Matt

Yes, I am slightly annoyed by this, too. Hattons are by far the best stockist for overseas customers: lowest shipping fees and no hassles on returns. With Dapol's latest release of the Q1 Hattons also was a good two weeks later to stock compared to Rails of Sheffield. This seems no different. Methinks I will send them an "enquiry about this product" and see what it has to say! Matt

I just ordered two more locos from Colin and I asked about the Adams '0395' 0-6-0. He's aiming for a November, 2012, release date and his model will have the sloping smokebox front and square cab windows. A picture of a prototype with those features can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSWR_395_class, (along with a picture of one with the flat smokebox and round windows for comparison.) Matt

I agree. Same sort of problem with the ploughs that come with the Dapol 26 - too far foward. Not really sure if anything better could be fitted though without surgery to the bogies. That said, this new 20 (and the 26) look absolutely fantastic! Matt

Oh damn, damn, damn! Too soon! Too soon! Matt