10000

Chech his website for opening times, also worth giving a call to if your visiting during school holiday times.

Good advice. 

Closed on Tuesdays and Sundays.

He often closes for some days during all short/half term holidays and for a couple of weeks during the summer.

May be inconvenient for us but nice to see he thinks about his family.

I think one  of  our  members  drives  a  truck  and   has  mentioned  calling  in  to  Tim's  shop  and  being  able  to  park!  But  of  course  you may not  be  bringing  your  truck when you visit!!!

If I remember correctly that is Jenny Emily. Although I found no reference to truck driving during a quick look at her web site. (Came across it by accident while looking for something else).

Any one interested in visiting there is a small car park just down from the shop, usually plenty of space in the streets behind the shop and for those on public transport the Manchester Metro system goes through Shaw these days.

 

 

 I  once  tried to  talk him into  USA  but  he  wouldnt  have it!!

I tried that as well.

IMHO everyone needs to forget about the sort of Bluetooth pairing that we are used to i.e . put in some sort of code to pair devices.

While I do not have any info I suspect that these Bluetooth devices will work in a similar method to Apple Airplay.

Example

In my home I have 5 Airplay receivers (think of these as locos) and 4 Airplay transmitters (Mac's, iPad and iPod, think of these as the smart control device.)

When I start iTunes on a Mac it see's all of the available Airplay receivers. I can then connect to 1 or more of these receivers. While the connection exists I can not connect a different transmitter to that receiver, it is a one to one.

To end the connection I can either disconnect in iTunes which makes the receiver available to other transmitters.

Or turn off the power to the receiver. Applying power again makes it available again to any transmitter.

(Or I may be completely wrong about it)

 

 

Err no. The Bluetooth fitted loco is still tethered to its own smartphone. If that smartphone is not around to operate it (say the loco owner is away from the layout on a break , and using his mobile for other purposes ) the loco is inoperable.

This may not be a problem Blue tooth LE can use a pairing method called 'Just Works' which suggests that you don't pair like you do with your phone and your car.

While I see the possible benefits in control, for a lot of people one of the major things  with DCC is sound that moves with the loco. 

Until they produce this system with onboard sound it will not replace DCC for those people because I don't think they would be happy with the airplay solution.

I have previously tried using stereo  speakers on a PC under a layout and was not impressed. The sound of the loco coming from one or two places when its actually 12 feet away is pointless.  Static systems need lots of small speakers around the layout with sensors to detect loco position and move the sound accordingly. The Pricom system can do this. ( I think the  Soundtraxx as well)

I'm not anti airplay I use it to four rooms in my house.

Sorry Ron,

 

But my experience in dealing with folks who have Apple products tells me otherwise. Items forwarded to me from iPads do not come through with the attachments. I can see the file names, but not the files. Items written in Apple's "Pages" format cannot be opened by any Windows compatible program that I can find. If the "walled garden" is so great then why are there programs around like Jailbreak? There are no Apple clones, if you want iOS you have to buy Apple, and that's disproportionately expensive for what you get. If you want a program for an Apple device you have to go through iTunes and Apple takes its cut again. Sadly Android and Windows are going the same way just to compete. Apple and its iOS are not for me, and never will be.

 

 

Sorry to get off topic  but I have to comment on some of the above.

Don't just blame iPads for your attachment problems I suffer similar problems from Windows users. Its usually a fault of the user not the software.

Your Pages issue again don't blame Apple. Pages happily opens Word documents so maybe you should  reproach Microsoft and developers for not including the ability to open Pages documents.

Yes iOS is a closed environment (keeps the malware down) but you are wrong about OS X I run several programs on my macs NOT obtained through iTunes or the App store.

And for info I also use Win XP and Win 8.1

Sounds a good idea but in some situations could prove as unreliable as infra red.

I use airplay from a mac mini to devices around the house.

But to try and save some money on one occasion I resorted to blue tooth connection. I found that every time I walked between the transmitter and the receiver I disrupted the connection. So it was quickly replaced.

Trains have got more component based and reliable - they don't need a big works anymore just somewhere to send bits to for servicing.

 

Wolverton and Springburn owned by Knorr-Bremse still service/upgrade stock as does Eastleigh but the work volume of work is nothing like it was.

 

You've also got work being done by LNWR at Crewe, Brush in Loughborough, EMD have a siding in Longport,Stoke plus DB does it's own heavy engineering at Toton.

That may be true but I think you are missing the point. 

Major works like Crewe were manufacturing plants not just servicing.  Raw materials went in and new locomotives came out.

We no longer do that on a major scale. We buy most of it from abroad like many recent diesels coming from Canada.

I've been a regular there for a long time (and spent a fortune there) but noticed on friday that his shelves of British "00" are looking thinner. Tim admits that this is the case which is due to the shortage of supplies coming through. 

But having said that it is still worth paying him a visit.

Also remember that if its not in stock but available he will get it for you. Anything I want from Gaugemaster  I get from Tim rather than order direct, because I take the view 'use you local shops or lose them'.

One of the things I like about the New Westminster/Surrey side is the variety.

I will never understand why people call hattons " box shifters " , or Any form of negative attitude towards them . Whilst not being local to hattons, and wanting to support my local shops , 99% of the time they can't be beaten for price , and it makes no sense to shop elsewhere . I have had nothing but first class service from them , always at a great price. Long live hattons !

But they can be beaten on price. The retailer I use tends to price the same as Hattons ( apart from when they are doing really cheap deals). So I have a £4 saving with no postage to pay.  Add to which I am a long term customer and have spent a lot of money with him over the years so he frequently knocks a bit more of the prices for me. Example I paid £95 each for the LMS twins. 

Don't misunderstand I am not knocking Hattons as I occasionally buy from them, an example being an American diesel last week, and as per usual they gave excellent service - ordered Wednesday night , dispatched Thursday where it went to Warrington sorting office and stayed there all thro' Friday finally arriving to me on Saturday morning.

I'll tell you why - I drive on a preserved railway, and every punter I pass the time of day with is convinced that their grandad drove the thing.

 

That's why....

Well it wasn't my granddad or dad but I did know someone who worked on her in Doncaster plant. 

IMHO most of the fame comes from many years of good PR after Pegler bought her because back in the late 50's early 60's many of us hanging around Doncaster station did not consider her anything special, just another A3.

But I'm glad she was preserved because we don't have any other examples of the class.

I think you will find the box say's 'linked' not locked. Its a warning so you don't end up breaking anything as you take it out.

To be fair to the member of staff you are referring to, you were in ''Modelzone". Its basically a high street store. They sell a lot more than model railway stuff and the member of staff's interest could be something like radio control cars not trains.

The method of attaching the pony truck has been used before. My old tender drive 8f uses the same method as do my 2 Fowler 2-6-4T's and like my new L1 they do not suffer regular derailments.

My L1 runs fine on my code 100 track and points including slips, 3 way points and curved points (all Peco streamline) even at top speed which it will not normally do.

For info its R2959 and I did not have to remove any transit pieces.

They had been removed by the shop where I bought it because they put all loco's on a short test track for you to see it working before you pay for it.

Have you considered the Peco Uncoupling Ramp ? Very simple both to install and use. No electrics. No magnets. Can be installed within 1 minute, and at almost any place you wish.

Works with all TL type couplings.

Yes it works but the problem is that many Bachmann steam outline will not go over them. Anything from derailment to grounding on them can happen.