Mel_H

4 hours ago, john new said:

Like you I don’t like the unrealistic smoke, does show though why unboxing videos can be  useful.

Here's more realistic clag from a DMU

3 hours ago, john new said:

Like you I don’t like the unrealistic smoke, does show though why unboxing videos can be  useful.

On occasion Cl 66s do clag, but not much, and not for long.

For a mere £300, you too could have a OO Rocket and three coaches!

Hornby 00 GAUGE - R796 - THE  STEPHENSONS ROCKET  TRAIN PACK - COLLECTORS PIECE | eBay https://ebay.us/wAvzpy

There are some many wonderful pre-Grouping designs, but I guess they would all be 'mainstream'. What a fascinating collection though... And, there were a number of weird things that I hadn't heard of, so thank you for widening my knowledge.

I've always had a soft spot for GWR Broad Gauge - surely that can't be mainstream! Iron Duke and Fire Fly being two obvious candidates.

Also, 'conventional' crane tanks: could they be mainstream too? On second thoughts, although odd-looking, they aren't 'quirky'. 

A candidate for next year could include the 'original' Pacer - the Sadler Railcar, aka the Pacerailer...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacerailer

On 22/12/2019 at 09:15, Ian Hargrave said:

 
Negativity indeed,Roy. Might be a good idea for some who inhabit this community to re-read forum rules before posting.That is,assuming they read them in the first place.I will echo your praise for Hattons.I was told I would receive mine prior to Christmas and I did.This after a diligent and patient phone call from them to update my cc.

A word of praise here for their Dave who is keeping us in the loop.Someone has posted about good customer after care.I echo that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I’ve not bought one yet, so I’m not in a position to comment on it at all. However I must say that Hattons engagement on this forum and elsewhere is positive and to be welcomed. Others, such as Rapido, RevolutioN and Accurascale  also have (most welcome and refreshing) similar levels of engagement. It’s very time-consuming, and must be disheartening sometimes given the amount of criticism from a small but vocal minority. Well done Hatton’s, keep it up! 

3 hours ago, Marcoblanco said:

I was surprised at the difference in the Ews livery shade comparison on bear woods youtube vid.. Presuming the new hattons shade is 'correct' or closer, what did people think of Bachmanns shade at the time and did it kick up a fuss..? Can't say I noticed but then again my train set is far from 'perfect'.. 

 I suspect that the shade has been extensively discussed elsewhere. I have a vague recollection it was discussed at the time. There seems to be a collective agreement that its a tricky shade to get right – whatever right is!. Certainly when freshly applied and seen in Sun, EWS red was quite bright. However it soon weathered, and lost its sheen. Thus it appeared a darker, and duller shade. It’s not something specific to EWS, but also seems to affect perceptions/reality about the shades of BR maroon and LMS red. 

Nice pix by Eric709. Just for fun (are we allowed to do that on here;?) I put these two (Eric's and a GBRf official one) side by side. Ignore the colours (neither are outside in daylight) and that they are not the same loco. However, it does show that for something that only stands a couple of inches tall, Hattons have done very well! I'm sure we'll see some nice detailed pictures taken outdoors (or under balanced light) from others very soon. EDIT: Just found a pic of 66740 by Carl S Watson at Eastleigh, from a different viewpoint... (and minus its fueltank)

14 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Mel

 

I look forward to seeing your progress. I did consider using the bullhead track but it was the lack of the points and slips I wanted when I started my layout that made me adopt code 75 in the station area and code 100 on the running lines and fiddle yards. The Code 100 was used as I already had a stash of it from older layouts. I am just impatient and wanted to get things running.  Two years since I started on the baseboards I have a reliable layout with reliable stock that I can operate any time I want. I have had hours of fun driving my trains. No scenery has been done as yet but I don't care at the moment, just having the trains moving and not falling off the track gives me great pleasure. 

 

As for Mr Sutton's Sulzer Bo-Bos, he invited me to the launch, I was working so couldn't go. A few days later when I was ordering my first one you could hear the disappointment down the phone as I said I wanted a 00 one with no sound or DCC. They are lovely models and come in a very handy biscuit tin. 

Code 100 is brilliant for fiddle yards etc, and I'm using this too - for the same reason! Having a reliable layout is top of the agenda, which is why this thread's been interesting

5 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Peco bullhead rail and points are available for those 00 modellers who require something finer looking. If the modeller is prepared to wait the range of points and crossing will increase.

 

Otherwise plonk down either code 75 or code 100 and have some fun.

Certainly Peco's new 'Bullhead' range is lovely, and its appearance is helped by having the switch blade made of a single piece of rail, rather than the 'hinged' arrangement. And, because it's bullhead rail rather than flat-bottomed, it looks finer. I'm in the process of laying some over Christmas (hopefully) so can report back on how RTR stock performs on it, but I'm sure it'll be just fine.

At the moment only 'large radius' points are available, but Peco is promising 'medium radius' along with a diamond crossing, single and double slips in 2020.

Just one other [small] note, while the mainstream RTR manufacturers only offer OO, SLW's 4mm Class 24 is available in OO, EM or P4 'off the shelf'. 

It's been an interesting thread so far. 

5 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

It's called a Pilot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_(locomotive)

That's correct for North America (pilot), but in the UK it's officially called the 'obstacle deflector', although it may have other colloquial (possibly even regional) names. Back OT, from the few photos posted so far, it looks to be very lifelike - tricky for such a thin item.  

The trailer for the BBC TV Christmas programmes shows people leaving a railway station (very briefly). Where is it? It has a vague hint of Rochester (but it's not) or possibly Sittingbourne. It looks like somewhere in the area (LCDR Chatham/North Kent Line). Assuming it's real and not CGI...!

21 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

I thought East of England Showground was well signposted, but I have been there for speedway many times so I knew the Arena is in the same place.

 

I find it a bit confusing when alternative names such as East of England Arena are used because these are not on the signposts & for someone unfamiliar, the 2 venues may not necessarily be in the same location. It is not like the Arena carries a sponsor's name like the Marshall MK Arena in Milton Keynes, which is part of the football stadium.

 

Many years ago, I was a member of the Colchester & District club when their exhibition was at the Institute. Many of their requests for signage were refused because the Institute itself was signposted. I am not sure if this was the local council being completely stupid or it was/is a general rule applied in other places.

The Showground is well signposted, but the change of name for the exhibition hall to 'The Arena' is new and is not on the signs. It would be much better if it was advertised as being at the East of England Showground, until the signs are changed (probably, a very long wait). To be fair, there were a number of yellow event signs saying 'Model Railway Exhibition', but these can be missed if you're concentrating in the heavy traffic on the fast-moving, unfamiliar roads.

From another thread on the forum, but really should be here too perhaps? [Air-braked] MGR wagons on delivery (I presume) behind steam

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

This was different:

 

This was at Spalding a few weeks ago and is an excellent use of forced perspective! Also at Spalding was 'Grantham' which looked very impressive and staffed by seven operators. Sadly, on my three visits to the layout on the Sunday (by when operating gremlins on layouts have usually been solved) there was a lack of action, but just a massive tempting fiddle yard and a loco light engine in the MPD. Hopefully I'll get to see it again on a better day

48 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

First its a moan, then a fixation - to be clear it is an observation in the spirit of constructive criticism!

I am a Southern modeller who also follows and gets great inspiration from Little Muddle, and as I said, I enjoyed the show on both days that I attended.

There are plenty of real moans and fixations elsewhere in this thread - just search 'rucksack', 'smelly modellers', 'parking', etc!

 

Perhaps separate 'rucksack', 'smelly modellers', 'parking', 'food', 'travel' etc sub-threads could be set up for next year so we can talk about modelling on the Warley page!

13 hours ago, newbryford said:

Waits for 4mm version to accompany a recently announced loco..................

I presume you mean that as the KR Models version is now not happening, RevolutioN might take it on. I wonder if there's been a conversation between the two?

On 04/11/2018 at 16:07, PMP said:

 

 

Bachmann’s EP for the class 121 at Spalding yesterday, some more images here https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/Bachmann-class-121-at-spalding/

I saw the latest production-ready samples of the 117 and 121 at Spalding this year and they do look lovely with some nice detailing. Sadly the cab roof corners are not correctly domed, but more 'ski slope' than the real bulbous shape. Not as bad as the Bachmann 108 is, but nevertheless a disappointment as this is one of the units' most distinctive features. Dapol managed to nail the shape. It's not a grumble as such, just an observation. I accept that it's a tricky shape to get right. Anyone for Chris Leigh replacement ends! Pictures show the Bachmann and Dapol examples for comparison. 

On 09/11/2019 at 13:46, Bernard Lamb said:

That sounds about right.

I walked into the Embassy a week or so after it had opened and was greeted by the chap on the desk saying "Good afternoon Mr Lamb."

Everybody was followed at all times. By both sides.

I was told that there were about ten UK citizens with family connections in the east at that time so keeping tracks on us was not too difficult.

I did have one German friend who was under suspicion and found out after unification that the Stasi had rented a flat over the road from his flat and had him under constant supervision.

Bernard

 

 

With a group  of car club friends we have just left Berlin  this evening having  driven our Trabants from the UK. We took part in a motor cavalcade around the city on Saturday. Complete with full police escort and running red lights. However today was more sobering as we visited the Stasi prison, and separate Stasi Museum. What the stars he did was quite Remarkable, and for all the wrong reasons.

On 01/11/2019 at 09:43, Ron Ron Ron said:

It says applicable to any valid ticket event.

Would that be limited to events sold through the NEC and ticket agents?

The Warley show is a private event and tickets are not sold through the usual NEC booking service or agents, so will the Virgin Trains apply?

 

 

NEC

This offer applies to everything that is staged at the NEC, irrespective of who is running the event, and applies to all exhibitions. Hope this helps.

I've just discovered that Virgin Trains offers 20% off for visitors to ANY exhibition at the NEC - or indeed event at the site - for advance booking.  The discount is only available through this page.

I haven't ploughed through all the previous posts on here, so if it's already mentioned, please ignore (or delete, Admins)

Just trying to be helpful...

https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/nec?utm_campaign=nec_banner_2015&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=nec_partners&wt.mc_id= bn_033a_2

12 hours ago, talisman56 said:

I wound the video back to the beginning - three 4TCs a bit of a way away from the 'juice'; and 'Slim Jims' on the Cardiff-Pompeys. And the last train at Salisbury and then Southampton (33 028 at the head) had a downgraded CK in the rake - and a 'seasoned commuter' with a door open a long way before the train came to a stop at Salisbury.

 

It is fascinating, also note 33111 with close-spaced '111' numerals (a bit like 66111)

You need an excuse to run your electric loco 'under the wires' with the pan' down (and at 'non-prototypical shunting speeds' into your loco shed)? Okay, stretching the point a little but....

On 01/10/2019 at 21:41, dibber25 said:

No, Neville lived in Whitley Bay but he was an avid collector of railway photos related to the North-East. (CJL)

He still does, and still is....

What to do with that new Warwell you just bought? Load it with a wagon! [Salisbury 1988, grab from video, 7mins in, here 

]

Sheringham is to have a new model shop. Details attached