Mel_H

Derails has a small handful of the 'standard issue' R3810 Rocket packs now available. In a thoughtful move it is offering one in a £5 per entry draw, with funds towards the Dean Forest Railway. The others are being offered at Standard price, but you have to say why you should have one (see below) https://www.derails.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=win+a&product_id=3356 About the competition it says: Earlier this week, we found a few spare Hornby Stephenson's Rocket Train packs here at Derails; we had a few spares in-case of damaged models arriving and a few pre-order cancellations. We were wondering what to do, so we came up with something special for one of them... Like many other heritage railways, the local Dean Forest Railway has been hit quite hard by the COVID-19 virus. Having shutdown their operations in March, they have not run a single passenger train since then and are only re-starting operations on the 1st August, with socially distant queuing and trains divided to comply with the rules. With half of the year's normal running, both steam and diesel gala's and many other special events cancelled, the railway has really taken a HUGE financial hit with many new and existing projects facing lengthy delays and even potential cancellation, as the money is just not their to complete them. Everyone here at Derails is a volunteer and supporter of the railway; Julie & Big Dan help out on dining trains, Saul is a guard, Little Dan is a guard and charity trustee and Edward is a raffle ticket seller - so to us it is vitally important we do all we can to help the railway continue to thrive. So our "something special" is a fundraising competition! Tickets are just £5 each. The draw will take place on Friday 31st July and the winner will be immediately notified, before it is pulblicly announced via email and social media. 100% of the profit from this competition will be donated to the Dean Forest Railway Society which is the charitable arm of the railway and as well as this, we will take £1 of your ticket price and purchase a DFR Annual Draw ticket with your name on too, so you could also win up to £250! About the eight other packs it says: The R3810 Rocket (which of course, you can win above!) was a pre-order sell out meaning at the time we didn't have any extras to sell upon arrival. However, we did have a fair few spares: we don't believe in selling right to the limit of a limited item, as if any are broken on arrival here then we don't think it's fair you have to go and wait for a repair! Luckily the reliability on these sets has been 100% so we now have eight sets here that can be sold! Now we could just put these on eBay at £1,000 a set but that's not fair - morally we think it's wrong just to whack the price up as soon as something becomes popular - so we're going to sell them out at the standard £161.99 with free UK shipping, our normal price. Putting them online would result in a massive "feeding frenzy" and disappointment when they inevitably sell out in the first three minutes, so we'll do this differently: if you're interested, please emails us on sales@derails.co.uk stating your interest in one of the packs. If over eight respond, we'll then hold ballot of those who email and if you get chosen, we'll call you and finalise your order! (no connection with Derails, other than a happy customer)

Not technically a bargain (so please remove if inappropriate) but for £5 you could get one of the new R3810 Hornby Rocket sets. It's a thoughtful move by Derails and raises some cash for the Dean Forest Railway too. https://www.derails.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=win+a&product_id=3356

Maybe one day they will do the long-lived GRCW/Met-Camm/BREL Bo-Bo BELs, plenty of liveries to go at... I wonder who will be bold enough? Surely that would fall into the 'more unusual locos' category? They are numerous (about 59 from memory) and span a long time period (with variations)...

I don't see why not, especially if it's 'pretty' (certainly, the liveries are eye catching, even if the loco is a bit 'boxy' below the solebar) I'm sure that when the announcement is officially made, KR will find out how many EOI it gets pretty quickly...

KR Models has posted this 'teaser' on its Facebook page: HOT NEWS, We have been given exclusive access to a NEW industrial Shunter loco. This is a very exciting development in our evolution of the company. These will be for the modern image yard shunter, in a steelworks, or even for your nuclear flask operation. Further details to follow in due course. A suggestion in the comments boxes that it might be the TfL battery Clayton, has been denied, with "No, [but] close". But there's been no response to the comment that it's the CBD90 hybrid sold to Tata (pictured). Froth away!

Just had the following info from Kidderminster's model shop - offer on Picture Pride display cabinets: "Pre-owned display cabinets in stock from Monday. For anyone looking for a large display cabinet we now have 3 pre-owned High Quality Picture Pride Displays in stock! "We have 2 x 5ft (157.5cm x 52cm) and 1 x 4ft (132cm x 52cm) versions, both have 6 glass shelves each. "Available from Monday in the shop... 4ft = £180 5ft = £200 each "All in great condition. "Please email us on sales@footplate.co.uk or ring 01562 750076 if you wish to reserve."

Sadly, not one of Alstom's finest products when fitted with the Ruston (MAN B&W) V12 RK2154T for export sales, rather than the EMD 710 (as fitted to the Class 66, 67 and 69). According to the caption, this one had only re-entered service a year before after overhaul and upgrade, but is a good flame thrower. Sounds throaty though. The 16-strong M7 class, built by Brush in 1981 with EMD 645 power units (think Class 59) were probably a better buy...

I think it is for ride comfort for the guard, as the non-guard version has conventional single springs. If you want some, then Rivarossi are making them (new tooling), which is where the pictures came from...

Fancy putting a 'privy' on your freight train?

The file info says "Hull BG" so was it there?

More details of the ‘M7’ reference, and much other substantiated information is in Kevin Robertson’s most recent (his third) on the subject. It is truly fascinating and recommended

Having now carefully read Hornby’s post on its Engine Shed blog, I have no doubt that Lion is on its way. I think the clue is there if you look !

Given that it’s essentially only a 4-wheel wagon, I thought Rail’s comment was a little snide.

Details emailed all its customers who had bought the Rocket set, offering them ‘first dibs’ before they go on general sale, which was very thoughtful and excellent customer service IMHO

Hi Dave Please would it be possible to tell us what has caused the sudden delay? It might at least put an end to the speculation and contribute to the openness on this project and restore some confidence? Strange as it may seem, given some of the extreme vitriol on this thread, there is a lot of goodwill towards Hattons and this project, and the vast majority of us are on your side!

That is very true. I bought a new mouse for my Mac the other day, and I’d forgotten how lovely Apple’s packaging is. Yes, I know you pay for it

Hindsight is wonderful (as is foresight). Published on 1/1/17, the 'End of Year Report 2016' contains many gems, including: "Once the 92 is completed and delivered in both gauges I will not do another crowdfunded model for a good few years until the rather buoyant production and manufacture of assorted models from third parties etc has slowed down or plateau’d. This I think is the sensible approach and one which will allow me to concentrate on getting the back catalog out to you all. Talking of catalog i intend to publish a pdf catalogue in the 1st quarter which will contain some interesting info." And then, on 27/11/17, this happened: "Hi everyone, just started this thread to keep specific chat between the gauges separate. I'll add details later for the OO version, but it mirrors the N gauge ones exactly apart from the price of course. Meanwhile you can order using this link..... http://durhamtrainsofstanley.co.uk/my_store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=371 Please note this is a DJM crowdfunding project and DJM will be invoicing, designing, and finally supplying the finished model and is therefore totally responsible for your investment. Also: Please Note: Any 'pure' crowdfunding venture is an investment with no guarantee of return, and your invested capital (deposit payments) are at risk. Please consider carefully whether you wish to partake in this venture before ordering. cheers Dave"

Start here [10:42] https://youtu.be/vTLeJWG9hAg?t=642 and enjoy the 'BHOG'* being substituted by an excavator. You have to ignore the banal commentary though....

I suspect he did and he isn’t the first and won’t be the last. Prosecutions only tend to happen when very large sums are involved and there is clear evidence, with a high probability of a conviction. Disqualification as a director is the route more often taken, but I’m aware of one business (not in our hobby) whose funding and spending methods were very similar. When that company failed, in similar circumstances, the very many employees lost their jobs, and in at least one case, their house. Despite everything the directors ‘got away with it’ and one even went off and started a similar business. As ever, it’s buyer beware.

I bought the ‘RMweb’ special edition as I thought the association with with this site would produce a good result. While it wasn’t bad, it did not meet the ‘setting higher standards’ claim in my opinion. For me, the ungainly injector moulding was especially disappointing, for example

And, if you chuck too much power on the front, and too much weight on the back AND the train isn't on a tight curve, something has to give. In this case, it was the covered hopper, which was literally torn in two at Floyd, Texas, June 2005 [pic: Jim Satterwhite]. I understand, this isn't that unusual in the 'States. Over here, we did used to do the same thing with wooden-bodied wagons and, I understand, the occasional brakevan

There was this incident at the Cantara Loop, northern California. Pictures show the accident, in 1991, and the 'protection barrier' installed afterwards. According to our American friends the story goes: "The Cantara Loop, just out of Dunsmuir, CA, on the 2.2% [1-in-45] ascending grade out of the Sacramento River Canyon and up to Black Butte, is the sharpest curve on the entire Southern Pacific system. After Phil Anschutes purchased the SP and had all his Rio Grande managers come over to "show the SP people how to mountain railroad", it didn't take long for the directive to come out of San Francisco forcing them to run longer/heavier trains eastbound out of Dunsmuir. It didn't take 30 days, and they string-lined a huge train, and dumped some 20,000 gallons of chemical into the river. "

I've also seen a picture of a train in the US, where some empty gondola cars at the head of a train had derailed on a tight curve - just pulled off in a straight line like a trainset. Try as I might, I can't find the photo, or even recall where it was, other than it was on a double-track Class 1 railroad....

I think that this thread is proving very helpful for those who lost money etc, and our chatter is helping to provide some closure, perhaps? I was fortunate and after the PayPal fiasco on the APT, didn't order direct. And, I only ordered the APT because of Durham Trains' involvement as I thought that would provide a degree of 'safety' as they would keep Dave Jones on the 'straight and narrow' and focussed. Sadly, they weren't able to. As I said some pages ago, Dave was the architect of his own misfortune in many ways - a big one being his refusal/denial - of accepting help when offered. His IP 'rant'* - which was deliberately poking the tiger to prompt a reaction - at the end was a classic. If he does indeed suffer from mental health problems, then the all undertakings he took on were more than even the most capable in our business could manage. The underlying problem was his failure to deliver. The brand's launch was a success as it rode on the coat-tails of the 4mm Dapol Western - which he gave the impression that he 'designed'. Clearly, we now know that he didn't 'design' anything, but acted as a [mercurial] project manager for those who did (in China). Sadly, despite claiming to be 'setting higher standards' his attention to detail was poor, right from the off when the wagon he 'designed' for FTG (Filling The Gap) Models had incorrect couplings, which meant it derailed. Happily that was fixed on later runs, and the tooling is still available, it appears. Worse, he refused to accept any failings with his models. We will never know the full story (and if he ever wrote the book, it would need a 'translator' given his poor command of written English, another area on which he was helped, accepted it, but then promptly ignored the assistance), but this thread is helping us to piece it together. For those who have lost interest and think this thread should be wound up, there are many other threads on RMweb to enjoy (certainly hundreds, maybe even thousands?). Nature takes its course on RMweb threads - eventually people stop posting. I think that's what shoudl happen here. Finally.... It was Dave Jones who decided to set up on his own. It was Dave Jones that made lots of promises in return for people's cash. It was Dave Jones who wasn't transparent. It was Dave Jones who denied all claims of 'vapourware'. It was Dave Jones that people put their trust into. No-one asked Dave Jones to do this. Happily, the gaps are being filled, with the party being filled by many new suppliers. One day, we'll get a 74 etc... (and the other promises) from someone else, I'm sure! Maybe, one day, even RTR 3mm. * The IP rant was where he claimed that anything he had 'designed' to his super-high standards, he therefore owned all IP, meaning no-one else could make a model. You can imagine the swift reaction that came from Hornby. Now that's a letter for the archives!

Sounds like he also failed to make his self-employment NIC payments too (yes, I know the system has since changed)