Paddy

It would also be nice is PECO releases a 2nd radius Settrack point or Farish do it and make it compatible. Many thanks Paddy

Wooden or smooth sided pre-MK1 Pullman cars would seem a reasonable option. They cover a wide geographic area and multiple eras. As they tend of to be attractive they also tick the Rule 1 box. Don’t go mad with things like working table lamps to keep the cost reasonable. Kind regards Paddy

Hi Folks, I wonder by how much any British model railway market is growing? Could it simply be an overall cake which is shrinking slowly but where it is divided differently. Is the O gauge bubble funded by modellers moving from other scales? We have been very fortunate in N gauge over the last 20 years but it would seem all this investment has not lead to a much larger market. For British N gauge to be viable we need all eras, types etc. to cross-support each other. However, I fear even this approach may not work for too long. N gauge may become a modeller’s scale like 3mm rather than a mass produced RTR option. Logic would have suggested that by now with homes getting ever smaller that N gauge would be growing in popularity - this does not seem to be the case. As to why? I am baffled. Possibly N gauge is suffering from the same problem as Tri-ang TT, i.e. the little one costs as much if not more than the bigger one. The perceived value is with the larger scales. As for British steam locomotives, each release seems to come with tails of poor quality, bad running, non prototypical haulage etc. May be the fact is, that to produce high quality (appearance, fidelity, all wheel drive, DCC, sound etc.) the prices need to be significantly higher? Would there be a market though for a £300 N gauge steam locomotive to this standard? I love N gauge and we all need to work together to ensure it’s long term viability. However, I fear no one is going to get rich from selling N gauge models. As for a prediction/desire - some wooden sided Pullman cars please. Kind regards Paddy

Looks good but does the N gauge one actually clean the track? I can live with any lIvery if the product works. Many thanks Paddy

They are all fantastic layouts. There is something rather special about HD 3 rail. Have you seen Barrie Davis’ layout on YouTube? Not HD but it has the same train set character. Kind regards Paddy

Hi Folks, Disaster averted - after a lot of trial and error, polishing and cleaning of drives I managed to copy the second DVD as well. Kind regards Paddy

Hi Ray, What a fantastic layout. How big is it? Do you have a copy of the track plan? Kind regards Paddy

Hi Kevin, Thank you for your reply. So far I have been able to recover disk 1 via Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier and cleaning the DVD with face cream, toothpaste and Vaseline! Disk 2 is proving more stubborn at present. I would not have believed this would work unless I had done this myself. Kind regards Paddy

Hi Folks, My apologies for posting in this thread but I was not sure where the best place was. I am currently in the process of setting up a media server and this will contain my collection of modelling and railways DVDs. One of these DVDs is the two programme collection on Hornby Dublo by Laurence Hogg (hence the Hornby Dublo) connection. Sadly both of the DVDs seem to have become "damaged" and will no longer play despite careful storage (I can only assume it is heat or something). Normally I would have gone back to Laurence to obtain replacements but as you may know he died a while back. The programmes are no longer available and I have check Google, eBay etc. Does anyone have these DVDs and be willing to sell them or lend them to me? Alternatively, I am attempting to convert them to MP4 720P files and would be pleased to have copies in this format. Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Kind regards Paddy UK

Not sure I would say 9 times out of 10. They definately lend to some "unusual" businesses but it is all about diversification. One model company I did get hit by was Golden Age Models (FC customer). In my experience, returns from FC are around the 5% mark (cautious investor mode), with bad debt at 1.5%. FC's recovery teams seem to get back about 30% of your losses over time. Hope this helps. Paddy

Hi Edwardian, Just to add a little bit of balance to this. I have been a significant investor in FC for many years. Whilst I admit it is not for the faint hearted and you will lose money on certain loans I can assure you that I have to date exceeded FC stated returns. This is not me saying everyone should dive in and that FC are great, just giving some insight from an investor. It will be intersting to see if I will get hit by DJM's default. Paddy

Hi Keith, I have an iPad Mini 2 so I cannot comment on the iPad Pro models - again, these are expensive devices. However, the iPad Mini 2 has been rock solid, performance is very good and the screen a joy to view. Trust me, I am no Apple FanBoy but I have to give credit where credit is due. Now, may be the latest Android tablets are just as good but I can't personally fault the iPad. In fact, so impressed am I that I am thinking of upgrading to a iPad Mini 5. Paddy

And remember, Funding Circle is a P2P lender so in reality this loss will be individuals and potentially the tax payer. Paddy

Hi Keith, Always has Android tablets before the iPad and I have to say that as a tablet OS, iOS is better. When it comes to phones there is not much in it apart from the price! Not sure why anyone would spend £1K on an iPhone. They are beautifully made but not worth that sort of money. I do have an iPhone 6 but I got this for £50 from work and at that price I cannot complain too much. Paddy

Totally agree about the iPad for surfing/email. Got my first iPad a few months back and it has blown me away. It simply works. Paddy

Used PCs since the early days of DOS and over the years I have had few issues. The key IMHO is to not steer away from a vanilla install too much and to avoid having numerous "tools" or "apps" added to your environment. Also, buy good quality hardware from recognised manufacturers as you are more likely to get good software drivers that are maintained/fixed on a regular basis. Finally, keep your PCs up to date especially items like the BIOS to maintain compatibility, stability and security. There are no guarantees but the above rule of thumb has served me well both professionally as a developer and technical support and home PCs. One other issue is the amount of bloatware that gets pre-installed on PCs - it drives me mad. Last week I bought I a new HP laptop and was shocked to find how its performance was throttled by this stuff. In the end, I got fed up and created a Windows 10 installation USB stick from the Microsoft website and installed "plain" Windows 10. The difference in performance was remarkable. Another issue with Windows 10 is all the "extra goodies" that Microsoft have added and are turned on by default. Most of us know about the telemetry in Windows 10 but there are others. For example, Cortana, update options, performance management settings, indexing etc. Depending on what you use your PC for a lot of these can be turned off. All good fun I suppose. Paddy

This is very positive by Hornby. Personally, I like Simon's manner but he should be prep'd for something like this. Either get a professional do present or do the job properly IMHO. Paddy

Any update on this layout? Looks great... Paddy

Good news about the Shark - hopefully here for Christmas. Paddy

Hi Richard, Watched your new video yesterday - amazing. The production values are top notch and I love the way you show exactly how you achieve things and the products used. Keep up the great work. Paddy

When I used "normal" glues on HOLLERTON JUNCTION I would get bubbles despite my best efforts. I then switched to 3M Spray Mount and have had no problems at all (no peeling even after 4 years). Many thanks Paddy

Lovely little wagons but alas too late for my time-frame. RevolutioN really do deliver. Paddy

I wonder if Dave would consider the crowd funding route for the Shark? Surely most of the work is already done and it could be worth asking the N gauge community. Paddy

All my suggestions were intended to be “out there” - most would be a wee bit too ambitious for Hornby probably. Paddy

Reintroduction of TT to modern quality and detail standards. Simon K. is on record as being a fan of TT. High risk but if it it did take off then they would have the market to themselves. O Gauge under Bassett Lowke. Higher price point with better margins. Reuse of existing model designs and research. Extensive reworking of DCC offerings under Zero 1 brand. New version of RailMaster and/or DCC controller similar to ECoS. Voice control via Alexa... Don’t see Hornby entering N gauge in any significant way - crowded market which is relatively small. What would Hornby’s USP be in N gauge (and I am an N gauge modeller). Digital camera wagon/coach. Plays to the YouTube generation of modellers and has great play value. Harry Potter range joining up trains, cars (OD and Corgi), Scalextric and Airfix. Something to do with DC Comics via WB tie up. Reintroduction of Live Steam as this has been requested and out of the range for a long time. Could even be O gauge Live steam as the price point would be more acceptable in that market. Given Hornby’s financial situation I would expect anything radical to be relatively modest this year though. Paddy