Legend

Thanks Charlie but I see little point in posts telling us that there are 20 changes to the bodyshell if you cant tell us what it is. its not as if we can have an input. I understand the commercial need for secrecy, but all these posts do is encourage froth . You can say don't read them then, but the title says New Realtrack DMU and I wondered what it was . Not a thread about an inderterminate product at an inderterminate time in the future leading to speculation about what it is. In fairness its the same over on GCR thread about product announcement- Kernow, but at least I knew that was froth and wont look again until its actually announced- Friday I think. We also have a Rapido thread unless that is actually the same model you are referring to. I know I'm getting grumpy in my old age

Talk about froth encouragement. I used to enjoy these types of post but now , I think because so many , have become weary of them. How about doing an SLW and telling us when its ready for sale?

I know you can go by tram to Bury, which is middle of the line. First bus probably do a bus but I'm not aware of the number. I do know they run up Broadway from Manchester through Chadderton to Oldham so I'd image you could get to Heywood. Try looking up First Manchester buses. But if I was going I'd travel tram to Bury. Is the event at Heywood. It's the end of the line but didn't think much in way of facilities there. The heart of ELR is Bury

Yep the old Royal Princess , now called the Artemis , I think, was moored behind us in Santorini a few weeks ago. Two Royal Princesses together. Mine was a fair bit larger. Great ship . Anyway , best wishes ,hope you have a better day tomorrow.

Good morning from Rome. Flying back after two weeks bouncing round the Med on Royal Princess for about the same price as 2 Bachmann Blue Pullmans

It does capture the atmosphere really well though. Looks good

Not quite Oz. Revenue at Kader was up 8.2% . Profit from Operations were up from 4284 $HK'000 in 2014 to 115443 $HK'000 in 2015. Staff Costs were down although they appear to have lost 396 employees. Looking at costs per employee, although admittedly this can be skewed by mgt costs ,labour costs per person appear to be up 9.6%. Interestingly from these accounts labour appears to be 33% of Kader Revenue. Of course Kader then sell to to Bachmann at a profit, and while there are employee costs in Bachmann , presumably they are not increasing at 9% pa, so I think it's safe to say that a 10% increase in labour costs at Kader should translate to a relatively small increase in Bachmanns retail price and an even smaller one retailer to final customer The other interesting thing is that Kader sell to one customer which represents 50% turnover. Would that be Bachmann US?

Surprised you weren't approached. I always am when I walk in. The prices and specifications are actually on the iPads or iPhones but there's usually someone there to talk you through it.

You didn't Phil. Sorry should have made it clear that was a reference to Jason's post in #22, where he is looking for people to upgrade to DCC because of all the advantages it has to offer. I don't dispute that and for some DCC is the way forward, I was just trying to point out that for others DC has advantages. It's horses for courses and as long as models continue to be supplied with capability for either then I'm happy. It's not a done deal that people should upgrade to DCC as a matter of course though

And what's wrong with that? After a hard day battling with SAP, Oracle , Peoplesoft. Excel,look ups,pivot tables, dealing with 100s of emails , frankly the last thing I need is another user interface, this time with a DCC model railway controlled with something that looks like a pocket calculator. Just plug it in , turn the controller knob and listen to the swish of my train run round my oval with satisfying clatter at the points. Bliss. Computers.........they'll never catch on I tell you! And of course the only chip I've paid for is the greasy one that accompanies my fish. Also I don't like being told what I really must buy. Prefer to make my own mind up ta

Or they modify their pricing strategy. There is such a thing as consumer resistance. It's not organised, of course, but there comes a point where consumers don't perceive it's value for money and go away and do something else instead. I don't subscribe to the statements that we can do nothing about it. Of course it maybe that the company decides it really wants that price as they can make larger margins doing something else. In which case let them withdraw from the market and let other companies in that can meet the consumers expectations and at same time make reasonable margins.

Service and keeping price increases to the minimum do it for me. But it's all about perception. I'll give you an example. I bought my parents an iPad to keep in touch with them. They hardly used it , but after a year the blue screen of death appeared. Just out of guarantee. So off down to Apple Store to see how much cost to repair. Imagine my surprise when the tech guy said, it's the blue screen of death, it'll take me a while to figure out what's wrong, it's just out of guarantee, how about I offer you a replacement instead. I was gob smacked! As a result my next phone was an iPhone and seriously considering iPad pro to replace my existing iPad . Yes they are expensive but it encouraged customer loyalty and overall I felt it value for money. Parting with money was turned into a pleasurable activity! The whole thing was very slick. You can tell the difference buying direct from Apple rather than through Dixons, where you are more likely to know more about the device than the assistant. Contrast that with companies that put up prices 20% pa , even for superannuated mouldings. Just get the feeling of being exploited. Def not value for money as a result now haven't bought anything from them for a year. I remember when younger being engrossed in the Hornby Catalogue , a great marketing device, extolling the virtues of Triang -Hornby and later Hornby. The total system. I think Hornby haven't quite realised the effect their Catalogue/Year Book shambles on overall customer loyalty

Interesting. I knew they'd offered them before but I thought they were tender powered, didn't realise they'd done loco powered ones

A bulk standard BR Castle with Single Chimney, late BR Crest and Collet tender. As far as I'm aware this is combination has only ever been made as a limited edition. How about a mainstream release ? I'm assuming you mean what could they produce from their existing tooling? What about one of the later Britannia's with larger tender (sorry can never remember what it's called) Firth of Forth etc. Blue Grey Mk1s

Nice layout. Great that you are trying to recapture the feel of the original. These were great stories , brilliantly illustrated and evoke a "golden age" even if it is with Rose Tinted Glasses. Looking forward to seeing more and thanks for posting the link to the documentary. I had seen it before , but many years ago.

Fair enough we've had duplications of 47s,37s HSTs all very widespread, but a 71,a somewhat limited prototype.................... Hope It does well for them, but I have my doubts. Of course,the Adams Radial also duplicated , similar limited geographical area but a pretty wee loco. Let's hope that's succesful too

Nice . I just hope Hornby don't catch a cold on this loco. They can ill afford it at the moment. I just can't see that with its limited geographical appeal this will disappear off the shelves quickly. If you consider people are already signed up to the crowd funded one and presumably committed to it . It further restricts the already limited market for this loco

No.They still have to ship to model shops all over the country and are still offering a direct selling alternative. While I don't like it, outsourcing seems to be the way these days, the theory being you are letting people who are experts in the trade do their job rather than be a Jack of all trades yourself. Should be more efficient but it does cost. It does seem that deeply discounted direct selling has stopped and instead stock offered out to the retail trade. Hopefully it was offered widely but so far we seem to have seen Rails and Hattons take them up on this. The benefit being that Hornby get one large sale now rather than lots of small individual direct sales

Or it could be he had made quite an impact and is brilliantly qualified to lead the organisation. Just because it's an internal appointment does not imply second best. Anyway, as we all know Accountants are great guys

Thanks Keith. Yes used lots of Tafwebs objects in TRS2004. Really no idea why it doesn't work on Windows 10 but apparently this is quite common with older program's. There was at tweek you could do , but it didn't work for me As I said I have two subsequent versions I've never used . I'll maybe load 2006 and see if I can Transfer files, 2010 looks completely different. I used to enjoy "Middle England" route . A nice length of mainline running with dome shunting possibilities. Going to try to get back into it. Thanks again for help

Thanks . i 'll maybe give it a go rather than trying to get 2004 to load. Annoyingly it did work on Windows 8 but not 10. I think I have Trainz 2010 which does run. I'll try transferring files but it did look like file structure was different between versions.

I love Trainz but unfortunately it doesn't seem to run on Windows 10. I've got Trainz 2004 . I have subsequent versions but that's the the one that I've got most downloaded content on, and created routes To me Trainz is very good for route creation. You can shunt the yards on it, after creating it yourself

Shock! Certainly not a good year. Seems there's a lot of humour going out of our lives . Thoughts with those who were closest to her.

United Molasses had a depot in Greenock, so that might have generated some traffic

Nice to see Nigel McMillan still around in the article about the 50th anniversary of the Scottish show in this months Modeller. Well I remember his Campbeltown and Macrihanish layout.