boxbrownie

Indeed, I had to either stand or kneel (I was a boy back then) on the secondman's seat to see out the windscreen, but the thing I remember most was how close the bridges seemed...always felt like ducking, which used to amuse my Uncle and annoy the secondman as I had to pinch his seat to see out!

I must admit I am surprised at the lack of rusty wrecks down here, and we live literally yards from the sea, lots of very old "modern classics" still running around doing proper daily duties as well, probably because a lot of people cannot afford newer cars, they may be old and battered (mainly due to the unforgiving Cornish "hedges" but they certainly don't have rust showing everwhere.

Lovely cars, Mrs BB actually mentioned a couple of months ago that she'd like us to try and find another, we had one back in the 80's I bought it from auction (BCA Enfield) and it had been a farm seed supplier salesman's ride, perfect fro those bumpy country lanes and tracks with the back filled with sacks of grain, and I must have hoovered about 20 kilos of the stuff out of it when I brought it home ours was in the classic citroen white and we absolutely loved it....in fact it lead us onto many other citroens from 2CV all the way through to CX GTI Turbo......never did get to an SM though

I have just looked at a brand new (well it was 15 years ago) boxed specs for a Kato 210-100 Loco I have on a shelf here, and the model spec'd length is 123mm the proto dims are 18.2 meters so that makes the model in actual fact 1:148......as near as knat's are bothered. But I know it varies from model to model and source to source.

If you see my post above quoting it is anywhere between 1:150>1:160 and some steam locos even larger scale, the Japanese N gauge scene isn't known for being totally accurate probably due to the quite numerous different gauges.

At least no one can argue against the fact that the 80's couplings were far better!

So you effectively lengthened the couplings slightly, must give just enough room to operate without derailment.

If anyone can be bothered to read this, it explains foreign ownership/incorporation of a factory within China. https://www.hawksford.com/knowledge-hub/china-business-guides/way-for-china-company-registration Should stop guesswork.

It did, but those parts I mentioned you couldn’t even get to to rustproof yourself and repair (without a major cut and shut job) and those are the bits that wrote most off as other parts could be easily replaced/repaired.

EM, P4 and spare OO sets packed and ready…… And they look very swish…..each set of wheels has its own unique box

With packing “those” boxes? Nah, more like 250 per container…..40 footer of course

Exactly so, some of the earlier Steam Engines are an even bigger scale! Tomix I believe had quite a few.

MoT man is not allowed to move/remove any panels/protection to inspect underneath. Indeed I assume you refer to the new Mk2 Jag…..”S Type” as they are bl00dy awful under the cill plastic covers, written more off by rust than the Sweeny did in the originals .

The KA was the only vehicle in the range that was not given cavity rustproofing at the factory body in white stage. It was primarily a cheap car and was expected not to be used as much as it did….or as popular. The Fiesta/Puma were rustproofed at BiW, unfortunately the Puma had unique panels which were not given the testing they should have and it lead to missing areas (usually down to lack of vent gaps to enable dip coverage) of protection. In particular the lower A pillar area and plenum chamber on the KA were the really bad spots, but it took a good few years to become apparent…..a lot more than a FIAT or especially Lancia

SEAT Mii ?

Rapido have before stated in these forums that they do not own a factory in China, the merely use one which they have worked with for a period and trust in their quality.

It can be either in actual fact. From Plaza Japan… “N scale trains tend to vary by manufacturer but are generally close enough in design to be mix-and-matched for your very own, custom train. To qualify as an N scale, a model train must range between 1:148 and 1:160 in scale, and the gauge between the rails must always measure 9 mm”

Thanks, it’s OK I got confused……or maybe a tinge of excitement

Mine is coming through Rails as their special edition, I assume it will be available at about the same time? oops no, my Cl37 is coming…..my 55 is coming from AS……I get confused, ignore me.

No they wouldn’t, that was my point. The discussion turned into economy of scale (manufacturing, not our kind of scale) which is probably why Katie don’t produce much here at the prices they cost in Japan.

Yes Kato have made some models unique for the U.K. market. But if your looking at producing models for the Japanese market (to bring down overall production costs) I know some of my Farish models fouled the station platforms of my Kato layout, so they would need to be 1:160 to sell in Japan where the largest market resides.

Interesting, our Q3 cost £163 (which is the RRP from Audi) for it’s only update we had done, our dealer waived the “time on the system” cost as we always had it serviced with them (it was only just over three years old and had just one service ), I guess it comes down to how well you can “massage” your dealer.

I was a great exponent of TomTom Satnav a few years ago, they were reasonably priced and had lifetime updates for free, that was until my one when at about 7 seven years old was suddenly deemed “old model line” and the lifetime updates promised in the advertising suddenly stopped, to get more lifetime updates I needed to buy a new SatNav. To add insult to injury they didn’t even support the old Satnavs, be it with updates or tech support.

One issue is the Japanese N (1:160) is a different scale to ours.

Wow…what vehicle?