MarkSG

Yes, very much so. The brake van in particular would be a welcome addition to any eastern-themed layout. Ex-GER brake vans were quite widely dispersed across the network in LNER days, and many of them lasted into BR service. So they meet two of the typical requirements of a model manufacturer: widespread geographical use (meaning that you don't have to be a GER modeller to want one), and lengthy service (meaning you can make them in multiple liveries across different eras). Sounds like a no-brainer to me 🙂

We have to bear in mind that we're not the only market for manufacturers. The collector segment - the people who buy models primarily to put them in display cases, and who think that the value of a second-hand model is determined by the condition of the box as well as the model itself - is keen on more detail, because, unlike us, they will tend to spend more time looking at the models close-up. I don't have any problem with the manufacturers addressing that market; anything which supports a healthy industry is, ultimately, good for all of us. Where it does possibly become an issue is where a focus on the collector market prices out the other end of the market, the train set buyers who just want something nice to run and don't care all that much about fine detail and the state of the box it came in. Because we, and the manufacturers, need that market sector too; for us as hobbyists it's a common route into the hobby and for the manufacturers it's a source of mass-market sales that isn't so quality-sensitive.

Give that there won't be a show guide this year, I thought I'd see if we could crowdsource one. I've put all the basic information (essentially, names and stand numbers) that's already been published, either here, on the website or on social media, and then made a Google Sheets document out if it. The idea is that if you know enough about a layout to be able to write a short description of it, you can add that to the spreadsheet. I've done a couple myself already and I'll work on others over the next few days, but most of the layouts aren't familiar to me so I obviously won't be able to do it for all of them. The document is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LI2lhPPP4ci0nO-G-LuEht-csO5je1WUbuWXE7HP3Sw/edit?usp=sharing It's open to anyone to edit, so please be mindful of the fact that it's a collaborative work and refrain from changing what other people have contributed (unless it's to make an entirely non-controversial edit such as correcting a typo or a factual error such as the wrong scale listed for a layout). What I'll then do, a couple of days before the show, is format the data into a PDF document that can be printed off. It won't be a full show guide, and you'll still need the floorplan for it to be properly useful, but it will be better than just a list of names and more acessible than needing to refer to a website while in the hall.

So is my Titfield one. I'm still dithering about getting a pair of faux-BR livery ones.

Here's one of two W&U carriages sandwiched between a G15 and what I presume is a brake van. You can see how muh lower they are than both the loco and the van.

They probably poll low because consumers assume (rightly, it seems) that the manufacturers will keep churning them out anyway, so there's no particular reason to wishlist them.

Someone appears to have misspelled the name of the designer of the "Booster" on their website 🙂 https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/category/887/sr-bullied-booster-cc1-sr-green/e82002

Based on responses here to previous announcments, I think I can confidently predict that what we'll get is too much of something, not enough of something else, they'll carry on ignoring the most obvious choices, and the prices will make everyone's eyes water.

It does look broken, yes. Just for reference, a useful way of seeing whether a website problem is their end or your end is to check it at https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

It would have been very seasonal. In winter, a much greater proportion of the traffic would be inbound coal, which would obviously have used open wagons, and the outbound traffic would be root veg, which, as you say, could be either vans or opens (probably dependent mostly on what happened to be available). But in summer, the outbound traffic would be soft fruit, which needed vans, while at the same time demand for coal would be lower so there would be less need for opens. This is one of the things that's both enjoyable and challenging about modelling a rural location. As well as setting the season with the use of appropriate scenery, you need to get the balance of traffic right as well. Most people prefer to model a rural location in summer or autumn (trees with leaves on are a lot easier to do than bare winter trees!), but that choice will also affect typical agricultural traffic levels which need to be considered in the train formations.

Ditto. And, given that my current project is based on the W&U, where the primary (in fact, pretty much the only) outbound traffic was fruit and veg, it is, unusually for the timescale, a location where the most common wagon type was vans. So I could do with a few more of them, especially since most of the wagons I've bought recently have been opens. Some Midland/LMS van types would be an excellent addition, given their ubiquity, but it would be nice to have some GER/LNER types as well.

Just out of interest, which is early and which is late when it comes to axleboxes and buffers? And is there an early/late distinction with the different types of roof, as well?

Next question - of the three in early BR condition, does anyone have any information about where they were most likely to have been seen?

They're certainly in danger of saturating me! I think, though, that Rapido have accurately identified a market sector that works for them. That is, primarily steam era prototypes that are neither so obvious they've already been done by other manufacturers nor so obscure that hardly anyone will want one. And that just happens to be the sector that I model. So a very large proportion of Rapido's announcements are of products which would suit my current project. I'm sure that there are DEMU modellers who feel the same about every announcement from Cavalex and Accurascale, for example (although Accurascale are now encroaching on my territory as well, which is worrying for my bank balance). Eventually, I suppose, that seam will start to run out, and maybe then Rapido will start producing models that I'm not interested in as they swing towards a different market sector. But in the meantime there are still a lot of steam era prototypes that haven't yet been done in RTR form. Some GER wagons and brake vans, for example, and maybe an E4.... 🙂

Aaaaagh! Yet another model that I can't say I've ever really wished for, but would nonetheless fit in very nicely on the layout! So far, I've already got, or pre-ordered, at least one of more than half the wagons announced by Rapido - that's a massively higher hit rate than any other manufacturer. At this rate, I'm going to spend all my savings on Rapido wagons. And that's before we even consider the locos. Ah well. At least I don't buy buses.

Any news on how close these are to delivery? Specifically, the Titfield variant? Now that the train pack itself is sitting in my Hattons trunk I was planning on emptying it this week, but given that the delivery date for the coaches is showing as between October and December - and we're now approaching the end of October - I did wonder if it might make sense to hold off a week or two to give the coach a chance to be in the same box when it arrives on my doorstep.

Got an email from Hattons today saying that they expect the Titfield train packs to arrive this week. So, I need to tidy up a bit so that I've got space to set up the test track roundy-roundy in my study. 🙂

Because left and right are relative to you, but up and down are relative to the ground. If you stand facing north with your arms outstretched, then your right hand points east. Turn around and face the other way, and your right hand is still your right hand, but it's now pointing west. Face east, and your left hand is now your north hand and your right hand is now your south hand. And so on. Left and right move with you whenever you move. Put a mirror in front of you when you are looking north, and your east hand in the mirror is still the east hand of your body. Turn around (and take the mirror with you), and your west hand in the mirror is still the west hand of your body. Up and down, though, don't move with you when you move. Stand up straight, and your head is at the top. Stand on your head (assuming you're capable of it!), and your feet are now at the top instead of your head. When you look in the mirror, whether standing upright or standing on your head, the top of your body is still top of the mirror and the bottom of your body at the bottom of the mirror, just as the east of your body is still the east and the west side of your body is still the west.

Something notable about the cartoon is that the cartoonist is clearly familiar enough with Hornby to know what their product codes look like. Including codes beginning TT. So maybe there's a closet modeller on the Graun's staff.

Yesterday's Guardian cartoon: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2023/oct/04/hs2-model-of-a-shrinking-railway-the-stephen-collins-cartoon

Here's a classic triple play from a layout at the Stafford show today (sorry, I didn't make a note of which one, so I can't name it - I'm sure someone else can tell us, though). A city street featuring a department store named Grace Bros, a tardis on the street, complete with flashing blue light (and yes, it is a tardis in this context, because the location and timespan is wrong for a working police box), and, finally, a cinema which, in a nice nod to much debated events here on the forum, is showing The Titfield Thunderbolt. Phone image, sorry - I didn't take my DSLR to the show today - so the quality is a bit poor, but I think you can see all you need to.

It's the next big thing, didn't you know? We've got DCC lighting and DCC sound, and now we're moving on to DCC weather!

Hope everyone attending today has a great time. I'll be heading to the show tomorrow morning. My daughter will be coming with me, so, as always, we'll be on the lookout for layouts featuring cats or pigeons!

A few years ago was working on a layout set in Stoke-on-Trent in the 1950s, with a working title based on a placename from Arnold Bennett's "Anna of the Five Towns". The reason for picking a fictional placename was so that I could have a fictional location in an otherwise realistic setting, with the usual modeller's licence to create a station in a location which, in reality, didn't have one. Unfortunately the baseboard was damaged beyond repair in a house move, and I cannibalised it for a different project rather than reconstruct it, so it never got finished. I do still have several of the buildings built or acquired for the layout, though (which survived the move due to being carefully packed away), including a bottle kiln scratchbuilt for me by David Wright, so if/when I get the garage converted to give me a bit of extra space I'll probably revisit it on a new baseboard.

Yes, but they were almost all in London (and some in Glasgow, but they were red). So a blue Mackenzie Trench police box anywhere else is an interloper, and hence a Tardis.