34theletterbetweenB&D

Likewise, although I didn't understand until a little later in life that the women who spurned him after previously being so free with their favours, were of course working girls hired to grease the wheels on a deal. Then again Sam apparently never quite understood that...

There are always competing views on how best to realise the value in a business. At least those with the votes in this kind of contest actually have money on the table. Get it wrong and it's usually their own and other's money that they are responsible for, that's gone forever. If this succeeds, I too suspect a very rapid break up, to leave a profitable core business unemcumbered by 'distractions'.

What! The Stirling class F 4-4-0 and Stroudley 'Gladstone' 0-4-2's surely? The former the clear ancestor of Wainwright and Maunsell's very successful 4-4-0 development for the SECR and SR, and the Gladstone type as improbable as it was successful.

Despite the continuous change, I reckon adaption would be pretty rapid for the last 300 years. (Akin to picking up the idiom of non-UK English when travelling.) The regularised usage that printed literature introduced did much to standardise and stabilise English, with the result that authors such as Defoe and Smollet are easily read. (Ignoring intentional obscurantism such as that of Rabid Burns.) Whereas while the meaning of Milton, Newton or Pepys writing roughly 350 years ago is readily understood, it's a little more effort to read because of unfamiliar modes of use. If that is a reflection of the spoken language, then the adaption might be expected to be a little more difficult; and ever increasingly so as one went back still further.

After forty years I still haven't perfected the discrimination of the feminine 'Nothing' or 'It's fine', to determine whether this is 'Someone's gonna pay' or 'You - very specifically - are in deep doo-doo'. Frankly, I am beginning to wonder if they are playing by a consistent set of rules there... Which may of course be closer to the pronunciation of the 'Wembalea' in the first recording of this place name. A short walk away outsiders talk of Mary le bone, while the locals say Mahbun, and many many more such. Nothing to get excited over.

Ah, the dear old 'home index' problem of automated multi stage independent operation production processes! A dead section of track at the end of each stage, which is only energised for the next move in the cycle for a fixed period, will likewise sort that out on continuous run. At least you won't have a production manager beating your office door down over reduced throughput; and have to laboriously demonstrate that reliable continuous operation results in more throughput than running faster and sorting out the regular crashes when the sequencing fails. (His workforce vastly preferred the second option, plenty of opportunities for a fag and a cuppa char.)

Indeed so. The best aspect of English is that it is effectively a democratic language, the usage shifts without any real regulation, to serve the purposes of those using it. As an example, nouns are effortlessly enverbed. Text was just marks on paper in the first half of my life, but now look at it!

I received a pair of the new £1 coins in a retail transaction on Saturday, having seen them loaded into the till from a sealed plastic pack while queusing to pay (for my preferred Simmons baked goods). Sunday lunchtime, we had a family game of spot the holograms. Results: Over-seventies - whazzat? there's nothing there anywhere, let me get my magnifier, no, still nothing, etc. (It kept them busy for an hour to be positive about it, with no talk of medication.) Rest of party - coin 1, the strangely squashed pound symbol and heavily seriffed 1 were seen by all, coin 2 occasional glimpses of the heavily seriffed 1, but only by the under thirties, no pound symbol ever in evidence to anyone. I think that's a fail as a security device, at least for human detection. Other experiences?

I believe such a move is long overdue. Previous managment made a faltering start with Railroad, and then totally blurred the lines between the product groups. Is there a retailer able to describe the split between traditional train set market and the modeller oriented premium product? If I were Hornby, and there is a viable two ranges option, then I'd make the train set end 'Hornby' - that's 'The Name' everyone knows - and make the premium items under a new brand, because most modellers won't care about the name, but rather the quality of what they are getting. 'Premier Line by Hornby' might be a good title. It's invested in the business, and those who have put up this equity are looking for a return by growth in share value, and dividend payments.

Hornby's vulnerability is plainly on view. They have made moves to focus on the most profitable product groups, and that's delivering. But the world situation means they are faced with considerable unpredictability: both in the cost to obtain product, and the willingness / ability of the customer base to go on buying it in the necessary volume at whatever is the required retail price. I feel we are already there. Hornby grabbed for what market there was for a better King, and it's a matter of judgement for an external observer whether they secured the best economic outcome by effectively squeezing out a potential competitor. It will be interesting to see what emerges in their new introductions as the year progresses. I reckon it has to be almost exclusively new subjects from now on to obtain the necessary sales volume. All the subjects for which there are adequate models already available are not going to generate enough return to be worthwhile a retool; and with the B12/3 delivered I think that is the last 'terrible old clunker' upgrade that was justifiable / necessary? What I expect to see from here on are all-new subjects dominating their release list.

What would be informative is if anyone knows the smallest RTR HO loco that has a matching feature set. Very simply fitting the extra kit inside is made easier if the body shell is as capacious as possible, and the A4 offers that. The other internally very roomy prototype that shares the exact same driving wheelbase is the streamlined Princess Coronation. That would probably be the lowest cost option for exploiting the existing mechanism to produce a different model, since it should fit as it stands.

Well there's a happy chance, the new location is just off a route we use between one of my wife's cousins and her uncle and aunt. This is most promising.

The Geological Museum in South Ken had at one time a simulation of the 1964 Anchorage Alaska earthquake. It was nowhere near as rough as the ride on the worst sections of the Underground network.

What a shame that a double framed with flycranks DG was not used as the basis.

You had a lovely dad, and we will miss him too. RIP.

But would it outsell the Turbomotive, P1, streamlined P2, U1, the Hush-Hush W1, Bulleid's Leader, Thompson A2/3, Great Bear, The Fell, 10800, class 89, to name some other 'unusual stuff'? That's its real competition I would suggest.

Twenty odd years ago during the boom of the nineties, my dear wife came home with a very 'sculptural' kettle bought for what I considered an extravagant price (more than £2 at the time in other words) from a newly opened glammy 'everything for the kitchen' shop. In its favour it was very well constructed, more efficient than the previous kettle, and has an easy clean finish, which meant it still looked good as new after twenty years of multiple daily uses. And it had an unconditional lifetime guarantee against any failure. Last year the handle came loose, one of the two securing rivets had corroded under the stainless steel capping. I called the manufacturer, and they sent me a new one, identical in all respects, no quibble. Stellar Cookware. I think I might just be persuaded to buy another of their products should I ever need anything more in that department, and might even go past a fiver for it...

Is that a Southern themed layout? I am of the opinion that the Southern is the best bet for HO. The EMU's will perfectly look well, and a careful selection of inside cylinder steam locos with full footplate width or no splashers for the freight is possible (mostly poor designs by the likes of Drummond) and everyone on the Southern is rich, so it can be afforded!

For what are relatively cheap manufactures, we do expect to get a lot of life out of them. Most similarly priced consumer goods are cheerfully chucked when they give up, maybe five or six years life is enough for a 'had my money's worth' perception? Same applies to aferezers. That was so funny, spent forever getting past 'Afirdge', couldn't work out what it was at all, at all.

The bogie derails? Is this on all such points or only some, or few, or one example, likewise both routes, or only curved, only left or right or both directions, facing or trailing only or both directions? If it is only on one point, then inspect for damage on the point, if on two or three look for common factors in their locations. What happens if you unhitch the tender drawbar so it is dragged along by the wires alone (slowly!). A tender slightly fouling the back of a loco can limit the flexibility of the loco to take the curve and that in turn can cause the bogie to come off What actually happens in the derailment? Do you see a wheelset - or both - stop turning before it happens, or lift off the track slightly, or does the bogie frame turn a little or tilt over before derailment? I have various Hornby models with a leading bogie, and far and away the most common fault has been the small screw attached subframe (with the guide slot in which the bogie pivot locates) incorrectly positioned so that it constrains the bogie as it attempts to track the curve.

There's interesting, the arrangement has been altered from that of earlier productions. See the cast metal rib inside the casting extending either side of the pivot hole? That bears on the ends of the raised edge of the 'long oval' - in the past the raised edge was circular in form - and the pivot post should be a moderately slack fit in the pivot hole to allow the bogie freedom of movement, and only retained by the securing screw rather than pinched up tight. This arrangement allows the bogie to move in pitch relative to the body.

For this class of goods- toys - my suspicion is that the UK consumer law requirement is 'fit for purpose' at purchase and for some relatively brief period thereafter, circa 6 months. After that, you are on your own. The manufacturers have generally done the decent thing for faults of this nature, which become apparent within a few years of manufacture. The Bachmann N class footplate casting failures took several years to become evident for example, and Bach supplied replacement parts.

Well, they set out their stall on their website http://www.oxfordrail.com/General.htm and a key extract follows: " For some years the development team at 'Oxford' have been examining the possibilities of producing accurate and detailed models for the UK model railway market and have now decided that the time is right to launch the first model, under the Oxford Rail banner.　 The first 00 scale Oxford locomotive will be the much admired Adams Radial 4-4-2T Class 415 of the London and South Western Railway. This new Oxford division will not just release random locomotives, however; a detailed plan of future releases is already in place.　 CEO Lyndon Davies explains, "I, along with my development team, have for several years been closely monitoring the model railway field, especially in the UK. I now believe that the time is right for Oxford Rail to enter the market, but I am not interested in just introducing the occasional locomotive model. We have a rolling planned introduction program based on extensive market research, as well as talking to (and listening to) railway modellers. I am determined that Oxford Rail will be judged on the integrity and the quality of our models that we will be offering. ...All enthusiasts and modellers will be invited to comment. Oxford Rail products will be available through all good hobby shops and specialist outlets. Further announcements will be made soon, but for now Oxford Rail is now open for business; the business of providing excellent quality models." 'Accurate well detailed models of excellent quality, on which comment is invited'. The customer group represented here generally feels they are not quite hitting the target yet, and the comparator being used is clearly what the competitors are achieving. Personally I feel Oxford may have found the learning curve a little steeper than anticipated, but I think they may be getting there now; their one product release made so far that interests me is on par with a recently tooled Bachmann or Hornby wagon, and significantly in advance of their first wagon release. I very much doubt that Oxford will have any sustainable price advantage as a differentiator, after their war chest funded launch phase is over. The same economic conditions, the same model making techniques: it'll cost exactly what it costs whatever the manufacturer. So if they want retain and grow market share, it will be necessary to perform as well or better than competitors where it matters: the fidelity of the models offered to the customer.

Lovely sight for my wife today just as she got home, a pair of Nuthatches using the bird bath together. I only saw them fly off. Don't usually see a breeding pair in such close company, very much 'alternaters': NH1 comes to feeder, departs to preferred perch to eat seed, NH2 comes to feeder, departs to (different) preferred perch. And so on.

Diesel.