34theletterbetweenB&D

It is the retailers - who are the manufacturer's customers - who determine what gets made. If they place a sufficient volume of orders for the proposed product, then production goes ahead. If not, nothing happens.

There's going to be a further downward pressure on prices thanks to demographics. The slew of rather good RTR product at tempting prices sustained from 2000 to about 2012 - and there are still some bargains to be had right now if we are honest - have finished up largely in the hands of a group of people nearer the end of their lives than the national average. While some of this accumulated hoard will go straight into a dustbin when the former owner is no longer living to enjoy it, much of it is going to reappear for sale. Bachmann et al will be competing against their previous sales: used or unused, and most of these items are every bit as good as when first sold. This point was lately very forcibly brought home to me, having just finished helping a daughter with her late dad's little layout.) If newly manufactured product cannot attract the retail price required, then very simply it will quickly no longer be manufactured. At least not in China: the manufacturers will be compelled to seek new low cost manufacturing locations to compete.

If its 4mm, it has to be P4+ to get the wheelies outside the framey bits. Two screws, one down a deep hole, the other under all the gubbins of the motor clamp and decoder socket mounting which if I remember rightly has to be removed first, also screw secured. (Sometime ago that I had a Brit apart and I was away from home so didn't make notes.)

It's that terrible moment when you see one gliding about on another layout that does it. No way was I buying a Thompson O1.

Hope all is well, despite snoring room-mates and other trials of life. Visiting yesterday, elderly friend with probably not long to live. "I cannot complain, it has been a great life. But you know what annoys me, I'll tell you what really has me going these days - expletive deleted - I have forgotten it again! $!*&%#! You would think you could remember what you were really annoyed about." Much laughter. That's the spirit. Having seen a few (including a nice green streak) I am no longer exerting myself for anything less than one in the same class as the Chelyabinsk thunderbolt the Russians got a couple of years past. So if you care to inform those of us without the Keltic powers of phenomena command with a when and where schedule (24 hours advance notice would be appreciated) then I am sure everyone here would be very grateful. Truly great chat up line BTW.

They will only get manufactured if the retailers place the requisite number of orders. I can see many deciding to sit on their hands and wait for what else transpires from other suppliers.

Perhaps because 'duchess' was then fairly widely applied to the wife? Cockney rhyming slang, Duchess of Fife, and thus duchess, dutch, my old dutch, etc. In the context of more modern behaviours, we might not have used 'Streak!' to greet an A4. A King was a steamroller among the fraternity I mixed with, reference to the ineptly engineered bogie. "Went to Old Oak, saw some steamrollers and carseholes."

All the above advice is correct. In principle, if it is a satisfactorily operating 12V DC model, then conversion to DCC is straightforward. Since there is usually a wired connection to each motor brush, isolating the motor from the rails and interposing a decoder is simple, but it is not this aspect that leads to problems. In practise, you may be faced with a complete PITA, but this will very much depend on any or all of: the design of the prototype, design of the kit, materials and parts used in the kit. The reason for this is that DC is tolerant of brief short circuits, DCC is not. An all metal construction - typical of a great many kits - is a fruitful potential location for such short circuits. I have exceedingly satisfactory all metal kit models running on DCC; and a couple which are non-stop problem children because despite brass construction for thin cross sections, the loco design puts tyres just a hairs breadth from metal surfaces which have to be present for a realistic model. What insulation can be got into the limited space available without intruding on appearance is applied; but sooner or later the wheels machine their way through, there is a spark, and the DCC system trips out. To make these into wholly satisfactory running models would require either substituting plastic wheels - not really possible as they are required for pick up - or a complete rebuild of the kit body substituting a very thin section insulator (which would need to be all of tough, stiff and reliably bonded to) for the sheet metal, at all the vulnerable locations.

I know ground level or nearly so sounds appealing, but there is rain splash to think about. A downpour lifts grit and mud about nine inches above ground level, and it will be all over the track if it is in height range. Lots of cleaning required, because this is stuff you don't want in your mechanisms. Eighteen inches above ground, it stays pretty clean. I used wood outdoors, tanalised gravel board as track base, two pieces arranged as a T section, supports from salvaged tops of wood fence posts cut in half and dug into the ground. Attached the boards to the posts with small gaps between ends, used greased brass screws; allowed for adjustment with changing hydration on a heavy clay soil which shrinks and heaves. Lasted a dozen years, a few boards warped like crazy early on and had to be replaced, the underground parts of the supports were fairly rotten, but still more than strong enough to take the very small load. On readying the property for sale, the woodwork was all ripped up and bonfired in one day; (the Peco track lives on in my current set up) you should bear in mind that most potential house purchasers probably don't want a layout in the garden. Operation outdoors is real fun, especially if the trains are long. Environmental effects come into play. Headwinds can stop your train, as can some damp on the rails, (my advice think 'mighty pacifics' if it is to be steam, as these can take a lot more weight balanced over coupled wheels than the 4-6-0 type). Use large curve radii (be more realistic than P4ists and standardise on minimum 30' radii) and as few points as possible as these are maintenance heavy. I'd use DCC like a shot nowadays, continuous high (adjustable) track voltage and wireless control are an ideal combination. Run a heavy copper bus pair around under the track with frequent connections. The rail connectors will fail, got about five years life from them on average, suspect frost bursts them as they eventually split on the formed bends; just like the real railway there is pw maintenance to do. I'd be outside now, were it not that the woodland life in the present location seems to like savaging the track. Between known villains - badger, squirrels, corvids - and at least one other unidentified varmint there was near continuous damage over the two years I tried it, so indoors it has to be.

Dead giveaway that it must be copied from the Bachmann is the replication of the NEM coupler pockets in completely solid non-functional form. (You might think someone on this project would have realised by now that such components can be stripped off the item to be copied before starting the process.)

I feel the design concept triumphs on the clunkiness with the handsets. Requires allocation of the decoder to be controlled by the handset from the base station operator. Better make sure the person on the base station is the 'fast controller'.

That's one very relaxed iD ahead of surgery, all the best with it. Wet dog cannot compete with the pelleted chicken faeces, or whatever it is some up wind neighbour has (presumably) used on their garden. It has just been activated by the short sharp rain shower, and is propagating its potent goodness in the muggy air. Loovely, poofect, excrelent.

Slightly off thread with this one, a few searches of the site on 'split axle' will turn up a lot of previous traffic. Briefly, these designs depend on plastic components in the drive line that degrade with both time and use. When these and the Bachmann follow ons with split chassis were the best thing in RTR I made them into runners as you propose; careful degrease, Araldite repair. Only a temporary halt to the fall apart syndrome I am afraid, other repairable components also fail; if run regularly the plating vital to the pick up path wears through, and they are all used up.

Seconded. After yesterday's special 'hunt the patient' events at multiple venues, and a busy sociable Sunday in prospect, this summer day is going to be spent relaxing, hopefully.

Considering that the SECR development of 4-4-0 types were both successful as traction and worked late into the BR steam period, and widely regarded as among the most beautiful locomotives ever operated in the UK; I am a little surprised not yet to have seen one in model form.

More visiting today. My circle of family and friends seem determined to test the NHS to breaking point in one well coordinated outbreak of practically every infirmity known to man. Softly. At some point something will crop up in friend's family, seriously disruptive of his plans. Then you can demonstrate that friendship is about more than attending every beer up. Some folks need a lifetime to get the hang of this kind of thing. Serious analyses of the allied bombing campaign in Western Europe have concluded that it was an accidental strategic success. What it did was tie down German aviation and artillery resources within Metropolitan Germany, that would have been devastating deployed against the USSR. The ammunition for the high velocity artillery alone (resource for anti-aircraft and tank and anti-tank roles) was mostly fired within Germany, and hit nothing. I see no objection to what was done. As the direct descendant of one of the prisoners of the Nazi regime, here's what I was told. 'When I saw a German soldier foul his pants as the bombers flew over in early 1943, the knowledge burst upon me: they are losing the war'. Anyone who hasn't read it, turn to 'Enemy coast Ahead'. It is a litany of regret about having to do this foul thing. Not yet smart enough to find our way to a better method.

The A1 and A2 are essentially the same locomotive design on 6'8" and 6'2" drivers. Easy to appreciate if you obtain an A1 drawing, The A2 should scale 7mm shorter than the A1 in 4mm/ft, and the GBL A2 is close to scale, short about 1mm on scale length overall. That doesn't of course mean that all the proportions are correct throughout for the A2, so measure carefully to add the additional length where it best moves the components toward A1 proportions.

No 'may' about it, the A3 firebox proportions are smaller reflecting the smaller grate area. Just right for an A1/1 of course. Probably on the original model the steps were provided as optional components for the user to fit and trial against the layout minimum radius. Most steps which are positioned rigidly adjacent a bogie or pony truck wheelset will foul on below scale curves: that's anything scaling under the four to six chains (40 to 60 inches radius in OO) that locomotives of the size to have carrying wheels were in reality restricted to.

Someone's had a bit of fun on the decoration of this one. I could read the 'Doncaster' on the builder's plate, so put a loupe on it: 'Comcon North Castern' the arc across the top edge reads.

Duly grabbed the last one in WHS - first I have bought for myself from this series - and it is excellent project fodder. Worth the cash for the tender mouldings alone. Since I have to go out again to collect FiL, I shall be scouring the local emporia for a couple more.

Busy bee today. Assisting both in-laws and another elderly non-ambulant friend to make best use of the NHS, in the form of the newly opened mini-hospital. It's well laid out and signed, with good access, wide doorways and level surfaces. You might almost think that some thought had gone into the design*. Already met three friends on volunteer duty there, two as guides/helpers, one staffing the WRVS coffee shop so very sociable. More to do this afternoon. *The very visible flaw. Clearly the designers were not briefed that the NHS' staff are the nation's leading smokers, and have made no provision at all for the disposal of their fag ends around the immediate perimeter of the no-smoking zones. Planted out beds with a carefully applied mulch of bark, already looking a bit sorry due to a litter of ciggy butts, some still emitting the noxious fume. Everyone from consultant to porter out there puffing away.

Contrariwise, from what retailers have told me the Duff Tractor genre is nothing like what it was for guaranteed sales. The much diminished activity of Vi in the UK market over the past three years rather confirms that view. Just how good would the newcomer have to be? Bach's D1500 really 'gets it' for the prototype I first saw burbling away in KX station throat (now over a half century past!) and the EE type 3 now looks right. The only current relatively newly tooled diesel model that offends my eye is Hornby's Brush 2, which has a very unsubtle error, yet very few notice it. (I realise that there are a couple of other diesels considered to be in the same category, but don't know enough about them.) And since Hornby could at short notice put an upgraded Lima body on their excellent running gear for the Brush 2, I can imagine that any savvy potential competitor for that one would think 'perhaps not'. That said, going after dated/poor models of popular subjects with a high grade competitor probably has some legs. The technique to deliver a very much better Terrier and Dean Goods is now proven, and I suspect those would sell. I would like someone to take a swing at the 125 and 225 as complete sets, matching what Bachmann have done on the Midland Pullman. But mostly it has to be subjects never previously available or only with very dated/nla models in RTR; which path all of Hornby, Bachmann, Heljan, Dapol and DJM are clearly treading. As above, tough business to break into.

This has been the surprise for me. Bachmann have had the lion's share of my RTR budget the past 14 years, with a stream of good 'staple fare'; the everyday subjects that could be seen in the final decade of BR steam operations in my area of interest. The well's 'gone dry', just some grain hoppers this year, and nothing of interest from their current list of announcements either. (The C1 counts as a 'special' in my reckoning, but even included it doesn't change things.) Hornby are going to sweep the board in range of items purchased and value of sales in 2015 and 2016, and Heljan are going to beat Bachmann too if the O2 appears before year end. Didn't see this coming a couple of years ago.

The choices of subjects with which to grow the range will be interesting. Any business can use a few 'milch cow' products in the range, and that has to be the thinking behind the RCH minerals: the colourful liveries reliably obtaining 'eye-candy' impulse purchases. I hope that is true for them, considering the volume of this subject already produced and in circulation. There's the problem, the competition are already 'in possession' of the known reliable earners. I imagine Bachmann have truly cleaned up on their BR mk1s and 16T minerals, among other items required in some quantity for BR steam and transition era modelling. Hornby have a dominant stake in glamorous steam express locos. The BR standard steam locos and major grouping era types are nearly all ticked off. Between four of the existing players, the UK diesel traction fleet is pretty much sewn up. The competitive ground now, appears to be finding genres that offer a potential range of new subjects, if that genre proves popular. Look at the speed of advance on pre-group tank engines and 0-6-0s. With a half dozen others all bidding for a piece of this action, there's likely to be a scramble to stake a claim on the remaining 'possibles' that have the potential for decent sales volumes..

"Throw me up in the air, Papa". Never did me any harm, and the plaster only had to be patched up and repainted a couple of times. So was that VTOL parenting? (Cf. today's 'helicopter parenting'.) It's a wondrous thing, how a few pounds of fragile life can just engage you - forever - like that. I have to remind myself pretty much every day, that every person I encounter started out that way. Sometimes very hard to imagine. I have worked hard my whole life to be within walking distance of my 'home' office. (Particularly when I had to travel overseas frequently, this was a breath of fresh air.) Now, my own purely anecdotal observation. Of those of my cohort who have spent their careers pounding the road, whether with lengthy journeys between home and office, or whizzing about from client to client; they have all ended up looking alike to another subset of the cohort, those who regularly inhaled for a decade or more. I will not be in the least surprised if the epidemiology eventually suggests an equivalence: of say 10 a day, to an annual 10,000 miles of the UK's road conditions of the past 45 years.