John M Upton

It's Hattons 'Sound Fitted' tax again. Doesn't seem to matter to them that the rest of it is a demic.

Hattons are a bit odd (not withstanding their obsession with boxes!!!) as in my experience their UK outline second hand - sorry - preowned stuff is way overpriced, often more than brand new unused examples of exactly the same model elsewhere on their own site! N scale particularly seems to warrant big ticket asking prices along with anything weathered. Sound Fitted is another term that gets their pound signs rolling, it could be a completely broken, non working wreck but if it says Sound Fitted on the box, that will be another fifty quid please. Their repeated use of the same catalogue stock picture for certain items doesn't help either. Thankfully because they get far less of them, US HO scale outline stuff which is my particular line of interest seems to be better illustrated and cheaper (except for sound fitted) so a few decently priced spares or repair wrecks have come my way from time to time.

What is that extremely interesting looking coach over on the far right?

A Neverwazza in more ways than one. GM-EMD tried to create more powerful locomotives by creating double engined monsters, the DD35 was the first and they followed it up with a DD40 variant. Whilst Union Pacific took the DD40 variant with wide cabs, Athearn in their blue box range took a punt and made a standard cab DD40 model. Now, if you had gone up to your local GM-EMD sales rep and said I would like some DD40's with standard cabs please, no doubt after blowing the dust off the catalogue, he would have been happy to sell you one but they never did and the massive Athearn model remained a Neverwazza, didn't stop them producing them in dozens of fictional liveries though. So, here is mine! Complete strip down, repaint, new cab and nose plus SP detailing parts. SP did have the earlier DD35 model in cabless form but they were very much not a success so they would never have bought any of these, but what if...?

The one I had the other week eventually paid up after I sent a politely but firmly worded reminder that my absolute deadline for coughing up was looming at 5pm whereupon, weirdly he then asked how much was it. Wasn't it on the listing right in front of him? Anyway, he finally (and I suspect extremely reluctantly) paid up and I duly posted the item, sent it signed for and took photos of the parcel to make sure he didn't try anything else at the other end. According to the Royal Mail, it did get there, and was signed for. Since then, silence, no feedback, nothing. The only sound was that of my keyboard as I added the buyer to my banned bidders list...

Good event, a pity the rain hit so badly mid morning. I just had enough time to buy little one an ice cream, browse the stalls and then browse the buses before the heavens opened!

With Brighton Station closing at 21:00 on Saturday night due to no station staff, the last train of the night to Chichester got spun around at Hove: If you want to go to Brighton next Saturday, don't bother, everything is cancelled!

That makes it easy, London end on the up side, the building is under a car park and a block of flats now. Both platforms have been doubled in length extending northwards. The track bed of the line curving off to the right could still just about be made out until relatively recently.

Pretty much banned network wide since 1st of June (not that people seem to have taken much notice of this) and there is a car transporter ship currently burning away in the North Sea which is believed to have been started by the batteries in just one of the ten electric cars on board going up which is another area which will have to be addressed. Put simply, these batteries are just not safe.

From my Father-in-Law's Box Brownie collection, pretty sure it is Horsham although exactly where is a little tricky as a large chunk of Horsham town centre was obliterated in the 1970's. 1960 is best guess by the advert on the London Transport RT (presumably a green one) in the background: This one may well be Horsham Garage but not sure, it was often used for the storage of open toppers and coaches out of season:

A lot of the low offer clowns are dealers and resellers, I got stung by that some years back, let a load of repainted Hornby Mk2's go for about a tenner each only to see them relisted with my pictures still being used for three times the prices a few days later. The communications from the buyer said poor impoverished young modeller, delving deeper into their feedback and sales history revealed it to be a dealer, and a mendacious one at that.

An "unassociated" box at that!!!

Seems he has rethought his rather bizarre inflation calculation from the 1970's (even though it was made in the early 1990's) and halved the price, still twice what it is worth though.

The price is bonkers, the mathematical reasoning given in the description is just plain nuts: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225689189286?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=HAC_8nMbR02&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=NiGtNyCuSh2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

One reason why I always turn the accept offers option off, too many clowns out there and I am too old now to tolerate or deal with idiots anymore.

...and with what looks like a pair of HST Trailer coach bogies underneath!!!

Should have done but depends how the power changeover was done I think. As I never had anything to do with the coat hanger on the roof arrangement, I am not sure. What I do know is that if the third rail went off (or it got gapped) the cab heater shut down (a useful audio indication of where the gaps were, especially approaching Portsmouth & Southsea Lower Level) but the batteries in theory kept the lights and radio still working at least long enough to get over the gap and back on the juice again. Towards the end it was apparent that the amount of time you had off the juice was getting significantly less, and on the one that I had a couple of months before the end, none at all.

...and after sending a payment reminder on Sunday (I gave him an extra days grace, mainly because I forgot!) he immediately responds asking to now pay on Tuesday. Liquid waste matter extractor or what? Anyway, I have set an absolute deadline now, 5pm on Tuesday or I start pressing buttons.... 👹

The whole eBay taking a percentage of the postage costs is something that really annoys me, indeed I am convinced it may even be technically illegal. Of course the solution is to increase the postage costs you charge by the correct percentage to cover the actual postage charge plus eBay's dodgy cut but then you get complaints about posting costs from buyers who just - don't - get - it. Alternatively, do I what I do, don't charge for postage at all and that way they don't get to line their pockets quite so much!!!

What is with the coach/van on the left? The body seems to be shorter than the frame it is sitting on.. And as for that thing on the right....

A lot of the problems stem from the lack of experience in managing in the industry now, many of the old hands of the BR era are gone, pensioned off and took a lot of knowledge and skills with them. Then we have the vast swathes of money that is being wasted left, right and centre especially with rolling stock. The 442 refurbishment debacle on SWR, the Class 701 introduction (or rather, lack thereof) fiasco, the GWR 769's for the Reading/Redhill/Gatwick route converted at a cost of millions and now destined for scrap without ever carrying a passenger, the re-engineering of traction packages on SWT 455's only for them to be announced as going for scrap almost as soon as the programme was completed and then there is the huge amounts of money wasted on seemingly ever increasing numbers of middle managers and completely irrelevant to the core business of running trains non jobs. Sort out the waste, get in place people who actually know what they are doing. It's not rocket science...

In my recent experience, Humbrol (when you can get it) has been mediocre at best, I only use two specific colours from their range now, both old stock that I bought a number of, most recent production is fit only for the bin. Revell is better but still not as good as it once was, Tamiya I am starting to use more now, their rattle cans are good but again only if you can find someone with them in stock and matching up the jar and rattle can codes seems to be impossible without an advanced PHD. Railmatch I avoid like the plague and I haven't used Phoenix Precision in a long time because they stopped attending shows and their postal charges are (in my opinion) a bit on the steep side.

It turned up at Barnham earlier this week and apparently is spending the night in Brighton Wall Sidings!!

Trust me, I speak from experience (i.e. being suddenly plunged into a ghostly silent darkness) that the batteries on the 313's were absolutely knackered, the best one lasted maybe a minute before the charge gave up.

Arrrggghhh!!!! Despite clearing stating on all my auctions that successful buyers are required to pay within twenty four hours of auction ending, I get a grumpily worded "I will pay you when I get paid on Saturday" message this morning. Odds on I never hear from the buyer ever again, may as well relist it now... EDIT - Checked the buyer's feedback, 100% positive of which over half are "negative" about non payment!!!!