John M Upton

I am impressed by the Houdini special that is a Hornby large logo sound fitted Class 50 that has had its sound removed, yet it is described as having never been out of the box...

I actually quite like that, sort of bespoke and Irish!!

Huh? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CLASS-50-ILLUSTRIOUS-/290558359822?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item43a6a0b90e

At least the body side yellow and end yellows are correctly two different shades!! But yes there seems to have been a glut of carriages and to a lesser extent locos lately that seem to have been surplus non shifting stock repainted in all manner of dubious 'departmental' liveries, mostly completely fake and then flogged on at a premium.

I am currently watching a pair of Hornby Mk2d blue/grey open standards and they are now north of forty notes each with seven hours to go! Needless to say I'm out...

Portfield at Chichester, supposedly the north end of PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) was in use until the early 1990's but seems to have been abandoned since one of their last trains suffered a derailed TTA tank towards the rear that caught fire between Barnham and Chichester one morning. The points into the Portfield site were disconnected during a weekend engineering possession sometime last year which also the Bartholomews siding on the opposite side of the line cut as well. The oil terminal still exists at Horsham all be it disused and there used to be deliveries of aviation fuel for Gatwick Airport to Salfords.

Worth bidding only to ensure that it is safely removed from circulation and destroyed so that civilisation never has to see this abomination ever again!!!

There could be another theory.... If 'Bidder A' makes his/her bid on an item, then along comes 'Bidder B' who also wants it, 'B' could put in an excessively OTT bid which would through the bid history reveal how much 'A' had bid up to. 'B' then just has to withdraw his original OTT bid and lie in wait until the end of the auction with his bid to just outsnipe 'A' already lined up and raring to go, or if he finds that 'A' has bid a maximum more than 'B' is willing to go to, he moves on to another example of the item. Of course if both 'A' and 'B' are playing the same over bid to find out then withdraw game then it could all get very sticky indeed!! As an aside I have tended to notice that railsofsheffield auctions tend to attract far more excessive bids than other sellers, there seem to be groupies who will bid outrageously on anything they offer sometimes, usually coincident with a full moon.

Yee gawds.... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tri-ang-BLUE-GREY-Sleeping-car-Professionaly-weathered-/170623997833?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item27b9fb9789 Reminds me of some of the weathered crap that the infamous Aldo1080 used to offer!!!

Any particular reason for this well overpriced insanity? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190514946171&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT Okay it is a decent model (apart from the fact that to get the livery accurate involves basically a complete strip and respray as Hornby got it wrong... again!) but twice the going rate?!?

The body shells only of the blue FYE VEP were in the Hornby cabinet at Ally Pally today: Several bits were missing and these looked like they had been shoved in the cabinet as a last minute after thought. Disappointing not to see a more complete model on display.

...and just to tempt me even more, a certain Mr Sutton was handing out the leaflets for these to the advance queue moments before we were let into Ally Pally this morning!!!

Decided I am going to go for a pair of Construction ones and register interest in a possible Eastleigh and NSE version. Totting up cost, it occurred to me that if I were to buy the depot plaques, nameplates and etched double arrows separately for two locos I would be looking at well over twenty quid plus for them so with them already being supplied, to me that makes the locos work out at about £85 each which is good value. One slight spanner in the works thought, my current credit card runs out in July, can I risk holding on until my new card arrives before I place the order?

I have to admit I have had thoughts about a cut and shut job on a couple of Lima Class 60's to produce the never built Class 38 Bo-Bo...

I have only one of the HJ 33/0's in my fleet, all the rest are the much better in appearance 33/1 and 33/2 variety. I have to admit I am very tempted by a pair, either the RF Construction or the Dutch pairing. Are these coming with etched plates supplied? If not that is another expense to consider and nameplates/depot plaques are getting very pricey these days. Of more interest to me is the list of possible forthcoming individual releases, revised Network SouthEast and green 33008 'Eastleigh' in particular would see me open my wallet...

What in the name of God is this abomination?!? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hornby-CLASS-37-FREIGHTLINER-/180641992044?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2a0f1a0d6c (Caution: Link may contain images that some viewers might find disturbing...)

The Bachmann Mk 2 TSO lunacy has reached a new all time record: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200585104637&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT £46!! and that is before P&P. I am sorry but this is getting utterly ridiculous now, surely Bachmann can see another run is viable.

By the same token now many years later, which class is 90% stored with many demics and which slightly older class is still 100% (bar one exported to Germany) and still going strong?