Mike at C&M

Two related things have been noticeable over the last few months: An increase in the amount of product coming into the shop, which then gives a much higher monthly amount payable to Hornby. From the shop floor, it appears to us that Hornby are definitely moving in the right direction, financially.

Can someone please give information as to where the white liveried hoppers of this series worked?

If there is anyone out there who will be required to register for "Making Tax Digital", but has not done anything about it yet. I implore you to get the ball rolling now. This is not a process that you can simply do in an evening. As MTD kicks in part way through our financial year, we have to set up our new system (Sage 50) from a datum point from our old system. This has taken time to get things balanced, input this information into Sage, and then test that the two systems produce the same information - they don't! It has taken time to reconcile what the differences are, and how we adapt to them going into the future. This all takes time, and is best sorted as soon as possible. Please don't get caught out by lack of time.

Fitted an R8249 into "Robert Burns" earlier today. The slot for the decoder easily contains the decoder, but the main problem is where to route the wiring. I eventually pushed as much of it into the slot for the decoder as I could. No problem getting the loco body back on after fitting.

I wish that you have as many happy memories of Suki as we have had of our various cats down the years. As time goes by, you will be able to remember with fondness the joy that the lovely lady brought to you.

From the city of Carlisle, I bring you:

Despite covering much of the British railway network, I had never been up Lickey Incline... until last Sunday And I have never been down Lickey incline.... until next Sunday

8650 BR blue with lion & wheel emblem ‘as built’ 8651 BR blue with lion & wheel emblem (small yellow panel) 8652 BR blue with lion & wheel emblem (full yellow end) 8653 BR Rail blue with white cab roof (full yellow end) 8654 BR Rail blue (full yellow end) 8655 BR Rail blue (full yellow end) 8656 BR Rail blue (full yellow end) WEATHERED All these are Class 86/0s, or AL6s as they were when first released. Further variants will follow in due course

We are fortunate enough to be one of Revolution Trains stockists, and we will always order more of an item than we get pre-orders for. We also operate a system where we will reserve items ordered in advance, but often, customers will only express an interest and only want to confirm the order once they have seen the model. With payment being taken when the item is despatched, there is no prior monetary commitment. So this may be an option if you have any uncertainty about what the quality of the model will be like. But as Ben eludes to above, the quality of all Revolution Trains models to date has been superb, and there is nothing to suggest that this will change. Whether you place order with Revolution Trains and pay a slightly lesser price for advance payment, or deal with a retailer at a slightly higher price and pay upon despatch, potential quality of the model should not be a deciding factor, based upon the superb quality of all their models to date.

For customers outside the EU, nothing changes under 'Brexit'

Colin, is it possible to post a plan of the exhibition hall before the show opens. Thank you, in advance.

The following post appeared on my Facebook page, courtesy of the BBC. This should make fascinating viewing!

*** No Political or Pro-/Anti-Brexit posts, please *** Along with many other businesses, we recently received letter reference EUEX1044 from HM Revenue & Customs which details (for the first time) what steps we must put in place so that we ready for a no deal Brexit. For a sole trader, or any other small business, the scale of what we need to do is considerable, and for someone who is not familiar with how various systems work, it is also very daunting when we also have the distraction of 'Make Tax Digital', as well as the day-to-day running of our business. The document raises a lot of questions, and I would appreciate if anyone is able to assist with answers that point me in the right direction of what I need to do. If there are any other people who have additional questions relating to this process that I have not asked, please feel free to ask them as well. 1) "... appoint a customs agent..." : What is one of these? We import from three different countries within the EU, and their parcels arrive with by Parcelforce or DPD. How do customs agents fit into the supply chain. 2) We have an online shop through which we regularly supply to various EU countries. Do we need a customs agent for what we sent out? We use Royal Mail for these parcels. Again, how will this work. 3) Is there a threshold below which you do not need to use customs agents? Either an annual amount below which you do not need to declare, or use agents. Another scenario is the packet of couplings we sent out to Germany last week. Surely we will not have to deal with customs agents for a parcel of £8 in value. 4) Import duties: Are these in addition to VAT? 5) What are "controlled goods" 6) The VAT accounting for imports will change for imports from the EU, this I understand. But what is a customs declaration for importing goods? 7) Am I able to assume that VAT on imports will be recoverable through normal VAT return procedures? Any help is most gratefully received. Thank you

Thank you to everyone for their replies to this thread. Knowing the current residents of Wreay station, they are intrigued by what might have happened outside their back door.

https://candmmodels.co.uk/cm-limited-editions/ All our limited editions are on here Mike C&M Models

My father does a lot of photo-archiving work, and came across the picture below that is labelled as being at Wreay, a few miles south of Carlisle. However, Wreay was LNWR, whilst the box and signals suggest Midland. So can anyone enlighten us as to where this picture may have been taken. Thanking you for you help in advance.

It has been announced that the comedian Jeremy Hardy has passed away at the age of 57, after a short battle against cancer. I had the pleasure of seeing him do ISIHAC in Carlisle a couple of years ago. His rendition of Abba's "Thank you for the music" was comedy gold. Rest in peace, Jeremy. Happy in the knowledge that you brought happiness to so many of your listeners.

We are considering this. Once we good ahead, we shall post it on RMWeb.

The wait is nearly over, ladies and gentlemen. Invoice just received for: ND116B Regional Railways 142 ND116C Northern Spirit 142 ND116E Tyne & Wear 142 (Others will presumably follow very soon)

To expect any model shop, not just Hattons, to honour an old price, after the manufacturer has imposed such a price hike is unreasonable. if they had stuck with their originally quoted price of £99, Hattons would have incurred a substantial loss. Whether you like it or not, the ultimate goal of any business is to make a profit

We are looking at "Sage 50C". The reason for our choice is that it handles most like the traditional accounting package that we dealt with in our previous employment in the early 2000s.

I hope the originator of this e-mail from within the Oxford company will not object to me re-producing the relevant part here, but this will explain as to why the ScotRail 2nds are no longer available from some shops, and have taken them off their websites: "I’m really sorry to say that we are sold out and will not be able to ship any further models over and above those that we have shipped in the past days. I knew that numbers were tight on this coach, but I didn’t think that they were quite this close. I know from those of you who I have spoken to that early sales of these coaches have been excellent – so much for the online critics. We are urgently considering either a re-run or an alternative numbered version and I should know more about this during the Toyfair next week." Some shops may have some left. Then we will have to wait a week to find out what will happen next.

On the trade order form, it is possible to see a running total of what how much you are ordering, by value. (once you tweak a slightly incorrect formula). This years' total is far outstripping the spend from previous years, and we still have a lot of the range to look at yet. If our experience is being repeated by other retailers, then Hornby's ambitious 2019 announcement would point towards a more stable financial position. Isn't this exactly what we want to see happen to them?

It is certainly running slow, but patience sees the pages load eventually. There will be increased traffic today, but at least it is working.

A very positive start to 2019