luke_stevens

That would be more interesting than going to Hell in a Handcart! Luke (certified dyslexic, who does this sort of thing regularly)

First photo! My brother is pleased. I think the cardboard, whilst envrio friendly, won't last. At least the loco has a plastic frame. I which the coaches did too... We get to "play" with it on Thur eve... Luke

But I'd rather have the opinion of a fellow modeller than that of an "influencer" whose aim is to make a story and get likes! Luke

Liverpool Street on the Circle and Metropolitan Underground back in steam days was, I believe, the inspiration for the track plan. Luke

I suspect that at the moment they are just shipping the pre-orders. If they have any left after that is done, and there is time, they might put them on general sale before Christmas. But I doubt it. Luke

From what i can gather all was on course for both trainset to be freely available before Christmas with other stuff (extra track) available from that point on. Then someone pointed out the balance weight problem... and everything stopped until the factory could tool a new wheel mould. That meant the A3&A4 missed their production slot, which means they missed their shipping slot, etc. The factory was obviously pretty quick to get the replacement mould designed, manufactured, tested and into production but it was always going to be playing frantic catch-up from that point on. My guess is that they are now only about 2 weeks behind schedule but that may have involved airfreighting the sets over. I suspect that some of the 00 advertising we have seen was bought as space for TT120 but had to be reallocated :) As long as they get some sets into some people hands before Christmas then things should be alright. And it will be several years before a model is again made without preproduction images being available. I'm just relieved that someone spotted the wheel balance weight problem it in time for it to be corrected. Luke

I think it is a disappointment that there couldn't have been more sets available before Christmas. For something that has been in the works for years it might have been an idea to have made sure the sets were in the UK in the summer so that there was no way that the could be delayed. I worry that their "nostalgia" view may be distracting them from the way that online markets work: incredibly time and price sensitive with lots of returns. Being the only supplier the time element isn't so great in any month apart form December. In terms of inventory I'm not sure what is actually "in stock" at the moment, beyond the limited selection of track pieces. There may be the resin building but I don't think there is anything like rolling stock. One thing that is important to business and sometimes overlooked outside business is liquidity: in a regular revenue stream. It is better to have £1000 coming in each month rather than £6000 in month 3 but with nothing before or after. This is where having long delivery lines to China can be effected by global events: lack of containers, lack of computer chips, Covid lock-downs, ships getting stuck in the Suez canal... Luke

I would think the idea WAS to push the TT120 sets in the run-up to Christmas, but when they realised the wheels on the A3 & A4 were wrong and had to be retooled, it threw a major spanner into the works. Originally both sets were intended to be available before Christmas but now it will only be one set (and maybe not the full batch?). There is a suggestion that there is was more interest from existing modellers than they had expected and that they just don't have enough product available to ship in time. There is no point in advertising stuff which isn't available and proceed to disappoint people. As a side note I'be be interested to see the break down of purchases by Existing Modellers / New buyers, against Hornby's expectations. Luke

I know it's not RM. The website says there are tow services "Express" and "Standard" with the former being via DPD. DPD offer a "by 10:30", "by 12:00" and "Next Day" service. Not sure who "Standard" is but in the description below (from the website) Luke ++++++++++++++++++ "Express shipping: £6.95 Your order will be activated within 1 working day of the order being received. Delivery to England and Wales will be distributed between 1-2 working days while Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands and Islands are an additional day for delivery. We currently offer a delivery service of DPD. "Standard: £3.95 Your order will be activated within 1 working day of the order being received. Items are dispatched within 4-5 working days from activation. While we always aim for customers to receive their order as quickly as possible, please note at busy times there may be a delay in shipping your order from our warehouse."

I believe that Hornby no longer really have a warehouse. I've been told that items now come in ready-to-dispatch cardboard sleeves (certainly my last 2 Rivarossi item came like this). I would take the charging of credit cards to be be part of the printing of dispatch labels. Say dispatch tomorrow / Monday for delivery in the middle of the week: 14th perhaps? Luke

My brother got an e-mail at 17:45 saying his Scotsman set in now in the Hornby warehouse and will soon be dispatched. Luke PS and his credit card has been charged too! All looking positive :)

Hi All, I hope this is the right place for 2023 announcement! On the Pierre Dominique website Piko seem to have announced an FS E428... https://www.pierredominique.com/p471-nos-produits.html?marque[0]=27&nouveaute[0]=1&champ_13[0]=trains&p=2 Luke

Hi Anyone know what is going on with the Eileen's Emporium website? It's been giving a "maintenance" message for a couple(?) of days. There is nothing on their Facebook page to suggest there is a problem / mentioning maintenance, which is unusual. Luke

Yes, but I'm sort of enjoying it! I don't want this project to stumble at this stage so I'm going to keep going on a couple of ideas :) Luke

Measuring, sketching, drawing and drafting the chassis onto a piece of 1mm plasticard. First draft because I can see mistakes I've made :) Luke

Yes, a bit of a strugle! Have you thought about possibly using some 3mm stuff instead? 3mm Scale Model Railway have a pretty interesting website (and they seem to be happy to do international sales!) https://www.3smr.co.uk/index.html https://www.3smr.co.uk/locoscomponents.html https://www.3smr.co.uk/coach3.html I would be tempted to go for the Coach buffers as they might be a little less bulky. Luke

And here is the pack of Roco spare bits for one locomotive. I think the buffers may just be a bit small in diameter but I'll need to see them on the loco to be sure. As per usual I'll fit the full detail parts (pipes and dummy coupling) to one end and a functional coupling / half pipes to the other, probably one of the Dapol knuckle couplings. Luke

Hi Neil, Good luck for the exhibition! Luke

10.5mm is a bit big for UK prototypes. But I'll investigate for my next Bo-Bo... Luke

Thanks for the link. I'll have a proper look for the next loco but they look interesting. Have you trimmed the frame down? Your one looks shorted that the one they have pictured, or is it that it has bigger wheels? Luke

I may not have a working chassis but i now that the spare parts from Roco for the buffer beam Not ordering decals until the / a chassis is "functional"

But who is the manufacturer? And where do you get them? 😀 Luke

Lots of measurement and calculations later... The distance from the front axle to the rear axle is a full 10mm longer than it should be... So clearly I'm going to have to do something major. 1) scratch build a chassis from plasticard / brass. Pro: it will be exactly what I want it to be and will be easy to scrap if not good enough. Con: getting the bogies to fit and rotate smoothly will be a pain (tried before and not pleasant exp. 2) chop the end off the middle chassis block and make some new "stringers" to hold the end in place. Question: how much material will there be to align the ends? And can I align them accurately? 3) chop 10mm from the centre section.. More to cut but maybe easier to align?!? I've ordered the replacement motor and smaller flywheels (so I have more wiggle room in the chassis) and I won't make any decision until I have them. The second loco is going to be so much easier to do !!! :) Luke

And it's a Good News / Bad News story. 1) Good News. All the parts still fit in the chassis 2) Good News. There is even room over the top of the motor for the wires to go from one end to the other. 3) Bad News. The motor has a bulge where the connection tabs are. Thsi distorts to body FAR too much. 4) Bad News. If I try and push the body down on to the chassis with the bogies in place the gear tower catches on the body shell . And there is no way that the bogie sideframes are going to fit behind the buffer beam. So this is going to requite a rethink. I can get a better motor which won't push the body outwards but that's not going to make much difference if the bogies don't fit. I can curve the front of the bogies so the will rotate in the chassis but that's not enough. I could trim the bogies sideframes so the don't hit the body but would they then fall to pieces? Time to put this aside and have a long think, measure, sketch and ponder... Luke

I may have misunderstood. You mean the Triang TT3 mini-tension locks? Luke