Hal Nail

A few years back they claimed to have simplified tickets to make it easier for travellers. As far as I could tell that was a classic case of announcing something without actually doing anything. If anything it's got worse. A day return from Alton to Clapham junction is £35.60 anytime, £30.90 off-peak or £23 evening out (out after 1pm, return avoiding evening rush hour). A day return from Clapham to Alton is £22 anytime or £21.60 off peak. So someone getting up early enough in Clapham, can travel back towards London having paid 22, on the same train as someone setting out from Alton, having paid 35. I thought public transport users from Clapham were supposed to be very average!

A couple of previous threads are worth looking at. Hornby and Bachmann 08 compared in the attached link, plus the specific Heljan 07 thread obviously. I find searching Google including RMWeb in the subject, usually comes up with info.

I know its only one example, but the recent O gauge Heljan class 73 was over £100 more than previous releases. Stock numbers at Hattons were only in single digits from release and I suspected exactly what you have suggested.

You can't really rely on one photo from that era for a shade, let alone a red (lighting, exposure, film emulsion, how it is reproduced etc). Unless I had absolute proof it was painted any different to anything else, I'd do it in my favoured BR maroon but a cleaner finish.

I keep wondering why they made so many!

Is it 5?!

From the date this should be black. Aside from the hinge straps, the bonnet doors are flush and don't have the raised outline of the later type modelled. Whether you would see in this scale is another matter. http://manlocosoc.co.uk/sutherland/slide-webone-off.cgi?ws-025&01

I ordered something about 6pm on Monday, it was picked at 11am Tuesday and arrived on Wednesday. Looking back I was clearly after the announcement but I had been searching for a specific loco every day expecting it to drop sooner or later (Rails just had). Only 2 locos came up under bargains in 7mm, so I didn't think anything of it until I logged on here much later.

Ignoring that arrangement, I presume retailers don't typically buy on a sale or return basis, otherwise there would be no need for their periodic clearance sales as they'd just send surplus back? Where a product isn't really selling and the retailers stop ordering any more, leaving the manufacturer with surplus, do the manufacturers sometimes offer discounts to the retailers to incentivise them to try and shift it or are discounts solely at the retailers expense? Or does everyone just negotiate these things as they go along?

There is a very pleasant walk from Ystrad Rhondda up the side of the valley to the wind farm at the top. Now the fact there's a wind farm there probably should have warned me, but blimey it was blowing a bit!

Original thread here think it may have been the mogul someone reported a split gear

I read somewhere Hattons had 3-4m of stock in their accounts Shudder to think how much Gostude has.

It works for me! Think of it as an investment - you've bought a 70 quid gain :)

I fear it is too late for that. But as a longstanding forum dweller, I can vouch for your wisdom!

I don't have any direct experience but there are threads on here from pro kit builders and poor kits seem to be a mere inconvenience to a decent builder. Obviously if it requires near total reworking that would be different but then you'd think they'd contact you promptly to discuss I also get the impession that wait times are down to working through the queue rather than construction itself - the good ones build them in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

Ah, but if the insane part of your brain points out you'd get most of your money back on eBay if it came to it, then everyone is happy!

Exactly my situation now although i was originally just self employed and it might be a carry over from then perhaps. Anyway unless you are actually trading and owe tax, there is no benefit in doing this and you'd pay extra NI.

You are required to register. You pay weekly class 2 NI from the date you start, as well as class 9 on the profits. After the first year they ask for payments on account for income tax as well rather than at the year end. edit. agree with you on the end bit. whenever I've spoken to them they've generally been knowledgeable and even helpful but actually getting hold of them is pot luck. In fact the last two times I managed, 6 months apart, it was the same person. When I asked if she was their only helpline employee, I merely got a dry laugh...

Amazing timing as I bought a 73 yesterday and was intending to look into 3rd rail details.

Do some people only get two tides? Clearly Southampton is twice as good.

I appreciate size isn't everything, but I think by now I'd have persuaded you to move up to 2 foot gauge :)

We've obviously reached that stage in every threads cycle where the early instructions, in this case a plea to not discuss the reasons due to sensitivity when it is still raw, get completely ignored.

I hadn't noticed this before, but when Heljan tweaked the 37 tool for the cut away buffer beam, did they widen the drivers doors as well?

Ah OK. I didn't think the illusion could be that effective if there was no gap at all. There were some little cameo perspective models at Telford some years back. A window view onto a road disappearing off into the distance etc, but all in a foot or less of depth. Very clever because even if you have the basic idea, unless it is spot on, it just doesn't work.

I'd been idly wondering how much sleep the mods are allowed when I spotted one in action. Just a word of appreciation for them at what is also a difficult time dealing with bad news plus trying to keep a lid on the reaction.