Hal Nail

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.

Covered on page 1

I had no idea earlier that Hattons is closing which is the reason for the discount. A real shame.

I caved in at £506 today!

I'm sure you've told us this but is there any gap at all between the bridge and the painted tunnel, even if tiny, or is the bridge actually hard against the backscene?

No.

What does the 424 signify on its nose?

OK point taken! Just to be clear though, I don't have anything against anyone's layouts, small space or otherwise. It's the "once you go over to the dark side you will never look back" type comments that I've reacted to. Pop "Dapol O gauge locomotive" in eBay and there is certainly enough to fill a plank or two, (and a good way for someone considering O gauge to try a few things, which they could always sell on). Of course people could be selling for any number of reasons.

Tell me about it! i spend more time refining my list of priorities than actually doing anything (I learnt this trick at work!)

I had read the wrong caption - its W106564 and says "taken in the early 1950s, is an ex GWR Diagram W8 8T vacuum braked...." curvy roof, looks completely smooth, 100% sure there are no ribs but cant tell if there are rain strips as the light is bouncing off it Edit - btw it has self contained buffers. Obviously dont know it they are original but something else to consider. Still has Dean brake gear though.

I'm quite envious of anyone who has managed to avoid the endless succession of minimum radius and small space O gauge threads on here!

it's definitely a later one, caption says W8 and has the higher roof and the diagonal framing on the two outside sections, rather than an X. I can't quite tell if there is a rain strip but definitely isn't ribbed. Occurs to me I went back to look up the number as an after thought and might have read it off the wrong caption as the pic above was a w5. I'll confirm later.

Probably explains why there are nowhere near as many images knocking about as you usually get! The acquired wagons of British Railways vol 4 shows W8 W68442 in the 50s with no ribs. Rest of my wagon specific books haven't got anything.

They would assume you've been trading for years and slap penalties on you for not registering when you should have done. You can't just offset losses against other income streams otherwise anyone with a job would do this. Worth repeating what we concluded very early in this thread that people doing a bit of selling of old stuff aren't being targeted here.

I think W8 and W10 were different. W10 had the higher pitched roof and I'm pretty sure no ribs. Photos on Flickr look plain. W8 is the one slaters make in 7mm which is shallower and theirs has ribs. Edit: ignore re W8, I've obviously got this wrong

I made chain rings out of fuse wire, sawing along the top to separate and release. The two missing ones will be securing a container. I suspect the "replace chain pocket lids" transfer wont fit so I might have to prise two back off.

Some more liveries announced. https://www.minervamodelrailways.co.uk/news/more-n32-news/

I suspect due to it being a bit niche, they made less of the 73 than usual - Hattons stock numbers have always been single digit - and that's why they cost more. The completely new 24s are back down at normal levels. So I don think they'd risk retooling. I do remember someone doing a 4mm one by making a plasticene mould of the grills to cast the extra ones! Actually, now I think about it, I might try this! I would love a 74 but absolutely no chance of that happening.

Layout looks great - I like the walk around vid as well Is that a Lionheart mk1 next to an Easy Build? Just out of interest, have you renumbered any Lionhearts? I asked elsewhere if the Fox "metallic gold" numbers are a reasonable match given Railtecs are a bright yellow.

You can look up when locos were in for major works. You could check if any of St Blazeys had works visits and that might indicate that they probably got black, even if not conclusive

I'm kicking myself that Hattons had them at £550 pre Xmas, but I didn't realise it was only for a day or two.

Oh undoubtedly - but what sort of cretin volunteers facts to HMRC! Reminds me of a mate who got stopped driving a band's white van across the border into Holland. As they were lined up one by one they said "we are here on business" until they got to the drummer. He grinned and said "and for the blow". They got very, very thoroughly searched.

I am about to lecture my lot about this. Sending me an expense claim with "team drinks" slapped all over it isn't massively helpful when I file our returns saying there were no benefits in the year!

The key thing is the intention when you bought it. I have bought some stuff on offer recently fully intending to flip them after weathering, so the ones I keep are paid for. This is trading and I've marked them as such on my magic spreadsheet (won't be anywhere near £1000). Now the obvious follow up is how do you prove intention and this is where you need to be careful because by and large, HMRC don't have to prove it. They ask the question and you have to prove otherwise. However I don't buy the idea that inspectors who are required to show their results for the year (or used to be anyway) routinely waste their time on pointless cases, despite claims to the contrary

The tax equivalent of being substituted before the ref can send you off?