Hal Nail

Patience pays off as a buyer. If I want something I track a few and eventually one sneaks through, maybe after a glut, badly titled or ending at a bad time, that has attracted less interest. Contrary to the widespread view that Sunday is the best time to sell, nearly all my bargains are bought then, when there is generally far less late bidding than I see on the equivalent items at other times.

They are offering 10 grand tho. I'd be tempted to accept.

Are we to infer from this that one would only ever have bombed West Kirby by accident?

The timing of those photos is exquisite as I was going to ask you how the 101 wipers compare to Derby style. I asked Easybuild if I could buy some of theirs hoping to improve a Dapol 121 but the only ones not part of a main fret are from the 101. They do look smaller in those photos but still better than the Dapol mouldings, even if just an interim fix until I can source others. edit: though i should add they arrived a couple of days after our chat, are the sane size but much finer than Dapols and Shawn gave me them for free. I shall probably buy a coach kit now so a good result for all!

A touch of this about it too. http://www.archive-images.co.uk/gallery/Archive-Colour-Images-of-the-Railways-of-Devon/image/36/Mary_Tavy__Blackdown_Railway_Station_1962

I fear you might be swimming against the tide. A notable feature of this forum is that when someone asks a question, a load of people guess. Hence it usually helps if you already know the answer, so you can more easily ignore all the incorrect ones.

i had a seller contact me the other day to say hed sent something to the address eBay gave then noticed my order address was different. Id carefully removed my old address from the default delivery addresses and paypal as well but realised later that eBay also have an address saved in your personal details and were dishing that out.

21 and 24T mineral wagons in 7mm scale. Shared chassis tool, popular appeal with some steam/diesel overlap.

Possibly although if they had been defective from the start, presumably the original purchaser would (or perhaps more accurately, might have been extected to) have returned them? Given eBay has traditionally favoured the buyer in disputes, I've often throught it's arguably less risky than taking your chances on an untested new one from a box shifter!

i dint think it was ever a particularly serious model and they were just generating a few extra novelty sales.

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=52931

I know several people who have had a negative in between positives. I guess it only tests what you put in the tube and if the pesky blighters see* the cotton bud coming, you might not get one. *this is not a medically accurate comment!

Agreed - a simple like doesn't seem enough when someone's gone to that much trouble to reply! Normally searching Google but adding "rmweb" in your query is the quickest way to find threads on here but it doesn't work since the problems - you can still find relevant threads so at least know they exist but the links to them don't work and it doesn't say where abouts in the forum they are unfortunately.

It's a bit unfortunate but I can understand the store being wary. I'd try phoning the store as the seller and confirm they are valid - although how you prove you aren't just a mate of the person collecting might be a problem.

Had a go at mine today and having taken the cabs out, I found out the roof is actually a separate unit screwed to the body. Once that comes off you can pop the main headcode glazing out by pushing it in from the front easily without risking damage trying to prise it out from the front. Its actually a front and back panel in clear plastic and easier to align transfers on the back panel on the flat rather than trying to fit digits in through the hole. Cleaning up any residue sprue on the front one massively improves the appearance. Next job will be to pop the body glazing out and open up some of the door windows - it is, after all, permanently Summer in my little world.

I dont know whether it really needs sealing or not - I merely thought worth mentioning those paints might not actually protect it from moisture in the long run (I'm not suggesting you will get instant problems using them). I think part of the reason I sealed my shelves was to give a hard surface on the exposed edges so I could sand them really smooth, which wouldn't be relevant here.

Worth Googling how to seal mdf. I'm pretty sure from when I was using it for shelving, I read somewhere that using the wrong type of paint merely adds moisture to it.

Is this so DCC modellers can have the true DC experience?!

I thought something like that was the case but couldn't quite recall. Is the use of fishbellies also related to that? Not sure why fairly modern stock would have older replacement bogies?

I've seen those photos elsewhere and they are of an RCTS railtour. There are some good ones of a 58xx in regular use with a 2 coach train as well. My books are in storage but I've got a vague recollection that branch had its own stock for some reason. Those coaches are flat ended and look like later Collett stock but they appear to have Dean bogies with footboards. Photo link below shows this better: http://highworthhistoricalsociety.org.uk/galleries/nggallery/photograph-galleries/railway-photographs/page/3#gallery/950cf0934d0853e36fda06297c49f09b/1068

The Hornby brake 3rd is 6 compartment so the difference to the E135 is in the spacing either side of the 1st class (and a fraction less luggage). Noticeable - but in context, the nearest compromise I figured. Switching tack, I know the E145 had 9' plate bogies rather than 7' and perhaps, therefore, different truss rods (?) but were the bodies the same as the E140? This is a conversion I have toyed with in 7mm just for variety, since I already have spare bogies.

Sorry! Wasn't questioning your choice - just thought I'd mention it to clarify. The GWR did actually build two pairs of E135 brake composites for branch use which were closer to the Hornby brake 3rds than the Airfix E140, with recessed glazing, curly grab rails, a flush guards door and I think 57' (although I don't have my books handy the check the length). The main differences between these and the Hornby's were no end windows and the spacing for the 1st class compartment (which is barely noticeable). These ran on the Looe branch and I seem to recall one was possibly at Kingsbridge for a time as well, so something pretty close to the Hornby brakes were in use as a pair in the Exeter area.

The 2 coach brake composite sets allocated to branches in the west country often had the branch name on the outer end in GWR days. Sometimes the name was suffixed with with a number, if there was more than one pair allocated. Lionheart stock photo as an example. I'm not sure if the window end brake 3rd types from 4 coach sets ever ran in pairs though. Once those surburban sets got broken up the odd single coach made it into branch trains when extra capacity warranted it - there was a brake 3rd used as a strengthener on the Looe line for example.

Not having QC and being able to return defective goods for replacement, costs us nothing whereas as we would foot the bill for the alternative. If the level of returns was generally as high as the OP has suffered, the manufacturers would be forced to do something so its probably just bad luck (sadly). On balance, given the widely reported factors everywhere that are only forcing prices up, I'd rather live with the current approach personally but it has meant I inspect and test immediately and am far less reluctant to return things if not 100% happy than I used to be.

I removed a panel from a loco so had to repaint a small area about 1cm high. I used a 1cm soft flat brush in one pass. Thinned paint and the least brush strokes the better for a good finish. Incidentally you can always sand/buff out any imperfections using 2000 grade wet and dry.