37114

Back on the current layout, I have made the base of the platform. This will be clad in brick/card so is just the base framework for now. When finished 4 x 12t vans will be able to be unloaded in the platform.

I need to straighten out the kink on the tracks leading off the points which I only noticed after taking the photo

08950 is now finished, I had to reapply the overhead electric warning plate on the cab end. To my eyes it looks a distinct improvement when I compare to the original  finish

On 13/09/2023 at 13:44, C126 said:

 

If you come across any of Pallet Lane and can restore them as well, I hope I am not alone in being grateful.  Thanks.

Hi @C126, here are a few I found on the old PC. I would have added them to the original thread but it is archived so just a few here. My modelling has come on quite a bit in the last 20 years and there are a few bits of Pallet Lane I cringe at when I look now but it started me off on the exhibition scene in 2008 and the subsequent 3 layouts have all been better than the last. Although Peasevern Yard is an upscale of Peafore Yard, there are a few cues from Pallet Lane with the new extension having some similarities to the cement sidings on Pallet Lane. The backscene may even reappear as I had forgotten the picture looked quite good. 03382 has also appeared on all 3 of the above mentioned layouts!

Stroll not starting due to injury....

Dad: How you feeling Lance?

Lance:Great Dad, looking forward to the race!

Dad: Look Lance, the finance guys say we are near the cost cap limit and we can't afford to write off another car... so let me ask you again... How are you really feeling????

Lance: Ow my finger nail hurts!!! I can't race

Dad: Good lad!

40 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I remember looking at some of the BBQ grills and outdoor products in Bunnings and wondering who in Britain would be in the market for such large and expensive stuff. 

Exactly. At the time Bunnings brought them, I worked for a Homebase competitor who were keeping close tabs on what they did, we had regular updates from mystery shopper visits on what their stores looked like, what they were stocking etc and basically was gob smacked to see an £8k outdoor kitchen plonked in the middle of the floor like the Lidl middle aisle. From what I have heard, there was a significant amount of excess stock that Bunnings just diverted to the UK who were told to sell it...

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

In the case of Bunnings I don't think their failure had anything to do with the British retail market, much more that their product wasn't adapted to the local market and people preferred alternatives which were tailored to what local customers expected. Especially when their offering completely ripped up the Homebase model, which seemed to have made its own niche with an emphasis on stuff like furnishings.

2 of my current team are ex Argos/Homebase and said pretty much that. Massive outdoor kitchens/BBQ with high price points sell well in Australia but are distinctly more niche here...

12 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

That sound like the place Phil.

I was being diplomatic in saying the family split.  She does seem to be the one who was very much involved in the change of direction. She however had a parachute and a safety net, while several thousand others do not.

Bernard

There was also a long standing relationship with a Transport provider who I recall was related by marriage. When the company I worked for tendered for the Transport I was asked to do the analysis to support our bid. I couldn't get anywhere near the amount of trailers they had, my work coming in with 400 trailers less. A quick look through the document from Wilkinson showed why... They were paying a cost per trailer per week so the answer to any problem re stock or cage storage was "We will give you another trailer". Both Worksop and Magor DCs were easily identified on Google maps as there were trailers everywhere.

They look excellent,  any chance of an O gauge version please???

49 minutes ago, Darius43 said:

Toto Wolff watches Massa legal case for parallels with Hamilton’s 2021 title bid

 

Cheers

 

Darius 

I wondered how long it would be before that came up.. Rumblings about 1994 as well.

Best outcome is the FIA say "Sorry, we should have excluded Renault from the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. We will retrospectively do it, the new result is;

1st Place Nico Rosberg

2nd Place Lewis Hamilton 

3rd Place Timo Glock"

Therfore Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 championship by 3 points rather than 1. We trust Mr Massa is happy with the outcome and wish him well paying his massive legal bill and being known as the guy who no longer lost the championship by 1 point..."

Meanwhile back in the real world looks like the best chance in ages for a non Red Bull winner based on practice..

1 minute ago, TM2201A said:

 

There are a couple of 3Ds around for a '77 Buffalo Cab and similar period G Cab Clydesdale. The roof of the Buffalo model looks wrong and the Clydesdale appears to be a complete vehicle.

Can you share a link for these please? I am hoping to do a Blue Circle cement tanker and the Buffalo Cab may fit the bill...

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

One bus company, I can't recall which one had a number of both Transit and Sherpa 'breadvan' minibuses. When they were due to be withdrawn the Transits went first but their engines were transferred to the Sherpas. Apparently the Transits suffered from cracked frames whereas the Sherpa engines suffered from dropped valves.

Badgerline had both Sherpas and Transits but pretty sure the Sherpas went first and the engine was from a Land Rover (presumably the 2.5 NA Diesel) whereas Fords had their own Diesel engine so may have been a different company? I know in later life LDV fitted the same engine as the Transit after Leyland was sold to DAF.

1 hour ago, Flying Pig said:

A similar tippler at Lincoln in April 1969 (by David Ford on Flickr).  Note the crossover on the near side, the empties on the right and the condition of the various railheads which suggest it was a straight-through operation.  I guess locos would not have been allowed over the tippler.

 

 

Great scene, crying out to be modelled!

6 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

Wickes was demerged from Travis Perkins in 2021, and is now an independent business.

 

Adrian

From recollection it was done as a prelude ahead of a potential sale, the sale has yet to happen though.

4 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

looks good. My issue is the front. The earlier releases have the stripes in the wrong place and I think they change angle near the top, although the radiator masks the problem. The later release eg the grey one, was better. I stalled on sorting mine which has been in bits for years.

Thanks, I haven't studied the front too closely... To be honest it would be a much bigger job to change the front so will live with it. You have got me thinking that maybe next time it would be easier to start with model with the correct wasps stripes and paint the body blue.

4 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

 

B&Q & Screwfix are both Kingfisher, and Toolstation & Wickes are related. (Jewson?).

 

Toolstation and Wickes are owned by Travis Perkins.

3 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

I mainly blame the change from what was mostly hardware and homeware stores into something that was virtually Woolworths with a tiny bit of hardware.

 

I mean, what was with the idea of selling things like pick n mix sweets and toys?

 

The market was already well catered for by places like B&M, Home & Bargain, etc. which were much cheaper anyway.

 

 

Jason

Agree. At the end of the day Woolworths failed so replicating the model was hardly a recipe for success. While many of us will miss Woolworths and Wilkos, if we look at how much consumers spent on each visit it probably equates to a very low single digit £number on average at a time when wages, rent, rates and utilities were rising way beyond the growth of top line sales numbers

25 minutes ago, C126 said:

 

If you come across any of Pallet Lane and can restore them as well, I hope I am not alone in being grateful.  Thanks.

Will do, I am sure I have some somewhere!

I am now doing the otherside of the 08 but this photo shows a neat before and after (pre me neatening up a couple of bits of paint bleed under the tape near rivets)

1 hour ago, Nick G said:

 

Hi Rob,

 

Intentio, he had his stand right opposite from me at the MIOG show we both exhibited at in March.

 

https://www.intentio.shop/Lasercut?page=7

 

 

Thanks Nick, will take a look.

2 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

 

I recall a surviving class 210 trailer was converted to replace the damaged vehicle as well?

On 16/09/2022 at 20:02, Nick G said:

Latest update on the build, some low relief units and some working yard lights from China.

Hi Nick,

Quick question, where did you get the warehouse units from please? Just thinking about something similar for the extension to my layout...

4 hours ago, Chrisjh said:

Many thanks Rob, sorry I converted it to this type some years ago, now I want to convert it back. Hope this makes sense. Best Chris 

 

 

Aah, I get you. To be honest the easiest way would be to see if you can get some second hand noses of the type you need on ebay as you will need to replace the light clusters as well, they come up from time to time. I did have a quick look on the PHD site earlier as I am sure I saw some etches previously but the only ones I saw were 7mm version.

22 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

Another shot of 7017 inside the Factory at Old Oak, probably late '74 / early '75... '8A23' was one of the local trip jobs working out of Acton Yard...

 

 

 

That would make a lovely diorama, quite a challenge but a rewarding one to model the inside...

8 hours ago, Chrisjh said:

This is the type I would like to fit on my Class 37's 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing, do you have a pic of your model? I am confused as to what model you are starting with? Bachmann haven't done a 37/6 (the type with no headcode box) so the only other thought is you have an ex split box model?

52 minutes ago, OnTheBranchline said:

One show I was at had an interesting layout of large scale Thomas & Friends where they had the engines on the nicely decorated layout but nothing was running. After 2 hours of periodically checking back, maybe one of the trains was running, I seem to remember them trying to figure out what's wrong with Gordon (isn't this something that is figured out before) - I just had the feeling of "come on guys, you're on display here" and the guys running this layout didn't have their wits together. But maybe I'm being unrealistic in my expectations because things to do go wrong and I've never been on the other side before.

 

Note - when I say not ready to go, I don't just mean putting a few more wagons on the tracks etc etc...

There have been a few close calls for sure but generally in my experience as an exhibitor most layouts are ready to go and it tends to be glitches that manifest just minutes before the show that are the ones the public see. Also having been on the otherside of the table I generally have sympathy for someone struggling to get a layout to work and one layout not working wouldn't break the show for me.

From personal experience, It is  tough call to balance being at a show in good time and allowing time to fix any manner of issues vs leaving it close to the wire. I do mostly local shows so try and arrive as early as poss before the show opens, typically this gives 2 hours to unload and set up. Putting the layout up take 15 minutes and putting all stock on, coupling up etc takes 30 mins, so I have 1.25hours to test/deal with issues. Touchwood I have never had an issue to be ready for show opening but if a point failed or there was some electrical damage in transit then it would be close. 

2 hours ago, Chrisjh said:

Many thanks Rob its for my Bachmann Class 37's which I have converted from Modern day DRS to 1970/1980's BR. Instead of the black and white do you sell the Yellow and white domino codes?, many thanks Chris 

Hi Chris,

When you say yellow and white dominoes do you mean the plated headcodes? If so they are available from PHDesigns but it might be helpful if you could post a pic of your model and the prototype loco you are looking to model please?

36 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Very nice rendition of 7017 there, it's remarkable how different the Heljan model looks with the headboard clips removed, but just for accuracy the buffer beam cowling should be black 😉. 7017 was repainted and had the vinyl numbers added in the Factory at Old Oak on June '74 and its other claim to fame was being the last Hymek to work a passenger train... I hope you don't mind me posting these photos of it in the period you've captured it...

 

 

 

 

I did 7017 a few years ago in 4mm using the excellent Heljan model...

 

 

 

Nice modelling there Nidge and thanks for sharing the photos. You are dead right re the bufferbeam surrounds, I noticed after I posted that picture and have subsequently painted them black as they didn't look right in blue so I am glad I got it right in the end, next time I get some stock out I will take some photos of the finished Hymek! Thankfully I had to repaint the ends so I had a great incentive to bin the clips. D7017 having vinyl numbers was the deal clincher for me, I also did it in 4mm and would never have done it if it meant doing cast numerals.