Ravenser

While Marklin were certainly active in the British market in the earlier decades of the 20th century, to the best of my knowledge they have had minimal involvement with British outline since 1945 - The HO Warship model from the late 1960s has been shown. It was certainly not available by the time I got involved in the hobby in the late 1970s - A Z gauge Class 47 was made as a commission via Z Club UK c 1982. But BernardTPM suggests Marklin simply supplied chassis/mechanism for British made bodies. The venture was initiated by Z Club UK as far as I'm aware, and it was not available to anyone outside their membership (usual HMRC VAT liability issue I expect). It wasn't exactly something Marklin promoted themselves I'm not clear exactly when Minitrix stopped making /selling British outline N. My hazy recollection , as a 4mm modeller , is that it was some years before Bachmann bought Farish (which was approx 2000) . I do recall Farish being the only manufacturer of British N for a number of years, which would push the end of Minitrix back into the early 90s Someone showed a catalogue illustration for some British Minitrix N , which I think was said to be 1998? Was this before Marklin acquired Trix, or after ? Was this new production , or simply some existing stock Marklin found in the Trix warehouse when they took over? Bachmann were said to be interested in marketing Minitrix, presumably around the same time , but nothing came of it and nothing more was heard of Minitrix in Britain... In contrast , Rivarossi announced a Royal Scot and coaches in 1977, which lingered unsold for a few years (Were they also involved with the Peco Jubilee in N??) Lima introduced a small British range in HO, then a small British range in O before switching to OO. Their OO range was produced for over 20 years , was found in every model shop in the country, and they became the second largest player in OO (And for the later part of it , they were a division of Groupe Riva...). ViTrains made a 37 and 47 for 6 or 7 years and they were quite widely available here Heljan have been making British outline, now in 2 scales, for 20 years. Before that they had a small number of British plastic building kits for a couple of decades Flieschmann produced a Warship and some Bulleid coaches - the stocks lingered for over a decade . Roco , it was said , flirted with doing a British range 20 years ,(presumably before Flieschmann took them over?) and I think they were Peco's partner for a OO9 loco? But this HO Flying Scotsman is only the 2nd or 3rd British model Marklin have developed and announced in the last 80 years... In all scales combined That's hardly "active in British outline throughout the 20th century".....

That is a new TT:120 layout The one shown at Warley had sidings in the middle but they weren't actually connected to the main circuits. Tbis one has several sidings connected by points, so they can hold a number of trains off the circuits The batting order seems to be: - 08 and wagons next - Followed by Stanier coaches - Followed by HST + Mk3s - Class 66 maybe 12 months away - 2 types of 0-6-0T possibly just ahead of the 66 (57xx + J94??)

So it appears British outline Minitrix was dropped not long after Marklin took over Trix? That might lend some substance to my suspicion that Marklin are actively uninterested in the British market. It will be interesting to see what compromises Marklin are making to get this model round curves in a "scale gauge". Someone suggested that the TT A3 measures 25mm wide ( = 9'10") across cylinders when the British loading gauge is a maximum of 9' I believe . Something will have to give - Marklin are unlikely to perpetrate P87 or accept P4 styl;e minimum radii

You might be right (bit like pre-war Trix!) , though I had been under the impression it was a Marklin product I've always had Marklin down as actively uninterested in the British market, so this new model is a bit of a surprise (Was the demise of British Minitrix before or after Marklin acquired Trix?)

Marklin's last British outline model was a Z gauge Class 47 , after Z Club UK twisted their arm . That was a long time ago Actually the Hornby TT-120 models of A1/A3 and A4 have pipped this to that particular post - and you can get accurate coaches with them. In fact you could probably buy both sets and a few extra coaches for the price of this loco. Not sure this is really a second coming of British HO - more a "trophy model" for the display cabinet (Though I'm not sure I would call anything 3-rail a scale model ....) I look forward to the Germans doing a head to head review of the Hornby TT:120 A3 and this Marklin model 🤪 (In view of Marklin's commercial judgement here, perhaps we can lay to rest the claim that Hornby have got it "totally wrong" by their choice of flagship launch models for the TT range. The high end D+E market is only one element of the total market - and not necessarily the largest one)

The last sighting of a coach in LYR livery was I believe 1942 But it seems that the LMS had a policy of not repainting non-corridor LYR stock. Some of which was elderly and much of which was pretty basic. Meanwhile Horwich seems to have spent a lot of time in the 1920s and 1930s turning out large numbers of new LMS non-gangway coaches. Cause and effect? A "scrap and build" policy in effect for LYR non-corridor stock?

There should be an option for the bold : Worsley Works say they are willing to do their 3mm scale stuff reduced to TT:120 Worsley Works - TT:120 statement Now they have a pretty comprehensive range of etched brass Mk1 sides in 3mm... Worsley Works etched Mk1 sides (3mm scale range) And plain maroon , to match Hornby's Mk1s , should be one of the easiest liveries to spray . Suitable Lining should be available in 2mm /N (and is probably overscale for them) . Use a Hornby CK as donor vehicle, cut away most of the existing side, then reskin with painted new etched sides. A recognised technique in 4mm So - once a few orders have persuaded Alan at Worsleyt to make up an etched sheet , it should be game on for alternative Mk1s

In the lower depths of the brochure , where it's just grey bars and there are no T-numbers. LNER and BR Gresley Brake 3rd and Composite (as well as Collett Brake 3rd, Composite, and Mk1 BG and SK or TSO) So phase 3/4 These bits of the brochure didn't get much attention at the time, because the scepticism about the whole venture was so strong that Phase 3/4 were largely dismissed as vapourware

I would assume that the Gresley coaches announced are 61' corridor coaches. Non-corridor stock is normally a second priority with Hornby in OO, and in any case they haven't announced anything suitable to pull non-gangwayed stock

Its called S gauge!

Consol boxes will come on the same ships as any other containers, into Felixstowe, Southampton or London Gateway (in order of importance). I would expect import consol boxes to devan in the Ipswich/Felixstowe area, the Southampton/Eastleigh area , and probably in Basildon /Purfleet /Dartford for any Gateway shipments I'm aware Hornby cartons are marked "via Thamesport", but the shipper's marks and numbers on the cartons aren't definitive as to the routing taken by the container- least of all when the consignee controls the routing, which I'm reasonably confident will be the case here

If they've sent out a message like that , and said it's stolen in a subsequent clarification, it implies they have reasons to think its been stolen. You'd make the checks at both ends first before sending out a message externally We do not know this moved consol. The file and the paperwork will show you in 2 seconds , but for what it's worth the reported wording "missing from a container" tends to imply a full load to me What we can say is : - It's out-turned short - Nobody can find the missing stuff - Hornby seem to think the missing items may be in circulation in the UK , so keep your eyes peeled Beyond that we're guessing , without sight of the paperwork

That said, given that Hornby have circulated a message here, that seems to imply they think the missing goods may be here, not in China. We can't be certain of what's going on without seeing the file and the paperwork - and obviously we never will. But reference to a container sounds like an FCL move (even if it's LCL/FCL "buyers consolidation" as you suggest). Clearly it's out-turned short when compared to the bill of lading/commercial invoice. If the box has turned up at the warehouse this end with the bolt-seals missing , you might suspect that something has happened in the UK. I would have hoped the haulier's driver might have checked the bolt-seals are intact when picking up the box at the terminal, but I'm not betting my life on it. if it's LCL /LCL through a grouper then there are questions about whether the missing goods have been left behind in either the origin CFS or the grouper's devanning warehouse here, or nicked off a curtainsider during final delivery or whatever

It seems that Hornby have put back the official due date for all "pending" projects to Winter 2024/5, originally reported in the Black 5 thread Black 5 thread - Hornby delays It seems that doesn't mean everything is going back that far- it seems to mean that something(s) are going to slip that far, and Hornby are still sorting out what is where and the overall batting order for these projects We know for example that the TT Class 66 and two TT 0-6-0s have recently gone out for tooling, and the OO Black 5 sounds like it's a little behind that. They might be with us in 12 months time Where the Flirt is in that process , we don't really know . If we have seen a prototype model displayed, then it ought to be not too far behind those - maybe ready to go out for tooling soon???

Yes, DCC chipped locos can run on DC , provided the relevant CV for this is enabled. However you may need access to a DCC system to program this , as it might not be enabled by default I think the Pecketts require a small decoder with a 6 pin interface - ie an N gauge one. A quick look on Google suggests a Gaugemaster DCC93 would suit , but those cost around £25 each

I think I would reinstate the loco spur at the top of the throat , and use 2 pilots one at the top and one at the bottom Access to the top platforms from the current spurs would be a real pig

Not quite true - Classes 31, 37, 47, 50 are also on Hornby's list (as is the Azuma) and ALD have announced a cottage production 25. But none of those help with modelling the ECML post 91 , bar the Azuma

The spaces you describe are pretty tight for OO in any form , and big modern stuff is going to look very ungainly going round them. Most modern OO requires an absolute minimum 18" radius, and 24" radius in OO is normally regarded as the minimum for credibility on main running lines. In the context of attempting a double track continuous circuit in OO on a 4' wide board you are immediately in trouble More serious is the fact that Mk4 coaches are 12" long in 4mm, and a class 91 or a DVT is about 10-11" long. There is no way you can get an ECML formation of 91 + 9 x Mk4 x DVT , or anything close , in that space. In OO it would be tight for a little country branch line worked by tank engines and 2 coaches I also think 4' width is way too wide to be reaching across to get at the back of the board. Alarm bells would start ringing in my head about accessiblity at the back once the baseboard width starts to go beyond 2'6" I don't think you can do the theme you want in 4mm in the space you have . Therefore you have to go into a smaller scale , or do something very different in 4mm Your options in a smaller scale are therefore TT-120 or N. Now while I'm supportive of TT-120 as an intermediate size, Hornby have not expressed any intention to do any overhead electric stuff in TT:120. To be frank, anything 25kV is normally at the end of the list when RTR manufacturers are deciding what to make , in any scale. Once Hornby's list of announced models p;lays out, some representation of the pre-electrification ECML is possible - you will have HSTs and 47s in TT:120. Ideally you'd want Deltics too. Now there should be a route to a Deltic in TT:120. It would invlove getting Lincoln Locos to shrink their 3D printed Deltic in 3mm scale down to 1:120 scale - something Lenny Seeney has said he would be open to doing for anything he makes in 3mm. You would then need to disembowel a Hornby 37 (when it appears in TT:120) and reuse the bogies/gear tower and motor in a new longer frame , with longer drive shafts, to build a home brew Deltic chassis (EE bogies for 37 and 55 were basically the same) . That is a possible route to a Deltic in TT:120, but I really don't think it's a project for someone new to the hobby. But at that point you would have HST, 55, 47 in TT , with Mk3 and Mk2E/F coaches. Something could be done. However the post electrification era ECML looks very difficult in TT:120. Lincoln Locos do an astonishingly large number of loco types , but they don't do a 91. You'd still have to construct a chassis /mechanism for it, with fewer resources as Hornby's diesel announcements in TT:120 are almost all Co-Co. And you'd need them in squadron service. One is not enough If you want to model the electrified ECML in that space , N may be your only option One further issue - the ECML notoriously was electrified on the cheap using overhead suspended from wire headspans . Catenery is always an issue (one reason why 25kV is a modelling poor relation) but I really wouldn't want to be scratchbuilding wire headspans at either 1:120 or 1:148 scale It may be all you can do about the overhead is erect the masts on each side and leave the wires to the imagination

All you can do is open your blog in s second window, find the original post, and note the date , then manually set publish date on the revised edited entry before hiotting thev button to Publish. As I said, a bit laborious

As far as I can see , Publish Immediately is the default, and you have to laboriously check the original post date and manually restore it to avoid the issue I am having to go back and restore photos - as others are doing - but that's not something you can do for a whole blog in one hit. Hence the issue crops up

That seems exactly the same kind of failure as I've had on two Peco Code 55 N gauge points . I'm not terribly happy either , and am now checking with my nearest model shop that he has a replacement It seems there is a problem with tiebar attachment with current Peco production of Code55 in multiple gauges...

Given the references to vintage H & M Clippers and Duettes , can I raise one worrying issue? I understand that old controllers from the 50s and 60s commonly had rubber insulation to the mains wiring , and this is likely to perish over time. At which point it may not insulate ..... I remember some years ago reading a second or third hand horror story, where apparently someone was using vintage Hornby Dublo transfiormers from the 1950s . The insulation was rubber and had failed , specifically at the rubber grommit where the mains wires entered the metal case . As a result the case had become live at 240V AC , and when the modeller touched it, he was electrocuted and killed. Or so it was said... I have an H&M Clipper in the cupboard. It was acquired second-hand from a school friend, and I suspect it goes back to the 1960s. It has a cotton net cover on the insulated mains cable, and I daren't even plug it in and switch it on in case the insulation has broken down. How many of these vintage Clippers and Duettes being talked about are actually still safe to use?? (I replaced the Clipper with a Gaugemaster 100M nearly 30 years ago , and this unit is still in regular use when I need a DC controller for the Boxfile. It seems to do a pretty decent job. There's a 20 year old Gaugemaster Comi tucked away in the cupboard, and I'm dismayed to realise even my NCE PowerCab must be 15 years old)

As someone who's put a fair amount of work into two blogs on here over about 15 years , this thread is definitely making me feel welcome... Not only do most posters seem to feel that the effort has been a complete waste of my time, there is a distinct implication that the content resulting from that effort is an unwelcome waste of their time. Since the question has arisen, two or three technical measures might help the blogs section. Firstly the popup advert is obliterating the centre top of the Blogs page , meaning that the most recent entries are crushed up on either side of it, making them very poorly visible. The same issue afflicts the "front page" of individual blogs - the most recent entries suffer in the same way. It is not possible to close this popup to restore easy legibility Secondly, at present one individual is effectively spamming the blogs. The edit facility resets the date of the posting to "now" when posting the edited entry unless you take the trouble to record the original date and backdate the post to it's original . Someone who shall be nameless is using this as a trick to repeatedly bump his existing blog posts to the top of the page - there are about 8 of them - thus hogging the limelight and pushing other bloggers who are posting new content out of his way. I have some sympathy with the posters who are restoring photos to posts and end up "posting immediately". Restoring the original date is a bit of a pain, and they are attempting to repair their content. But the deliberate bumping is gaming the system Thirdly , although I laboriously added links to a sorted list of postings in the sidebar, it seems the facility to make these a hyperlink had vanished last time I looked and tried to add a new entry, and it seemed like the prior hyperlinks had been stripped out . This also seems to be a recent change, and it doesn't help things either

It has always been understood that building British big steam to an exact scale gauge would cause issues , with the clearances restricting models to scale curves. Therefore something somewhere would have to give... (And hence OO...) I think you may have found the compromise Hornby made to get these round trainset curves. Over-width cylinders are one dodge for providing the necessary clearances to do the valve gear in a dead-scale gauge and still get round R3 curves. If you want a scale gauge for 1:120 scale British outline , and if you want 12mm gauge done to 1:120 scale not 3mm/1foot , think you will have to swallow this I was wondering exactly what they had done to achieve the theoretically impossible

It is true that Ian Beattie's drawings are not always entirely accurate However it is extremely unlikely that Hornby have worked off Ian Beattie drawings They've made A4s before - rather more often than one or two people on here from other parts of the country are happy about - and the current 4mm version has been given high praise by some very knowledgeable Eastern modellers. Margate doubtless have their own extensive sources of info for these locos. They might even have scanned one So this is pretty well certain to be two independent sources agreeing , and if that happens we can say that agreement in error is very unlikely. Mike Trice has put the matter beyond doubt with a photo, but it was always very likely that if the model matched the drawing then this wasn't one of Ian Beattie's occasional errors