Retro_man

15 hours ago, SomethingTrainLover said:

Hmm, I'd def have to find a US supplier for phosphor bronze. What thickness is recommended? In general?

I have used .45mm NS handrail wire for pickups but prefer .35 phosphor bronze straight wire. Both are available from Eileen's Emporium and they will ship to USA and Canada and their service is excellent.

Steve

Canada

On 15/01/2021 at 07:37, mikemeg said:

Someone PM'd me and and asked 'how clean do brass models keep in the airtight box'. Well, in answer to that question, all I can say is that they stay pretty clean. Assuming, of course, that they are put away into the airtight box in a clean condition!

 

But a picture says a thousand ........ So here's a photo of the test build for the D20, which has now escaped from the airtight box, after about four years imprisonment, and has also acquired a tender of its very own. Photographed just as it came out of the airtight box; no additional cleaning done - yet!

 

This model has the original profile mainframes, as built, and will become 62372 based at Selby in mid 1950 and a frequent visitor into Hull.

 

Both this model and the one shown in a posting above, have some representation of the inside motion, including the oil pots on the slide bars. Enough to fill the void 'between the frames'! This photo was taken before the rear motor shafts were cropped off on each chassis, thus allowing the motors (Mashima 1420's) to sit forward of the fitted backhead, without impeding the backhead positioning.

 

The gearbox and motor combination sit entirely within the firebox and splashers, so no further slotting is necessary in the bottom of the boiler, to accommodate any part of the gearbox. The gearbox front is therefore invisible on the underside of the models.

 

Also worth noting the narrowing of the mainframe separation, at the front end. This is because there are no bogie wheel cut-outs in the mainframes on these models, as there were none on the prototypes.

 

John (Rowan) can be blamed for this plethora of postings now appearing on this thread. Just joking, John; I am  happy to oblige!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

 

Hello Mike,

I am currently building Arthur's D20 kit and was wondering how you have attached the bogie as I can see no mention of this in the instructions?

Also how did you do the pickups?

I am impressed by how clean and shiny you keep your work!

Thanks in advance,

Steve

Canada

On 11/11/2021 at 03:54, RudyProductions said:

Thank you! And yes, I’m confident of how safe it is, but I’d rather not make an international call unless I really have to.

I live in Canada and have successfully ordered items several times by email from Alan Gibson. I email first with a list of my requirements and ask for a total price including airmail postage. I then email my card number split into 2 or 3 emails.

I have never had a problem when doing this and the service has always been prompt.

Good luck!

Steve

Could you provide a photo of the top and bottom of the point please?

We did receive a batch of Peco code 100 pints in incorrect packaging a few years ago - i.e. electrofrog in insulfrog packets.

Steve

ex. Model Railway Imports

32 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

So you can relate the dates of the introduction of the tier system with the cancellation of retailers orders for all retailers affected?  Interesting. (or is it supposition on your part?).   So when was the tier system introduced?  That could become quite an important point because if it came along after Hornby had taken retail trade orders it might well confirm that they had taken orders for product they could not supply (why else would there be a tier system?).

 

And don't forget a reliable source has indicated in this thread that Hattons - as a specific example - did not take any retail customer pre-orders for product for which they did not place an order  with Hornby. 

20 hours ago MV Wilson quoted an announcement from AJM Railways:

"An Announcement from www.AJMRailways.com Gentlemen and Customers I will begin with 2 apologies, the first and most important being to my Customers (many of whom are members of this Group) in respect of the way recent events have and will affect my future ability to supply in the manner you have become used to and the second apology is for the time it has taken to convey this to you. As some of you already know, Hornby decided to "Band" retailers back in January. Now 4 months later they have finally given explanation to why and how each account is banded. In this announcement, they describe Band 3 retailers such as AJM as "retailers who dont have a shop or if they do it may be of such a standard no one would want to visit it". Other criteria would include bad credit history, manufacturing competing products and not stocking the full range of Hornby Brands (eg Airfix etc)."

(My bold).

The first post in this thread regarding pre-order cancellation emails was on February 10, 2021.

So very likely that Hattons and other shorted traders placed all their retail customer pre-orders with Hornby in good faith as in previous years, and then these orders have since been cancelled or modified by Hornby per the above announcement.

I do not believe there is a shortage of supply, just Hornby changing the destination of the products.

7 minutes ago, Jonboy said:

The listing are sold from and despatched by Amazon. This means Hornby have sold them to Amazon and shipped to their warehouses for onward sale.

 

Absolutely ridiculous that Hornby will not give a trade account to anyone without a physical store but will supply Amazon!

Where is the Amazon physical store that I can shop in and do Amazon stock the full range of Hornby products?

Seems to be a bit of a double standard going on here...

5 minutes ago, 69843 said:

The biggest question to me is how does this affect overseas retailers?

 

Speaking as an Australian, most of our Hornby shipments come through one distributor who does not have a brick and mortar store to deal with, who then sends it out to shops all around the country. As UK isn’t the primary market but is still the second biggest slice of it, there is a LOT of stores down here that would seem to be at risk under this new system. Particularly plenty who do stock a great range of Hornby but are either not large stores or are at other points of the country so do a lot of online as opposed to in person. 

 

The AJM post is worrying as if the criteria are as written, the overseas shops may be in for a heap of trouble. 

 

And thank you to Phil and Andy for reaching out directly to Hornby for a balanced and mediated reply whilst also maintaining the thread. 

The same situation exists in Canada.

32 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

As for a statement coming from Hornby it would be very interesting to see what they have to say but above all they need to make clear whether they did or did or did not accept more orders from retailers for various models than the quantity of those models they had ordered from the factories.  This whole business stems from inability to supply the volume of product hat had been ordered by retailers - beyond that it is really only  managing how the suffering of 'allocation' is spread around.   And when you think about it having a policy to deal with 'allocation' isn't such a bad idea if that is what you are going to have to do. 

The trade orders that have been cancelled were mostly placed in 2020 or earlier and cancelled following the adoption of the tier system in 2021. Hornby likely produced all that had been ordered and then when they cancelled the retailer orders were left with a surplus of product which they are now trying to unload via their own e-store and Amazon.

This is not going to end well for Hornby or for many retailers and ultimately for the consumer.

Years ago when I was starting up Model Railway Imports in Canada, a seasoned veteran in the business gave me some great advice - "If you want to make a small fortune in model trains, start with a large fortune!"

Steve

Ex Model Railway Imports, Canada (retired).

4 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

 

I think - if the tier system is very real - that enforcing this suddenly midway of year long after all pre-orders have been placed is really bad timing. They should have at least honored all pre-orders and then tell the shops it will be enforced for 2022s announcements so shops and end customers are suddenly not left high and dry.

 

Exactly!

17 hours ago, Steve-NevilleGrove said:

Hi everyone, I'm a new member of RMWeb but have referred to the expert content for years!

 

Anyway, I have just completed weathering of 3 Hornby A2/2's and thought I would share some images with you on here.

 

If you'd like to see them running on the layout and synced with archive sound recorded by Peter Handford, click this link to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcVfL87Ws2b4Tq0Q68_Ir1A

 

 

 

60505 Thane of Fife (Heavily Weathered):

 

 

60501 Cock O' The North (with polished / in use weathering):

 

60501 Cock O' The North (with polished / medium weathering):

 

 

The green looks very much better on these - well done!

14 hours ago, Dominion said:

I see Amazon UK is selling Thane of Fife for 134-135 pounds. Earlier in this thread some people had their Thane of Fife Preorders cancelled at Hattons.  That seems like a poor distribution strategy to me. Tom

Now at GBP139.64 and 6 remaining.

A very curious and sad situation for retailers.

41 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

That would make sense (and the Grange wasn't withdrawn until late '65) but the Steam Days article quoted said August 1962, so I assume that was a typo.  Clearly they didn't employ a Mr. A. Wright as proof-reader......

The photo in the article was dated August 1962, however the text stated "Almost exactly 2 years after this photograph was taken No 6858 infamously collected the accolade of becoming the only ex-GWR locomotive to travel Huddersfield uninvited!"

I was 15 years old and living in Bradford at the time when I heard through the grapevine that there was a Grange in Huddersfield shed. After riding my bike there I was not allowed in the shed and unfortunately did not see 6858.

16 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I wonder if this story is one of those that gets embellished with every re-telling.

 

EE Type 3 D6858 wasn't introduced until August 1963; there were only about 50 of the type in service by that time.  Did they even run up the GC or in South Yorkshire generally at that point, so would not have been well known by operational control?

The Grange arrived in Huddersfield August 15, 1964, by which time EE Type 3s were widespread in Yorkshire.

5 hours ago, Rhb Simon said:

 

Thats a lovely model. Mine will be a Rosegrove based one which i have found pictures of. Did you file the boiler bands off for replacement with tape? Your look a lot neater than the castings. I have a few other lanky prototypes all with milled chassis & they run well. I have often thought the milled chassis would be a great choice for a beginner kit because its a dead cert to run with building a square chassis.

 

Hope mine turns out as nice now. Hoping to do some more over the weekend. I want to get the basic body components as 1 lump then detailing will be a doddle.

Thanks. Yes, the boiler bands were replaced with tape.

7 hours ago, t-b-g said:

There is a certain sense of satisfaction in taking a fairly old and grotty kit and turning it into a nice loco.

 

Those L & Y locos are truly ugly brutes but they do have a certain presence to them.

I agree there is a lot of satisfaction in making something passably decent from an old kit or rebuilding one someone else had a go at. I built the Cotswold L&Y 0-8-0 from a second hand kit that had not been completed and I even used the milled brass chassis lump which runs extremely well. The main issues were finding photos of the loco I wanted to build, and adding brakes and other detail to the chassis block.

The two below were from Wills kits. They were fairly easy to build and in my opinion look the part.

6117 

19 hours ago, 97403_Ixion said:

Only as an exercise to reassure myself (or anyone else!), I thought it through - and it's only guesses on numbers, I should point out... If one model is prepared and wrapped every 5 minutes, for 8 hours 20 minutes a day, that's 100 a day... with 2 people, that's 5 weeks (working days) to send out 1000 models... assuming no toilet breaks and nothing 'Fell' that needs attention elsewhere 

 

If they were wrapping 100 a day it would take 10 days to send out 1000.

2 hours ago, stewartingram said:

Having had the email invitation to purchase, I ent through the process, but when it came to payment the site went round in circles. I've emailed KRM direct, but wondering what went on?

 

Stewart

I also went through the process and at the end it said 'error with validation code', however I did receive a notification from my card company that there had been a charge. There was no confirmation email from KR so I have emailed KR using their contact form to ensure the order has actually been placed.

Steve

Canada

6 hours ago, Keith Turbutt said:

According to Yeadon 60512's final shed was Dundee, from 14/6/65, and was withdrawn on 19/6/65. I saw it at Perth on 30/8/65. Is it possible it never got to Dundee? I attach my photo showing it at Perth with valve gear and coupling rods removed -presumably ready for disposal.  According to Yeadon it had already been sold in July to Motherwell Machinery and Scrap Co but clearly hadn't been moved yet.

 

Hopefully I will be receiving the model very soon.

I saw 60512 at Perth on August 7, 1965. Unfortunately I did not take a photo or record its condition :-(

Steve

Canada

18 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

I am looking to buy two packs of R7200 Small Couplings, these are simulated screw couplings.  Price on the UK Hornby site is £5.10 each pack (4 couplings), but shipping to the US is an outrageous £30......!

Shipping should be a lot less from British Model Trains in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

https://britishmodeltrains.ca/products/r7200-Hornby-articulated-coupler-4-per-pack?_pos=1&_sid=006ad9567&_ss=r

They also stock many Hornby spare parts and do repairs.

Steve

Canada

I would definitely check that each motor worked correctly before trying to install it under the baseboard.

In this case I may even go so far as to make a test assembly with a point on a piece of board so I could see what is happening top and bottom sides simultaneously.

Steve

Hello Ian,

Adjusting the Comet chassis so that the body sits at the correct height is probably a reasonable approach however can be tricky when the chassis and body were not designed for each other.

As you are lowering the body you need to watch out for the tops of the cylinders and the wheel flanges fouling the underside of the footplate as the Nu-Cast footplates are quite thick.

Once you have it partially assembled with the wheels on, check that the buffers are 14mm above the rail top at each end and on each side and if necessary make some final adjustments to the ride height.

The brass block chassis are not all bad, I built an 0-8-0 with a milled brass chassis and it was spot on in terms of axle spacing/coupling rod spacing and alignment. The difficulty comes when adding details such as brakes or a more modern motor/gearbox.

Good luck with your build!

Steve

Canada

On 09/02/2021 at 07:41, mikemeg said:

Earlier in the thread, Arthur posted a photo of the part completed D20 test build. I hope he doesn't mind if I post another photo of that same build, much nearer completion. I never did build the 3940 gallon tender for this loco during the test build, though I have now. So, before this model is primed and then painted, here's a last photo of it in the 'naked' brass state.

 

This one is intended to become 62378, which was based at Selby in mid 1950.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Hello Mike,

What motor/gearbox did you use in the D20s please?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

Canada