New Class 59

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Some depots have been stacking undelivered mail in their car parks. It's likely to become undeliverable. In which case isn't destruction of "His Majesty's Mail" a criminal offence?

[centenary]

Some depots have been stacking undelivered mail in their car parks. It's likely to become undeliverable. In which case isn't destruction of "His Majesty's Mail" a criminal offence?

Nope, because the 'undeliverable' event preceeds an destruction event. In any event(!) Im pretty certain the criminal element can only be invoked by the CPS, not a member of the public, where there has been wilfull action ie one deliberately sets out to destroy post.

Overloaded mail depots and even external storage of post due to industrial action would fail any criminal test, which is a far higher legal bar to clear as opposed to any civil action.

Of course that wouldnt prevent anyone taking a civil action if their post was lost, damaged or destroyed. Even then and in most cases, only the supplier of goods has suffered the loss if the item isnt delivered to the end buyer.

[inoffapost]

It's sobering reading these comments and the rest of the 'strike' news from the UK. It reminds me of the late '70's and Jim Callaghans 'Winter of Discontent'.
We're experiencing the rampant inflation here but as yet major industrial disputes have been avoided.
The Steelworkers were, to my amazement awarded the 7.5% increase they were seeking, albeit from next June, but I don't doubt Germany is set to get it's fair share of pain soon.
But the post is working, and I have to say, quite well in the circumstances. They are recruiting like mad, and not just because it is Christmas either. I got a card from them offering full, part-time or even daily work to suit one's personal situation, and minimum wage stands at 12 euros per hour since October.

I opted for a road delivery for my Dapol 59, sure that the delivery would be better than Royal Mail International. Cost 2 quid more but I could track it all the way, even through customs and door to door it only took 4 days!

[Bigmet]

It's sobering reading these comments and the rest of the 'strike' news from the UK...

In real terms, unlike the 1970s situation it isn't having much general effect: 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'.

[D605Eagle]

Well my 59 turned up at last and I'm gobsmacked by it. The level of detail and the quality of the detail is as good if not better than the very best bachmann locos I've seen to date, and it cost quite a bit less than £150 delivered. If Dapol can do that, then why can't anybody else?

[Bigmet]

Had a look at a friend's Dapol 59 yesterday, very nifty indeed. Now then, do I flog off my Bach 66, and get an appropriately liveried 59 to haul my 'contemporary freight train' example? Swithering on this question...

...The level of detail and the quality of the detail is as good if not better than the very best bachmann locos I've seen to date, and it cost quite a bit less than £150 delivered. If Dapol can do that, then why can't anybody else?

I would suggest the short answer is reputation. Model railway product is a discretionary purchase, and the brand and retailer will price at a level that delivers sales at the required volume and rate of uptake. If you have earned the rep. of 'every one a winner' or built up a manic fan base that 'must have it' , then charging more is possible. And making hay while the sun shines is where it is at in any business.

I would suggest that the same pricing effect is noticeable on Oxford Rail product, good steam locos below £100, good 4W wagons start from £10. Both Dapol and Oxford Rail are still building reputation: Dapol because of some widely reported mechanism problems and appearance errors over the past decade; Oxford Rail as a new start, kicking off with a couple of inadvisable loco subject choices, first with a difficult wheel arrangement, and then for way the fussiest interest group. (Personally I am over the moon with this. Dapol's splendid little NBL DE type 2 (21), and Ox's LNER group wagons and locos a perfect fit for my LNER/BR(ER) interest, at more modest prices.)

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Wasn't their an announcement that Oxford Rail was to be rolled into the Hornby range? Looks like Taff is sticking out for a separate identity, he's chairman so he should get what he wants. Oxford hasn't gone OTT detail, and hopefully hasn't gathered the collectors barmy brigade who are happiest if the box has never been opened!

[Phred]

Bigmet wrote:
Swithering

Another word I'll be sure to work into a conversation sometime...

[Bigmet]

Wasn't their an announcement that Oxford Rail was to be rolled into the Hornby range? Looks like Taff is sticking out for a separate identity, he's chairman so he should get what he wants...

I suspect it's more likely that it's 'boring stuff': like the longer than standard axles on the 4W wagons I have sampled (so the Hornby wheelset spares won't fit), there's no one available to redesign the packaging, and how do we explain the superiority of these newly tooled wagons compared to most of our wagon range made from long outdated less accurate tooling, sold at twice the price or more...

Let's leave these problems for another day...

[inoffapost]

I wouldn't swither on this, and I wouldn't sell off the Bach 66 either. I don't have a Bachmann 66 but they are highly rated aren't they? No variety is the spice of life. I would retain the 66 and 'damn the torpedoes' and buy the 59! But which one?

I'm very happy with my ARC liveried one so far and have the MRL liveried version on pre-order with Hattons. That will be my lot on locos for 2023.No more rolling stock until the layout extension is complete!

[Phred]

inoffapost wrote:
That will be my lot on locos for 2023.

Good luck with that!
I said the same thing in January. Now two loco purchases later and I'm still saying it.

[inoffapost]

Well yes, it could be famous last words, but I have an Accurascale 37 thats only arriving in 2024 and I won't be needing any more loco's in the interim. Of course, the manufacturer's seem to know that we are addicts and keep bringing something else along to tempt us.
The Cavalex class 60 is on my radar but delivery on that will be end '24 so there is a little time yet and the price will need to be fair.

The wagon prices are so disappointing. I'm extending my layout and larger wagon consists will be possible but the costs of new wagons is depressingly high. A 2 x 5 set of Dapol's Foster Yeoman hoppers would be around 500 sobs. It's just too much I feel. Even as an addict I can't justify it. I've decided to compromise on prototypical authenticity and utilise some better priced HO wagons suitably re-liveried. PIKO have open box wagons which dimensionally compare well to my Accurascale ARC Tipplers. I can get 10 for 200 euros. Suitably aged and filthy they look the part, even if they're not!

[Phred]

inoffapost wrote:
The wagon prices are so disappointing.

+1 on that!

[Bigmet]

I wouldn't swither on this, and I wouldn't sell off the Bach 66 either. I don't have a Bachmann 66 but they are highly rated aren't they?...

I'm sticking with the 66, as it's the current freight loco I see - and have seen - most of in service since introduction. There's a little nostalgia with it, as it was bought at the Okehampton station shop at a time when we had relatives living nearby; from the shop manager who got out this 'returned faulty' specimen. The customer claimed it 'fell apart', and indeed almost every screw had been undone.
So I made an offer, what with having a screwdriver or two, and the nearby relative's layout to test run it, and spent a happy evening screwing it together again. It hauls the last iteration of the UK coal train.

...The wagon prices are so disappointing...

Quite. My 'last UK coal train' - bought piecemeal whenever favourable prices for HTA's surfaced - would now be a four figure new purchase ticket, unless a significant discount could be obtained...

I have a theory about pricing of RTR OO rolling stock. When it was just Bach and Hornby supplying 99% of UK OO, they could afford a cross-subsidy for rolling stock, derived from the locos that are effectively the sole purchases of the 'pure-breed collectors' (sub-sp H. Sapiens Mentaintus) which account for 60%+ of UK OO model railway purchases. But this is now impossible, because every man and his dog now sells locos, many of them to the effective exclusion of the necessary models to make trains, and the price competition is fierce...

[inoffapost]

Had a bit of luck on the wagon front yesterday, as I've posted in the 'anyone buying' thread. My most oft used German supplier Modellbahn Union is having a clearout of a lot of wagons, a great deal of them OO. So I got the Yeoman hopper 5 set, 2 Freightliner JHA's and a couple of Ferrywagon telescopic hood wagons for 200 euros which is a fair saving.
The offer came just at the right time I have to say.