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chris

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Everything posted by chris

  1. Yes, I do indeed mean the tension hooks rather than the sockets. Even tried to make running adjustments with a coupling bar but wouldn't stay in an 071 pocket. I do think the kadees look well on 141/071/201 when rigidly mentioned with the shield in place big issue with 201s being way lower. aren't the craven a little high too and have a step down n their tension hooks.
  2. Something that again came up when I was running some of my Irish stuff at our club open days down here in New Plymouth. Everyone else models US based stuff and all have Kadees. The NEM look gigantic and terrible and also cause a lot of problems (on our layout at least) popping out all the time, especially as they compact on decline and then stretch back out. Not to mention being attached tot he bogies of most stock rather than body mounted. I'm determined to change all my stock over to kadeee as funds and time allow to solve the constant issues but why is it persisted with, surely everyone encounters the same basic problems? Even the N gauge Rapido is far superior!
  3. I've caved and added another pack to the list. Damn you and your excellent products /broke
  4. Awesome thanks ☺ I'll check my spam Edit: and I've found the reply and initial confirmation in spam. Thanks again
  5. Hi, I've ordered 3 sets via the website and seen initial payment taken. No confirmation email, nor reply from my followup email to check. Can anyone confirm my order has indeed been correctly captured? Thanks Chris
  6. Hot thread read and unread have the same icons, bit confusing.
  7. Yay!!! Can the website handle ex VAT totals to outside EU? It failed on shipping to an NZ address.
  8. ah Fota, they get into the tents and everything when we camp there with Scouts.
  9. My 0.02: I don't particularly like Silver Fox's offering and given what the price is likely to be I'd far rather buy an 08 and either do it myself of pay someone to properly convert it. SF models are a bit too generic and/or incorrect to justify the prices they charge.
  10. Picked up a few of these and 086 recently and initially the colour looked really wrong to me, especially given the Supertrain 071 photo on the box being wildly different. But the IE colours of the 071 in the next photo also look off so I'm not sure. It's grown on me since and I think the only way to really cure any colour difference is to leave it in the sun to fade for a few years
  11. ah, I see what you mean. If they were all produced and sent to Ireland a while ago (say a couple of months) why are prices being amended now? Well without being privvy to the exact details of MM accounts and contracts there could be several reasons. Payment terms could be one, if MM are not paying all up front and have structured payment it may be a consideration, possibly unlikely though given the nature of smallish companies dealing with Chinese giants. Most likely it'll be up front or 50:50 type arrangements. Or it could be that overall business is being looked at and the profit margins now need to be increased to allow funds to be set aside to go towards affording the next run, which could already be at a planning / prototype stage and require funds to progress. There could be other considerations, I don't know the specific industry well enough to comment specifically on it. But note as well that Chinese minimum wage is set to rise substancially this year and will be a big impact on production costs too. EDIT: Just re-reading the blurb from Murphy: "".....due to the currency exchange situation between Euro/Sterling and Euro/Dollar we are having to increase prices on all new stock arriving in as we cannot afford to absorb these price rises."" To me this could imply that there are several runs of various stock sitting at the manufacturer, stored at factory rather than stored in Ireland and if MM only have to pay on release of shipment then that would certainly impact the pricing of the current runs against those previousl shipped even if all produced at the same time initially. This would make sense production wise I think. Lets take the mk2 as an example and say that all liveries were produced at the same time for the same cost and have sat in storage in China since, with MM only bringing them in staggered so one livery is sold before the next released. That would mean that initiall the cost of the Galway / IE / Supertrain was all the same. But with the Supertrain only just release the FX rates will impact it now rather than at production and cause the price rise. If say there is also an IR livery next up in 6 months the price could rise even further if FX rates continue in the same trends. Again I'd just like to point out this is all speculation based on my general business experience and may be off the mark entirely, it's just what would seem reasonable as an explanation to me .
  12. maybe, or maybe not. Depends on what credit Terms MM gets off the supplier. A likely option is a 50:50 split payment perhaps with 50% up front before production and the remaining 50% on shipment. (some of our contracts require this - totally unrelated industry though). If we say a loco cost $100 to produce MM could have paid $50 / 38eur on 1st Sept but the balancing $50 would cost 45e today. Overall cost of loco would then be 83e instead of 76e if all paid for initially. Big difference, especially if selling price was initially set in September based off known or estimated costs then. In addition in my experience USD is also used as the default shipping currency so once the bill for shipping lands it'll be higher too due to FX. Even something like the declared value on import for tax purposes would change based on the FX rates and incur extra customs & duty charges potentially.
  13. Business in China by external companies is (almost) always in USD. You cannot get Yuan outside of China, hence the USD rate is the key one. Chinese companies are mandated to quote in foreign companies, ultimatly as a way to build national foreign reserves. Many of the models may also get shipped direct to UK rather than Ireland and then UK. If fact the Irish bound stuff is probably trans-shipped through the UK (or Holland) Same with many south American and African countries.
  14. well the 141s are really bachmann, not Murphy aren't they? A couple of my 201s are terrible runners and struggle badly on the club layout whereas the 141s will pull twice the loads with no problems. One of the 201 needs a whole gear tower stripped and redone and I haven't even bothered to figure out the other, it's just goen back in it's box until I've a home layout to figure it out on.
  15. Must be, note the multi-gauge trackwork its sitting on
  16. another option for those interested: http://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/gruppenliste/Decoder+without+sound/9-4-0-0-003001-0-0-0-0-0-0-grp-gb-p-0/gruppenliste.html I buy some Swiss stuff from them from time to time, not only good pricing but great service and you get points per spend which quickly add to freebies
  17. Rapido certainly seem keen on the crowd funding setup for the foray into the British market. I wonder would it be worth approaching them with a proposal?
  18. I would be interested but would much prefer a wagon to start with. There's a lot to go wrong with a loco and a lot of potential disappointment. At least with a wagon its simpler to design and produce
  19. a pack of 124 and 134 with one being a dummy unit would be a good idea I think, may also help keep the cost down a little without the second set of running gear.
  20. our club layout has a 100m mainline, a scale 8.7km
  21. Yep plenty of 00 Irish. 141s, 201s, mk1&2s & cravens and few other bits and pieces. Some Swiss N stuff as well. Moved here from Ireland 2 years ago. Drop me a PM if you're ever down New Plymouth way and I'll show you around the club layout, Palmerston to New Plymouth modelled with US stock, over 200m of trackwork. Haven't got one of my own yet
  22. Took that from Pamly to Welli recently, the open car is great! A bit windy but well sheltered, right behind the loco. The carriages are very nice, comfy seat, good AC, lots of food and booze available in the snack car and the full height and roof windows are petty cool. You can even listen to an audio guide of anything interesting the train passes. Of course it was and hour and 20mins late and Palmy is possibly the worst station in the developed world. Luggage van at one end and observation car at the other. IIRC there were 3 or 4 carriages and a snack car.
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