murphaph

So I had to remove the heatshrink as applied by Roads and Rails to their double iPhone speaker assemblies (you can surely make these cheaper yourself by the way, I was just being lazy when I ordered them): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254366688403 I also removed the grey blanking plate under the rooftop grille to let the sound out. The side grilles are slush with the chassis so I was sceptical as to how much sound would escape through them. I noticed when re-assembling that the cab is not really clued to the body at the correct height (radiator end). If you push the cab down tighter to the footplate the body tips up. It's not the speaker, there's enough clearance there and it happens if I reverse the body shell so the radiator grilles are at the wrong end also. Someday I'll have to prise apart the cab from body and glue it correctly. I'm perfectly happy with the sound. It's good enough anyway. These are 8 Ohm speakers but as there are two in parallel the impedance as seen by the loco is a nice 4 Ohms which I believe is the best match for the output stage of the amplifier. The file is from the ESU library, the only 8-567CR Loksound 5 Full Throttle project they have in there I think. I just replaced the horns with the ones from the 071/201. I have to take a closer look at the circuitry of the baby GM and see what can really be controlled independently and what needs rewiring. I will certainly be adding cab lighting and the ability to run without the headlights and ideally the ability to turn off the red marker lights when not running light engine as I did with the 201s. I suspect it'll be trickier here as space really is at a premium in these guys.

Fair play Stephen. Much appreciated

I'm in Germany. Will my parcels be shipped from Dublin too? Are we looking at increased postage rates to the rest of the EU? (Thanks to Brexit, No criticism of you guys. You can only do your best to work around the circumstances)

I'm not sure. I think 6s ones but they were cut down a bit by roads and rails before headshrinking them together.

Excellent. So BnT and IR are on home soil? That's great news.

Cheers. I've a few iPhone speakers here. Gonna try squeezing one of those in first rather than buying new ones.

Yeah I had no deep seated desire to go down that road and there's clearly no reason to. Cab straight off and then fingernail under the body gives enough purchase to pull it off. Squeezing the body just seems to anger it lol.

Lifesaver. First time opening one of these tonight. This is easy this way.

I can't fault Parcelwizard to be honest. It seems much cheaper for small items than the others unless I'm missing something with their prices. It's only €3.75 per parcel, forwarded to your home address in the Republic. I wish I could find anything near that price to forward to Germany but the cheapest I've found starts at 14 Stg!! It's odd because regular shipping to Germany from the UK costs a bit less than to the Republic.

It's the same in Germany. Heavy parcels tend to get a closer look. But that's all gone across the whole EU from June (it was supposed to be January but the commission pushed it back due to Covid and possibly Brexit). Nothing will be exempt. Everything will have to be processed by customs from then on. Small cheap gadgets directly from China will not be worth it but the likes of Wish (spit) and others have set up shop in the EU to import the stuff by the container load, pay the duty in one go and forward by local surface mail. I have received many items this way in recent years. We'll see a lot more of that model from June.

I get the impression a lot of sellers don't like it either. A lot of items are only offered with UK shipping these days and I think the GSP is largely responsible. It isn't too bad to Germany but I think some buyers are still amenable to simply posting items using Royal Mail if you cover the postage, but you have to ask. I use parcelwizard so I can safely bid on "UK only" items then ask the seller will they ship to Germany (believe it or not it's cheaper to post to Germany from the UK than to the Republic). If they refuse I give them my parcelwizard address in NI and it goes to the mother in Dublin for later collection. Of course you can always ask the seller in advance if they will post internationally with Royal Mail. Some will, even if they have indicated no international shipping or GSP only. In reality there is not much extra effort required for them and no extra cost.

A model shop in Newry suddenly makes a lot of sense lol. The super low duty and vat thresholds on postal delivery don't apply to stuff personally imported. Customers could cross the border and bring up to €430 per traveling adult and bring it over duty and tax free back home duty and tax free. If you go as a family each child has a €215 allowance. https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/customs-information-for-travelling-and-duty-free-allowances/travelling-from-outside-the-eu/duty-free-allowances.aspx

Surely most model kits are made and consumed in the UK? The hobby is comparatively tiny in Ireland (unfortunately). I would expect little interruption for the modeller in the UK. Outside the UK it's another matter though. Brexit is really throwing a spanner in the works here. I met a chap in Potsdam on the weekend and he is a UK/Ireland outline layout builder and exhibitor (Ontrax quality). He's been stocking up on smaller bits and pieces as he expects the shutters to effectively come crashing down in January. It just won't be worth the hassle for many smaller UK based sellers. As well as that it has kind of flown under the radar but the €22 threshold on VAT/duty is to be abolished EU wide from June next year. That means every single item no matter how cheap will go through customs and will have a handling fee slapped on it by your local postal service. The idea is to prevent the fraud which is certainly widespread (who hasn't received a $5 "gift" from China that really cost more like 50?) by simply making online purchases from outside the EU too much hassle/too expensive so EU traders can get the business instead. Unfortunately in our hobby there is little interest outside the UK so we will not see an EU dealer of Shawplan Lazerglaze or whatever niche kit maker's products you can think of.

Post seems slow everywhere. An post report delays in parcel deliveries in Ireland and DHL reports the same here in Germany. I guess Covid 19 restrictions in the sorting offices are causing them.

I quite like the silver cab livery but it's a bit late for my chosen era so I don't have any of them. I would point out that whilst it may be "straightforward" (for someone with Noel's skills) to go grey, it would be much more difficult to revert the loco to the silver and black livery to the same standard as the factory finish. I'd weather it. Looks pretty cool weathered in those pics.

Tom is out of stock with no immediate plans to rerun the rebuilt Dutch EGV but maybe once Covid etc. has passed he might consider it. I suppose the more expressions of interest he receives the more inclined he might be to do it

....hooray!

Any updates on the current whereabouts of the IR ones from our man in the know, @WRENNEIRE? Still stuck with the Chinese elves or in the hands of the Irish elves yet? Judging by the backlog of freight in China and the container shortage, there are going to be a lot of disappointed kids this xmas and I'm not talking about us big kids! I'd recommend buying whatever your kids are getting now rather than later.

Thanks Ernie. I've sent Tommy a mail. Noel's van collection is certainly something to aspire to!

Hi Noel do you have the source for this kit? I believe it's IFM but how does one contact them? I intend respraying a number of mk2a's and mk2b's so these rebuilt EGVs will be essential in time.

Does anyone know the model of the mitsubishi truck? I wonder does a model exist, even not in 1/76.

According to the 567 wiki the R means "rebalanced". Quote: EMD Pointers publication, October 17, 1956, "NEW MODEL 8-567CR ENGINE" "Due to expanding usage in a wide variety of applications, the 8 cylinder 567C engine is now being manufactured with certain design changes to provide a better total balance. This "rebalanced" engine has the model designation 8-567CR and supersedes the previous standard 8-567C in all applications. The major change is in firing order which requires a new design crankshaft #8235623 for the 8-567CR engine. This crankshaft has 2 relocated crankpin throws as well as larger counterweights." Maybe it meant something else inside CIE though?

ESU has some appropriate sound files for the larger EMD 567 engines with 645 power assemblies. It was a common upgrade it seems. ESU says this combination resulted in a unique sound, neither 567 nor 645, but I'm guessing closer to a 567 as Vlak says. Unfortunately so far they have no 8 cylinder files but maybe some day.

In a very good position

Those 150 quid mk2as will sit there like the 275 quid 201s. Asking prices aren't selling prices. Last ones I got on eBay were for 60 and that was like a month ago. Still expensive for one coach but not completely mad.