Broithe

I am just off to have a cold shower......

I know nothing, but I suspect there are quantity issues here. Sales of UK models can spread the tooling costs, etc, over much larger production numbers. Try that with an item for the Irish market and you just get left with unsold stock. There will always be a premium for 'our' stuff. As the scale of the whole operation increases, maybe there will be scope for cross-subsidies?

My initial reaction to the question was almost to wonder why you were bothering to ask us and to question the distinction between the two, apparently very similar, markets. The more I've thought about it, however, the more the vast difference has become obvious. I know a few people in front-line retail on the Big Island and they have less idea of what is going to actually happen in mainstream GB modelling than I do about the Irish scene, and I don't even have to make any effort to find out! MIR, Paddy Murphy, @leslie10646's Provincial Wagons, @Weshty's SSM operation, the Chinese factories, etc - they've all played a part in getting us here.

The more I think about this, the weirder it is. If you know anybody on the Big Island and into UK railway modelling, try asking them what they would think if a senior executive from Hornby personally asked them if they would like to be told the truth of what is likely to really happen?

To be fair to them, they may have some security issues and not want specific details to become generally available - the undersides of the nuclear flask carrier models are not true representations of what is really there, presumably to avoid the possibility of prefabricated devices being attached. It's a sad reflection of our times, perhaps?

I started going to exhibitions/fairs simply in order to buy stuff for a housebound chap that I had built a layout for. I had little interest in British railways and believed that Irish railways were far beyond my possibilities, largely because of the loco issues - then I saw and bought a Murphy baby GM - and everything changed at that point. Modelling Irish railways has got steadily easier and better - sometimes we have to stop and think just how good it is for us now.

You need to know where the housekeeping is going... She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Do you have a burglar alarm? This is a simple replacement whilst she's out shopping...

There is much less of a "personal accountability" issue here on the Big Island - organisations are seen much more as just impersonal structures, not as simply frontages for the actual people inside. There is scope for people to start to understand the reality of IRM/Accurascale in the future, but they may need time - and evidence/education. It's a cultural issue, to a large extent.

It is easy for everybody to become 'tarred with the same brush' - maybe run the two markets separately, in a manner appropriate to each, until people on the big island get the hang of how you're doing it? You have the means to do that in place. Most of 'them' will take little interest in what you're doing for 'us', especially if it is an effectively separate operation. Sometimes, I suspect, the issue for the "big players" can have been, perhaps, to preempt announcements by the "other side" and, thus, queer their pitch, so to speak - who knows?

Indeed, maybe just an update whenever a stage is completed? i wouldn't expect a full running commentary, though a webcam in the office would allow us to see that progress was being made..

And it gives us the opportunity to supervise/moan continuously in order to pass the time whilst we wait...

Do they come in tiny drums?

I'm all for knowing what is going on. We are all aware that things don't always go to plan, or even, sometimes, come to fruition at all in the end - but, having an idea of what may well be coming up is surely helpful to most people. Maybe a little chart-thing, as Hattons do in their adverts, showing stage progress? If people don't want to know, they can always "look away now", as we used to have to do before so much sport was on live...

White, Strong, Flexible. Frosted, Ultra Detail.

Starting early was a good idea, you seem to be beginning to get the hang of it now

There's a clue in the phrase "north of London"...

There was a lot of trumpet-blowing at the time - some of us can remember when it was going to be possible to go from Stafford to Avignon on a Saturday, and have about three hours there before coming back. It got as far as printed timetables before it was abandoned.

In most of the videos, etc., people sound Belgian, but hint at the location being in Northern France - nobody seems keen on revealing exactly where.

Another full-scale landscaping issue. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-42791614 A bit too much water in the mix?

The current trade attendees at the upcoming Stafford exhibition are at the bottom of this - http://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/exhibition/ - I'm not sure if any are baseboard providers, but I can't remember seeing one there in the past, though it is quite possible that there was.

Quite often, it looks like they've "only just caught the bridge" - I wonder if people rely on the stated bridge height clearance being a little pessimistic.

It's worth looking at Stafford - quite big, but still fairly civilised, not the scrum of Warley - reasonably central and gets good crowds - around the first weekend of February every year. Short notice for this year? @Mike 84C has been, a couple of years ago, if you want another opinion. If you need a hand there, I'm a couple of miles away.

Yet another...

They seem to be on about pinching something - possibly a stack of boxes from somewhere in Dublin?