John Isherwood

Nope - my adblocker always eliminated the ads anyway. CJI.

No-one asked Warners - certainly not me - to acquire RMweb. I was a fait accompli, presumably made on commercial grounds. Had they not done so, I gather that RMweb would have perished and the hobby would have moved on. Like it or not - the input of small producers is a significant part of the appeal of RMweb; dismiss them at your peril! CJI.

Oh dear - we've entered the playground now, I gather. CJI.

Nope - I do not have the capital to go there; nor the inclination to learn new skills at my age. Others do that extremely effectively. If the day dawns when there is no demand for Cambridge Custom Transfers, I will close the website and breath a sigh of relief. Until then, I will continue to provide the thousands of modellers worldwide who value my output with the best transfers that I can produce. This latest' wizard wheeze' from Warners has undoubtedly 'got my goat', but it will have minimal impact upon my activities and, God willing, CCT may still be around when RMweb is but a memory. We'll see. CJI. CJI.

Phil, I didn't ask "How much will this cost me" because, on principle, I will not financially subsidise a forum which, in part, relies on the input of manufacturers and supplies for its appeal. How many MODELLING members do you think RMweb would have if all new product announcements and reviews were absent? Furthermore, it is clearly apparent, reading the 'frothing' of the 'fan-boy' element, that that sector come here for the latest rumours, speculation and - ultimately - announcements of the latest models and gizmos. Take that away, and what is left? Bottom line - if I do not profit by my efforts to keep Cambridge Custom Transfers running, I'm d*mned sure that Warners will not - even by a miniscule sum! There has to be a line drawn somewhere - and this is it. By the way - my Premium subscription is to be cancelled; no great shakes, but none-the-less a financial loss to Warners. CJI.

Actually, I fell off it three weeks ago whilst accessing my garage loft - so I DO know what I'm talking about; as do the staff at my local surgery, Bodmin Hospital and the Royal Cornwall Hospital. (.... and the leg still stings far more than the combined invective of our Moderators)! CJI.

I could - but I choose not to play those silly games. CJI.

I have offered Cambridge Custom Transfers for a quarter of a century, and in that time I have invested many, many thousands of pounds in importing Alps printers and very expensive consumables from all over the world. The printers are VERY expensive, being rare legacy hardware, and require complex packaging in order that they arrive in working order. International postal charges are inordinate, as are the customs, VAT and handling charges. Alps printers will only work with twenty-five year old legacy computers and software, which are equally expensive and difficult to source. Postage of transfers within the UK is now £1.35 for the smallest order, and then we have card, envelopes and paper for the instructions and packing - none of which are cheap nowadays. You may choose to believe that I make a profit - but you can have no way whatsoever of knowing that; suffice to say you are wrong. At 75, I genuinely carry on with Cambridge Custom Transfers because of the appreciation expressed by my customers - it puts a rosy glow on what might otherwise be a dull day! Frankly, I really don't care if you denigrate my efforts - feel free! There are many, many more modellers whom I KNOW are producing better models because of the transfers that I supply - they tell me so! John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

I presume that you refer to my preference not to participate in the 'wokist' adoption of neutral pronouns? The collective term that I use long pre-dates such 'political correctness'; is widely understood; and does NOT mean that the user is unaware of the participation of females as well as males in that profession. (........ and, no - I am not going to qualify that with LGBTQ etc., etc). It is a shame that a perfectly reasonable enquiry about a new policy should be countered with hostility and personal insults. CJI.

Clearly understood - my apologies to the membership, but you will in future have to look elsewhere for news of what I have to offer. As a matter of interest, I have just spent in excess of £600 of my own money to import a refurbished, twenty-five year old Alps printer, so that Cambridge Custom Transfers can continue for a few more years. I have no prospect of recovering this investment, but it is clear that such altruism is beyond the comprehension of today's publishing houses. Sad days - but, hey ho! John Isherwood.

As Cambridge Custom Transfers, I am able to produce transfers for my own use, and that of my friends. Rather than limit the use of those transfers to a tiny fraction of the modelling fraternity, I offer them on a zero profit basis via a basic website to the wider hobby - principally via a posting on RMweb. I do not use any form of paid advertising, and my prices just cover costs and postage / packing; my time is given FOC, and at the expense of my own modelling time. If, as I understand correctly, your advertising people want to charge me for making the membership aware of my new transfer sheets, this simply will not happen. My new output is usually tied to a newly- available product - be it kit or RTR - thereby widening the appeal of that product. Many of the posts on RMweb which provide help and knowledge are authored by modellers / small suppliers, and the modelling content of the group - as opposed to the fan-boy frothing - comes primarily from those sources. If your advertising division are intent upon alienating that sector it will be to the detriment of RMweb and, critically, to its viability as a source of advertising revenue. I have said this before, and it remains true, that when BRM acquired the rights to RMweb from you it was not through any altruistic motive - it was because they saw it as a medium for exposure and revenue generation. Clearly, the revenue aspect has not lived up to expectations, hence the regular machinations of the 'ad boys' to squeeze more cash out of RMweb. If these same 'ad boys' were doing their job, they should be able to raise sufficient revenue from BRM and the other titles, without repeated raids on the easy target of RMweb. I will outline the consequences, in the case of CCT, if I am unable to mention my new products on RMweb without payment. I will simply revert to my former practice of issuing a press release to all model railway publications and groups, BUT WITH THE SPECIFIC EXCEPTION OF BRM. Thus, BRM / RMweb will become the sole publication/ group that is NOT aware of developments in my, and I strongly suspect several other, small suppliers' ranges. Please could you clarify the situation whereby major suppliers submit models for review? Will they have to pay advertising fees? In conclusion, this new development bears all the hallmarks of the 'advertising boys', who have no concept of the interconnected content within RMweb, seeing only yet another potential 'golden egg' with no understanding whatsoever for the ultimate consequences. Please confirm whether Cambridge Custom Transfers will be able to post news of new developments without payment of 'advertising fees', so that I can plan my future press releases accordingly. C. J. Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

Sorry, but that is an impossible ambition - working clearances in engineering don't scale. By that I mean that, for a sliding fit of a rod in a hole, you need a certain clearance in that hole. If you reduced that clearance by a scale factor in a model, the rod would not slide in the hole. Exact scale models of working machines are not possible. CJI.

Living in Cornwall, when travelling on the A30, I always wonder why all the westbound static caravans don't come to a mutually beneficial arrangement with all the eastbound static caravans. The benefits for other drivers would be immense! CJI.

I am now wholly convinced that, for a significant proportion of the (mostly younger) model railway hobbyists, the trains themselves come a poor second to the masses of electronic wizardry that are required to operate them. This explains why Hornby feel that it is OK to seriously compromise (in the eyes of older modellers) the appearance of the model in order to have yet more 'bells and whistles'. The logical development, of course, will be to dispense entirely with the models, and the hobby will become an arms-race of ever more electronically complex gadgetry operating virtual trains on huge screens! ........ oh - but doesn't that almost exist already? CJI.

.... my experience has been of wagon prints, produced from Ironmink's designs - freely available on Thingiverse. CJI.

Given the right printer, and someone who knows how to use it, 3D printing is capable of producing models that require zero preparation - I have quite a number; (not of my own design or production). CJI.

My full name and address have been available on my website for a quarter of a century. Touch wood - no miscreants have taken advantage of the information to date. CJI.

...... only if those sealed records are available to study - which they aren't, except by court order. You may not want to believe it - but it IS fact. CJI.

As a seventy-five-year-old proprietor of a small supply operation, I entirely refute that! I am a one-man-band, but I usually achieve a by-return-of-post service; in the event of problems, they are resolved promptly with no quibbles. If you choose to be a small supplier, you have to be committed to customer service - otherwise, give up and close down! CJI, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

It does seem a shame that a well-thought-of supplier such as Brassmasters chooses to tarnish its reputation because it finds customer interaction too much hassle. CJI.

If and when you review a working example of Hornby's latest A3, will the deterioration of the representation front bogie and wheels merit a comment? CJI.

Exactly !! I had to look at it twice to make sure that it wasn't 20th Century N gauge! Why do Hornby insist on reinventing the wheel, and coming up with a round(ish) stone disc with a log for the axle?!? CJI.

Shame about the snowplough / cowcatcher! CJI.

To the best of my knowledge, yes - though how / why this happened is a mystery to me. I think that I am correct in saying that there has never been a correct RTR cattle wagon in 4mm. scale. Odd, because they are equally at home as a single vehicle attached to a branch goods or passenger train, or in long rakes travelling to or from the Irish Sea ports. CJI.

Having lived in Wigston throughout my schooldays, I struggle to imagine what will be able to use electrification that ends there. A pretty arbitary termination, surely? CJI.