I have just bought some Peco track in a private sale, what is the best way to post it please?
Dundas cuts it in half for postage but I would rather not, or is this a standard practice?
Is it worth considering a Courier? I've only sent something once using Hermes but received a number of items. The nearest "Hermes Shop" for sending was a local supermarket. I see they have a rate for mailing tubes up to 1.2 m.
Quote from: Stephen Rainsbury on December 02, 2019, 16:19
I have just bought some Peco track in a private sale, what is the best way to post it please?
Dundas cuts it in half for postage but I would rather not, or is this a standard practice?
I have never had any track come cut in half. They just arrive in a cardboard poster tube. Dundas are selling H0m track in 36 inch lengths, why are they selling 009 track in 18 inch lengths? I won't be buying track from Dundas.
Quote from: Retiarius on December 02, 2019, 17:29
I have never had any track come cut in half. They just arrive in a cardboard poster tube. Dundas are selling H0m track in 36 inch lengths, why are they selling 009 track in 18 inch lengths? I won't be buying track from Dundas.
https://dundasmodels.co.uk/webstore/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-module-108/product/5298-1-yard-flexible-mainline-009-track-code-80-cut-into-2-x-18-inch-lengths-minimum-5-x-36-lengths (https://dundasmodels.co.uk/webstore/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-module-108/product/5298-1-yard-flexible-mainline-009-track-code-80-cut-into-2-x-18-inch-lengths-minimum-5-x-36-lengths)
Should get free packet of rail joiners with each batch!! Strange idea, the ones I got from Gaugemaster and Hattons both came in full 36" lengths. I'd also go to one of those rather than Dundas I'm afraid! No need to at the moment, though, I got lucky and got a box cheap off John Sutton a while ago.
Seven lengths for £20 from somebody going back to 00 gauge as he found 009 too fiddly. He has a cardboard tube and will be positing it tomorrow.
It crazytrack, and I was going for Mainline, but I have half a dozen ideas for micro-layouts in my head at the moment so no reason not to start now.
Quote from: Retiarius on December 02, 2019, 17:29
Quote from: Stephen Rainsbury on December 02, 2019, 16:19
I have just bought some Peco track in a private sale, what is the best way to post it please?
Dundas cuts it in half for postage but I would rather not, or is this a standard practice?
I have never had any track come cut in half. They just arrive in a cardboard poster tube. Dundas are selling H0m track in 36 inch lengths, why are they selling 009 track in 18 inch lengths? I won't be buying track from Dundas.
It does reduce postage as Royal Mail charge a lot to send a meter long package through the post, and I note that Dundas will sell you a box 25 three feet lengths of track and sent that through the post without cutting it up.
https://dundasmodels.co.uk/webstore/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-module-108/product/5294-25-yards-flexible-irregular-009-track-code-80-25-x-36-inch-lengths-in-box-out-of-stock
Edit - they do the same with HOm track.
Ideally if you wanted a single length then it's better to buy it from the stand at a show...
Quote from: JulienW on December 02, 2019, 23:10
Ideally if you wanted a single length then it's better to buy it from the stand at a show...
It was something I had already bought on line and the seller hadn't decided how t post it, but all sorted now thanks.
Quote from: Stephen Rainsbury on December 03, 2019, 00:44
Quote from: JulienW on December 02, 2019, 23:10
Ideally if you wanted a single length then it's better to buy it from the stand at a show...
It was something I had already bought on line and the seller hadn't decided how t post it, but all sorted now thanks.
My comment about buying track at shows was a general one, Stephen, and an attempt to clear up that Dundas
will send out full boxes of 009 track in full 3' length form. I suspect that other suppliers send track out in the same way as Dundas (i.e. less than a certain number of lengths are cut in half) due to the (excessive?) postage costs involved, and not just 009 buy all the scale/gauge combinations.
Sorry if you felt it was in any way directed at you.
Hattons don't mention cutting track if you order a single length, Julien. I suspect they have some sort of deal with whoever they use as couriers that allows for strange shape/length stuff and it's all done that way. I did wonder why some old track I had was in 18" lengths, though, that could explain it!
Quote from: Hobby on December 03, 2019, 10:18
I did wonder why some old track I had was in 18" lengths, though, that could explain it!
Not really important, but for info if your old track is "really old" that is how it used to come from Peco back in the days of the much missed original live frog 9" radius crazy track points, the flexi track was produced in 18" lengths.
Mick
Quote from: JulienW on December 03, 2019, 09:33
Sorry if you felt it was in any way directed at you.
It never occurred to me that it was ;D I am very used now to the way that on Railway forums a post drifts away from the original and comments rarely apply to the original poster.
If this had been a music forum by now it would have degenerated into somebody hurling naughty words and telling me that I used the wrong guitar strings and I should donate my gear to somebody younger who is struggling to be heard rather than "blocking" slots at local gigs. I am a keyboards player who hasn't played live for 20 years but that doesn't stop them.
PS keyboard stands are excellent for arranging micro layouts (The angle of each layer is adjustable)
(https://images.musicstore.de/images/1600/jaspers-3d-120b-keyboard-stand-for-3-keyboards-black_1_KEY0003299-000.jpg)
Damn, now I am drifting off too.. yes back to exhibitions.. I have two kids getting married within 9 weeks of each other so exhibitions the home office was never going to approve a visit, especially as Swanley was the same day my Son got married. She has however approved a trip to Bexleyheath next weekend, but I can't see any suppliers that I know stock 009.
Mind you if the deal from the first post goes through I would be very surprised if anybody could match that. More details when it arrives, I don't want to jinx it into being a scam :)
Stephen
Quote from: MickT on December 03, 2019, 10:48
Quote from: Hobby on December 03, 2019, 10:18
I did wonder why some old track I had was in 18" lengths, though, that could explain it!
Not really important, but for info if your old track is "really old" that is how it used to come from Peco back in the days of the much missed original live frog 9" radius crazy track points, the flexi track was produced in 18" lengths.
Mick
Mick is correct the Peco 009 track used to be sold in 18-inch lengths. This continued after the 9-inch electrofrog points went out of production in 1980, I do not know the exact date they changed but it was probably in the 80's or early 90's. The actual plastic sleeper web moulding is only 9 inches long, they use four of these for a 36-inch-long section.
Dundas used to charge £3 more for postage on orders of track less than one box full, I guess cutting it in half will enable them to offer the same postage charge?
Brian Meldon
Quote from: B.Meldon on December 04, 2019, 08:14
Dundas used to charge £3 more for postage on orders of track less than one box full, I guess cutting it in half will enable them to offer the same postage charge?
The stuff I bought was £10 P&P, which was more than I was expecting, because the seller only had a robust cardboard tube and was paying domestic rates at the post office. So that's 7 new full sized lengths for £20, it would have been double that from Peco or Dundas, so I will put that as a tick in the win column, assuming it turns up and isn't a scam. :-\
The track turned up just fine and it is genuinely 7 yards of new track for £30 including P&P, plus a few other bits, like sone set track straights, track connectorsm a pai of bogies and an unsued Kato 103 chassis.
I was getting worried it was a scam, but couldn't be happier with that lot.
At the current escalating prices for Kato 103's it looks like you got a bargain for that alone and the track was the bonus!
Mick
Someone got one of the new 109s for £20 incl post, so perhaps they aren't escalating in price, except from some people on eBay who are trying to milk the suckers who don't shop around and don't know that the 103 has been replaced by an equally cheap newer (probably better!) version... One born every day!
Quote from: Hobby on December 11, 2019, 12:45
Someone got one of the new 109s for £20 incl post, so perhaps they aren't escalating in price, except from some people on eBay who are trying to milk the suckers who don't shop around and don't know that the 103 has been replaced by an equally cheap newer (probably better!) version... One born every day!
I felt quite sorry for the guy selling this stuff, he said he was getting older and was having trouble seeing and handing something as small as 009 so he wqas selling everything to fund a move up to 0 gauge.
I'm not sure of the person you're referring to Stephen, but the chances are people would have only paid £15/20 for them so asking a lot more like some of the ebay sellers currently are is simply profiteering, no matter what they use the money for!
It was the 103, 7 yards of brand new unused track, which still had the Peco labels on plus what appears to be the contents of his 009 specific bits box. I don't think that £20 was profiteering, he could have got twice that on eBay.
I was replying to Mick's post at the top of the page, Stephen, not about your purchase! Confused? You will be!! ;)
Quote from: Hobby on December 12, 2019, 16:46
I was replying to Mick's post at the top of the page, Stephen, not about your purchase! Confused? You will be!! ;)
Either way I am really pleased with the purchase, and spent a very pleasant evening looking for a suitable body for it. I am starting to think Tram loco, and maybe even try out a brass one :-)