Union Mills N gauge locomotives - Still in production - Production list and date

[Dr Al]

Any ideas as to which motor Colin uses, is it one available elsewhere, similarly with wheels?
Anybody know of somewhere that does white metal casting (or could learn it quick) that could possibly acquire Colin's  moulds etc?

Motors were until more recently a standard 10-15 can motor size - China 3 pole type jobs, which can be got direct from China pretty easily. More recent is a smaller 8x15 (or 8x12 possibly) motor of a similar style.

Keeping these running won't be a problem - there's also Tramfabriek's coreless motors, which can definitely fit (they have a 1015 replacement, for example).

Wheels etc are likely custom bought in.

Cheers,
Alan

[Chris Morris]

If anyone is interested Footplate models of Kidderminster have a secondhand Dukedog for sale - £93. I spotted it in a cabinet today. I told the owner it was now a collectors item so he might put the price up!

[Dr Al]

I wonder how long Nick Tilston of N Brass will continue to trade. I know nothing of his underlying health or his financial situation, but he is clearly not a young man and has already stopped taking his trade stand to general exhibitions. He now confines himself to 2mm Association events and online/postal trading.
His products are a godsend to kit builders, scratch builders and, of course, those who detail Union Mills models.

I saw him a few days ago. He is ok and gets out and about but not as energetic as he was.

Nick does seem to increasingly struggle to get the turned parts in - wheels currently, but also at times some of the buffers and (lovely) turned whistles - some of these I believe are actually sourced from Markits (formerly Romford).

Not saying that'll make him stop - but it does make it increasingly difficult, especially if you need a part to match something you bought previously.

Cheers,
Alan

[Rowlie]

Memory might be playing tricks with me, however fairly sure there was an article on Union Mills and its manufacturing process a few years back.

[Portpatrick]

Memory might be playing tricks with me, however fairly sure there was an article on Union Mills and its manufacturing process a few years back.

In N Gauge NOW I think.

[Rowlie]

Thanks @Portpatrick for confirming

[Papyrus]

I think you must be very unlucky, @Dr Al . I got through straight away, and my green 'Claud' arrived this morning, less than 24 hours later:



I'm contemplating repainting my black one in GER blue as the original Claud Hamilton, but I might need to try and fabricate some valences which would test my modelling skills to the limit.

Like most people, I suppose, you expect these guys to go on for ever, so I regret not buying other UM locos when I had the chance. Ah well...

Cheers,

Chris

[Dr Al]

I think you must be very unlucky, @Dr Al .

I don't think 11 attempts, and twice, minutes after it was engaged, is unlucky - for some reason he just refuses to pick up. Hopeless.

Cheers,
Alan

[GlenEglise]

I think you must be very unlucky, @Dr Al .

I don't think 11 attempts, and twice, minutes after it was engaged, is unlucky - for some reason he just refuses to pick up. Hopeless.

Cheers,
Alan

Having said that he is intending to retire he must be inundated with callers so I think it perfectly reasonable for him to get some peace and quite and leave his phone alone.

He has always been a pleasure to deal with as far as my experience goes.

GE

[Dr Al]

Maybe....but given twice I was literally minutes after (probably) the folks above who just seem to phone once... seems pretty strange to me. 9 times the phone just rang out, so not sure inundated....

...I'm afraid that's lost the business, as I don't have time next week to go through trying all that again.

Cheers,
Alan

[Greygreaser]

Someone said the stamps would be a collectors item so iv'e photographed them first before i even open the package - D16 & J25 in Black

Reading the LNER encyclopaedia www.LNER.info has the black D16 as a 'Royal engine' so detailing would be increased to show the polishing
I got through by phone to Colin first attempt after sending an email and he was ready to take my order/payment so its obviously gone very busy over the post Xmas period as news of his retirement has spread.
I do hope we can collectively encourage these remaining 'specialist' guys to carry on even if we N-gaugers do represent only a smaller portion of the railway modellers. We also need to promote ourselves and our skills which i believe are distinctly above average given the scale to which we work.
Thanks to Colin and all N suppliers.

[ntpntpntp]

According to a post on the UM Facebook group Colin is now sold out of all remaining stock, since his retirement was made public.   

So is it now a case of "That's all Folks!" ?

[icairns]

Yes this is an issue with the "cottage industry" nature of some key suppliers to our hobby. Gone as far as I can see, is ABS Beaver, GEM, Graham Hughes, I think,  who did a kit of the Glen.

It has been common practice in the past for various ranges of N gauge kits to be acquired by others as the original manufacturers retired, changed interests, or simply saw an opportunity to sell their product range(s).

But here is the good news.  After various acquisitions too complex to list here, the original N gauge kit ranges of Beaver, N Gauge Lines (John Warner), Skytrex Road 'N' Rail (later rebranded as Fleetline), Fleetline, GEM, and Lytchett Manor Models have all be acquired by Daryle Toney, owner of John Day Models - http://www.johndaymodels.co.uk/

The Beaver range of N gauge loco kits are available now on this website and they are also available on eBay.  Some other Beaver kits are also available.  The website gives further details.

Daryle is working on gradually releasing all of the N gauge models that he has acquired over the past couple of years but I do not know the timeline for this.

I have no connection with John Day Models other than Daryle and I have corresponded regarding the ABS/Beaver LNER J63 0-6-0T loco kit, a model that I have a particular obsession with.  Note that the ABS/Beaver J63 kit is a completely different kit to the Minitrix J63 kit that was released back in 1967.

Ian

[Dr Al]

Daryle is working on gradually releasing all of the N gauge models that he has acquired over the past couple of years but I do not know the timeline for this.

Interesting - will be interesting to see how many can be recovered - it was said that Skytrex (later Lytchett Manor) Garratt moulds were basically shot. Certainly the later ones I saw were pretty rough! Maybe better expertise can resurrect them.

I'm sure too there'd be demand for some of the GEM loco kits, like the Patriot and its scale Fowler tender.

Cheers,
Alan

[harper]

Yes this is an issue with the "cottage industry" nature of some key suppliers to our hobby. Gone as far as I can see, is ABS Beaver, GEM, Graham Hughes, I think,  who did a kit of the Glen.   Is Chivers still around?  I have a few of his OTA kits.  Dare I ponder how secure is the future of PD Marsh and Langley.  I continue to use both for the bits element of a layout, and have certainly used their loco kits in the past - rendered tricky by the growing lack of usable #Poole chassis.  There are others
[/quote]

Both PD Marsh and Langley should update their kits and possibly provide a chassis for them as they both produced useable locomotive prototypes. For example the Collet 0-6-0 goods isn't available as an R-T-R  model but a kit is still in Langley's range.Sonic produced a 56xx recently but now is unavailable,when wil it return?