Good to see activity on the layout again, Larry, and I shall look forward to more.
Further to your mention of Hattons earlier: Almost finished track laying on my own embryonic project when I ran out of flexitrack over the weekend; just needed one length, which was a bit of a pain, but as the rest of the plain track had been donated by my brother in law, it wasn’t too much of an issue.
Thought I’d pop to Hattons after doing what should have been a short job for my daughter who is currently expecting. In the end, the job took longer than anticipated and was a real chore! Anyway, made the short hop down the motorway to find the building open but the showroom closed. Since re-opening, for some reason, they’re closed on a Monday and Tuesday!! I rang them from the car park and explaining my predicament, offered to pay for the goods over the phone if somebody wouldn’t mind passing them out of the open back door to me. ‘Sorry; it will take 24 hours’ came the not so helpful reply. So that was that. Whilst I had the mobile in my hand, and from Hattons’ car park, thought I’d ring my local model shop in Formby - essentially radio control but do stock the odd train set item - who had all the bits I required. Best thing was, they were prepared to split the packet of switches so that the total bill for three switches and a length of Streamline came to less than the box of switches they were offering for sale alone!
When you consider that Hattons didn’t even carry the fishplates I needed last time but Formby Models did, I know where my first port of call shall be in future.
Just think Hattons has outgrown itself and turned into a bit of the ‘computer says no’ type hyper store which is so typical in this day n age. I remember when things were so different at the original Aladdin’s Cave on Smithdown Road. So much for progress.
Jonte