Mainly Trains

Probably is, many shops & manufacturers are giving it away. If he has been around that long, it is quite likely.

Kevin Martin

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On 15/07/2007 15:04, John Firth said,

Dave Cleal is retiring. I'm not sure what's happening with the Mainly Trains brand, but if the range continues to reduce there won't be much left for a potential buyer to buy!

Wasn't he a musician as well?

Yes I believe he was a talented pianist. From what I remember it was a family run business. His wife tended to run the shop .

John Firth

While he tickled the ivories on the old joanna out back?

That would be a great shame. I have ordered many spares/bits and pieces from him, especially since he set up his website with the details of all the parts available. The service was fast and efficient.

There are hardly any decent websites with kits/spares/parts that have either detailed descriptions or photos enabling successful online ordering, but too many 'box shifters'.

Well - I just placed an order and mentioned how much I would miss Mainly Trains.

I was told that, whilst they are clearing a lot of slow-moving stock, nothing has been said about retirement at this stage.

Certainly the staff member to whom I spoke, who I *think* may have been Dave's wife, was surprised to hear mention of retirement .

Regards, John Isherwood.

cctransuk said the following on 16/07/2007 15:05:

Hmmm...... I'll dig out the source for this and investigate further. I'm very sure it came from someone "in the know", but Dave's wife might just be even more "in the know"!

It might be that said staff member wasn't Dave's wife, and is about to get a nasty surprise :-)

Hi John

I've been back through my emails from various groups, and whilst I can see why I got an impression that Dave Cleal was retiring, there isn't an email that actually states that he is - or I couldn't find it. Mainly Trains have come up in conversation with other companies that have stated their intention to retire, so it was more an implication than a statement.

So, to my knowledge, Dave Cleal isn't planning to retire yet. Apologies to anyone I've misled.

Perhaps someone got confused with Andrew Mullins of Branchlines - he is retiring. Dont know what hes like on the piano, but hes one of the best supplier of loco bits and pieces. Most helpful and knowledgable - certainly helped me a couple of times.

Maybe we could raise a petition to prohibit him from retiring !

Cheers, Simon

On 16/07/2007 23:32, simon said,

He was referred to in the discussion, but not confused with anyone!

I suspect he might ignore it :-) He is always very helpful, and will be missed.