Special Edition Great Central Robinson 2-8-0 for National Railway Museum - now in stock

[dcroz]

Hi all,

 

I have just been received an invoice by email from the National Railway Museum for the limited edition Bachmann Great Central Robinson 2-8-0 No. 1185, so these are now in stock at the NRM.

 

From the NRM website:

 

"The Robinson O4 locomotive No. 1185,carrying Great Central Railway livery, compliments the NRM exclusive edition models produced by Bachmann. The first Great Central Railway class 8K 2-8-0 goods engine appeared in 1911 to the design of J G Robinson. The 8K were adopted by the Government for military purposes (the Railway Operation Division: ROD) during WW1 and used over seas during WW2. In 1923 No.1185 was modified for working under the North British loading gauge. It worked on the Fife to Aberdeen coal trains and was based at Thornton Shed.

 

Just 500 models are being produced and will be available from December."

Item Code: 304818

 

http://www.nrmshop.co.uk/models/product/304818/Bachmann-robinson-o4-locomotive-no-1185.html

 

Best wishes,

 

David

[tetsudofan]

David,

 

Many thanks for the tip-off.....order placed ......should look good hauling the Co-op/CWS coal wagons

 

Keith

[Oldddudders]

Once again we are reminded just how handsome many Pre-Grouping liveries were. Not my part of the world, but a fine looking model. 500? Should be gone in no time! Thanks to OP for flagging it up here.

[dcroz]

Thanks Keith/Oldddudders, it does look superb in the photos on the NRM website, I will post photos of the production version once I receive it if no-one else beats me to it!

[amdaley]

Really great looking loco & I really like the Great Central livery. Looks incredible. I have no problem with the price of the loco.Real value at £129. I would mortgage my mother for one but the postage £20 to Ireland:angry: please come on

[jwealleans]

See here

[Anglian]

I hope this trend to offer pre-group liveries continues. This engine looks a handsome beast.

[The Stationmaster]

Once again we are reminded just how handsome many Pre-Grouping liveries were. Not my part of the world, but a fine looking model. 500? Should be gone in no time! Thanks to OP for flagging it up here.

 

 

 

You're spot on with that latter comment Ian - I've just ordered one and as at 11h00 this morning they had 63 left in stock (although that means they have only sold 9, sorry now 10, so far today - there must have been a lot of pre-orders judging by those numbers).

 

 

[coachmann]

Once again we are reminded just how handsome many Pre-Grouping liveries were

If the GCR freight livery is considered handsome, and it is, imagine what a GCR 'Director' 4-4-0 would look like in full green passenger livery....A nudge to Bachmann and the NRM....

[tetsudofan]

David,

 

Many thanks for the tip-off.....order placed ......should look good hauling the Co-op/CWS coal wagons

 

Keith

 

Ordered last night, just got e:mail that the order has been despatched ....now in the hands of Home Delivery Service

 

Keith

[The Stationmaster]

If the GCR freight livery is considered handsome, and it is, imagine what a GCR 'Director' 4-4-0 would look like in full green passenger livery....A nudge to Bachmann and the NRM....

 

Speaking at the Warley Show to a former colleague it seems that the NRM marketing folk might be amenable to well-founded suggestions as they do at least speak to some of the 'Friends' regarding sales and 'interest' in NRM merchandise. So I'll give him a suitable nudge when I see him again next week

[Bont Y Gra]

I've just ordered directly from the ever friendly and courteous NRM on-line shop (01925 467150) and they're down to 50 left. I suspect the opportunity to purchase one will be a distant memory by the end of the week.

 

Well done NRM for running with this loco and it just shows what can happen with limited editions if people have the vision to steer away from the norm and take a punt!

[Jenny Emily]

Good job I spotted this thread; I've just placed my order and was told that from the 500 they had delivered last Friday, only 54 are left.

 

It isn't often that a steam loco presses the "ooo, shiny" buy-it-now button, but I have a soft spot for pre-grouping liveries. Hopefully given how quickly this has sold it will encourage more pre-grouping liveried stuff to appear (I'd love an LNWR liveried Super D...). Hopefully some wagons might appear to accompany it, though for now it will have to make do with either a string of collectors' club wagons or an NRM support coach and rake of blue-grey mark ones.

[D605Eagle]

I really dont understand why NRM keeps doing such limited "limited" editions. Surely they would have realised by now that they could sell alot more, and make more profit. Keeping things like this so limited just restricts their profit, upsets alot of potential customers and causes profiteering on ebay to happen. An ugly trend if you ask me. (The profiteering bit BTW. orriginal post was a bit missleading, sorry!)

Jim

[Jenny Emily]

I really dont understand why NRM keeps doing such limited "limited" editions. Surely they would have realised by now that they could sell alot more, and make more profit. Keeping things like this so limited just restricts their profit, upsets alot of potential customers and causes profiteering on ebay to happen. An ugly trend if you ask me.

Jim

 

I certainly agree that sales of this one show that an order of 750 or 1000 rather than 500 might have been a good bet, but they didn't have that hindsight and I suppose there was a moment over a year ago when some-one had to make a call on what number to order and would have known that there would have been a lot of awkward questions if they had ordered 1000 and at this point only a dozen had shifted.

 

It is very hard to judge the market. There is also the consideration that the more that are ordered then the more cash is tied up for a while in stock that is still being made or delivered from China. I suspect that the NRM has had to pay for these models, at least in part, some time ago.

 

Of course, the same thing could be said of certain Bachmann releases. The Presflo CPV wagons for a start sold out within the week, yet no further production runs have been forthcoming. Now there's a wagon that would be a good seller despite the current financial climate, yet not a hint on when a follow up order will be coming. I'm sure they have their reasons.

 

 

 

[Sir Hadyn]

I really dont understand why NRM keeps doing such limited "limited" editions. Surely they would have realised by now that they could sell alot more, and make more profit. Keeping things like this so limited just restricts their profit, upsets alot of potential customers and causes profiteering on ebay to happen. An ugly trend if you ask me.

Jim

 

It's a fine balance - the risk is that we produce too many models, people say it costs too much and we get lumbered with lots of stock...

 

By the way - I am not involved with the process other than being a customer!

[Oldddudders]

I really dont understand why NRM keeps doing such limited "limited" editions. Surely they would have realised by now that they could sell alot more, and make more profit. Keeping things like this so limited just restricts their profit, upsets alot of potential customers and causes profiteering on ebay to happen. An ugly trend if you ask me.

Jim

As Jenny Emily has said hindsight is such an advantage! Put yourself in NRM's position some time ago - Great Central? Who models that pre-1923? Frankly, not many - and those who do have already acquired a skillset that enables them to scratchbuild and paint, otherwise they'd be nowhere.

 

Again JE in her earlier post has hit the nail fair and square - this is a beautiful model, and will look lovely on the "best mixed" sort of layout that many are happy with, as well as suddenly swelling the stud of the GC-specialists already identified.

 

What the instant sales success of this will do is increase the likelihood of other Pre-Group models being introduced. The real bonanza may be yet to come.

[D605Eagle]

As Jenny Emily has said hindsight is such an advantage! Put yourself in NRM's position some time ago - Great Central? Who models that pre-1923? Frankly, not many - and those who do have already acquired a skillset that enables them to scratchbuild and paint, otherwise they'd be nowhere.

 

I see where your coming from, and from a pure modelers point of view, very valid. But I expect that very few of these NRM limited editions will ever see the outside of a display cabinet. I don't know for sure, I'm only guessing, but I think theres a growing number of NRM limited edition collectors out there who have no interest or intention of running their models. However I did notice on the NRM website that models of City of Truro are still for sale. Do we know what the production run of those was? I would like one myself, but they are just a little bit too expensive for the amount I want one if that makes sense!

Jim

[The Stationmaster]

I see where your coming from, and from a pure modelers point of view, very valid. But I expect that very few of these NRM limited editions will ever see the outside of a display cabinet. I don't know for sure, I'm only guessing, but I think theres a growing number of NRM limited edition collectors out there who have no interest or intention of running their models. However I did notice on the NRM website that models of City of Truro are still for sale. Do we know what the production run of those was? I would like one myself, but they are just a little bit too expensive for the amount I want one if that makes sense!

Jim

 

 

 

I wonder if the number of 'Truros' - or the rate at which they have sold - might be the explanation for only 500 8Ks? And they can always order another 500 (with a different running number to keep the really avid collectors cheerful?).

I freely admit in the case of the NRM locos to 'buying them because they are there' but i haven't gone for any of the fancy packaged versions and intend not to. It gives me something a bit different and helps support the museum so that's my excuse (mind you a small GC layout could be tempting).

I see there's an NRM 'Deltic' coming up in an auction this Friday and it will be interesting to see what price - if any - it attracts in order to see what has happened to the 'investment market'

[amdaley]

I see where your coming from, and from a pure modelers point of view, very valid. But I expect that very few of these NRM limited editions will ever see the outside of a display cabinet. I don't know for sure, I'm only guessing, but I think theres a growing number of NRM limited edition collectors out there who have no interest or intention of running their models. However I did notice on the NRM website that models of City of Truro are still for sale. Do we know what the production run of those was? I would like one myself, but they are just a little bit too expensive for the amount I want one if that makes sense!

Jim

 

Makes perfect sense to me Jim. I'm in the same boat.I bought two NRM Deltics because I thought they were beautiful models. One of them I fitted with sound & its running happily on my layout. I would have liked a City of Truro but thought the asking price was too high so I passed. I bought one of the new Bachmann Great Central Railway Robinson 04's on line yesterday. Again I think its a beautiful model & I plan to run it with a big train of PO wagons because I don't know what else to run with it. The price was ok as it was the same as the RRP price of the other 04's available even though I know you can get them much cheaper.

The one problem I have with the NRM is their postage charges for outside the UK. I live in Ireland & £19.95 is a bit much for postage to my country.The City of Truro at £145 & £150 + £20 x 2 postage if I bought the two of them would simply be too much and the Private Owner Wagon Sets at £27.50 + £20 postage is simply nuts.

In my mind the NRM have made lots of mistakes with their issuing of these models. They brought out the Deltic as a special edition but ended up with several special editions of the model. In the end you could probably had one of them with chips on the side. The result of this is that they are left with the City of Truro because people got burned with the Deltic & won't pay over the odds for a model produced in thousands. My other point as I said earlier is postage outside the UK.

I love to support the NRM because I believe the work they do is of immense value to preservation & history of UK railways but I can't help but feel they have lost valuable customers because of the way they have marketed the various models.

[coachmann]

Maybe some people would like the NRM to have a larger production run so that there would be a surplus of unsold models that would be sold off cheap......Or maybe its just cynical me...B)

[D605Eagle]

Maybe some people would like the NRM to have a larger production run so that there would be a surplus of unsold models that would be sold off cheap......Or maybe its just cynical me...B)

I expect tha some people would. Theres always some people trying to get something for nothing. However thats not what I was getting at. Having alot of potential customers wanting to buy the product at the price quoted, but missing the boat because they didn't find out about it until a week later is not good for anybody except profiteers is it? The fact that the NRM gets a slice out of this makes me want to buy a model just a little bit more because you feel you are helping keep our railway heritage (even if they are planning to trash the display somewhat). If they did a run of 10000 of the GCR 8K, I'd still have bought one at full price as soon as it was released.

Jim

[D605Eagle]

Makes perfect sense to me Jim. I'm in the same boat.I bought two NRM Deltics because I thought they were beautiful models. One of them I fitted with sound & its running happily on my layout. I would have liked a City of Truro but thought the asking price was too high so I passed. I bought one of the new Bachmann Great Central Railway Robinson 04's on line yesterday. Again I think its a beautiful model & I plan to run it with a big train of PO wagons because I don't know what else to run with it. The price was ok as it was the same as the RRP price of the other 04's available even though I know you can get them much cheaper.

The one problem I have with the NRM is their postage charges for outside the UK. I live in Ireland & £19.95 is a bit much for postage to my country.The City of Truro at £145 & £150 + £20 x 2 postage if I bought the two of them would simply be too much and the Private Owner Wagon Sets at £27.50 + £20 postage is simply nuts.

In my mind the NRM have made lots of mistakes with their issuing of these models. They brought out the Deltic as a special edition but ended up with several special editions of the model. In the end you could probably had one of them with chips on the side. The result of this is that they are left with the City of Truro because people got burned with the Deltic & won't pay over the odds for a model produced in thousands. My other point as I said earlier is postage outside the UK.

I love to support the NRM because I believe the work they do is of immense value to preservation & history of UK railways but I can't help but feel they have lost valuable customers because of the way they have marketed the various models.

Thats actually very unfortunate for you. With the exception of C-O-T you cannot wait till your visiting over here to buy one as they will all be sold out. Do you know anybody over here that can get you one and then post it on? I know a similar weight item I imported from Australia only cost just over £20 airfreight so I'm sure it would be a cheaper option.

Jim

[The Stationmaster]

Arrived this afternoon and a few quick pics for early appraisal. Least impressive feature (not in these pics of course) is an ejector pipe which ends in midair at the firebox end and being soapy plastic seems far from keen to do anything else - n.b. the 'loose' items have not been added. Not being an expert of these locos I presume that 1185 was a vacuum brake equipped loco?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sir Hadyn]

Bought one this morning at York from the museum shop, there are still several to be had there if you are local and want one. Seems the bulk of them have been sold over the web, but that a tenth of the stock or thereabouts went to the museum shop.