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Graham Walters

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  • Location
    Andover, UK
  • Interests
    Football, Model Railways, Photography,Computers & the Internet,
    I've just taken on the role of Layout Planner for my clubs exhibitions.

    NGS Membership No: 26013

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  1. From experience I can say that the demise in hobby and shopd selling model railway products are many fold, the nternet is but one. Others include the advancement in electronic entertainment lack of space in new homes, rooms are not big enough, and attics are not strong enough. Cost is another factor, From what I've seen of customers that came in my shop the hobby is literally dying, I would say the average age of the few cutomers I had was well into the 60's, and I had only two or three regulars aged under 15. i was told I was more expensve than certain shops in Liverpool [Widnes] and Sheffield, when I could prove I wasn't. It got to the point where I flet that if I priced something up for nothing I would get some bright spark asking me for discount. There seems to be this trait where no matter what you price some thing at, model railway enthusiasts expect more discount, and because of this and the reasons stated above less and less model shops will sell model railways, and more will go out of business, so get used to shopping online, and when you only have a choice of two or three shops to go to, then watch out, because the tail will be wagging the dog.
  2. It would appear that people were right, opening a model shop selling model railway products was a bad move. As of 3pm today [21/11/2019] Test Valley Models has stopped selling dedicated model railway products, instead we will be concentrating on the less demanding markets in out business, namely plastic kits and wargaming. I would through this coloum like to thank anyone who has patronised the shop over the past 3.5 years, sadly it wasn't enough to warrant us continuing to stock loco's, rolling stock, or in fact anything to do solely with model railways.
  3. When it takes three days for a modeller to airbrush 12 OO huts, you have to wonder if he has the right skills to do the job, or was he using the right paints ! I was impressed with the BB team, and the steampunk version has some nice quirky bits but Tonbridge was IMO what most people think the hobby is, and gave a totally wrong perception of it. It's still not 'must switch on TV' for me, and I cannot put my finger on why it isn't
  4. It's prime time, Friday night railway modelling on a terrestrial channel. Not often you see that written about Channel 5
  5. Finally caught it on catchup this evening, mixed views really, It was good to see the rules being upheld, the 'Captain' from Missenden came across as smug more than arrogant, thinking they had won it before it even started. In the time allowed both of those who stuck to the rules IMO did very well, Porthcawl probably failed due more to the quantity of things they tried to build in, whereas Strangers went for the effective "diorama" type layout. For me it will remain a catch up program around modelling and other programs, but I expect I will watch the whole series.
  6. There seems to be a large difference of opinion, so here ar some answers to a few questions raised. We do as a business giv a discount if a customer spends a large amount with us in one purchase, margins are better on some things than others, buying a box of track is cheaper than buying odd lengths, and we do make customers aware of this On locos we do list and price at RRP, perhaps we shouldn't and make the money on the accessories, but that's another debate. Bulk buying by Hattons and others, this is a a lot of smoke and mirrors, Hornby tell us smaller traders that thet do not give Hattons discount for bulk purchases, they like anyone else get a stock allocation, and according to Hornby have to abide by the same T's & C's that we do, ( no discount on new releases in the first 6 weeks, and thereafter by a maximum of 10% for the following six weeks). Plastic kits are not all priced at £15, and we sell very few of them of them at that price, most of the 1/35 scale sell for around the £50 mark, larger scales can be a couple of hundred pounds, and we still don't get asked to discount them. I value and take onboard all of the opinions given and will have a long think to see ifwe can increase sales by offering a standard discount on loco's.
  7. Running a model shop is not easy, running a model shop that sells model railway items is even harder, why is it that if a plastic kit builder comes into my shop he chooses the kit, come tot he counter, he may add some glue, sanding sticks and paint to his purchase, total the goods up, tell him the cost and out comes the cash or the card, he walks away after maybe a brief chat as happy as a sand boy. The same goes for people who buy model aircraft, wargames, or the dolls house ladies that buy the scenics. But the railway modeler is always the one who asks 'any discount' why ? Why do they expect discount ? When they go to TESCO or ALDI do they ask the cashier there for discount ? It's got to the point where I and my colleague are seriously considering not stocking any locomotives, rolling stock or carriages, instead we may be gong down the route of just carrying track and accessories, then again I've been asked to give discount on a pack of rail joiners, even worse they then want to pay by card !
  8. That is so good to hear Ian, I hate to say but I think you an exception, rather than a rule, but well done or letting the lad 'have a go'
  9. That is a not strictly true, there were only three exhibits not connected with modelrailways, or railways in general, The Andover Dolls House Club and South Hants Model Car Club, both of these have been attending the show for a great number of years, the only addition was a group from Andover Table Top Gamers, demonstrating table top gaming. In defence of the club, the show is advertised as a Modelex, not a purely 'Model Railway' show. In an age when the hobby is in crisis and sales are down, Hornby amost hitting the wall every year, I feel it is a little unfair to criticise a club for thinking outside the box, and trying to create more interest in modelling in general. Perhaps if you had an open mind, and spoke to the dolls house people, or the model car owners or even the gamers you could of picked up some tips to help you improve your own modelling skills. In my capacity of a model shop owner I actually approached the club to allow the gamers to exhibit, the two hobbies have a lot in common, building scenery being the main one, but these people also paint 28mm figures to a very high standard in ways that other modellers could benefit from learning, like model railways the actual use of the figures is a percentage of the game, not the whole thing. I'm sorry to say that on the Saturday our exhibitors got some very derogatory looks and comments from a minority of visitors, those people now think that all railway modellers are the same, is that the impression you want to give people ? I also tried to engage some of the model railway exhibitors in converstaion and one trader, I got blank stares, the trader didn't want to know me, even when I asked if he would be willing to supply me with a product he showed no interest and kept his head down in his lap top. The layout operators mostly avoided any eye contact, how can you promote a hobby when those taking part wont engage with the public ?
  10. To say the move didn't go without a hitch would be a lie. We are now settled in the Chantry Centre in the heart of Andover. The carpet tiles turned up a week late, which meant that we were unable to install any shelving on the floor, half of the lights in the unit had failed, and as the ceiling is quite high we needed to get an electrician in to sort things out for us. We missed our planned re-opening on the May Bank holiday weekend, but we were just ready to open the following Friday, 1st June, after a lot of help from friends and customers doing everything from putting stock on shelves to making the tea, and dusting down shelves, thanks to all of them for that. Our first three weeks have been a bit hectic, Andover definitely needed a dedicated model shop, the response has been great, although I have to report that sadly the model railway side is slow, even down to accessories and track, maybe the warm weather isn't helping, but it feels more like a real downturn in the hobby, not helped by the delays in supply by some of the major manufacturers. Heres hoping we see more railway modellers in the coming weeks and months.
  11. !!!WE ARE MOVING !!! Our growth continues, after two years at our present site on the outskirts of Andover, we have taken the plunge to move into the town centre ! The new shop is a lot easier to find being in the main shopping centre in Andover, we have even more floor and wall space for stock. Add to that I have at last found a new investor in the business who has peldged at least £25k to buy railway stock ! !!!EVEN MORE !!! We have Brian, a qualified carpenter who is now building our baseboards, ( we have two types available) Kevin a fully experienced repairs person who can fit chips to almost any loco regardless of age, and will also undertake servicing and repairs. And not forgetting Sue who is a dab hand with an airbrush, not only does she do weathering, she can also re-livery engines & coaches Plus a new website, testvalleymodels.co.uk which is fullly compliant with GDPR and payment gateways
  12. Sorry to report that our website with Prestashop has been hacked once again, not really a malicious hacking, they just saw fit to delete all the product pages, so everything is now returning a 404 error. Because this is the second time in six months and the protection we installed failed once again, we have now decided to go with a hosted platform, as such we are rebuilding the website, and adding the stock once again. The new website address in http://testvalleymodels.co.uk. The checkout page is of course SSL secured
  13. A few months ago a customer asked us to build him a version of Inglenook Sidings on a 4' x 2' board, some thing we were a little nervous about as we had never build baseboards for any one before, we took it headlong invested some time and built the layout with a panel mounted controller and some scenics, to our delight the customer was delighted with our efforts. Whilst building that layout we were asked to build more, we have just finished the largest we have taken on at 17' x 6', after a few teething problems, we have again delivered it and the customer is delighted. We now have three more in the pipeline, all N Scale, and all the track layout has been designed in house. Our baseboards are built to a high standard, we use 9mm ply for the tops, and 90 x 20mm timber for the framing, our starting price is £250 for a 4 x 2 board, this includes,Layout Design, all track, (inc points) underlay,(WS Foam) and wiring.(droppers every 1mtr) The framework is constructed using the Kregg Screw system,https://www.kregtool.com/get-inspired/videos/product/kreg-jig-r3.aspx with braces a maximum 600mm apart. We use the Kregg system for strength, there is no screwing into the end grain, which gives a stronger and more square joint.
  14. For various reasons I refuse to comment, but the general feeling I've had from customers in the shop is mixed, the majority seem to think there have been better shows at Andover.
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