ruggedpeak

You are risking someone taking it over and stealing your positive reviews and trading under your name. I made this mistake when i shut down a mail order business but left the eBay account open and forgot about it. Remembered a couple of years later to find i couldn't get into it as someone had pinched it. Same as all online accounts, not just eBay. If you don't need an online account always close it and get to them to delete all data as per GDPR and right to be forgotten.

Many years back I read some old Penguin books on several of the Highland lines and there were numerous routes and extensions proposed but never started around the Highlands. Sadly the books are buried in the basement but I have a slight feeling a route similar to this was looked at back in the day. May be others have a better grip on the history of proposed lines in the north of Scotland?

They said no one would use the Borders Railway and made it as cheaply as possible with limited passing places which means railtours cause services to be cancelled and the line does not have capacity if they undertake any extensions. Yet it was rammed from day one. As the "war on cars" continues rural people will be priced off the roads the same as everyone else who isn't rich, so more trains will be needed. And if Nut Zero targets are to be met the Highlands will have to covered in wind turbines etc and all that kit will need transporting. Repopulating the Highlands makes a lot of sense, espeically as for much of history it was inhabited by humans rather than just deer and sheep, so a new line could help this.

If you look carefully at the track at Renens, it looks like SBB are using Maerklin 3 rail in some areas! A bit of research shows that it is monitoring the building site next door - that hoarding on the right hand platform edge is a major building side, and there was a large drilling rig operating within a few feet of the platform when I was there. There was also at least two of those laser theodolite mounted on OHL posts doing their automated checks as well. The view looking back from the end of the platform: The wireless gizmo on the track. https://www.senceive.com/flatmesh-geowan-platforms/flatmesh

Took the opportunity yesterday to explore the far end of the Jura, taking the line to Le Brassus. This involves going to Renens (VD) and then taking the line towards Vallorbe, then changing at Le Day for the single track line to Le Brassus. I hadn't done my homework on the lines, so was a little surprised to find the line to Vallorbe as a full spec double track mainline. The area is rolling countryside below the Jura with limited population so it seemed overkill. However the route through Vallorbe is in fact a primary route into France, with the TGV Lyria running a direct service from Paris to Lausanne through the Tunnel Mont d'Or. The route taken is highlighted, copyright Swisstopo/Swiss Federal Government Renens (Vaud) is at the heart of one of the major intersections of Swiss railways, effectively a large triangle with routes coming west through Lausanne/Bern, north from Geneva and south/east from Vallorbe/France and the Yverdon les Bains/Neuchatel/Biel, with extensive passenger and freight traffic all trying to pass through. SBB is investing heavily in new track, flyovers and other features to deconflict the movements. As mentioned the loop at the Morges yard forms part of this. Next to Renens station at the Lausanne end is a large yard, and shunting in the yard includes movements into the station. 960 017 is just pulling a rail carrying PW train out of the yard into the station Despite being under the wires the 960 had its pant down and diesel engine running. Quite a few Swiss train drivers do seem to like enthusiasts taking photos, and this one was sounding his horn to get my attention and giving lots of waves 🙂 The Robel travelling crane was them moving up and down the train followed by the chap in middle of the picture bashing things with a sledge hammer whilst his colleagues watched! The PW train reversed back into the yard and then the chap on the left got his bigpole out and I assume earthed the OHL? Various other shunting moves went on, with wagins being deposited in the station, and 960 031 turned up with some wagons and unhitched. It has its pant up but was also running its diesel engine...they are bi mode locos for heaving shunting and PW trains. Then up to Le Brassus on a RER service that starts in Aigle, goes through Lausanne, and then splits at Le Day, one 523 EMU reversing up the Le Brassus branch and one continuing to Vallorbe. On the way up to Le Day the open countryside provides a complete panorama of the Alps. Le Brassus is clearly designed with snow in mind, although the Jura mountains get a lot less snow these days. Snow poles were in the car park and showing where the station entrance doors were! The ABt NPZ Domino unit 50 85 39-43 803 runs the shuttle to Vallorbe. Le Brassus as just beyond the end of an attractive lake and located on main traverses by foot, ski and cycle along the Jura. On the line there is an attractive spot at Le Pont on the lake where there is also a small heritage railway that runs steam trains on the line https://www.ctvj.ch/ On the return the Le Brassus service has to wait for the Vallorbe to join up, so I got to photograph one of these. I have seen them from train windows but they were always in remote locations. A SBB mobile substation: I have yet to go to Vallorbe but the line through it into the Tunnel can be seen on the other side of the valley, and there is major PW works going as the extensive range of yellow wagons demonstrates. The WW2 Toblerone anti-tank defences are in the foreground as the Jura were a key part of preventing Switzerland being invaded. The Tunnel Mont d'Or (off to the left) was sealed up during the war. Where the Vallorbe line merges with the Yverdon line towards Renens there is a large La Poste and container depot, so passing shots. Not too long after leaving Renens the 3 wagon Poste train that travels to Geneva mid-afternoon every day passed my train, so I would guess it may originate here. Back in Renens the sun had gone in but shunting continued, Re 6/6 620 075 shunts a single refuse DROPS/roro wagon Then take a busy commuter train back to Geneva.

Hi Gordon The thread is my reports and photos of the contemporary Swiss rail scene as I get out and about, having had the good fortune to move to Geneva. As I radiate out from Geneva I report on what I see, some of which will be beyond Romandie but the bulk is in the area. Hence the "and beyond" in the title. As there is little modelling to report (due to living in a small flat and having a surfeit of OO British outline!) I don't want to clog up the forum with multiple threads. I doubt think it will turn into a major discussion of the Bernina, but it is clear my various trips are of interest and people want to discuss them and find out more for their own trips. Anyone not interested can skip over those bits. Given your late Uncle's extensive photo collection, have you considered a dedicated thread for his pictures, they are clearly an invaluable archive? Best. Tony

The Glacier Express and Bernina Express overlap. The Glacier is run jointly by the two companies and is in fact based in RhB's offices in Chur. So no falling out. The Glacier runs from Zermatt to St Moritz, through Andermatt, and is mountain resort to mountain resort, whereas the Bernina is an RhB only service from Chur to Tirano. If you travel on one Express you will see trains from the other pass by. Both do the Landwasser but the Glacier does not do the Brusio Spiral. The Zermatt section of the Glacier is not covered by the normal SBB Daypass, unlike the whole of the Bernina route. On my yet to be posted trip I did the full Glacier and Bernina route except the Zermatt to Visp section of the Glacier as that was another 50-100 CHF. All of the routes can be done by normal service trains so you don't have to pay the extra - the main benefit of paying the extra is the panoramic coaches. However service trains on the route have large drop down windows that open half way down so you can lean out for photos etc! None of the health and safety worries about decapitation etc here despite the tight tunnels! Here's a couple of pics from my recent trip - and my Bernina Facebook post on the "Swiss Railways" group has had over a 1000 likes 😁, far more than my freight train photos get! All the windows you can see pull down, see handles at the top and photographer at the open window at the rear of the coach - the Brusio Spiral is in the background. They really have designed the train with tourists in mind. Doesn't seem like too many decapitations!

Roco and Fleischmann are part of the same group, both produce high quality model trains in HO and N without using factories in China. They are a well known and successful brand in Europe. I have some of their locos and they are as good as any UK outline model. A particular challenge is Euro loco liveries as there are lots of complex liveries to replicate. The Swiss SBB Re 460 loco class alone has a never ending stream of complex liveries as they use the ribbed loco sides to promote all sorts of things, this being a good example from Roco The Vectron locos are even worse for complex liveries! In 2020 Roco were the no.1 DC analogue model train company in Europe and no.2 in DCC after Marklin. So they seem to be doing very well without Chinese factories. https://www.fleischmann.de/fen/locations https://manufacturing-today.com/news/roco-modelleisenbahn/

Exactly, those in that part of the world need to get their head around the full situation and decide whether supporting a company with a less than stellar safety record and habit of falling out with authorities rather than just doing what is required is in their best interests. I think this situation has the potential to go wrong for them. The essence of the petition is that safety regulations should not be followed due to the impact on the local economy. So essentially they are saying the risk of an innocent tourist being avoidably killed or injured is acceptable relative to the loss of some of the tourist income. Is that the message the tourist businesses of the West of Scotland want to be putting out? Looks like a potential PR disaster in the making to me. We've just seen the mess many simple minded imbeciles have got themselves into commenting about the Princess of Wales being 'awol'. Some of the comments on Change.org are funny, apparently no one ever fell out of a slam door ever...🤣

Class 67's are 125 mph capable are they not, plenty of them around for use?

True, but unplanned departures from aircraft or railway coaches will often lead to similar outcomes. FAA and ORR are essentially trying to achieve the same thing - ensuring that people remain in the vessel/vehicle they started in.

Interesting business strategy. Lost the JR to the ORR with a clear decision that the ORR is correct. The Jacobite contract expires this year and they can't run the service at all at present. Genius. And now a petition has started to try and get a safety regulator to change its position on a serious safety issue that has already been examined by a High Court Judge. The petition is pretty weak effort. Worrying but not surprising in the social media age that people think safety regulations should be determined by a petition signed by amateurs. 🤣 WCRC could try and boost their credibility by publicly disowning the petition as an inappropriate way to respond to the High Court decision, but I'm guessing that won't happen. I also hear that Boeing are watching to see if this petiton works in case they can get one to overrturn the FAA restrictions on 737s.....🤪

Agree, Roco manufacture in Austria, Romania and Vietnam so it can be done. Two more points I'd make, firstly moving away from China is now a strategic security and economic imperative for reasons we all know, so huge efforts are being put in globally to find other locations for things China currently does. Secondly if (big if) Frasers go large with Hornby they have the financial clout and buying power to make things happen that a small cap standalone company like Hornby does not have.

I'm not convinced a group of experienced business people who have built a multi-billion pound business empire and overcome all sorts of problems don't have expertise or access to expertise to overcome difficult challenges like that. As they already have substantial holdings in various white goods, consumer electronic/digital firms they will have a decent overview of related manufacturing and supply chain challenges. And if there aren't the people to do the work how is it the UK model railway business is seeing significant growth and huge outputs of product from new entrants to the market? It also assumes that Hornby's future relies on product made in China. Other model train companies can make high quality models without involving China. It may be prudent to shift to product lines that do not require Chinese manufacturing for financial, delivery and resilience reasons. And sometimes not having the straitjacket of conventional thinking can mean they are better at finding solutions. As a hypothetical, if China as a manufacturing location is a primary strategic problem for the business one might: focus OO gauge models on Railroad which can be made outside of China concentrate Chinese manufacturing capacity of TT:120 if it continues to grow Boost non-Chinese made product lines like Airfix Develop other manufacturing capacity elsewhere This might tie in with a hypothetical market situation - Hornby is facing stiff competition in OO, so is it worth investing time and effort there when Railroad can be rolled out to supermarkets, Game etc with minimal support (unlike say a highly detailed DCC Sound loco which is very supermarket retail unfriendly)? TT:120 has virtually no competition so would be worth, if the numbers stack up, focus Chinese capacity on that by removing OO production and driving that segment since Hornby dominate. Airfix and simpler Corgi products are very retail friendly and again can be made closer to home, offering the chance to boost volume etc withouth the Far Eastern issues. All very simplistic but Frasers know how to get product on shelves and out the door. It may mean breaking some taboos and not doing OO any more but that has to be better than the bakery suggested earlier!!

That is one of the areas that Frasers could bring their expertise to bear and add value. Hornby are still following a core operating model that has not changed in decades, even as competitors enter the market very successfully using other methods.

I agree, making a much better fist of making elements of all the Hornby ranges (whether TT120, Railroad, Corgi, Airfix etc) more mass market and high street/online retail friendly is probably the key and that is what Frasers can help with. Back to those instantly recognisable brands..........properly leveraged and deployed that is where the profits are.

they are playing on the railway, that is the problem.

Nice. If you can plant a director on the board and/or look at the detail ofthe business then that may be enough. I see they have a small stake in Castelnau, all interlinked one way or another....

Hornby is majority owned by Castelnau Group, a closed fund set up by Phoenix. Phoenix are asset managers who are in the business of making money. They acquired the bulk of Hornby around 2017/2018 and put in new management who were from FMCG backgrounds. We all know what happened next.......We are now on the 3rd(?) attempt at getting the business back on a sound financial footing since then. They have not exactly been coining it since acquiring Hornby. Castlenau state that they seek businesses that have: "A demonstrable track record of high and enduring returns on capital employed. Our definition of “high” is an unlevered average of 15% after tax over a full economic cycle. An “economic moat” surrounding the business to protect those returns on capital and ensure they stay high." https://www.castelnaugroup.com/what-we-do Neither of those apply to Hornby. The Castelnau share price has fallen substantially since it was launched and is languishing well below its start price. The bulk of the fund is in the "end of life" business, Dignity. If the big fella wants Hornby and offers a decent price what reason would a fund manager have for retaining a business that has little near term prospect of a substantial return if they are offered cash now? The main issue is how to reinvest the money they would get, but with Ashley already sniffing they will be working on options for that. And even if Hornby have a decent turnaround plan this time it is likely that with Frasers they can do it quicker and better as Frasers have the resources and expertise that Castelnau don't. Also bear in mind that Phoenix did or do (can't get current details of their holdings) have around 7% of Fraser shares in its portfolio (from when it was Sports Direct). So there is existing linkage between the companies. So whilst I agree that we don't know if anything will happen, should Frasers want Hornby I suspect it will just be mostly a formality. Frasers add to their retail and IP portfolio and Castelnau/Phoenix get some sort of return on the Hornby investment.

They will only take on those they think they can beat, even if their attempts are weak and appear to be self-defeating. Warner Bros are a global media empire who can unleash the legal hounds of hell onto a tiddler company like WCRC and crush them without batting an eyelid. ORR as a public body can't do the same. One assumes that WCRC can't really launch any more litigation against ORR at the moment as that would likely mean the exemption process would be put on hold. The funny thing is, with ORR saying it takes about 3 months, and the WCRC being a demonstrably litigious applicant with form for not providing all of the information requested, ORR have good reason to proceed far more carefully than normal, which will probably mean it takes a lot longer than 3 months. That assumes WCRC have submitted a complete application with all the required information.

I don't disagree on the growth in the short term but I question the longevity of that growth given underlying demographics and the economic situation. The likes of Accura are wise to sell to order. The margins are low in comparison to clothing and other high street products. If the margins were competitive and the growth was there the supermarket chains and other high street retailers would be stocking Hornby et al - they will parasitise anything they can make money on at scale. I agree that Phoenix may be hopeful of an exit since I can't see much reason for them to hang onto Hornby as it does not generate cash or capital growth, indeed I suspect their plan has been the hope that someone would buy Hornby for its IP and brands as part of a toy sector consolidation or similar.

Yes, but the key point here is that the actual model train business is likely to be of zero interest to Frasers, it is low growth, low margin, low volume. Unless there is some radical shift in Frasers' strategy away from a multi-billion pound turnover high street and online businesses to doing niches, Frasers' only interest in Hornby is its brands and IP. Frasers are not in the business of running small cap niche firms better. I think it unlikely, but they could go with something like 1andrew1's suggestion of a national rollout of Wonderworks and do something like Simon George with Heaton Lodge and his retail business, but on a much bigger scale, driven by Hornby plc IP. At the obvious risk of being completely wrong, I see no reason for Frasers to have any reason to continue with what most of us would recognise as model trains if they took over Hornby. Probably just some toy trains masquerading as models to preserve the core brand identity. Modern fashion/clothing retail is a fast paced business, high volumes, hugely variable margins, with clothing be able to be designed and on the shelves within days despite coming from overseas. The sports goods are generic manufacture and just branded. Sports Direct is not a Nike turning out cutting edge sports apparel, it is putting known brands on generic stuff. Model trains taking months to design and even longer to get into production and then hit the shelves does not fit that model as far as I can see, especially if the financial returns are not competitive. But we shall see!!

Agree. There seems to be a lack of imagination going on here. Whilst I get the Harry Potter steam engine thing, I have little doubt that an internal and external relivery of a 156 or 153 into a Harry Potter design would be a huge hit in itself. I may be very mistaken here, but I don't think that WCRC have any agreement with Warner Bros over Harry Potter IP. All oftheir blurb is very careful not to say it is licenced or anything to do with Harry Potter, it just says it crosses the bridge used in the films and follows the route, which is factually true and not a breach of Potter IP. The Jacobite is a steam train that happens to look like the Harry Potter one but is not licenced as such. There is no reference to licencing with Warners anywhere I can find on WCRC's website - it would be referenced all over the place if licencing was in place.* Thus Warner Bros have no direct interest in the Jacobite (but would like any adverse publicity to go away I suspect) but they could licence Scotrail to do the Potter equivalent of the SBB Chocolat Express, which I think would be a huge hit. And it is presumably be within the rights of NR/Scotrail to say to WCRC you can't come on the route any more as it will just be a contractual matter. I doubt NR failed to give themselves an exit clause. *happy to be proven wrong!

But you know what a Mk1 is, an old outdated and unsafe by modern standards railway coach. And whatever you may or may not know about Harry Potter, it probably does not get you sufficiently excited to pay for a trip on the Jacobite! For the thousands of punters on the Jacobite it is living the dream of being part of the fantasy world that is Harry Potter. They have no idea about the coach or its safety etc as they are buying the experience. For WCRC that Mk1 is not a railway coach, it is device that can be put into a specific geographical location and linked to some IP that causes it to be filled with paying customers who make a nice profit for the company. That is the business. WCRC know the "business". Whether they know railway safety is another matter.

Their business model is to acquire undervalued/underperforming companies or those that are in administration that fit with the wider group business. Hence lots of clothing and retail brands. They will essentially strip out the underperforming parts and sweat the valuable bits. This is often the brand and IP, as the day to day of selling clothes etc is the bit that is not profitable. So they take the brand and IP, get rid of those bits that aren't efficient/profitable and integrate it with existing operations and Fraser expertise in manufacturing, marketing, logistics, sales etc. They are not afraid to take a punt and have lost money on occasions, they accept that as the nature of an aggressive approach. If you are a business person used to the high volumes and potential profits of high street fashion retail etc then would you see TT:120 or indeed model trains as a high profit or growth opportunity? No. But you would see a cheap, essentially unprofitable company with larges amounts of valuable IP in well known toy brands (Hornby, Corgi, Airfix etc) as things that could be leveraged by putting them with more generic toy business activities. Ashley and co, for example, bought their way into a strong position in the outdoor leisure market over a number of years buying the likes of Karrimor, Blacks etc. Karrimor was once a leading UK outdoor equioment manufacturer, and is now basically a brand on generic low cost outdoor kit sold in Sports Direct. Blacks were a failing outdoor retailer but allowed them to consolidate market share in that sector, and they already had expertise in dealing with surplus retail property etc so fitted well into their existing activities. So if Frasers see Hornby as an opportunity, history suggests that making model trains may nor be part of that future as they are unemotional about the brands, and if they continue with model trains it will be an operation that fits with their existing low cost, high volume, high street focused approach. Basically the sort of trains (and Corgi models and Airfix kits) you'd buy in the model equivalent of Sports Direct. Can't see them wanting to keep the international brands, they will be sold off. Obviously this is informed speculation but the concept of Frasers seeing model trains as a significant business opportunity to invest millions in is almost zero.