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British Model Railway Awards 2016 - results and winners


Andy Y

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2016 gave Hornby a massive popularity turnaround producing a winner in every OO gauge category, bar one plus the coveted overall manufacturer of the year title. Graham Farish held strong in the N gauge categories winning all but one. Dapol’s Class 08 model won the O gauge locomotive category by a huge margin and contributed to it winning this year’s O gauge manufacturer of the year showing that accessibly priced O gauge has a market.

 

2016 has also proved significant with two new names winning categories; Revolution Trains TEA tank wagon taking the honours for the best N gauge rolling stock and Rapido Trains and Locomotion taking top place in the OO Modern Traction category with their model of the APT-E showing the comparative agility of smaller suppliers. Modellers have been vocal for some time about having better looking OO gauge track readily available and so it is no surprise to see Peco’s new Code 75 bullhead track as a popular winner.

 

Many BRM readers will be familiar with John Holden’s magnificent Liverpool Lime Street layout and it’s great to see this won the popular vote for favourite layout. For a second year Hatton’s Model railways have won the vote for the Retail Customer Service award as has UK Model Shops for the most popular website and Warley National Model Railway Exhibition again taking the title of show of the year. A special award decided by a panel is for the Young Modeller of the Year with the first award made to Will Horsley who goes by the name of hornbyandbf3fan on RMweb.

 

A record number of just over 3,200 modellers participated this year; thank you to everyone who took time to cast their votes and publicise the poll and thank you to the manufacturers who took time to respond and thank the voters; I know the awards mean a lot to some of them each year.

 

N Gauge Results

 

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Bachmann Europe's managing director, David Haarhaus said "“We are of course delighted to gain recognition for all the hard work that has gone into our Graham Farish models over a great many years. N Scale is now a very credible option for layout builders and collectors around the world. We are also pleased to see the modest amount of new Branchline tooling has rated very well, and are happy to see Hornby, our hobbies most public brand, enjoy a first success. We shall work harder to bring our collectors many more new items in 2017, with the recent release of the OO Stanier Mogul being the first of many!”

 

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On winning the N gauge rolling stock award with their first product Mike Hale and Ben Ando of Revolution trains said "We are thrillled, surprised and grateful to all who voted for us, and the Revolution TEA tanker. We could not have done it without the committment and manufacturing skillls of Rapido and the support of our fellow model railway enthusiasts. It is especially gratifying that their votes carried this model to victory, as it tells us in the clearest way possible that we have justified their faith in us and our way of seeing crowdfunded models through from launch to delivery."
 
 
OO Gauge Results
 
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Jason Shron of Rapido Trains was obviously delighted with the outcome of the OO Modern Traction category, "Everyone at Rapido is completely blown away by this. We have worked very hard with our partners LocomotionModels.com and Revolution Trains to bring out our first British outline models, and we are over the moon that the UK modelling community has given both of our models "best in class". Considering that Bill and Jason are a Yank and a Canuck, this is very high praise indeed. (In Canada, we would say "Beauty goal, eh?" And we're talking ice hockey, of course. There isn't any other sport over here that matters.)
 
But actually what excites us the most about these results is that OO gauge modellers have voted us NUMBER THREE! To come out of nowhere and be next in line behind the two biggest names in the British model railway industry is a huge accomplishment for what is a very small company. We sell in a year what the big boys sell in a couple of weeks.
 
So thank you to the British modelling public for your enormous support and encouragement. We will do our best to continue to exceed your expectations and bring out the best British models that we possibly can."
 
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Hornby can be justifiably proud of the performance in the OO gauge categories, “We’re over the moon. We had a hunch that the Peckett might feature, but to get 5 awards is fantastic.
It’s been a very challenging 12 months for the business, yet to receive this, it is testament to all the hard work and dedication put in by the whole team. A big thank you to everyone that voted, and roll on 2017, we’ve more to come yet!”
 
O Gauge Results
 
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Congratulations to Dapol and Heljan on their successes.
 
Innovation and Overall Manufacturer Awards
 
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Congratulations to Hornby on taking the overall Manufacturer of the Year title, Bachmann have congratulated Hornby on this but I know they'll be wanting to get back up to top spot as these awards feature in Kader's annual reports and there's a line of certificates in Bachmann's reception. Peco have shown that there is a strong interest in improved OO track and I look forward to seeing this in use on layouts.
 
Retail Customer Service award, Layout of the year, Website of the year and Exhibition of the Year
 
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The Retail award means a lot to Hattons too as it's about service, not just volume, "We feel very humbled and honoured to have won this award two years in a row. The whole team at Hatton's would like to thank all of our customers who have taken the time to vote and support us. 2016 has been a busy and exciting year for us, with more than 62,000 telephone calls answered, our 70th anniversary, our move to Widnes, and continued efforts to improve of our online operation. This award is a great start to 2017, and we look forward to another exciting year of railway modelling."
 
For a second year UK Model Shops Directory wins the website award as does Warley National Exhibition, both popular choices.
 
I am delighted to see voters placed John Holden's 'Liverpool Lime Street; first in the Layout of the Year. I know the guys are busy at Glasgow as I write this. If you're at the show I'm sure you will enjoy seeing the immense amount of work which has gone into the layout.
 
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Young Modeller of the Year award
 
Finally I would like to congratulate Will Horsley, hornbyandbf3fan as he is on RMweb, who came top in a panel vote for the first run of this award.
 
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Well done to ALL the manufacturers for making our job of deciding which is best in each vote so difficult.

 

I suspect that if RMweb was allowed to enter the website vote it would come very high in the rankings, so thank you to Andy York and the rest of his team.

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The fact that Hornby got 55% of votes in OO gauge steam is a testament to the quantity and quality of what they are doing in this section of the industry. I am also very pleased to see TrackShack come 4th in the Retailer' section, due to its current small size it will never get the number of votes that the big 3 get, but its position shows the real quality of service they provide!

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Congratulations to all the winners.  Well done.  :sungum:  :sungum:

 

As an aside, perhaps its our age profile, or something else, but the "OO Gauge Modern Traction" winners are of prototypes first introduced 45 to 69 years ago.

 

APT-E  Built 1972

 

Class 71  Built from 1958-1960

 

 

Wicckham Trolley  Built 1948 - 1990

 

 

(Dates from Wikipedia)

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As an aside, perhaps its our age profile, or something else, but the "modern Traction" winners are of prototypes at least 40 years ago:

 

 

I couldn't call it the D&E category this year; a gas turbine, a petrol engine and an electric with booster flywheel.

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Well Done Hornby!

Really demonstrates Hornby can deliver at the top of the industry when things go right for them! More of the same please (and get the rest of the range up to a similar build/decoration quality as the award-winning newly tooled stuff)

 

And well done everyone else (OO) - very strong fields in all categories.

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I was astonished when Rapido first thought of doing a model of E-Train when Jason first contacted Paul Leadley and I to help them some years ago now. Both of us had figured no-one would EVER make an 00 model of the Train.

 

And now it goes and wins the Model of the Year Award!  :good:

 

I'm feeling well chuffed, and many thanks to all who voted for it.  :D

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Really good to see Hornby getting these awards, considering the problems they have had it is a magnificent achievement by all concerned. The standard of their models coming out now is absolutely superband puts them right back at the top where they belong.

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Well done to the layout owners too - The one I voted for didn't come first, but Liverpool Lime St certainly is a head turner.  My wife just looked at the pic and said "that's just a picture of a real station passed off as a model".  Says it all really.  But then she said the same about the one I voted for, which is on the opposite side of the country, and is set a tad later.

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Excellent results for Hornby and great to see Rapido establish themselves in the polls - well done the newcomers.

 

Like '45156'  I also voted for a layout on the dry side but Lime Street was a very worthy winner.  The votes for exhibitions are interesting - do they reflect the numbers who attend or is there more to it than that I wonder?

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