Cambrian Models - Ownership change Autumn 2017

[grt]

If all goes to plan (and there is no reason why it should not) Cambrian Models will transfer to me on 20th October. Its new home will be with Cambrian Model Rail in Kent. I have been a modeller since my teens and trained as a Chemical Engineer at Nottingham University where I learnt the theory of plastic injection moulding. Now I get the chance to put it into practice. This is a new venture but I have been well trained by the existing owners. Further details can be found at cambrianmodelrail.co.uk. There will be a new onlne shop from Monday 23rd October with direct ordering and prompt delivery. Unfortunately there may be some initial supply issues as the existing owners Barry and Jean have had to deal with a rush of panic buying and some large trade orders so they will not be handing over much stock. With over 100 kits and components it will take me a few weeks to build up stocks to sustainable levels. That said a lot of the stockists will have good availability.

 

It is my intention to continue to develop the range. As my initial focus will be on manufacture I am in discussion with Barry about commissioning new moulds from him for models he has talked about producing but has not had the time to develop. What do people want?

I will continue to do exhibitions although exactly which ones is still to be decided. Chatham is fairly certain.

 

I have managed to secure insurance for product liability in North America. This is not as simple as some correspondents to other threads on RMWeb seem to think. They have confused the liability of retailers with that of manufacturers. Ultimately it is the manufacturer who carries the can if a customer sues for damage or injury caused by a faulty product. Customers might claim against the retailer but their insurance company will just pass it down the line to the manufacturers insurance company (like in a car accident if the other party is to blame) and if the manufacturer does not have sufficient insurance cover then they are directly liable. So if other retailers have supplied Cambrian products to N America against Cambrian Models wishes then it makes a field day for the lawyers if someone makes a claim. I have worked with 3 reputable and experienced Insurance Brokers to try and get the insurance I want. All had difficulty in persuading Underwriters to provide cover for sales to N America at a cost that did not exceed the likely value of the sales themselves. Even then one quote had a compulsory excess  which was 8 times that for UK sales. Even with the firm I have got insurance from I have to sign a declaration that my sales to N America do not exceed a certain level. Breach of this clause will invalidate all my insurance. UK Insurance Companies have been badly burned by the astronomical compensation claims awarded by some American Courts and any business (Retailer or Manufacturer) that does not take sensible insurance precautions is taking a big risk.

 

I look forward to doing business with you all.

Graham Taylor

[Kelly]

Great news Graham.

 

It is great news that the range will continue and I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing you every success with it.

 

Development of the range will I'm sure also be welcome.

[Mike Storey]

Very best wishes to you for the success of your venture. I certainly have a list of further kits I will need from the existing range, in 00, bit also the possibilities of 16mm accessories.

 

If you are asking for suggestions for new models in 00, and the fact that you are based in Kent, can I suggest that you look at the possibility of a kit for the JXA/POA Sheerness Steel 102t scrap bogie 31xx series wagon bodies? Several manufacturers have dismissed this previously, stating they would have trouble with the integrity of the long bodyshell, but several RTR releases over the past several years for various Network Rail equivalent wagons, demonstrate this is not the problem it once was.

 

Schlieren bogies are now available from another source, and PROCOR transfers are also now available, with the main Sheerness Steel wording easily applied by use of Letraset which produces the exact font. Body colour approximates to a shade of Ford light blue. The only body from which an equivalent could be bashed, has now been discontinued. The wagons timescale stretches from 1981to the present day, and they could and can be seen pretty much nationwide, which suggests a reasonably large potential market. It seems an opportune time.

 

I know it will take a while to consolidate what you will already have, back into production, so any new product will be some time off.

 

Meanwhile, best of luck!

[cheesysmith]

Be careful what you post, you may start a uncontrolled wish list. Then we will have to post a froth alert.

 

Saying that, what do I want (being a avid kit builder).

 

More one piece bogies (FTB6 please. Need 20 pairs).

 

How about the big bogie box wagons made using used tanker bits (one piece bogies as spares for use under Hornby tanks).

 

I have other ideas, for kits I would by in multiples, but they will do to start with.

 

Improvements to the present kits?  Replace the multi piece buffers with one piece ones, moulded along the sprue, like the old airfix tank wagons. These are easier to trim than those moulded flat, with the tabs on the side of the buffers (the only complaint I have with parkside kits). How about including a mould with the brake pipes, as none of the kits come with them. Retain the slits in the buffer beams sized for smiths hooks.

 

This from a man who is building 10 turbot wagons at the mo.

[Daniel W]

Thank you for keeping us informed Graham, best of luck with the venture. As for potencial kits, I would be very pleased to see a completion of the LMS Roadstone wagon kit that Mr Parks made a start on. If we are talking more long term, I would dearly love a kit for the LMS 'Sole' ballast wagon, another kit that was mooted by Cambrian at some point. Certainly a long-lived vehicle that survived well into the 70's in some parts of the country.

 

Best Regards

 

Dan

[HillsideDepot]

To echo what others have said, this is great news, and I wish you well with your new venture.

 

As for ideas, a vote for the Diagram 1/420 15 ton timber wagon which has been lurking on the Cambrian website for a while as future kit C112, please. 

[Jol Wilkinson]

Be careful what you post, you may start a uncontrolled wish list. Then we will have to post a froth alert.

 

Surely a foregone conclusion with most modelling topics on RMweb, especially where OO or RTR are involved. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Congratulations Graham, you are indeed a brave man, I'm glad to see the range hasn't disappeared into a South Western or Eastern black hole as some have done.

With your injection moulding experience, does this hint at better fidelity in the mouldings, or maybe even a change in material to a more solid resilient polymer?

As for a wish list, I'm just happy my future supply of Sturgeons is secured, and presumably Harry and Andrea will be breathing a sigh of relief.

 

Mike.

[iak]

Excellent stuff.

I await the future with fresh optimism.

Would spare parts be available for us "bashers...?"

[cheesysmith]

The question of what to do next, as asked above, got me thinking.

 

As a kit manufacturer, do you go for the more unusual prototypes with limited sales potential but less likely to be copied by the big RTR boys?

 

Or do you go for the more common wagons, with the chance of the likes of horbachpol releasing it RTR?

 

Or with the prices now of even normal basic RTR wagons, is there a market for a kit to compete directly with RTR? With the price of a 2 axle wagon heading for £25+ and bogie wagons £40+ how much value do people put on their own time? IE-would people buy a kit in direct competition with a RTR model if the kit was half the price of the RTR version? Myself, I would as the building of wagon kits is something I do to relax and being a tight Yorkshire man with short arms and deep pockets, the savings are worth it (plus it's better building a kit than watching some of the garbage on TV). A answer to this might be in the present wagon range. How have the sales of the dogfish (not the easiest wagon to build or get a true running chassis, but can be done) been affected by the Heljan RTR version?

 

A question to all the modellers out there. Would you buy a kit of the humble HAA wagon, with it being able to use correct sized wheels, at a price of £13? About half what Hornby wants for its RTR version even with its errors?

[Fat Controller]

This is very good news, Graham: I shall try and get an order together soon. 

[Guy Rixon]

I'm very glad that you've saved the current range of kits and wish you every success.

 

Concerning new kits, the current range has some late pre-group but very little for early pre-group; i.e. wagons running 1900-1910 (yes, the PO wagons, but almost none of the railway-company wagons). This could be an opportunity. There might also be a market for some L&Y wagons. Finally, how about a really good kit for a GWR open c. 1900? It would replace the unavailable and compromised Coopercraft kits.

[Fat Controller]

To echo what others have said, this is great news, and I wish you well with your new venture.

 

As for ideas, a vote for the Diagram 1/420 15 ton timber wagon which has been lurking on the Cambrian website for a while as future kit C112, please. 

If a way could be found for axleguards to be separate from solebars, the underframe might be used for the fitted Plate wagon; I corresponded with Barry about this some time ago, and he said it might be feasible.

[Brassey]

I understood from Barry that he was developing some LNWR wagons.  It would be good to see these in production.

[cheesysmith]

Going through my library, from illustrated history of BR wagons, vol 1 (and only), and railway wagon plans, i have found some interesting ideas for future kits.

 

We have the pig irons UPO.

 

Bogie bolster E BEV (a back dating of the turbot, the opposite of what happened in real life).

 

The MVA conversions of BBAs.

 

JUA/JTA/PTAs.

 

JNA-GERS.

 

JRA.

 

PXA.

 

POA/PXA scrap steel bogie wagons.

 

The last four all use bogies from tank wagons. The UPO would require a new model, the BEV would need  a new body for the turbot, and the PTA a complete new model. The big bogie box wagons are one missing model that can be seen nationwide. 

[Edwardian]

Congratulations.

 

I would second the vote for LNWR designs. 

 

Another suggestion would be 9'6" w/b  5 planks, as used by the GNR, GER and GCR and produced en masse from the 1880s through to the 1900s. 

 

Or, some older wagon designs from Southern constituents, building upon the excellent new LSWR van.

 

Or, RCH 1887 POs. 

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Its nice to put a name to the buyer, welcome and all the best, I certainly hope that the company certainly continues as it has done and in time possibly add some more items to the range. Congratulations to you Graham and all the best with the company at least it's still around.

[County of Yorkshire]

Great news about the continuation of the range, and my anxiety about non-availability has greatly diminished - still don't regret cleaning Peter's Spares out of all of their GWR/Cambrian Railways kits however! 

 

How about a GWR Crocodile of a different length/style to the Mainline/Bachmann RTR one? Something like a Crocodile F to complement the reheated Bachmann Crocodile H?

 

CoY

[Bernard Lamb]

Good news.

I have found the mix and match idea on the various bogie bolster wagons a great help in providing me with an easy route to other diagrams.

Good to know that this will continue.

As for the US product liability insurance. I hope you have done the right thing and that the sales do justify the cost.

Bernard )

[John M Upton]

I've bookmarked the new website and await developments with interest.  Good luck!!

[johnarcher]

I'm very glad that you've saved the current range of kits and wish you every success.

 

Concerning new kits, the current range has some late pre-group but very little for early pre-group; i.e. wagons running 1900-1910 (yes, the PO wagons, but almost none of the railway-company wagons). This could be an opportunity. There might also be a market for some L&Y wagons. Finally, how about a really good kit for a GWR open c. 1900? It would replace the unavailable and compromised Coopercraft kits.

I agree with all that. It would be even nicer if Cambrian could replace a few more of the lost Coopercraft GW wagons (obviously they'd be better too).

[Steamport Southport]

I agree with making a newer version, but it was Ratio that made the GWR Open C....

 

 

Very good news. It seems that I don't have to panic buy then.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Siberian Snooper]

Graham,

 

I wish you every success in this venture. I am currently awaiting fresh supplies of the Herring after reading the article in the MRJ on back dating them. Any Pre-group wagons are to be welcomed and a decent GW toad kit, would be the icing on the cake.

[MJI]

Looking at the needs for my PW section I do not have to panic buy rail carriers.

 

One thing though woul dbe worth looking at as Cambrian produced so many departmental wagons. (I have Sealion, Dogfish, Mermaid Shark at the moment)

 

The small track laying cranes fitted to Sturgeons.

 

Not sure how many types, but seem them fitted to a few Sturgeons.

[MJI]

Also Salmon, I would have 3 with cranes

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsalmon5ft/h78bf10c#h78bf10c

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsturgeon/h11e5f11f#h1a75fe51

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsturgeon/h11e5f11f#h11e5f11f

 

The top one is on my want list as I noted down the set

 

Not a wagon but something to fit to your newly aquired range of departmentals

 

My departmentals 90% Cambrian

My ABs 50% Cambrian

My VBs 35% Airfix, 40% Parkside

 

I like plastic wagon kits!