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Hornby - New tooling - Large Prairie


Andy Y
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2 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

I'll just leave this here.

 

http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/gwr_41xx_51xx_61xx_2-6-2t.htm

 

You could have built one since the last time somebody actually mentioned a GWR Prairie in this thread….

 

 

 

Jason

What? 6 hours, that's pretty good going.

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Without upsetting anyone's teddy, it would seem that a significant delay (an undefined delay) would open the door for the Dapol Prairie. 

 

I did see a bright red & yellow box at Tescos Westwood this morning, but it was a pizza carton....

 

Cheese & tomato, with extra froth....

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8 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

In which case, depending on any insurance for or retrieval of the tooling or partially completed locos, sounds like Hornby might have to start again elsewhere, and it could be a long wait.
 

Quite so but having, yesterday, read the 'RM' item referring to the factory closure it does not - as already noted in an earlier post - link it to manufacture of the prairie but only to the 'Merchant Navy' (now due in June) and the Pecketts and Azumas.  The prairie is noted as due to arrive in january so it still has a fair chunk of the coming two weeks to 'arrive on time' if that date is correct.  But of course other information upthread says that date has changed to 'Spring'.

 

There is I suppose a possibility that the RM's generally high standard of written English might not reflect a less accurate use of the language by somebody at Hornby, and Spring does of course extend into almost the first three weeks of June.  I think all we can (hopefully?) conclude is that it will be here when it finally arrives.

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1 hour ago, tomparryharry said:

Without upsetting anyone's teddy, it would seem that a significant delay (an undefined delay) would open the door for the Dapol Prairie. 

I doubt it would help. From what can be seen, they are still at CAD stage. CADs which, from first sight by many much more qualified than me to comment, said they would need completely redoing to correctly capture the detail. 

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The Chinese government is closing down large numbers of factories in an attempt to please the west with reduced pollution levels. In addition there is a shift with the workforce from manufacturing to service type businesses. Deja vu from the west. The workers want a better life and are reluctant to do the dirty jobs when nice clean office jobs, offer better pay (increased by over 40% in just a few years), hours and working conditions. My wife has just returned from Beijing reports over 1,000 factories are now closed compared to last year. Beijing wants rid of all traditional, factories to become a centre of high tech companies and increase the university capacity. Nearly 20,000 new factory applications have been turned down by Beijing authorities. The cheap Chinese based is disappearing fast. On the bright side, as an alternative to closure, there appears to be a trend to relocate industries to other areas. Theory is, it will discourage some of population wanting to move to the big cities.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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1 hour ago, Hilux5972 said:

I doubt it would help. From what can be seen, they are still at CAD stage. CADs which, from first sight by many much more qualified than me to comment, said they would need completely redoing to correctly capture the detail. 

 

Well, yes, I'd 'almost' agree with your post.  If you re-read my post correctly, I've mentioned an (undefined' delay. As there is no factual time to this, everything is pure conjecture. If Hornby are unable to fulfill the desire to have a fidelity prairie, then it would mean others, such as Dapol, could, conceivably, pick up the pieces.

 

Still, the pre-production models looked good, so we shouldn't be too hasty in writing anyone off just yet. I've just bought a Dapol prairie kit off 'Bay, where's me glue.....

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Veering alarmingly back towards topic, I’m surprised that the Hornby website still only shows the CADs of the model and not the samples that were on the stall at Warley.  I also wonder the extent to which sales of the bow ended suburban stock have been impacted by the delay to the prairies.

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3 hours ago, Clearwater said:

Veering alarmingly back towards topic, I’m surprised that the Hornby website still only shows the CADs of the model and not the samples that were on the stall at Warley.  I also wonder the extent to which sales of the bow ended suburban stock have been impacted by the delay to the prairies.

 

Wasn't these coaches on a phased introduction?

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8 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

 

..

4 hours ago, Clearwater said:

 I also wonder the extent to which sales of the bow ended suburban stock have been impacted by the delay to the prairies.

 

Probably not by much; the bowenders have been an instant hit.  No doubt the 5101 was conceived as the loco to 'go with' them, as was Airfix's 14xx to go with their auto trailer, and Baccy's 64xx to go with theirs.  But there are plenty of other possibilities for London or Birmingham area suburban sets, from panniers to Halls, and they are similar enough in appearance to the Bristol and South Wales area sets to be used by modellers interested in those places as well.  I have a couple working incorrectly on Cwmdimbath, and am delighted with them; they are just too good to leave in the shop given the rocking horse doo doo availability of alternatives!

 

The ex-Airfix E140 B set is not a viable alternative, being used on branch rather than suburban work and having parcels capacity to match.  A 4 coach 'suburban' train of 2 B sets has far too much space devoted to parcels and mail to be viable on a a proper suburban route where seats for fare-paying bums to sit on are at a premium.

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Hornby Magazine have just posted a video interview with Simon Kohler on Youtube.

 

In it they ask about the delays to the Pecket; Merchant Navy and Azuma, to which he replied that a factory was being moved to the North of the country and that orders had been stuck as a result. No mention was made of the Prairie.

 

He assured that some orders had been placed elsewhere, while the ones staying with the "closed" factory would be coming through very soon.

 

That looked as if it was filmed at the 2020 launch event at Margate in December, so presumably the "Spring" delivery date is on target.... To be continued no doubt!

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7 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

In it they ask about the delays to the Pecket; Merchant Navy and Azuma, to which he replied that a factory was being moved to the North of the country and that orders had been stuck as a result. No mention was made of the Prairie.

 

He assured that some orders had been placed elsewhere, while the ones staying with the "closed" factory would be coming through very soon.

 

Which may be optimistic, so I guess time will tell.

 

Rapido have somewhat documented their move of one factory to a different place and the problems that happened in the following couple of years in getting the factory up to speed (if I recall correctly, hiring / training a new workforce and the issues of being separated from all the related infrastructure - the tooling shops, etc.).

 

Worth it in the long run, but a bit of a rough road in getting product out on schedule for the first year or so.

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23 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

The Chinese government is closing down large numbers of factories in an attempt to please the west with reduced pollution levels. In addition there is a shift with the workforce from manufacturing to service type businesses. Deja vu from the west. The workers want a better life and are reluctant to do the dirty jobs when nice clean office jobs, offer better pay (increased by over 40% in just a few years), hours and working conditions. My wife has just returned from Beijing reports over 1,000 factories are now closed compared to last year. Beijing wants rid of all traditional, factories to become a centre of high tech companies and increase the university capacity. Nearly 20,000 new factory applications have been turned down by Beijing authorities. The cheap Chinese based is disappearing fast. On the bright side, as an alternative to closure, there appears to be a trend to relocate industries to other areas. Theory is, it will discourage some of population wanting to move to the big cities.

 

Mike Wiltshire

I thought that model train manufacture was pretty much entirely done in Guangdong Province, like most of the rest of the Chinese toy industry?

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1 hour ago, eldomtom2 said:

I thought that model train manufacture was pretty much entirely done in Guangdong Province, like most of the rest of the Chinese toy industry?

Shenzen seems to be the major manufacturing hub, a city that 40 years ago didn't really exist and is now heading towards a megalopolis.

 

Makes Hong Kong look under populated.:jester:

Edited by melmerby
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On 19/01/2020 at 09:24, Coach bogie said:

The Chinese government is closing down large numbers of factories in an attempt to please the west with reduced pollution levels.

Model railway manufacturing is not a big emitter of either pollution or CO2.

 

On 20/01/2020 at 08:40, eldomtom2 said:

I thought that model train manufacture was pretty much entirely done in Guangdong Province, like most of the rest of the Chinese toy industry?

True - and why Rapido moved further afield with their new factory - to Chengdu if I remember correctly. (I haven't looked it up to check.)

 

On 20/01/2020 at 07:59, mdvle said:

Rapido have somewhat documented their move of one factory to a different place and the problems that happened in the following couple of years in getting the factory up to speed (if I recall correctly, hiring / training a new workforce and the issues of being separated from all the related infrastructure - the tooling shops, etc.).

 

 

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On 07/01/2019 at 14:19, Miss Prism said:

post-133-0-78753100-1546870621.png

 

I do not expect Hornby to make this kind of elementary mistake.

 

 

This is my first read of this thread having been prompted by by an update from Hattons to look first at the thread on Dapol's Prairies and then for comparison here.

 

I've studied this diagram and, apart from the coupling rod being at different places in its rotation, I can't see any difference between the two. I've no doubt you've explained this at some point but I tried to find it and failed.  Could you do so again, please?

 

Thanks in anticipation. 

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26 minutes ago, Footy said:

I can't see any difference between the two.

The horizontal line drawn through the cross head is above the centre of the axles in the top one.

 

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Ah, OK. I thought the 2.5 inches reference was significant but to me the datum lines looked the same in both.  Must be my ageing eyesight! 

 

So in 4mm that's a difference just shy of a millimetre.  As  I'm still running an original Airfix 61xx - well at least as original as Trigger's broom - I can live with that.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

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Just been watching the Platform 1 blog from Hattons and asked the question of availability for the Priarie.

 

Apparently the most recent information that Hattons have is around Easter tbc.

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4 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Just been watching the Platform 1 blog from Hattons and asked the question of availability for the Priarie.

 

Apparently the most recent information that Hattons have is around Easter tbc.

Which is somebody having some remarkably ambitious ideas about and knowledge of the situation in China.  If you allow the usual shipping period from China it means the locos left the factory this week, or allowing for Hornby distribution probably last week, and i sincerely doubt both if what we are hearing about China is correct.   Of course it might be that the left before CNY which would have them being distributed a couple of weeks before Easter.

 

In reality i suspect it might have been a typical Hattons answer,   i.e. say what you think the customer would like to hear. 

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