BBC Four - James May's Big Trouble in Model Britain

[RJS1977]

20 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Sorry to go wildly off topic, I apologise in advance.

 

I live not far from a town which once a had an excellent model railway shop (Eames) - it closed years ago because of retirements and the ending of the lease in order to redevelop the site.  in the past decade the town has seen both of its remaining model shops close - Modelzone because of the failure of the chain and a local concern Hobby Centre for whatever reason but most likely renewal of the lease and perhaps falling sales (it stocked very little Hornby and no other model railway stuff).  Our local model shop closed several years ago following flooding damage from the flat above and the insurance assessors refusing the full claim, it sold Hornby and Bachmann, nothing else.

 

In the past 5 years one new shop, selling Hornby and Bachmann, has opened 5 miles away and seems thus far to be prospering while another new model shop (I don't know if it does model railways?) has opened about 12 miles away.  So in the past decade 3 local(ish) shops have gone and two have opened.

 

Sorry to not be quoting names of various studies or whatever retail trade 'experts' happen to be spluttering (some experts in my experience tend to splutter, or maybe that should be splatter us with statistics)u but I can only talk about things I'm directly aware of. 

 

Now can we please get back to the subject of the thread?

 

I presume the 5 miles away shop is the Dolls House and Models shop - which is the 12 miles away shop?

 

In recent years we've also lost Henley Models & Miniatures (albeit more racing cars etc than trains) and Hunts of Marlow has stopped stocking model railways. John Wilcox has also 'retired' from selling secondhand in the Harris Arcade although there's still a small residual stock there.

[Edwardian]

Well, I logged on to see how things were on the 'topic that just keeps giving', but, despite the previous post being an hour ago, it had disappeared from the Hornby section:

 

 

Turns out, there is an Ignore Topic function, which, if you click it (as I evidently accidentally did) makes the topic disappear from the list.

 

Spooky!

 

New RMWeb still holds some surprises ....  

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by Edwardian

[woodenhead]

Ignore has always been a part of RMWeb forum options, used to use it on some never ending diatribes

[woodenhead]

11 hours ago, JSpencer said:

The only business plan which worked (savings plus redundancy pay) that could eventually provide a decent wage, was doing a start up manufacturing RTR. I would need to spend nearly 2 years getting the product developed (no crowd funding here - that was worthless too), so would need to finance my life until the product was delivered and ready for sale. 

How about a 66 and a Terrier as your first models 

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Ignore has always been a part of RMWeb forum options, used to use it on some never ending diatribes

 

Well, I never knew that!

 

Thanks

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, woodenhead said:

How about a 66 and a Terrier as your first models 

 

Yep, every range should have them!

[truffy]

14 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Ignore has always been a part of RMWeb forum options, used to use it on some never ending diatribes

 

Problem is that it doesn't really work properly; never has, even in the previous version.

 

You can stop a topic from showing in the forum that it's in, but new posts will still show the forum to be unread in the next level up etc.

Edited March 19, 2019 by truffy

[woodenhead]

6 minutes ago, truffy said:

 

Problem is that it doesn't really work properly; never has, even in the previous version.

 

You can stop a topic from showing in the forum that it's in, but new posts will still show the forum to be unread in the next level up etc.

This is becoming one of those threads to ignore   Forty pages in, we had one meander on AR/VR and through me a little trip back to the end of WW2 now we're on the second regarding forum functions.

 

So here is a picture of a long lost favourite

 

[RedgateModels]

On 19/03/2019 at 10:21, woodenhead said:

So here is a picture of a long lost favourite

 

 

Same set that I had, now with replacement later black cab fronts and added buffet car ...

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by RedgateModels

[John M Upton]

I was talking to the wife last night as we watched part two on the iPlayer and we reckoned sadly the APT moulds were probably among the casualties of the mould scrapping disaster.

[Phil Parker]

12 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

I was talking to the wife last night as we watched part two on the iPlayer and we reckoned sadly the APT moulds were probably among the casualties of the mould scrapping disaster.

 

You need to tell Hornby then because (as I've said before) when I talked to the top team, they didn't know what was scrapped. It seems no-one kept a list. If you can divine one from a TV show, your skills would be invaluable!

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, RJS1977 said:

 

I presume the 5 miles away shop is the Dolls House and Models shop - which is the 12 miles away shop?

 

In recent years we've also lost Henley Models & Miniatures (albeit more racing cars etc than trains) and Hunts of Marlow has stopped stocking model railways. John Wilcox has also 'retired' from selling secondhand in the Harris Arcade although there's still a small residual stock there.

The other one is in maidenhead which appears to be still going.  But don't forget there is also one in Basingstoke so accessible by public transport and Paul' shop in Alton is excellent although it's an hour's drive fore me but i regard it as 'my local model railway shop' and it provides excellent service as Paul has carried on in the same way as his father, Bob built up the business.  And of course there will shortly be a branch of Kernow only a train ride away in Guildford.

 

The Henley shop was one I listed in my 'lost' number although unfortunately it was forced to close for reasons that had little to do with its sales which were fairly healthy and supported very much by the diecast car side of his trade.  Least said about the bloke in Harris Arcade the better in my view and I hardly regarded his secondhand 'toys and collectibles'  business as a model shop. 

 

But overall things have changed and Reading has seen a succession of businesses selling model railway items go over the past 40 years, but only Modelzone among their number in the past 10 years,  and not be followed by new ones because retail rents and costs in the town are so high.  It v almost acquired a new one not long back but I advised the interested person that although the location looked good on paper the reality was very different and i would be concerned about security as well as the lack of parking.

 

Sorry for getting all parochial

[Edwardian]

20 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

This is becoming one of those threads to ignore   Forty pages in, we had one meander on AR/VR and through me a little trip back to the end of WW2 now we're on the second regarding forum functions.

 

 

 

Well, true, and sorry for the forum functionality digression.

 

Most people here who are going to watch it have probably done so by now and will, therefore, have given their reactions to it already. 

 

Great bit of TV and great - insightful and well-tempered -  discussion.

 

What we really needed was a format like Kevin McCloud's Grand Delusions, in which he comes back several years later to see how they've done.  You know the thing "throughout this project I've feared that Simon and Lyndon had been far too ambitious, and the last minute change of direction with a new Terrier could have so easily ended in disaster, but now, over-budget and years late though the project is, I have to say ...." 

[chris p bacon]

12 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

What we really needed was a format like Kevin McCloud's Grand Delusions, in which he comes back several years later to see how they've done.  

 

Yes, but half way through the project someone has to get pregnant.....

Over to you....

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

I was talking to the wife last night as we watched part two on the iPlayer and we reckoned sadly the APT moulds were probably among the casualties of the mould scrapping disaster.

Sold to a D Jones Scrappage along with some Lima moulds.....

[Captain Kernow]

16 hours ago, Workbench52 said:

Model Shops Closing

 

 

 

Being of the generation (and social class) that generally grew up with Triang trains, I find the above photo incredibly nostalgic. Not that I ever owned an EM2 or a Hymek, but I did once have a Triang Hornby Class 37. It just evokes wonderful, warm memories of long ago.

 

Back in the day, and for (say) three decades thereafter, certainly until the 1990s, for me a 'model shop' (or perhaps I should say 'model railway shop') not only sold boxed RTR like that shown above, but also the kits and bits to build your own stuff. A (relatively) elderly proprietor, perhaps, presided over a literal Aladdin's Cave, containing drawers and drawers of Romford wheels, gears, motors, W&H whitemetal detailing parts, track components, Ratio wagon kits etc., to say nothing of the much-desired boxes of loco kits by the likes of Wills, K's, Gem etc. For me, growing up in the Bath and Bristol area, the epitome of such a model shop was Max Williams at Lawrence Hill, just a few yards down from the main road overbridge adjacent to the station of the same name.

 

Although the Max Williams emporium closed in the late 1980s, such model shops continued to survive elsewhere in places that I frequented during various career moves. But by the late 1990s, a definite change was noticeable amongst those that continued to trade, in that the market was already shifting towards more (and better) RTR, more plastic injection moulded kits and fewer 'traditional' loco kits and 'after market' detailing items.

 

By the time I moved to Plymouth in the early 1990s, the shop run by Martyn Welch in the suburbs of Plymouth was still going ('Blue Peter') and I spent (mis-spent) many an extended lunch hour in there, drinking his coffee and talking about all kinds of stuff, with Martyn perhaps showing his latest weathering project to me. There was also another decent model shop closer to the railway station in Plymouth, in a suburban avenue, run by a chap called Kevin, but I can't recall the name of the business. He moved into a new unit on the station itself in the mid-1990s, but the decline in the stock held mirrored that of the business and the place eventually became a kind of club for him and his cronies to hang out and talk about football in.

 

These days, there is still a branch of Antics in Plymouth city centre, together with a branch of Games Workshop or Warhammer (not sure of the proper name), nearby.

 

Sometimes a decent model shop can be found in relatively unexpected places, such as the High Street in Newton Abbot, home to the marvellous Bekra Models (not just railways), but which is as close to a 'general modelling supplier' as you can get these days.

 

The Model Shop in Exeter, near the Iron Bridge, run by Dave Harding and familiar to those who frequented the earlier RMWeb Taunton Members days, is the nearest thing we have in South Devon to a traditional model railway shop and is also well worth a visit if you are in the area.

 

I suspect this should have been posted in a different thread, but all the outlets mentioned above sell (or used to sell) Hornby products!

 

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by Captain Kernow

[Joseph_Pestell]

How long ago were the moulds sold? Scrapyards can be very slow at converting materials back to raw state.

 

That said, one reason that they may have decided to scrap some moulds was that they had become damaged in storage.

[RedgateModels]

On 19/03/2019 at 12:05, Captain Kernow said:

 

Being of the generation (and social class) that generally grew up with Triang trains, I find the above photo incredibly nostalgic. Not that I ever owned an EM2 or a Hymek, but I did once have a Triang Hornby Class 37. It just evokes wonderful, warm memories of long ago.

 

 

I too has a class 37, sold it in my teens/early 20s and regretted it ever since. I succumbed to this last week and now have one once again. This one is a bit earlier than my old one not having the trailing bogie pickups.(pre 1974)

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by RedgateModels

[truffy]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

This is becoming one of those threads to ignore   Forty pages in, we had one meander on AR/VR and through me a little trip back to the end of WW2 now we're on the second regarding forum functions.

 

So here is a picture of a long lost favourite

 

 

Indeed, and following the meander through AR/VR I did put it on ignore. But, thanks to that chink in the forum functions, it keeps raising its head.

[friscopete]

I think Guy Norris started the great box shifters discount  racket way back in the 60's .I sold him a new BSA  250  as I worked in a local motor cycle shop (someone has to ) .He opened a DIY store in Gants Hill and then started flogging Hornby and such .I remember Peco wouldnt supply him to ensure proper model shops   to ensure footfall into model shops and make sure  they couldnt get discount on everything .I wasnt really much into model railways as motor bikes and girls had  intervened..

[NoelG]

I quite enjoyed the programme, especially part 2. Competition is healthy for us consumers but Simon is just protecting Hornby's patch. The low pricing on the class 66 was a clear shot across the bows of anybody considering trespassing on their patch. The 'Terrior' looked exquisite.

[Phil Parker]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

How long ago were the moulds sold? Scrapyards can be very slow at converting materials back to raw state.

 

That said, one reason that they may have decided to scrap some moulds was that they had become damaged in storage.

 

The moulds were worn out, but no-one checked if they could have been refurbished. As it was, steel scrap was worth £90 a ton and that mattered more than any potential re-runs.

[Legend]

Theres a thrill coming across a model shop when you are out walking on holiday or in a strange town . Sadly that’s a bit unlikely these days . I do remember being in Alnwick, would have been around 74, and coming across one of these old establishments . The ambience was a bit like the 2 Ronnies and 4 candles sketch, with the old owner (I was 12 everybody was old then) in his brown overalls serving . I ended up buying my first Wrenn Catalogue and remember perusing the pages for the rest of the holiday (it rains a lot in Northumberland) . 

 

I’ve seen. All the posting on model shops and health of the hobby . The hobby maybe healthy but the dynamics have certainly changed. There are definitely fewer of such shops around .  Glasgow has nothing in the city centre . Pastimes is good for second hand out in St Grorges Cross and there is a small shop in Dumbarton Rd but when I called in there they certainly had very limited stock . Aside from the rates bill , I think funding that initial stock build is certainly a barrier to entry .  

 

I think we therefore have to face it that as times go on these small shops ate going to disappear .  I suspect the big box shifters May flourish, some turning into manufacturers . Maybe smaller shops could band together and form a grouping or association and commission models . But essentially I think we will see more direct selling like Accurascale . It’s just the way the worlds moving . You cannot uninvent the Internet . 

[RedgateModels]

@andyram is a new "old style" shop owner, just to buck the trend

 

Must make time to pop over to Matlock sometime, to be honest it's more likely that SWMBO and George will be up there in Summer

[Barry Ten]

I understand the Giraffe car mould got it in the neck.