Bachmann 2020 Announcements - Spring

[Coach bogie]

52 minutes ago, fezza said:

Prices are killing the hobby for new entrants. I constantly hear parents at shows using words like 'ridiculous' 'mad' and suchlike when they see the price stickers for new stock. 

 

My small group of modern image modeller friends were all up for a 117. None of us will be buying at that price... they are basically asking £100 for an 00 gauge coach... 

It is not just new entrants. I am fortunate to have kit building skills. I have bought and 'improved' rtr in recent years. I saw no reason to kit build Halls when Hornby would sell you one for £60.

 

I bought a Bachmann Earl for £70 and converted the loco to a Bulldog as it was more economical and quicker than a kit build. The same Bachmann Earl is now £160 rrp. If I was to make another Bulldog, it makes kit building more attractive.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Legend]

What also is puzzling is Bachmanns selection of models for DCC fitted and Sound . I run DC and quite fancy a GWR green Dukedog but so far its only been produced DCC Fitted and the one due this quarter is DCC sound , yet they've released two black ones without DCC .  Its a pity they don't just supply them DCC ready like Hornby

[Right Away]

17 hours ago, Iltman said:

Looking at the announcement my first thought was £200 for a re-livery of an existing model?  Whilst I'm glad to see more birdcages, the RRP for the C is I’m afraid to say rather extracting the urine

Last time I looked, the early BR version was still available for £69 at Kernow's!!! 

Just a renumber required and perhaps a little weathering to blend.

[Iltman]

7 minutes ago, Right Away said:

Last time I looked, the early BR version was still available for £69 at Kernow's!!! 

Just a renumber required and perhaps a little weathering to blend.

Thanks for the heads up.  I also noticed that Rails has the sunshine version for the same price, which rather makes my point 

[Ron Ron Ron]

Compared with cycling or Golf, this can be a relatively cheap hobby, unless you overindulge on high end brass, or expensive 0 gauge models.
Prices of U.K. market 00 locos are still comparable with lower end mainland European H0 products and still cheaper than the average price for higher fidelity H0 models.
Computer console gaming can also be very expensive, as are the games (£40 to £50 each for new releases).

 

A neighbour of ours has just treated himself to a new road bike (of the pedalling variety) costing over £4000. The last one cost him nearly £2000 at a discounted price. You can pay nearly £10,000 for a bike if you want to.

 

Most of us would have read or heard the recent news, that more than half of all 10 year olds have a smartphone and a very high proportion of all 7 year olds have one too. These cost from as little as £70 or £100 up to over a £1,000 a pop. Average price for a low cost smartphone, typically carried by school kids, is said to be a couple of hundred pounds.
 

https://www.americangolf.co.uk/golf-clubs/drivers

 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/gaming/gaming-consoles/sony-playstation-4-pro-white-10173350-pdt.html

 

 

[truffy]

18 minutes ago, Right Away said:

Last time I looked, the early BR version was still available for £69 at Kernow's!!! 

Just a renumber required and perhaps a little weathering to blend.

Boiler bands would need to be lined also. But masking should make that easier. 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, gordon s said:

Golf?......

 

With some Drivers priced up to £500 and Putters at £250 plus, it suffers the same problem. New models every year that promise to turn you into a Ryder Cup golfer overnight.

 

Thankfully the same solution awaits. Forget all the initial hype and wait a while. Within months the market cools and you can pick up said clubs for half price or less as sales fall short of optimistic forecasts.

 

Same with TV’s. New models every year, so don’t buy in January. Sit tight and watch the price drop every quarter. Saved the best part of a £1000 waiting until October.

I bought a brand new Sony TV for way under half it's RRP. It still came with a 5 Year warranty!

Reason? It was a 3D TV and 3D TV never really took off.

It had a 5 star rating for non 3D picture but people were put of by the "3D" description, considering it and presumably all 3D TVs as white elephants.

 

As regards costs of model railway items, when I first started work, I couldn't afford anything, I had to pass on buying such things (even though I had some things when I was a child), until I was earning a better wage. A weekly wage of £4.14.6 didn't go far in 1962. (e.g. A Hornby Dublo West Country was £5.15.0)

However the job (with the GPO) did have a final salary pension scheme and when you were 18 you started paying into it.

The wages were always less than those in outside industry for similar work, many of my contempary school leavers used to mock my choice as they had more disposable income.

I had the last laugh as I retired wth a decent pension, they generally didn't!

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by melmerby

[Oldddudders]

55 minutes ago, Legend said:

What also is puzzling is Bachmanns selection of models for DCC fitted and Sound . I run DC and quite fancy a GWR green Dukedog but so far its only been produced DCC Fitted and the one due this quarter is DCC sound , yet they've released two black ones without DCC .  Its a pity they don't just supply them DCC ready like Hornby

Removing the unused DCC and sound equipment would enable you to put in a blanking plug and have a normal DC loco. You can then flog the unused sound and DCC kit to offset the higher initial cost. 

[RJK]

Well I for one am relieved that there's nothing announced that I want to get, already pre ordered a fair bit for this year which will take a big hit from my bank account!

[Legend]

2 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Removing the unused DCC and sound equipment would enable you to put in a blanking plug and have a normal DC loco. You can then flog the unused sound and DCC kit to offset the higher initial cost. 

 

I know , but that assumes I've got a customer for the chip and that I have an eBay account or similar to sell stuff . I don't .     Will keep an eye out in case Rails de chip some of theirs , but I suspect the cost will be high anyway of a non DCC version .  Dukedog has been on my list of wants ever since I saw one in the first ever Model Railway Constructor mag I bought . Mid- Gwent Oct 1972 I think . I still blame that for my liking of things Western even though I live in Scotland!

[fezza]

1 hour ago, GWRtrainman said:

 

and Yet you and others who complain about prices getting too high for new entrants and kids seem to always point out the price of something you want. Never a genuine entry level product.

There's never any mention of the Hornby Railroad, Bachmann junior or second hand options.

 

I bought my grandson a Hornby train set for £50 this Christmas at ASDA - and picked up a second bigger one second hand at my local model shop. For £100 they've got two locos, 7 wagons and two complete ovals of track.  Beats an iPhone which my Daughter has currently wasted £1000 on!

 

Young people are tech savy, very demanding consumers these days and often very well informed. They are not interested in poor 1970s technology branded 'Railroad'  - and certainly not that GWR 101 that was out of date even when I bought it as a kid around 1984.

 

And the youngsters I know can recognise a 117 - but aren't going spend that much on a single DMU (one that is 50% more in price than a top of the range Ps4 pro system) 

[Jub45565]

14 hours ago, davidw said:

No maroon Thompsons, sadly.

 

Yes I'm surprised by this too - given the consolidation I would think this a quick win.

 

From what I have seen, the crimson & cream Portholes were quickly available from the bargain bin while the maroon ones were not. It may be that the batch sizes were reduced, or that people purchased the latter in greater numbers...

 

Maybe they will appear in the Q2 list.

[Ron Ron Ron]

1 minute ago, RJK said:

Well I for one am relieved that there's nothing announced that I want to get, already pre ordered a fair bit for this year which will take a big hit from my bank account!

Ah! but what might happen when the next quarterly announcement is made in 3 months time (in May)?

There might be one or two deliciously tempting, shiny new trinkets announced then.

 

Bachmann clearly said that the first announcement would be very light on brand new items and that most of the newly tooled model announcements will be back loaded towards the end of 2020.

Even if the whole of 2020’s new range had been announced in one go, at the end of January, with delivery of the new models by the end of the year, it wouldn’t be much different from the quarterly announcements with delivery within 3 months.

The difference is that Bachmann now have some flexibility if production plans are foiled, or delayed for one reason or another.

If a model programmed to be in the shops by say, October, is delayed by a couple of months for whatever reason, we will be non the wiser at this stage of the game, because it wouldn’t have been announced until it was ready for (or actually in) production.

Conversely, if a model announced in January, with an expected release date in October, is subsequently delayed, we’ll all be aware of it, leading to some frustration and disappointment.

 

 

.

[JSpencer]

1 hour ago, Right Away said:

Last time I looked, the early BR version was still available for £69 at Kernow's!!! 

Just a renumber required and perhaps a little weathering to blend.

 

Those would have been bargain basement clearance items (doubtless Kernow took a hit). That said originally they were around the £115 mark. The 15% discount limit would put the new item at £170. Many retailers will hold it at that after the several weeks of discount limits. But cracks to go below that appear about a year later as shops suddenly do big drops to untie money.

The discount limits make pre-ordering pointless. Everything I pre-ordered over the passed 3 years ended up in the bargin bins 12 months later. I have ceased pre-ordering except Hornby's new Rocket.

Edited February 5, 2020 by JSpencer

[fezza]

I was sorry to see some attacks on a younger student member of this forum. 

 

If you are in your 70s and benefitted from free education, cheap housing, secure employment, gilt edged pensions, early retirement, and rising asset/ real estate prices attacking a young person complaining about the rising cost of his hobby is not a good look. 

 

Especially as some of you (statistically) probably voted to take away his right to live and work in 27 other countries... 

 

Let's have a bit more thought for fellow hobbyists on here, especially those who may not be as well off as you. 

[PMP]

8 minutes ago, fezza said:

 

Young people are tech savy, very demanding consumers these days and often very well informed. (Snip)

 

And the youngsters I know can recognise a 117 - but aren't going spend that much on a single DMU (one that is 50% more in price than a top of the range Ps4 pro system) 

We were well informed and tech savvy back in the day, as youngsters we still couldn’t afford the top of the range stuff, (shoebox, Road, etc)

 

If a buyer isn’t going to spend £400ish on a DMU, but on another interest, that indicates where their personal priorities and interests lie. The potential problem is are ‘we’ the established customer base going to buy the DMU  In volumes at that price? 

[brushman47544]

14 hours ago, Marcyg said:

Ah, but coronavirus gets here in a few weeks.

 

I hope Bachmann's new strategy works for them. I presume they've decided on three months on the basis that the products announced will either have already been made or the production run has started so they can be pretty sure, with travel time by sea, that those products will arrive over the next three months.

 

So why have I quoted coronavirus? Well, the Chinese government has already extended the Chinese new year holiday and I've seen have news reports of workers delaying returning to their jobs even longer, so this could potentially impact future quarters because of lost production slots. What happens then? Does everything slip or do some items get deferred to give priority to potentially better sellers? This could lead to lean pickings in the next quarters. Of course this is not just an issue for Bachmann, but with quarterly announcements rather than annual ones, there is less wriggle room and the cupboard can quickly become very bare.

[farren]

The cost dose look scary when written down £200 for this £300 for that. But unlike many hobbies the collection grows that train costing X amount will still be in use 10, 20 years from now all being well and you don’t change your modelling interests. I’ve brought the Garratt Bachmanns Crain and their Rothley station set not to mention a A3 because oh and Duchess of Montrose over the past 12 months (Probably the most expensive year to date). 
 

The year before that I got back into my other hobby Bikes £2000 for bike SV 650s (second hand only 9000miles bargain)   helmet gloves etc £500 for new tyres & Alarm.  ok the bikes been very good nothing to pay but normals. However when I want a new bike I’ll still need to pay more and part exchange so will still only have one bike. 
 

yes I know I could keep it really but I’m never going to have 60 bikes but 60 trains I can.

[melmerby]

24 minutes ago, Legend said:

 

 Dukedog has been on my list of wants ever since I saw one in the first ever Model Railway Constructor mag I bought . Mid- Gwent Oct 1972 I think . I still blame that for my liking of things Western even though I live in Scotland!

So why didn't you buy this when it came out?

https://www.hattons.co.uk/82874/bachmann_branchline_31_089_class_32xx_4_4_0_dukedog_3214_in_gwr_green_with_shirtbutton_logo/stockdetail.aspx

 

You can have mine for £1000

[gordon s]

Some sweeping statements there...

 

Yes, I'm in my 70's but believe me things were no different fifty years ago. I took on all sorts of extra work to try and make ends meet. We had few opportunities back then, so don't kid yourself. The thing is we just got on with it and didn't moan about our lot.

[Georgeconna]

17 hours ago, Joshthetrainguy said:

Instead of replying to everyone I will attempt to aid understanding of what I have said

I am a student and contrary to popular belief I am poor 

This is a shame as I do really enjoy this hobby and to all you *beep* holes who are saying dont buy the trains is that really a logical option

And I am not angry at the companies as I understand inflation but I feel that maybe sometimes no matter how much you want something sometimes it's too much to pay

 

 

 

I feel for you Josh, Lets hope you are studying to be a Surgeon or a Solictor as in that field of work you should be able to afford the new baccy stuff.

 

Thing is if people don't by them then what happens?, Does Baccy fold?,  Does anything new get produced or is this a game plan of high prices so they can be knocked down so the punters think they are getting a bargain in the end.

 

I like my models but I am only prepared to pay for what I thiink they are worth or indeed if I require one. However £85 quid for a coach is frankly nutty.

 

 

 

 

[woodenhead]

2 minutes ago, melmerby said:

So why didn't you buy this when it came out?

https://www.hattons.co.uk/82874/bachmann_branchline_31_089_class_32xx_4_4_0_dukedog_3214_in_gwr_green_with_shirtbutton_logo/stockdetail.aspx

 

You can have mine for £1000

I got mine for under £80 off the Bachmann scrum a couple of years back, I really wasn't intending to buy one but it was there all lonely on the table willing me to buy it.

[Pete the Elaner]

1 hour ago, Legend said:

What also is puzzling is Bachmanns selection of models for DCC fitted and Sound . I run DC and quite fancy a GWR green Dukedog but so far its only been produced DCC Fitted and the one due this quarter is DCC sound , yet they've released two black ones without DCC .  Its a pity they don't just supply them DCC ready like Hornby

There are arguments for & against this.

 

Maybe Bachmann feel that more customers want DCC without the hassle of fitting it & that this helps a model to sell better than not fitting it?

Modern decoders are way better than those of 5-10 years ago & run quite nicely on DC, so a fitted model is.

 

DCC fitted dictates what decoder to use. This is fine if you like their chosen decoder, but a pain if you don't.

[woodenhead]

8 minutes ago, PMP said:

We were well informed and tech savvy back in the day, as youngsters we still couldn’t afford the top of the range stuff, (shoebox, Road, etc)

 

If a buyer isn’t going to spend £400ish on a DMU, but on another interest, that indicates where their personal priorities and interests lie. The potential problem is are ‘we’ the established customer base going to buy the DMU  In volumes at that price? 

I guess anyone with a passing interest in Westerns, Warships or 50s anywhere close to London will want a couple.

[JSpencer]

6 minutes ago, fezza said:

Especially as some of you (statistically) probably voted to take away his right to live and work in 27 other countries... 

 

 

He can still work there, just that he needs to do a lot of paper work that I'm currently going through myself right now. And the costs associated with it (55 Euros application, £35 to get recent copies of my UK birth certificate, 150Euros having my certificate and photocopies of my parents death certificate's officially translated, 115 euros to have a language test that proves I can speak the local lingo..... And so on..).

All this to have pleasure of then queuing up for hours at least 3 times with all other 3rd world migrants (my super new post Brexit status in the EU) in prefectures!

I'd rather spend the time and money on trains!