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2021 hopes


Hilux5972
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On 24/12/2020 at 20:02, gc4946 said:

Maybe an all-new LNER D49, modelling Shire and Hunt versions properly for the first time with correct details and tenders for the appropriate era.

 

 

Much as though I like a NBR Glen class to be announced next year, I think either a D49 or a K4 will appear instead.

It's too soon to announce a BR Standard 2MT 2-6-2T following on from its tender version. 

There could be a Bluebell 1960 train pack featuring new-tool Terriers Stepney, Fenchurch and the Maunsell BCK and LSWR lav 3rd in blue. 

 

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I’d make a low detail generic DMU and EMU, I’d then paint them in all the different TOC colours of today.

 

That way junior can have ( close enough ) to what he sees everyday at his local station , and a way in.

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3 minutes ago, gc4946 said:

 

Much as though I like a NBR Glen class to be announced next year, I think either a D49 or a K4 will appear instead.

It's too soon to announce a BR Standard 2MT 2-6-2T following on from its tender version. 

There could be a Bluebell 1960 train pack featuring new-tool Terriers Stepney, Fenchurch and the Maunsell BCK and LSWR lav 3rd in blue. 

 

I reckon a few might get killed in the rush if they do that!

 

John

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10 hours ago, MGR Hooper! said:

The factories that make Hornby's Railroad stuff are more likely to make other Railroad stuff and not full spec things. 

 

How so? If you are employing a factory that is only capable of producing products to a simplified level of production, then you are making a rod for your own back as you then have no capacity to use them for your "full spec" level of production.  Given that some lines are produced to both Railroad and "full spec" standards where the difference is the level of production (particularly finish) applied I would suggest that the same factories are making both.

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13 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

But there's bound to be 'something fior everyone'.  Of course that all depends on one being the right sort of 'everyone'.

I’ve never been the right sort of everyone, or the right sort of anyone come to that...

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4 hours ago, frobisher said:

How so? If you are employing a factory that is only capable of producing products to a simplified level of production, then you are making a rod for your own back as you then have no capacity to use them for your "full spec" level of production.  Given that some lines are produced to both Railroad and "full spec" standards where the difference is the level of production (particularly finish) applied I would suggest that the same factories are making both.

 

Only Hornby will know, but would your concern be really more of an issue if Hornby owned the factory?

 

It may well be that the skilled employees that are necessary for the delicate assembly of the various detail parts are better concentrated in factories that can specialize in the detailed models - and thus you don't waste that skilled workforce making Railroad or lower models.

 

You can then use a different, and possibly cheaper, factory with less skilled employees for the Railroad items - or perhaps somebody new who is just starting in the train making business and thus hasn't yet developed the expertise required for a high end model.

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I would like to see more modern DMU's. Either a 180, 185, 195 (331).
I understand DMU's/EMU's generally not viable as they cost a lot to tool and generally don't offer much coverage however surely there is market at least 1 of them.

Class 180 - FGW, Hull Trains, Grand Central, EMR
Class 185 - FTP old, FTP new, EMR?

Class 195 (331) - Northern (widespread)

180.JPG

185.JPG

195.JPG

Edited by Jackson3592
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15 minutes ago, mdvle said:

 

Only Hornby will know, but would your concern be really more of an issue if Hornby owned the factory?

 

It may well be that the skilled employees that are necessary for the delicate assembly of the various detail parts are better concentrated in factories that can specialize in the detailed models - and thus you don't waste that skilled workforce making Railroad or lower models.

 

You can then use a different, and possibly cheaper, factory with less skilled employees for the Railroad items - or perhaps somebody new who is just starting in the train making business and thus hasn't yet developed the expertise required for a high end model.

The work tends to be spread all over the place.  I know people who have visited factories in China which don't work for a particular UK model railway brand but have found that factory working on models for that brand to help out somebody whose own factory was busy and had too much work on.     Even if it is just moulding machine work it is still factory time which could be spent doing something else.

 

but as ever what we don't know is where the best profit comes comes from although I still think that something out of the ordinary coming onto the market outside the time when it was in the public eye is not going to do as well as it might have done when it was in the public eye ona tv programme. 

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25 minutes ago, mdvle said:

 

Only Hornby will know, but would your concern be really more of an issue if Hornby owned the factory?

 

It may well be that the skilled employees that are necessary for the delicate assembly of the various detail parts are better concentrated in factories that can specialize in the detailed models - and thus you don't waste that skilled workforce making Railroad or lower models.

 

You can then use a different, and possibly cheaper, factory with less skilled employees for the Railroad items - or perhaps somebody new who is just starting in the train making business and thus hasn't yet developed the expertise required for a high end model.

 

 

There used to be a code on the box telling which factory was used for that particular model.

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37 minutes ago, Jackson3592 said:

I would like to see more modern DMU's. Either a 180, 185, 195 (331).
I understand DMU's/EMU's generally not viable as they cost a lot to tool and generally don't offer much coverage however surely there is market at least 1 of them.

 

Yes, that's the conventional wisdom - but like any wisdom it's only true until/if it gets proven false.

 

At some point someone will attempt a longer DMU/EMU and the competitors will watch to see what happens.

 

 

37 minutes ago, Jackson3592 said:

Class 185 - FTP old, FTP new, EMR?

 

Obviously EMR (or someone else) picking up the units will help - and better if it is a popular modelling region.

 

But there could be a market there in say 2022/2023 to have as a complement to the Accurascale Mk5a models (2021 being risky as people pay for their Mk5a sets).

 

37 minutes ago, Jackson3592 said:

Class 195 (331) - Northern (widespread)

 

Widespread geographically, but not population (and hence potential pool of modellers), and the single livery will be an issue.

 

That said, I think more likely from Accurascale as they have a relationship already with CAF and they appear to have a better financial model and appetite for risk of doing the CAF family of 195/331/397 and any potential mold sharing.

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21 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

I have a feeling that you might not be the right sort 'of 'everyone' this time round (and neither will I)

My feeling is that, with the growing number of participants in UK-outline r-t-r, announcements from Hornby somehow seem less vital than they once did.

 

Hornby's attention has been largely concentrated in areas that hold no interest for me through 2020 and at least the first quarter of 2021. One loco*, five coaches and a couple of wagons is, by far, my smallest annual tally of red boxes for a couple of decades.  

 

Mind you, nobody else has done any better and, a hefty chunk of what I might otherwise have spent on model trains has been directed to modernising and extending my camera outfit instead.

 

For 2021, I currently have pre-orders in place for two Hornby locos, and that's it. In monetary terms, less than half what I anticipate spending on Bachmann's new Bulleid coaches...

 

Will that change after the 5th, and if it doesn't, how disappointed might I be? There's a definite chance that I might be more disappointed at not being more disappointed, if you get my drift....

 

John

 

* Sorry, two, forgot the little Ruston.....

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3 hours ago, mdvle said:

Only Hornby will know, but would your concern be really more of an issue if Hornby owned the factory?

 

It may well be that the skilled employees that are necessary for the delicate assembly of the various detail parts are better concentrated in factories that can specialize in the detailed models - and thus you don't waste that skilled workforce making Railroad or lower models.

 

You can then use a different, and possibly cheaper, factory with less skilled employees for the Railroad items - or perhaps somebody new who is just starting in the train making business and thus hasn't yet developed the expertise required for a high end model.

 

I think you're may be making a very artificial distinction here that Hornby themselves do not.  Railroad vs "main range" is really down to the number of processes involved, not the fidelity of the workers.  Your "less fiddly bits" models just don't use the bits of the factory where they fit the "fiddly bits" which won't be sitting idle if the factory is halfway sensibly managed.  If a factory "only makes Railroad" then that's all it will ever do, whereas you want a factory that can make production runs of whatever you need.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Jackson3592 said:

I would like to see more modern DMU's. Either a 180, 185, 195 (331).
I understand DMU's/EMU's generally not viable as they cost a lot to tool and generally don't offer much coverage however surely there is market at least 1 of them.

Class 180 - FGW, Hull Trains, Grand Central, EMR
Class 185 - FTP old, FTP new, EMR?

Class 195 (331) - Northern (widespread)

 

 

 

Problem with a Class 180 is that it only comes as a five car set, so the price would be very high and for a fairly limited market. The Northern only units suffer from only ever being in one livery, which I would imagine would crush the market down to such a low level that no manufacturer would ever take that risk, and the 185 isn't a whole lot better.

 

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1 hour ago, jools1959 said:

I’d laugh my ass off if Hornby did the middle car for a Class 205 “thumper”.

I think you might be more right than wrong.

 

Much of RMWeb has made hay about Hornby taking on competitors, its been quietly unnoticed that last 2 -3 years Hornby has been eating the old Replica Railways range.

 

Given the Replica Railways 64’ suburbans are rare, £150-180 for 3 on ebay, they are a better proposition than 57’s which sell often less than a tenner.


It only leaves the HEA from Replica (also duplicated by Dapol, Hornby and Bachmann) to be re-tooled.. and is very much due a retool.

 

Just as Hornby snapped off the chance of Bulleid suburbans instead of head to head on Bachmanns full length Bulleids, they could equally decide to do 64’ Mk1 Suburbans instead of duplicating 57’s... the 205 centre car being, a 64’ suburban*... it also leaves a gateway to class 304/5/8/504, which are 64’ Mk1 suburban based as well as the Gatwick express GLV.. which would fit nicely to the mk2e’s... mk1 suburbans are the only gap in Hornbys suburban range (GW/SR/LNE /LMS have been done by Hornby) and more importantly they are pulled by steam so attracts more Hornby dollars... so a clever tooling here could open a lot of doors...

 

* I doubt they will make actually 205 centre car, but you could use a 64’ mk1 suburban to insert your 205, but its a bit of work matching the Bachmann electrical circuit... a long term project I had was to use a Replica mk1 suburban, with a left over class 205 driving car electricals, while using the other 205 car to make a 2HAP.

 

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