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News from Warley 2014


Andy Y

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Yes thanks to everyone for posting, especially Andy, obviously, for those of us who can't attend. Some long awaited items there. Best news for me got to be a 116! Will await price with interest.

 

What strikes me , as well, is the emergence of ranges offered by main model shops with DJ Models as the intermediate with Chinese manufacturing. Just hope Daves not taking on more than he can handle. But he clearly is opening up the market to the advantage of us consumers. I wonder just how much the emergence of these ranges is due to Hornbys failure to keep goods coming through model shops last year. Obviously these shops need something to sell. Looks like they've taken direct action. I also note Hornbys new items available to order direct, and the shenanigans over their Exeter model, I think clearly indicating their preference for going direct too - at full price! That's one of the reasons I'm wishing Kernow, Hattons and DJM all the best . I think they are the future! Only wish we had a Scottish model shop that could get into commissions......

I read the wording on Hornby's website as "The only way to be sure of getting one, is to order it from us". Just not in so many words......... 

 

Whether it's a conspiracy or a cock-up, the 'Exeter' debacle has been perfectly timed to reinforce it.

 

It is a pretty heavy hint that retailers don't really figure in Hornby's medium-to-long-term strategy. The smart ones will adjust their own plans accordingly.

 

John

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Well done Kernow for pushing the boundaries with the steam railmotor whilst also choosing to producing the useful class 117 as well.

 

Its a pity the Adams radial is being duplicated as I was hoping Hornby may be producing and original condition Merchant Navy - it must be a good opportunity for someone surely? Maybe Bachmann or Dapol are planning it?

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It is a pretty heavy hint that retailers don't really figure in Hornby's medium-to-long-term strategy. The smart ones will adjust their own plans accordingly.

 

 

Mine did, he got a paid job elsewhere and shut up shop.

 

IMHO Hornby is making a mistake if that is their medium-long term strategy....very sorry state of affairs if you ask me...

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I read the wording on Hornby's website as "The only way to be sure of getting one, is to order it from us". Just not in so many words......... 

 

Whether it's a conspiracy or a cock-up, the 'Exeter' debacle has been perfectly timed to reinforce it.

 

It is a pretty heavy hint that retailers don't really figure in Hornby's medium-to-long-term strategy. The smart ones will adjust their own plans accordingly.

 

John

If that is the way Hornby are going to play it, there is simple solution in the case of the 71 and the Radial Tank, order you model from DJM and Oxford respectively!

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Hi Igor,

 

I understand your point about the amount of items that are in the DJM range, and as I have stated elsewhere, this has nothing to do with commissioned items.

 

They are produced by me, but are owned by third parties who are stumping up considerable sums to bring them to market. My job is to do that.

 

I have had the contacts for the O2 a year, along with the Beattie and Road van, and these have either been modified or completed from the state they were in, and are now either close to metal cutting or indeed in production.

 

This is hardly vapourware, indeed any commissioned item, for example the D600, needs research, and in this case used a privately commissioned large scale model of it made by master modeller Fred Phipps. Is manufacture took a few years to get right, and completed, and as seen at Warley today is not in OO cad/cam form.

 

When it goes to tooling is in the remit of the commissioner not myself, so again isn't vapourware as something is at least tangible, and getting a professional cad/cam design done from a laser scan isn't cheap. If it was everyone would be doing their favourite loco and announcing it with fanfare.

 

My loco announcements are on a 2 year delivery and I won't be announcing any more DJM models before that date, but I will not turn away anyone with hard cash in the meantime as I have the capacity and I'd be a fool to.

Money is money right?

 

Keep an eye out for the vapourware J94 soon.

 

Cheers

Dave

Vapourware, love it, is this going to be the new nickname Dave?

I have two Class 17 on order by the way.

Steve.

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Well done Kernow for pushing the boundaries with the steam railmotor whilst also choosing to producing the useful class 117 as well.

 

Its a pity the Adams radial is being duplicated as I was hoping Hornby may be producing and original condition Merchant Navy - it must be a good opportunity for someone surely? Maybe Bachmann or Dapol are planning it?

 

Please remember that the bulk of Hornby's announcements as regards their plans for 2015 have yet to be made. It is still entirely possible that a "air smoothed" merchant navy could appear at that stage - which is only 4 weeks away now so not long to wait. Warley has never been the venue for a manufacturer to announce ALL their plans for the following year - yes a few headline grabbing announcements but not a complete unveil of everything in the pipeline.

 

I think the reason Hornby went public with their plans for the radial was simply due to the fact that (1) Oxford Rail announced they were planning to release a model and (2) Hornby had a physical sample ready to display. In such a situation the Warley show was an ideal venue to make public their plans and take the wind out of Oxford Rails sails somewhat.

 

In the case of the class 71 its a similar story (except that they don't have a sample to display yet).

 

As for the rest of the items on display, they aren't news exactly - the class 700 has been known about for almost a year now for example. In fact if it wasn't for the radial announcement then the only other "new" things are a couple of bits of rolling stock (the LMS horsebox, a hopper wagon and some as yet unidentified coaches - probably LMS suburbans according to previous contributors).

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As with almost all prototypes, survival through the maximum number of periods/eras (and thus liveries) makes a model more likely.

 

The interesting thing about the Railmotor is that it by-passes so many of them.

 

John  

 

Far from it. This type of railmotor was buit in 1907-8 and many lasted until 1935. That's 28 years and four or five livery variations. Compare that with the RTR GWR tanks suitable for branchline use available until now. Prior to the Hattons 48XX announcement, all we had were the terribly out of date Hornby 2721, the Airfix/Hornby 14XX and the Bachmann 57XX/8750. The first is far from modern standards and the latter two were produced in a form not seen before the 1940s and, in many cases, not until the 1950s. Add to which the 57XX/8750 wasn't given a yellow route classification until 1950 so, previously, had been unsuited to many branch lines. I think you'll find those prototypes had both a shorter life (in manufactured form) and fewer livery variations.

 

Nick

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Silly me. Of course, I should have known that was Rick Moranis. attempting to steal all the air from hall five of the NEC....

 

(Sits back & waits to see how many get the Spaceballs reference..... :laugh: )

People in the know will probably start posting at Ludicrous Speed once they get the reference. Actually that seems to be how my early 'Triang Lord of the Isles' runs - either flat out or not at all.

 

Trying to live on a pension is going to be a lot harder over the next couple of years. With the announcements of the 1361, 1366, 48XX, 47XX, 64xx, Kings and Railmotors I'm going to need to be very selective in my purchases. Basically everything I've wished for (except for a Bird series Bulldog and an 850 class saddle tank) have been announced over the last few months. I'm not even going to try and think about how I can buy some of the models I just find attractive such as the LNWR coal tank or the Adams Radial. I might have to start looking for an elderly, wealthy widow with no heirs and impress her with my manly charms!

 

Dave

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So if Kernow sell only through their website  its OK and  if Hornby start doing similar its a no no .Seems odd logic ..Hornby do make a huge range of toy trains and most of them are available in toy and model shops  which is what they have always done .Hornby are doing far more service to the model railway industry than Kernow  ever will as they produce the kids and not so kids  bread and butter  products .For this they get slaughtered by the indignant and self righteous.

Anyway I will order an Adams when a green one is announced, but by whom ????????.

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IMHO Hornby is making a mistake if that is their medium-long term strategy....very sorry state of affairs if you ask me...

afriad I'm 180 degrees with you on that. I don't understand the business model for a retail shop at all. Order, put box on shelf, sell box. Retain margin. No added value at all. That's why the smart retailers are going into manufacturing, and Hornby is going into retailing.
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Far from it. This type of railmotor was buit in 1907-8 and many lasted until 1935. That's 28 years and four or five livery variations. Compare that with the RTR GWR tanks suitable for branchline use available until now. Prior to the Hattons 48XX announcement, all we had were the terribly out of date Hornby 2721, the Airfix/Hornby 14XX and the Bachmann 57XX/8750. The first is far from modern standards and the latter two were produced in a form not seen before the 1940s and, in many cases, not until the 1950s. Add to which the 57XX/8750 wasn't given a yellow route classification until 1950 so, previously, had been unsuited to many branch lines. I think you'll find those prototypes had both a shorter life (in manufactured form) and fewer livery variations.

 

Nick

Nick.Would it be possible to go through the railmotor liveries saying what years they're suitable for please.The Kernow site has no info as yet on this.I'm looking at the choc/ cream version but would look at the others too.

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So if Kernow sell only through their website  its OK and  if Hornby start doing similar its a no no .Seems odd logic ..Hornby do make a huge range of toy trains and most of them are available in toy and model shops  which is what they have always done .Hornby are doing far more service to the model railway industry than Kernow  ever will as they produce the kids and not so kids  bread and butter  products .For this they get slaughtered by the indignant and self righteous.

Anyway I will order an Adams when a green one is announced, but by whom ????????.

 

I work in an environment (not model railways) whereby we sell indirect - similar model to Hornby's before they started selling direct. If the company I work for was to do that, we'd get a higher revenue for sure but we'd have to scale to be a much larger company than we are today to deal with the end customers directly, accounting, sales, logistics, and so on....so any revenue increase would likely be offset against the extra resources we'd need to put in place to support a direct sales approach. Different industries I accept and it's business products that my employer sells not consumer ones but the principle is the same. Cutting off our dealer network would be a very bad idea....

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afriad I'm 180 degrees with you on that. I don't understand the business model for a retail shop at all. Order, put box on shelf, sell box. Retain margin. No added value at all. That's why the smart retailers are going into manufacturing, and Hornby is going into retailing.

 

We are of course entitled to different opinions...

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So if Kernow sell only through their website  its OK and  if Hornby start doing similar its a no no .Seems odd logic ..Hornby do make a huge range of toy trains and most of them are available in toy and model shops  which is what they have always done .Hornby are doing far more service to the model railway industry than Kernow  ever will as they produce the kids and not so kids  bread and butter  products .For this they get slaughtered by the indignant and self righteous.

Anyway I will order an Adams when a green one is announced, but by whom ????????.

 

You can't blame a retailer for wanting to commission models that their customers want but are not being produced by the big name manufacturers, or when some of those manufacturers let that retailer down by not honouring pre-orders and / or late delivery of product that they cannot put on the shelves.

 

Just my 2 cents...

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Any news on the Heljan stand other than the 47xx, have they got any decorated/EP samples of the O2 or Class 05?

Yes, and there must be lots more photos to come. Thanks to Andy for his photos so far, but can we have, please:

Haljan - decorated/EP samples of their O2, class O5 and any thing else they had on display. Photos please!

Hornby - we've only seen one photo of the LNER J15 - has anyone other photos, including the BR versions?

- better photos of the LMS non corridor coaches

Bachmann - Andy's 2 photos of the E4 and 64xx noted that these are amongst many others on display. What else was Bachmann showing for the first time? Photos please!

 

John

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So if Kernow sell only through their website  its OK and  if Hornby start doing similar its a no no .Seems odd logic ..

 

Why is it odd logic? Kernow is a retailer so why would they want to help their competitors by allowing them to sell their models? Do Hornby sell Bachmann models on their online shop?

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