Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

At the moment, I have almost nothing to sell on behalf of bereaved/distressed families, just a few residual items (of very low value) which I'll take to the Stamford Show (Market Deeping Club) next month.

 

I hope to see you there. 

[uax6]

On 25/04/2023 at 13:03, Jack P said:

On the subject of models from deceased estates, I was privileged to see part of a nearly 80 locomotive collection that was (get ready to wince) saved from being thrown in the bin.

 

 

 

 

The absolute star of the show was this Raven A2. Which of course, is the one I took the worst photos of. 

 

 

 

It's an etched kit, and there was a Proscale marking on the chassis.

There was also both a large and small boiler C1, all finished to similar standards.

 

I fail to agree, the Clan and the Skye Bogie are by far the best locos in that collection of photos. Both come the Jidenco stable and are therefore little more than scratchbuilding aids. The maker has made a very good job of getting them together so well.

I'm <still> building my Jidenco Jones tankie, I'm having a bit of rest from it to let the twitching calm down!

 

Andy G

[Pebbles]

15 hours ago, jimwal said:

 

The railway industry has quite a track record over the years too.

It's very easy to be critical using todays standards. Whilst now massive amounts of information can be stored electronically some thirty years ago this was not generally the case. At that time the Public Records Office was very concerned, as even using microfiche, they were running out of space.  

[lezz01]

27 minutes ago, Pebbles said:

It's very easy to be critical using todays standards. Whilst now massive amounts of information can be stored electronically some thirty years ago this was not generally the case. At that time the Public Records Office was very concerned, as even using microfiche, they were running out of space.  

Yes but burning the entire collection of records and drawings of the of the MR at Derby was an act of pure vandalism. Had it not been for one chaps efforts in saving what he could we would have lost everything. As it is not much was saved compared to some other companies.

Regards Lez. 

[Dunsignalling]

17 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Simon Kohler could probably give us chapter and verse on how that happened to Hornby's tooling archive.

Though various accounts have suggested that much of the scrapped material had been stored in damp areas of the old factory and were beyond further use anyway.

 

In any event, it could be argued that, had not Hornby's "back catalogue" been so heavily pruned, its easy availability could have stifled development of models to 21st century standards.

 

Hornby's tendency to live off past glories is sufficiently developed without having a load more obsolete material to draw upon....

 

John

[robertcwp]

Some years back, I was loaned a large collection of Western Region carriage working books from the 1950s and 1960s which were rescued from a skip at Swindon Works in the 1980s. They had lots of amendments to reflect changes during the timetable, which made them more useful. I was also given those covering the period from 1971 to 1985 (an almost complete set) that were rescued from the same skip. Scans of many of them are now available via my coaching stock group. 

[Tony Wright]

A friend from New Zealand who stayed with us yesterday and today (who was a railway employee of some standing for over 40 years) tells how he rescued documents from signal boxes after those 'boxes were closed. Apparently, the 'boxes were often just knocked down and burned, many with the documents (train records/workings/etc) still inside them.

 

Didn't Willie Yeadon rescue much of his records from skips at Doncaster Works?

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, uax6 said:

 

I fail to agree, the Clan and the Skye Bogie are by far the best locos in that collection of photos. Both come the Jidenco stable and are therefore little more than scratchbuilding aids. The maker has made a very good job of getting them together so well.

I'm <still> building my Jidenco Jones tankie, I'm having a bit of rest from it to let the twitching calm down!

 

Andy G

Good evening Andy,

 

I have to say both the P2 and Raven A2 look rather good. It's a pity we can't see more of the A2/3.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[uax6]

4 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Andy,

 

I have to say both the P2 and Raven A2 look rather good. It's a pity we can't see more of the A2/3.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Agreed they all seem to have been made by someone with some skill, it would be lovely to see more of them... 

 

Andy G

[gr.king]

5 hours ago, uax6 said:

 

I fail to agree, the Clan and the Skye Bogie are by far the best locos in that collection of photos. Both come the Jidenco stable and are therefore little more than scratchbuilding aids. The maker has made a very good job of getting them together so well.

I'm <still> building my Jidenco Jones tankie, I'm having a bit of rest from it to let the twitching calm down!

 

Andy G

Whilst the Highland Railway is well outside my usual areas of interest, I think a nicely made model of a Highland Railway Clan is highly desirable in its own right.

[uax6]

3 minutes ago, gr.king said:

Whilst the Highland Railway is well outside my usual areas of interest, I think a nicely made model of a Highland Railway Clan is highly desirable in its own right.

 

I'm a bit biased, but I do like the ruggedness of the Clan, but I think for pure beauty you can't beat a Strath in full LMS red:

https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/locomotives-of-the-highland-railway-david-jones-strath-class.1068786/

 

Andy G

 

[Northmoor]

33 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

A friend from New Zealand who stayed with us yesterday and today (who was a railway employee of some standing for over 40 years) tells how he rescued documents from signal boxes after those 'boxes were closed. Apparently, the 'boxes were often just knocked down and burned, many with the documents (train records/workings/etc) still inside them.

There are (possibly apocryphal) stories of Beeching-era demolition crews arriving to demolish signal boxes but due to a planning error, they first had to wait for the maintenance team who had arrived before them, to finish painting it.....

[melmoth]

23 hours ago, lezz01 said:

I can only base my comment about avaricious traders from my own experience from when I dipped my toe in the water in November last year. Having decided to return to fine scale modelling I wondered how best to dispose of my 00 gauge blue/green period BR stock so after having no bites at all when I offered 2 sound fitted locos and a 3 car DMU in the classified section here I approached a certain trader from Liverpool for a quote for the 3 items. To say I was shocked by their offer for all three would be an understatement as it was far less than I was prepared to accept for one item let alone for the three of them. So I put them up for sale on ebay and lowest price I received for one of them exceeded the paltry offer from the trader for all three by £30 and that was the lowest price achieved. Given what they want for preowned items in their online store I thought they were taking the total micky and will never buy anything from that retailer again. I can only assume that others are little better but I will not be finding out as I have always had great success with both buying and selling on ebay and will continue to use them. 

Regards Lez.       

 

I can see where you're coming from but I don't think you're really appreciating the way that a business has to work to make a profit. Let us assume that you have an item that you want to sell, and that you value that item at £100, and that £100 is a fair price for that item. If you sell that item privately for £100 (minus any postage costs or eBay fees etc), you realise most of the value of that item. If you sell that item to a dealer you will get far less than that because:

 

a. The dealer knows that the item is worth £100 on the open market and that they will be unlikely to be able to sell it for more than that

b. The dealer has ongoing business costs that have to be paid for out of whatever they sell any item for.

c. The dealer, obviously, also has to make a profit on any item they sell, because it's how they make their living.

 

So for your £100 item, a dealer is likely to offer you a sum whereby they make the same amount of money out a deal as you do. This is not an exact science, but in the worlds of both antiques (of which I know very little) and secondhand books (of which I know considerably more), the general rule of thumb is that a dealer will offer the vendor around a third of what they then hope to sell the item for. So a dealer would offer you, say, £30/35  for your £100 item, hope to sell the item for its £100 value, and then set aside £30/35 to offset costs, and (in an ideal world) be able to take £30/35 as a wage/profit. There are plenty of things that can wrong with this from the dealer's point of view including (but not limited to) theft, damage, changes in the market (e.g. the decline in prices for Hornby Dublo and Wrenn), and quite simply perhaps the inability to sell the item at it 'true' value in a timely manner - which at best means the dealer's money is tied up in that item, and at worst means the dealer has to reduce the price of the item in order to sell it, which obviously has a detrimental impact upon the dealer's profit.

 

Two further points worth noting:

 

1. If my own business accounts for the last year are anything to go by, I'd suggest that the ratio should now be edging towards 1:1:2 rather 1:1:1 because of the sharp rise in business related costs. In which case, £25 for your £100 item might become a more likely offer from a dealer in the future. I would argue that this would not be 'avaricious' as things stand.

2. I note that you say you advertised several items on this site without any takers. Notwithstanding the fact that you subsequently sold your items at a price you were happy with through eBay, it might be possible that you set your sights slightly too high when attempting to sell the items on here and consequently considered the offer from the 'trader from Liverpool' to have been less realistic than it actually was. This is, of course, pure conjecture on my part and I could be completely wrong. For what it's worth, I've sold items to a 'trader from Liverpool' before now and have been offered amounts that I was happy with - but then I did have an expectation of what they might offer, based on the sort of information I've given above.

 

[DougN]

The sales of a collection is quite problematic. I am still dealing with an estate and a large collection of HD wrenn etc. The issue is here in Australia we don't have many if any dealers. The next I dealt with was the Auction house however the issue is the value is low as there buyers premium and a sellers premium. 

 

I know the collection is extensive and the problem of flooding the market if I put it on ebay, let alone the time involved. I have decided to list all the items and pass it to a couple of people I have met, who have said they are tired of collections of this magnitude being sold for silly low money, only for the subsequent owner to list on ebay and make a large profit. They are doing me a favor for looking through and also being able to "cherry" pick the collection prior to it going public! As long as I receive a reasonable sum (and get my garage back in the process!) I'll be happy!

 

The value proposition is always a hard one. If you want a quick painless cash up front.. go through the dealers or auction houses. AIf you want more money look to putting the efforts in to achieve that aim, just realize you take on the "risk".  Balancing all of the outcomes is up to you. 

[Jack P]

9 hours ago, uax6 said:

I fail to agree, the Clan and the Skye Bogie are by far the best locos in that collection of photos. Both come the Jidenco stable and are therefore little more than scratchbuilding aids. The maker has made a very good job of getting them together so well.

I'm <still> building my Jidenco Jones tankie, I'm having a bit of rest from it to let the twitching calm down!

 

Both the LNER and HR are far removed from my primary interest, but I can appreciate a fantastic model when I see one. The fit and finish on the A2 is really really high quality, while the finish of the HR wasn't quite there, the quality of the builds were still excellent. There was also a HR tank engine which I didn't photograph. 

 

Next time I go over I will take better photos of everything and hopefully have the full compliment of 80 there.

[thegreenhowards]

I’ve just done a large loft clearance. This was not a quality collection like Jack’s. Basically a load of tatty Hornby locos and stock and masses of track all still pinned to baseboards. I paid a modest amount for the locos and stock but we got all the layout track and buildings for free in exchange for the 15 man hours it took to dismantle. This is the layout before demolition.

 

 

I’ve sold enough of the rolling stock to club members to cover the costs and any surplus will go to club funds - the lead came through the club. But I’m left with boxes of track and Melcalfe buildings. I’m starting to sell the track on eBay and it’s going for more than I expected - typically 1/3 of the new price. But it’s a lot of work and it’s taking up a lot of space. I can see why dealers need a significant mark up for doing this regularly and I take my hat off to you Tony for all the work you do. Although I hope its more satisfying finding a new home for quality items than for Triang-Hornby Thompsons!

 

Andy

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Please Sir, I don't think that's correct!

 

CJI.

May I please advise caution here, John?

 

Not all folk are natural 'wordsmiths', and some can be very sensitive if their English is 'corrected'. 

 

It's definitely the sort of thing I would have corrected had it been handed in to me at school, but this is not a school, nor is any post on here in any manner 'homework'. 

 

Not only that (and I know this from personal experience), you can look a total chump if a careless error ends up in one of your posts.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Tony Wright]

33 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’ve just done a large loft clearance. This was not a quality collection like Jack’s. Basically a load of tatty Hornby locos and stock and masses of track all still pinned to baseboards. I paid a modest amount for the locos and stock but we got all the layout track and buildings for free in exchange for the 15 man hours it took to dismantle. This is the layout before demolition.

 

 

I’ve sold enough of the rolling stock to club members to cover the costs and any surplus will go to club funds - the lead came through the club. But I’m left with boxes of track and Melcalfe buildings. I’m starting to sell the track on eBay and it’s going for more than I expected - typically 1/3 of the new price. But it’s a lot of work and it’s taking up a lot of space. I can see why dealers need a significant mark up for doing this regularly and I take my hat off to you Tony for all the work you do. Although I hope its more satisfying finding a new home for quality items than for Triang-Hornby Thompsons!

 

Andy

 

Good morning Andy,

 

Thank you for your kind comment.

 

What Mo and I definitely not do is 'deal' in second-hand RTR, RTP or carboard buildings from kits. There are dealers who handle that material much more-efficiently. It's kit-built/scratch-built stuff which we sell, on behalf of bereaved/distressed families (I now use both terms because last year I was selling Brian Lee's locos for his 'distressed' family, but the very last items were sold for his 'bereaved' family, after he'd died).

 

You mention Tri-ang-Hornby Thompsons; the other day, a friend popped round with some original Bachmann Thompsons (in plain brown). He asked my advice as to how to price them (they were in good condition, but un-boxed), since his club is trying to sell them (for club funds). They'd tried at £15.00 each, with no takers whatsoever. £10.00 had then been tried, but still no takers. In the end, I suggested (at a push) £7.00 each, though they might not sell for that. Two had been altered into catering cars (using Comet sides), but neither was particularly good; I doubt if they'd sell for a fiver each! 

 

I've said before about how I price items I have for sale (the kit-builds and so on). Because everything sells, either I pitch the price dead right or too low. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

13 hours ago, Northmoor said:

There are (possibly apocryphal) stories of Beeching-era demolition crews arriving to demolish signal boxes but due to a planning error, they first had to wait for the maintenance team who had arrived before them, to finish painting it.....

Good morning,

 

The tales might be apocryphal, but I've heard from many sources that a portent of a line's closure was that any structures were to be painted! 

 

I've also seen a video of track being re-laid on the GC London extension, a year before its closure.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[drmditch]

51 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’ve just done a large loft clearance. This was not a quality collection like Jack’s. Basically a load of tatty Hornby locos and stock and masses of track all still pinned to baseboards. I paid a modest amount for the locos and stock but we got all the layout track and buildings for free in exchange for the 15 man hours it took to dismantle. This is the layout before demolition.

 

 

I’ve sold enough of the rolling stock to club members to cover the costs and any surplus will go to club funds - the lead came through the club. But I’m left with boxes of track and Melcalfe buildings. I’m starting to sell the track on eBay and it’s going for more than I expected - typically 1/3 of the new price. But it’s a lot of work and it’s taking up a lot of space. I can see why dealers need a significant mark up for doing this regularly and I take my hat off to you Tony for all the work you do. Although I hope its more satisfying finding a new home for quality items than for Triang-Hornby Thompsons!

 

Andy

 

Yes, stuff that some of us might not value or regard as toy-like, but still someones dream. 

 

I'm glad that you were able to help.

[Tony Teague]

In the end, whether one is happy or not with the amount to be gained from the sale of 2nd hand stock might come down to whether it was perceived as an investment when bought, or as a consumable.

My personal view is that anything spent on my hobbies is 'consumable'; if I want to invest it wouldn't be in model railway stock or photographic kit (my other hobby).

I am currently working (with others) through the disposal of a large collection of railway modelling artefacts, the property of a modeller who is permnently and very seriously incapacitated; it is taking an inordinate amount of effort to which his family make no contribution whatever, and whilst we are managing their expectations, they certainly started by thinking that it was a pot of gold.......😧

Tony

 

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

May I please advise caution here, John?

 

Not all folk are natural 'wordsmiths', and some can be very sensitive if their English is 'corrected'. 

 

It's definitely the sort of thing I would have corrected had it been handed in to me at school, but this is not a school, nor is any post on here in any manner 'homework'. 

 

Not only that (and I know this from personal experience), you can look a total chump if a careless error ends up in one of your posts.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Tony,

 

My mistake - I thought that I was reading one of your posts - that'll teach me to pay attention!

 

John Isherwood.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by cctransuk

[polybear]

49 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

I am currently working (with others) through the disposal of a large collection of railway modelling artefacts, the property of a modeller who is permanently and very seriously incapacitated; it is taking an inordinate amount of effort to which his family make no contribution whatever....

 

In that case I would hope that it is only the Modeller who benefits and not his Family (assuming the Family are not contributing thru' choice rather than ill health etc.) - unless of course there is some sort of arrangement where X amount goes to Charity etc. as Tony does.

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Tony,

 

My mistake - I thought that I was reading one of your posts - that'll teach me to pay attention!

 

John Isherwood.

 

 

Thanks John,

 

If a post of mine contains a blooper, then, please, point it out. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Teague]

31 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

In that case I would hope that it is only the Modeller who benefits and not his Family (assuming the Family are not contributing thru' choice rather than ill health etc.) - unless of course there is some sort of arrangement where X amount goes to Charity etc. as Tony does.

 

In this case any proceeds will probably be swallowed up in care home fees, which will sadly be very significant against whatever is raised.