Where are the Hornby models?

[Hroth]

I've bought too many NEW Hornby tranes this year so far (Ok, a couple of Sentinels, a DoG and there's the R3171 P2 that may or may not arrive soon...)  But when I saw robmcgs renditions of the Duchess.....

 

You know, when I was very young, the Hornby-Dublo Duchess of Montrose, in all its gloss-green glory was the bees knees, but nowadays, stuck alongside Abercorn, or even the old tender drive Sutherland it becomes VERY lacking, especially in the wheel department!  We're still progressing!

[Barry O]

... and they've succeeded magnificently with their recent driving axle bearings!

 

The Nim.

You mean just like the Bachmann Stanier 2-6-4T has? Could be a Chinese production method.

 

What are you all going to complain about if Hornby isn't there any more? And where does the Bachmann "returns" pile of boxes seen on their stand at major shows come from?

I don't want a DoG but it does look very nice and with a little bit of work coach has turned it into an even better model...

[darren01]

HI 

I don't know if this has been posted on here, if it has i am sorry, But make's interesting reading http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2599770/China-supply-chain-problems-derail-profits-model-train-set-firm-Hornby.html

[The Stationmaster]

HI 

I don't know if this has been posted on here, if it has i am sorry, But make's interesting reading http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2599770/China-supply-chain-problems-derail-profits-model-train-set-firm-Hornby.html

There are several past threads on Hornby profit warnings but I can't find one for the latest one - which even got a mention on R4 news yesterday.  As the 'Financial Times' neatly opens its piece on the latest news  ' Hornby ... has issued its third profit warning in less than two years ...'

 

the interesting bit is that it also says that 'supply delays meant it had suffered a decline in the value of currency held to pay Chinese suppliers'  (to the tune of £200K).  But things will get better the company has said - again (although this time they might actually be right).

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d1f9dba-bf31-11e3-b924-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2yNjVM4Ih

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10751849/Hornby-loses-1.2m-from-foreign-exchange-rate-movements.html

http://www.cfoworld.co.uk/news/financial-planning/3510814/Hornby-expects-12m-loss-following-forex-hit/

 

 

The Mods might care to separate this subject into one of the older Hornby profit warning/alert threads?

[Andy Y]

The Mods might care to separate this subject into one of the older Hornby profit warning/alert threads?

Where to begin! Most of the topics seem to be a homogeneous blur now.

[Mike Bellamy]

Where to begin! Most of the topics seem to be a homogeneous blur now.

 

You could always lock the lot of them and give us all a break for a few days . . . . .

[Brit70053]

the interesting bit is that it also says that 'supply delays meant it had suffered a decline in the value of currency held to pay Chinese suppliers'  (to the tune of £200K).  But things will get better the company has said - again (although this time they might actually be right).

 

 

I also found the 'opinion' that Hornby's new CEO was regarded as having been made a 'scapegoat' for the problems of his previous employer to be very interesting.

It leaves room for a little optimism that Hornby's future may not be as gloomy as some perceive. I hope! 

 

In Post #1190, Barry O mentions the Bachmann 'Stanier' tank loco.  Genuine question with no sarcasm intended -

  Bachmann have produced Std Class 4 and Fairburn 2 - 6 - 4 Tank locos, but only Hornby have made the Stanier tank loco with this wheel arrangement so far as I know. Can this be confirmed by anyone please?

 

Regards,

 

              John

[Torn-on-the-platform]

I also found the 'opinion' that Hornby's new CEO was regarded as having been made a 'scapegoat' for the problems of his previous employer to be very interesting.

It leaves room for a little optimism that Hornby's future may not be as gloomy as some perceive. I hope! 

 

In Post #1190, Barry O mentions the Bachmann 'Stanier' tank loco.  Genuine question with no sarcasm intended -

  Bachmann have produced Std Class 4 and Fairburn 2 - 6 - 4 Tank locos, but only Hornby have made the Stanier tank loco with this wheel arrangement so far as I know. Can this be confirmed by anyone please?

 

Regards,

 

              John

 

Correct, the Stanier tank is from Hornby. All three are cracking models though!

[Barry O]

I also found the 'opinion' that Hornby's new CEO was regarded as having been made a 'scapegoat' for the problems of his previous employer to be very interesting.

It leaves room for a little optimism that Hornby's future may not be as gloomy as some perceive. I hope!

 

In Post #1190, Barry O mentions the Bachmann 'Stanier' tank loco. Genuine question with no sarcasm intended -

Bachmann have produced Std Class 4 and Fairburn 2 - 6 - 4 Tank locos, but only Hornby have made the Stanier tank loco with this wheel arrangement so far as I know. Can this be confirmed by anyone please?

 

Regards,

 

John

Jphn

Sorry its a fairburn

Its still got square axle bearings and non round pony wheels

[Ozexpatriate]

There are several past threads on Hornby profit warnings but I can't find one for the latest one - which even got a mention on R4 news yesterday.

Hornby's latest communique is posted on the Hornby website. Link here.

 

The news is not unexpected, with a £1.2m loss overall and Hornby now in a situation where they need to borrow money outside previous banking covenants to keep the ship upright. They are renegotiating banking terms.

 

The Mods might care to separate this subject into one of the older Hornby profit warning/alert threads?

This latest news is a continuation of this discussion but I don't think thread 'purity' is a big concern for the current thread. It wanders all over the place anyway. It is a reasonable catch-all for the latest conversation on whether Hornby is able to produce anything, which is the heart of their problems.

[robmcg]

You mean just like the Bachmann Stanier 2-6-4T has? Could be a Chinese production method.

 

What are you all going to complain about if Hornby isn't there any more? And where does the Bachmann "returns" pile of boxes seen on their stand at major shows come from?

I don't want a DoG but it does look very nice and with a little bit of work coach has turned it into an even better model...

 

May I suggest that the DoG RR version is good value and available right now at £67 from a box shifter , and Coach did indeed make it a far better model, as I will today on another pic of my weathered TMC version which came in at under £100 me being outside-EU. 

 

My experience of 4 DoGs now is that they all run ok straight from the box, slight whine in engine compared to a 5-pole, like Abercorn which is silky quiet smooth.   But maybe I'm lucky. 

 

I'm sounding like a stuck record but I think we are lucky to have such model for under a hundred quid, or a little over that for such as Abercorn.

 

One wonders if regaining use of ex-Sanda Kan tools will enable Hornby to produce some of their best models again; rebuilt West Country and Britannia some to mind, or whether such production is seen as less profitable than Euro brands.

[robmcg]

 

The news is not unexpected, with a £1.2m loss overall and Hornby now in a situation where they need to borrow money outside previous banking covenants to keep the ship upright. They are renegotiating banking terms.

 

This latest news is a continuation of this discussion but I don't think thread 'purity' is a big concern for the current thread. It wanders all over the place anyway. It is a reasonable catch-all for the latest conversation on whether Hornby is able to produce anything, which is the heart of their problems.

 

Agreed. I think that Hornby will have to show bankers that they can trade out of trouble. I see no reason why UK 00 RTR models should not be part of this.

[Tony Wright]

Where are the Hornby models?

 

At least this one has just turned up, a full review of which will be appearing in BRM............

 

[coachmann]

I haven't read this thread for a while so have been catching up. Regarding the new 'red' Duchess that Rob has illustrated I don't know how much is "Hornby" and how much is digitally-generated, so I will say this;  LMS engines did not have horizontal yellow lining along the bottom of wheel splashers. Neither did they have double lining along the running plate in crimson lake livery.

 

As regards appearance, it looks okay but something is wrong that I cannot lay my finger on. Hornby's Black Five is the same. And yet again there is the shouldn't-be-there angle below the Tender footplate, as on the smaller Stanier Tender.This isn't so much, 'Where are the Hornby models' as why in 2014 hasn't Hornby attended to this anomaly.

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello Tony

.. a full review of which will be appearing in BRM............

But how much better for people here to tell us just what came out of the box - and in what order.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Ian Hargrave]

Hello Tony

But how much better for people here to tell us just what came out of the box - and in what order.

 

Regards

 

Ray

Ouch!

[7013]

Well I did not think the thread I started in September last year would still be going, it has taken a few twists and turnsbut there are some interesting sub topics in here

[robmcg]

...

 

 Regarding the new 'red' Duchess that Rob has illustrated I don't know how much is "Hornby" and how much is digitally-generated, so I will say this;  LMS engines did not have horizontal yellow lining along the bottom of wheel splashers. Neither did they have double lining along the running plate in crimson lake livery.

 

...

 

The photos of LMS 6222 on p58 and LMS 6234 on p59 of Irwell's Book of the Coronation Pacifics Mk2 shows a double lining, top and bottom of running plate, but it may be a trick of the light so I hedged my bets and did one pic with top and bottom lines there and one pic without

the top line.

 

The picture on p95 shows a horizontal line along the bottom of the front wheel-splasher. This is repeated on p60 with LMS 6231 but no top line along the running plate. It does however have lining top and bottom of front buffer beam.

 

These pics were pre-war.

[robmcg]

Where are the Hornby models?

 

At least this one has just turned up, a full review of which will be appearing in BRM............

Hornby L1 R 3190 01.jpg

 

Hornby L1 R 3190 02.jpg

 

If the photos are anything to go by Hornby still have some things which are good, hopefully at the standard they were sometimes achieving three years ago.  The sad thing is the paucity of new, saleable quality RTR 00. I will be looking for hints that Hornby have found suppliers and assemblers who can equal the standards of, say, a 2009 A4  although the cylinder covers on these is more 'jarring' from most angles than the Stanier tender underframe will ever be, to my eyes.  That said, I don't expect too much at today's £100 retail and say again the RR Duke is brilliant value at £67 from box shifters, under £60 for me in NZ. Some in this and other threads have had, or chosen to reconstruct theirs, and suffer all kinds of unnecessary work, but I have experience of 5 DoGs now 2 RR and 3 main range and all have run ok from the box and none have so far failed, nor were they in bits on arrival by air packet. Slightly noisier than the 5-pole in the Duchess though (which is silky smooth and silent straight from the box)...   reminds me of buying British cars in the 60s and 70s...buyers sometimes had to take them apart too. <g> 

[Silver Sidelines]

Where are all the Hornby Models? 

 

I have some thoughts. 

 

Earlier in this thread we were told that Hornby Gresley Brakes are now available at between £40 and £50.  I was amazed at the price and commented that it was only those of us that had never grown up that would be able to afford such high prices.

 

This week I added a new Post to my Blog – it was about green diesels (of the Bachmann variety).  I had lots of interest.  Now the week before I had added a Post about the Hornby Britannias which was very well received but has not generated the volume of interest that the post on green diesels attracted.

 

Perhaps Hornby have read the’ market’ and have decided that the number of modellers buying BR steam era and earlier is dwindling.  Volumes will be smaller and costs higher?

 

If you were train spotting in 1967 you would have been say 12.  You would have been born in 1955 and will now be 59 – say 60.  There is a lot of ‘talk’ about pensioners having more money to spend than young people.   Perhaps Hornby are judging that the market for steam era models is contracting but that the remaining buyers are likely to have deeper pockets?

 

Now if it was your business - what would you do?

 

Regards

 

Ray

[TheSignalEngineer]

Was in Manchester for a meeting yesterday. IA only had about 20 Hornby coaches on the shelf and a few locos in the display cases.

 

Went for my regular ferret through the s/h stuff and parts at my local shop last week. On the new stock shelves he had about 4 Blue boxes to every Red. 

[robmcg]

...

 

This week I added a new Post to my Blog – it was about green diesels (of the Bachmann variety).  I had lots of interest.  Now the week before I had added a Post about the Hornby Britannias which was very well received but has not generated the volume of interest that the post on green diesels attracted.

 

...

 

 

Could you give us a link to your blog please? Is it not clear where it is in any index.

 

edit, I found material in a search using Silver Sidelines; with the DoG and Brit rods and so on.  For what it's worth all 4 of the DoGs I've had anything to do with all run ok straight from the box, not quite a good as 5-pole earlier models in the sense of totally silent running, but pretty good and smooth, and plenty of ability to haul 6 Mk1s on a circuit with ease. Probably not as much running yet as some give them.

 

Rob

[Ceptic]

Where are all the Hornby Models? 

 

I have some thoughts. 

 

Earlier in this thread we were told that Hornby Gresley Brakes are now available at between £40 and £50.  I was amazed at the price and commented that it was only those of us that had never grown up that would be able to afford such high prices.

 

This week I added a new Post to my Blog – it was about green diesels (of the Bachmann variety).  I had lots of interest.  Now the week before I had added a Post about the Hornby Britannias which was very well received but has not generated the volume of interest that the post on green diesels attracted.

 

Perhaps Hornby have read the’ market’ and have decided that the number of modellers buying BR steam era and earlier is dwindling.  Volumes will be smaller and costs higher?

 

If you were train spotting in 1967 you would have been say 12.  You would have been born in 1955 and will now be 59 – say 60.  There is a lot of ‘talk’ about pensioners having more money to spend than young people.   Perhaps Hornby are judging that the market for steam era models is contracting but that the remaining buyers are likely to have deeper pockets?

 

Now if it was your business - what would you do?

 

Regards

 

Ray

 

Good points raised in your last paragraph, Ray.

 

I was born in the early '40s. Did most of my spotting in the early / mid / late '50s. Couldn't afford notebook & pencil, let alone I,Allan's ABCs, ... How I yearned to model my experiences*.

 

Applied for a job with BR.    Result, medically unfit. Got into motorbikes, model aircraft and cars in the 60s,...Life with Wife & Family followed, with the occasional dip into the railway scene.

 

Had a camera given me from an Uncle (some of my early attempts have been posted onto this forum).

 

Seriously got back into railways since the divorce....Involved with drawings, kit pattern making and the like....

 

*But, it is only since the evolution of the more detailed, more accurate RtR models, emanating from the likes of the early Mainline, Airfix, then Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol etc., that I can, honestly say, I do enjoy model railways, in this day and age.... Long may it continue, ...and no more toys,....Please!

 

Regards.

[Silver Sidelines]

Good!!

 

Agree.

....Did most of my spotting in the early / mid / late '50s. Couldn't afford notebook & pencil, let alone I,Allan's ABCs, ... How I yearned to model my experiences*..

 

*But, it is only since the evolution of the more detailed, more accurate RtR models, emanating from the likes of the early Mainline, Airfix, then Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol etc., that I can, honestly say, I do enjoy model railways, in this day and age.... Long may it continue, ...and no more toys,....Please!

 

..

So still lots of us around.

 

Thanks

 

Ray

[Ian Hargrave]

Good!!

 

Agree.

So still lots of us around.

 

Thanks

 

Ray

You bet!