Barrow Hill Live 2014

[sammyboy]

Really enjoyed going to and being able to help out by stewarding at the "Barrow Hill Live 2014" show yesterday.

The sun was shining and both the visitors & exhibitors were in good spirits, especially around the "Turner's Folly" layout which was full of people watching a near constant procession of trains, which deservedly won the best layout award. All the other layouts housed in the DPS shed ware good, especially O Gauge "Oldham King St Parcels" with it's working exhausts on both the steam & diesel locos.

 

Tornado was very good to see working the shuttle trains, incredible to see that this wonderful locomotive was built from nothing with the old builders plans found in a skip in Darlington!

 

Sam

[Andy Y]

 

So I'm led to believe that according to Bachmanns figures, N Gauge now accounts for roughly 30% of their sales, which doesn't equate to your, admittedly personal, data of 17-18%.

 

 

Hi Neal,

 

Is it possible to ask for the source of these figures please as I know a few people are interested to see how it's been arrived at following conversations.

[TomE]

Hi Neal,

 

Is it possible to ask for the source of these figures please as I know a few people are interested to see how it's been arrived at following conversations.

Hi Andy.

 

Just drifting through this thread, but I have heard the 30% figure quoted a couple of times by different people as coming direct from Bachmann. I guess only Bachmann could tell us for certain though.

 

Tom.

[Andy Y]

Bachmann have quoted a figure of 20% recently in a Hornby mag I believe and I've certainly had discussions with various persons over the years on such stuff and I've never heard 30% mentioned at any point. 10% is a very big difference in terms of impacting the viability of products. I've also chatted to various retailers over time too (and looked at survey data) which gives me a figure just under the 20% figure (of modellers in total rather than 20% the size of the OO market which in turn is 85%+ of the market).

[Revolution Mike]

I'm pretty certain I know where the 30% figure came from, but I'll let others confirm it.

 

I don't know what the estimates are for the total size of the 4mm market are in terms of numbers of people, but the NGS has 6000 members and that is very far from being all N gauge modellers!

 

Unless a retailer can provide similar emphasis for all scales then any reports they make will be skewed.  For instance ask Hattons and I would expect their figures to be lower than reality due to the 4mm commissions they do.  Similarly the opposite applies for some traders which specialise in particular scales eg Plus Daughters/Osborns/Tower etc.

[Andy Y]

I'm pretty certain I know where the 30% figure came from, but I'll let others confirm it.

 

 

I've moved an extended analysis into a separate topic - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/90863-market-viability-where-do-we-go-from-here/

 

Drop me a PM Mike if you like if you wish to keep it off the record.

[southern42]

Thanks again to AndyY and Caradoc for info and times on the shuttle service without which we would not have even started out, let alone have a brilliant day out.

Three trains to Chesterfield on the way there, four, including the Shuttle Train, on the way back with a different set of connections. 

 

But when we got there, there was something missing and we didn't even notice. 

Mid afternoon, we were sitting down at a bench by the platforms when a lovely local lady introduced herself  and told us about it.

 

Fortunately, I had captured the chimneys last year.

 

And it wasn't only the chimneys that had gone.  What happened to the nameplate?

 

Polly & Ray