Bachmann Branchline announcements for 2015/6

[Legend]

Could that be because you personally must have posted at least 50 times on the subject on this thread alone?

I've told you a million times not to exaggerate

 

Hardly 50 times.

[micklner]

Building some kitchen units today from Ikea . Made in Lithunia and Rumania , perhaps models maybe coming homewards too before long as well.

 

China are doing themselves no favours with the price hikes. There is always somewhere else for items to be made.

[Jub45565]

Yesterday I cancelled a pre-order for a Bachman Jinty. If I wanted a high quality model I would have to replace the chimney (poor outline), the splashers (too large) and the brakes (again too large) but the price has gone up by £10. I wonder if North American modellers would tolerate this. I doubt it somehow. It's all very well getting a model off a production line which has aspirations to being highly detailed but the basics have to be right first. I'd rather have an accurate basic model which I could then do some additional detailing if the passion took me than a highly detailed model which is inaccurate in the first place.

 

 

Interesting point David, but I think generally the bodies of 00 locos are more accurate than HO can be. As HO/00 flanges are overscale, and as splasher thicknesses are easier to make thicker, when working with 'narrow gauge' chassis' it is easier to fit it in while keeping an accurate body.  It allows P4 modellers to fit scale chassis' without having to change an awful lot of the superstructure.

 

HO models on the other hand have to allow for overscale flanges, and thicker wheelsets, so if the Proto87 mob want to upgrade them there is more remedial work to do (and as they arent gauge widening the chassis, it precludes offerings like the Brassmasters conversion chassis kits.

 

This isnt specifically related to the Jinty - I personally havent looked into the accuracy or otherwise of that model - but in general it is easier to produce a more accurate 00 body RTR.

[Jeff Smith]

Interesting point David, but I think generally the bodies of 00 locos are more accurate than HO can be. As HO/00 flanges are overscale, and as splasher thicknesses are easier to make thicker, when working with 'narrow gauge' chassis' it is easier to fit it in while keeping an accurate body.  It allows P4 modellers to fit scale chassis' without having to change an awful lot of the superstructure.

 

The outside width of P4 wheels is not much more than OO wheels so they usually fit in. EM conversion is more difficult as EM uses re-gauged OO wheels which end up considerably wider.....

[Dunsignalling]

But it's a big market to turn your back on . Why do you think they set up Bachmann Branchline 26 years ago, knowing full well the British market expects lower prices

That was then, this is now. If a company is selling products at a loss, a big market is worse than a small one!

 

Bachmann Branchline are part of a larger group which has not, overall, been producing profits. Bachmann UK will be expected to contribute to turning that situation around. If they fail to do so, it is reasonable to assume that "their" production slots will be reallocated to more profitable sections of the business or external customers. 

 

IF increased prices lead to a high enough proportion of their existing UK customers becoming unable/unwilling to buy Bachmann products they will effectively cease to be a mass market producer. Their choices will be to cater for the able/willing in lower volumes at yet higher prices, or pack in British outline altogether.

 

In short, if Bachmann cannot make the required return from the mass market, there's no point in continuing to cater for the mass market. Whether you or I then consider them to have abandoned the mainstream or the mainstream to have abandoned them will be purely academic.

 

John

[Focalplane]

I do wonder where the 14 year old model railway enthusiast fits into this scenario of higher prices and greater detail/quality. The future is up to them.

[farren]

The poor 14 year old is probably going to be at museum to see what the oldies use to play with. Before people had to work till they are 104 to pay of their mortgage. unin fee's and save enough money to have a holiday on the one week of retirement their aloud in their life.

[Dunsignalling]

I do wonder where the 14 year old model railway enthusiast fits into this scenario of higher prices and greater detail/quality. The future is up to them.

Anybody's guess, but we, as participants (for as long as we are able) in the hobby are not custodians of its future unless we take it upon ourselves to be. That, surely, is the responsibility of those who make their living from it.

 

My own feeling is that railway modelling is, to a fairly large degree (and collecting, even more so), driven by nostalgia and populated mostly by the middle aged and elderly with the trade mainly chasing the "grey pound". 

 

Whether, in twenty or thirty years time the hobby has grown, shrunk, or disappeared altogether will depend on choices made by the likes of your notional 14 year-old who, typically, will desert it for much of that time in order to concentrate on more pressing issues, and (without wishing to sound morbid) it is unlikely to affect me anyway! 

 

John

[Ozexpatriate]

I do wonder where the 14 year old model railway enthusiast fits into this scenario of higher prices and greater detail/quality. The future is up to them.

Today's 14 year olds are given gifts by parents and grandparents like mobile phones, tablets and gaming consoles with games.

 

Retail prices for an Xbox One with Kinect retail for £350.00 according to Amazon.co.uk. Each game title seems to cost about £40.00. It's a matter of priorities.

 

If they wanted a model railway instead I would think they could do quite nicely with some Hornby RAILROAD models or a careful choice of more detailed rolling stock.

 

When I was 14 I couldn't afford new Hornby models then (the 1970s). I bought a second hand Albert Hall from a friend who wanted to buy a surfboard. I still have it. I think I was at University before I could afford buying my own first models new, and then it was nothing but tank engines.

[coachmann]

Each generation reshuffles the cards. Always has.

[tractor_37260]

A product price list included with the new Bachmann 2015/16 catalogue would have been helpful !

[tractionman]

When I was 14 I couldn't afford new Hornby models then (the 1970s). 

 

same here, I only had a lot of second hand tank engines, the most glamorous was a GWR Pannier! I did get a Triang class 37 one Christmas but it was never a great performer.

 

I remember spending £14.50 on a 009 Roco loco in 1981 and that used up all my savings and my dad thought I was mad spending that kind of money on a model loco! I still have it and it still works.

 

only now can I (within reason) afford to buy the kinds of models I yearned for 40 years ago... but I still need to budget.

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[Jeff Smith]

Frankly I have been amazed at the amount of money some posters have been talking about spending in pre-orders and or cancelled pre-orders.  There seems to be a very wide spectrum of disposable income.......

[Combe Martin]

Frankly I have been amazed at the amount of money some posters have been talking about spending in pre-orders and or cancelled pre-orders.  There seems to be a very wide spectrum of disposable income.......

Especially the gentleman who admitted on here a couple of days ago that he had 55 items on pre-order.  Sounds like he answered his own problem !

[farren]

May be he ordered a bag of nails.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Frankly I have been amazed at the amount of money some posters have been talking about spending in pre-orders and or cancelled pre-orders.  There seems to be a very wide spectrum of disposable income.......

 

Especially the gentleman who admitted on here a couple of days ago that he had 55 items on pre-order.  Sounds like he answered his own problem !

 

With that sort of budget, there should be no problem paying circa £200 for a highly detailed loco, when the prices reach that sort of figure in a couple of years time.

 

 

.

[Black 5 Bear]

A product price list included with the new Bachmann 2015/16 catalogue would have been helpful !

They won't do that my friend, Bachmann don't want people to compare year by year how much an item has gone up during that period without ever reaching the shops.

It's not only the punters that will be shying away, I can name a number of prominent outlets in the UK who will be doing the same.....

[coachmann]

How quickly the 'fine weather' grumblers have forgotten they were praising Bachmann to high heaven only a few months ago because the company did not follow the red brick road to moulded-design and only Bachy looked after the ordinary modeller by producing little black 0-6-0's and 2-4-2T's etc.

[Dunsignalling]

With that sort of budget, there should be no problem paying circa £200 for a highly detailed loco, when the prices reach that sort of figure in a couple of years time.

 

 

.

Surely, it all depends on how the releases are spaced out.

 

If all my pre-orders (from various makers) turned up next week, it might make my eyes water a bit but that's not going to happen.

 

Looking at it realistically, no more than a third of them are likely to emerge this year and some (e.g. the Brighton Atlantic) are probably still two years away.

 

I have been putting money by for new models since 2012, during which time there hasn't been much (apart from NPCS) to tempt me and, prior to Hornby's 2015 announcements, was on the verge of spending most of it on a motorbike! Consequently, even in this era of rising prices, I don't expect to employ my "flexible friend" for more than convenience.

 

John

[dibber25]

They won't do that my friend, Bachmann don't want people to compare year by year how much an item has gone up during that period without ever reaching the shops.

It's not only the punters that will be shying away, I can name a number of prominent outlets in the UK who will be doing the same.....

Recently had a morning with Bachmann going through the current manufacturing situation. One of the many interconnected issues currently affecting the company is the reluctance of Chinese factories to quote prices for items which are still a long way off from manufacture. Without a starting price from the factory, Bachmann has no way of providing an rrp. 

CHRIS LEIGH

[jjb1970]

This evening I had a play with my blue TOPS Class 85 and my blue/grey class 411 on the boys train set (as well as a Hornby blue/grey class 423) and you know what? Even at the higher Bachmann prices I'd buy these models again and I wouldn't regret it. The 85 and 411 are wonderful models, they are not unique in Bachmann's range and there are many other models I could point to in their range and say that even at the new higher prices I believe the models offer a level of detail and quality that means they still offer value. For balance, I can point to plenty of Hornby models and make the same comment.

[Guest]

I'm 14, albeit +1.

I tend to buy second hand from local fairs. This way, it is generally cheaper, and I can physically see the model of which I'm considering to buy. This means I can see the models faults, but also the seller can't hide behind a poor, lie-riddled description and unclear photos (cue 1 popular auction site). It was at one of these fairs, I managed to pick up a 8750 Pannier in as new condition for £35.

 

However, I do buy a few things off of auction sites if the item is described well and there are sufficient pictures.

 

I occasionally buy new, if I have significant interest in the model I'm buying.

So really, price rises will just mean I'll be focusing more toward the second hand market.

 

Regards,
Matt

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi everyone,

 

Like Dunsignalling above mentions I have put some money aside every so often to keep for future models as with all the production delays I have not been able to buy as much as I have previously. I've also reached a stage where you look at what you have collected and realise reluctantly that a certain layout or era isn't going to be modelled as time now gets eaten up with family more than ever.

 

In this time I have sorted my stock into my future layout plans identified gaps and started doing more modelling, re painting and weathering wagons etc and getting things together for these layouts where I've seen good prices for things.

 

Prices will continue to rise but why should we continue to exploit cheap labour markets. I've been interested in trains and collected since I was 4 and over the last 30 years that have past by the quality and detail and technology like sound has gone beyond what I imagined in my teens possible and I will continue to buy just maybe with more thought as to what fits.

 

I have bought a lot of Bachmann products over the years and I certainly hope they continue to develop new products to the standards we have become use.

 

One other point a few posters suggesting cancelling orders after emails about price rises is that there are far more retailers out there who offer the same prices and quality service throughout the country and it's perhaps worth more than ever supporting the smaller retailers.

 

Thanks

Mark

[Black 5 Bear]

Recently had a morning with Bachmann going through the current manufacturing situation. One of the many interconnected issues currently affecting the company is the reluctance of Chinese factories to quote prices for items which are still a long way off from manufacture. Without a starting price from the factory, Bachmann has no way of providing an rrp. 

CHRIS LEIGH

If that is the case,why do Hornby publish their RRP with their catalogue ???? Their models on the whole are made in China are they not???

[Fenman]

If that is the case,why do Hornby publish their RRP with their catologue ???? Their models on the whole are made in China are they not???

Because traditionally Hornby doesn't announce models until they are much closer to production. The others seem to announce them as soon as they've had the idea. Bachmann announced their all-new 158 back in 2011. According to their most recent update it still hasn't left the drawing office.

 

Paul