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I think Hornby more than any other name would be expected to produce models that work on trainset track of almost all considerations, considering its name is the face of the toy market for railways. Other brands may get away with restricted running, though admittedly I am dissapointed in the 18000’s limited curvature capability.

I wish my lloyds shares would jump like that.

I’ll swap it for a nice Lima one if you like ? fair swap ?

Ive no true idea what ive ordered without putting time into it, but it spans 13 pages on my accurascale account. But ive nearly a full set of each type of wagons to date (coil, 21t mineral I skipped, MHA I’m on the fence ). Ive 3 rakes of TPE, and just about a full rake of CS. 12 Deltics (3 via Rails), probably close in 37’s and several 92’s. Manors, i’m so-so about, just not feeling it, for either version, think the numbers chosen are outside my personal experiences, and to research and source the specific bits to go along with a renumber of a selected prototype doesnt seem as easy as with modern image. (its more white metal / brass kit parts from the dark days of the 1970’s when everything was sold via model railway constructor). mk2’s.. that’ll be an expensive day’s shopping… just waiting on some of the above to arrive and clear down the list a bit, then go shopping… i’m thinking of c16 ! 31’s… need to think here, but there will certainly be a few but note its full prepay so i’ll push that down a little. its taken me a while, but i’m finally kicking into gear a long overdue clear out to make space for this lot before everything ends in a layer of dust. They let slip one announcement last year online (ive kept it to myself and did point it out and noticed it went), but if the slip really was a slip then it’ll be exciting, i’ve speculatively dropped a few of mine as ive a dozen, but if its true there’ll be thousands of em on ebay !

GBRF is growing exponentially. The thing I like about GBRF is everyone I've ever met there is overall friendly. I get the impression its a good company to work for, and that surely is reflected in its success.

Considering the amount of Civ Eng work GBRF does for Network Rail, A Dutch 69 would be a nice nod towards recognising that work.

I took evergreen to be regular “consumables” as it were, that sells all year round. So Track, Signals, Buildings, Paint, scenics, Scalextric too probably is less seasonal. Trainsets i’d definitely class as seasonal so not evergreen imo. I’m just trying to map what “all year round” sales would fit a new market in the same country of production, yet meet costs and revenues to match… paint is paint, but a british signal box for example is a bit niche out of the UK, though admittedly I have seen similar UK style railway architecture in Argentina..

Totally agreed, in my opinion they need a CEO, who has knowledge from within the hobby. Its very niche. Imo A supermarket CEO would be bad, as would a finance derived one. If online retail is the strategy a CEO from a tech and with a hobbist (not neccessarily railways) background would seem more logical. Quality is a big one, to me its dived this year to the point where i’m just not buying a nice detailed model with a transfer pixelated paint job… i’ve canceled more than i’ve bought this year. Theres no point making detailed models with railroad paint jobs, even if the inverse brings quick wins. The website imo is hard to navigate, the search is poor, you need to understand Hornby, more than your hobby, to find what you want. In defence of Hornby, I think a couple of larger retailers are getting caught in this trap too. Filtering should be easy, configurable even saveable to get to the users search experience… How many times have I entered 78xxx to get nothing.. and try 2MT to get 1394 results… the most “relevant” being a brake van. Entering BR Std serves up a Black class 08, and entering 2-6-0 gets me a road crane. as a consumer I find it easier to google it… and then go back to the website.. or someone elses if the price is cheaper… imo its not in tune with the consumer. Applying tags to product lines is imo a basic retail commerce option today, is this being done ? Further i’d expect the website to learn from what i’m searching / buying and make linked reccomendations… even down to initial placement when I hit the site. if they are serious about the website, then I think they need to make a market place and affiliations. Theres much they could do here, that could streamline and save on behind scenes processes too and enhance the UX beyond just a transaction that pays for a model and become one that wants me to be drawn in, right now i’m being pushed away. Imo Passion comes from the top, Leadership should drive that passion with a lot of energy, be hands on as well business focused. A message should not be passion of revenue or expenses (thats the business) but in expectation setting and knowledge share.. that grows the desire for passion which leads to actions, that deliver the revenue and expense objectives, and motivates ! It must be frustrating for those with passion to read adverse comments online due to events out of their control elsewhere in the business… for example, simply wrapping and posting a W1 to their own office might have id’d the issues that saw many damaged ones online… since then I see loads of bubble wrap, but imo the issue is the shape of the box.. Ive sent much more fragile models with far less wrapping without damage due to the shape of the packaging. Show me the passion, that puts Watford Junction and Carlilse as destinations in the LNER Azuma and how such comment online motivates ? and finally how that impacts revenue or expenses ?

Thats er.. a decade and a dozen models before, and since… the later 17’s are imo nice runners, and they fixed the old ones to… Thats quite some grudge to be holding, if thats the case, and I can think of a lot more models I would hang a manufacturer on before I reached the 17 in that list… if anything I’d have picked the Garratt myself.

Which model do you have thats not upto scratch in your opinion ?

Never noticed that before, that makes a lot of OO nameplates, rtr and etched inaccurate then..

nice surprise to see a profit, however the YE was March 2022… the fall out of Tiers, Titfield, New pricing, Website, bdms etc havent yet had time to impact the books. 1. The headline number will have captured the additional 10% price rises of both June 2021 and January 2022… which conveniently were timed just before release of the APT, HST and Azuma sets… all >£500 rrp spend items… If adding 20% to the price of higher priced goods, moving channel to direct sales doesnt lift the margin, nothing will. 2. >£1mn less spent on capex (tooling) between this year and last produces a saving.. yet cash in the bank is down… Maybe 78xxx are paying for the new Black5… in which case that 5MT maybe a very long time away… but the lights, heating and power is still being consumed at commercial rates whilst staff get paid waiting there arrival. 3. Increase in Marketing costs of £1m due to “ongoing investment in direct relationships with our customers”…. Really, £1m on woo’ing me to buy via their website at expense of my retailer…? Havent seen a Hornby advert on rmweb, or a station billboard or anywhere else…indeed I see less advertising… the popup shops have gone too… maybe i’m the wrong type of customer ?.. perhaps titfield was a marketing stunt ?.. perhaps film licences are part of marketing ? I dunno, i’m lost on that one… but the size of the marketing budget has always been a mystery to me.. 4. is the website what its cracked up to be…? sales £54m, kpi 4… shows c£5.7mn via the website… so c90% sales are not via the website… its very easy to think, that simply increasing website sales, reduce trade gives better margins… but thats assuming your customers agree to buying mundane lower priced “evergreen” like track, buildings etc from online rather than retailers, and that retailers are also happy to stock such items despite the change or purchase place for that alluring rolling stock. my fear here is “evergreen” as a cash cow, could suffer if retailers cut back, but consumers don’t want to pay high postage for low value/need goods where competing options exist… if there was a competitive threat to Hornby imo this is it.. and core ranges (not rtr rolling stock) could be easily attacked by competitors. 5. Trade margin vs retail.. obviously this isnt known to us “oinks”, but many industries work thereabouts 35%. So profit or loss.. Well maybe its hiding in plain sight ? (2020’s website figures are c£4.9m )… if the £800k revenue increase between 2021 and 2022 was also attracting an extra 35% margin (£300k), add this to the European sales profit of £800k, then it would seem this slight increase was a critical piece contributing to the difference between a profit or a loss for Hornby in 2022…. 6. Manufacturing outside China… Specifically growing markets in those countries… Whilst evergreen products to me suggests Scalextrix, Paints, Track, Accessories… rather than bespoke OO gauge UK locos and Coaches, it does sound interesting to me as production generally needs to be in a location where wage costs are lower than the market to sell those goods in, which is reliant on greater disposable spend to buy them and make a profit…. So it’ll be interesting to see which country can afford to make them and have a market ready buy them in sustainable volumes as to be worthwhile, and remain “evergreen” and more importantly, relevant to the buyers in that country without offering regional pricing between different countries… OO gauge Christmas trees probably arent that popular in India…and not with a Railroad 66. 7. STB £12m, replaces PNC’s £9mn lending facility 8. Risks.. imo they have ignored risks from, Inflation, Ukraine, Interest Rates, Consumer Spending contraction, Rising energy costs, Higher taxation of customers, changing consumer interests associated with reopening after covid, additionally no risks are associated with changing their gtm model from B2B to B2C. That section to me suggests they see no risk of consumers cutting back spending… whilst humble me, has cut back a lot of spending this year, more vacation, outdoor focussed and Hornby especially as I feel Quality has dropped, that the website transition / high prices has removed urgency need to purchase and longer term looking at winter may look like.. all in all means i’m less prioritised on Hornby than I used to be… I guess i’m a lone consumer in that approach. 9. Web and digitalisation strategy… I consistently see these words in the annual reports, yet aside of a new erp and a new website (and the controller app) I dont know what else there is ? if this is about “feel good” in the reports to play to a tune, or if theres a serious behind the scenes innovation awaiting to be sprung on the market, is it just added smoke on a DCC chip ? or have I as a humble consumer missed something ? Overall, Imo, I feel a sense of strain between this years and last years numbers, cash down, stock up, price rises, costs up, better margin for comparatively little profit… My feeling is theres been a lot of hard work to make the profit what it is, and the profit occurred through the culmulation of the sum of the tinest of actions coming together.. thats very commendable, but is it sustainable ?.. On the website particularly, is the juice worth the squeeze or will pips get stuck in the filter ? Have the actions since January, which are yet to be seen, going to help or hinder ?

Interesting in that the letters of the nameplate are not central to the plate, but in the upper most section. Has it yet run for Europhoenix, the rust is already getting through that paint job ?

That was quite realistic for CS too for a while, whilst the 92’s were being converted to mk5 spec.

Alas non of my 9 made the cut today, no mail, null points.

Greenfield market. A class 37 maybe a popular choice dozens of them ran on the continent. Class 92’s still do.

I assume thats a yes then ? apologies for being thick at the back… its all TT to me. But i’m interested.

If i’m following this correctly, TT at 1:120 accurately matches the spec used in Europe ? Does that mean UK stock would be accurately sized next to European stock, rather than oversize as we have with HO/OO ? if so, then I think I find that rather attractive myself..

Does 9 minutes after launch count ? 😀 its been a long ride.

mines in the acc-10xx range… paid in full. are we nearly there yet.. are we nearly there yet.. are we nearly there yet.. i keep looking at the DHL man… I think he’s beginning to get the wrong idea judging by the smile he’s giving me back…

The NSE stock looked nice but didnt wash well, bleaching especially of the red stripe occured regularly, and the ever present brake dust. A combination of rubbing down random patches of red / blue and application of a film of dust plus varying levels of roof decay would complete the effect. overall theyve got it, NSE blue was light, there was definitely a darker shade used later (but I seem to recall associating it more with revised nse and locos), but as released I think its dead on. I have some NSE branded signage and reckon its good).

Ukraine ? Are you sure, they would need to be regauged to Russian 5’ Ive not heard that.

At 13-15 years, someone being 4 years older is a lot ! ;-) .. they could drink.. legally. ;-)

Crewe, death row… 31428 “The North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, not to be confused with 31439 “North Yorkshire Moors Railway”. A similarly unhealthy RTC 31970 behind it… both withdrawn 1991. Interestingly 47541 was in this line up, with 08841 and class ‘48’ 47116

That definitely has happened. Ive seen it myself, though ive only pictures of pairs on 4’s.. This is an image I really hope to recreate.. it was very common to see a pair head out, and another pair sent to bring them back, though quite often the failures were dumped and something from Springs Branch was sent to rescue it. It was used before Regional Railways turned up, as the Telethon pair were called posh toilets as they were clean. I remember Goyles being used to, but that was by an older crowd. it all started innocently one summer, with no heat 31’s.. then it just kept going year after year… maybe move this to the 31 thread as Ive a bunch of images I can share from this time.