Clearwater

I know what you mean... I did a term of history and philosophy of science which was eye opening (got me out of a term of chemistry lab work). We had an extremely able philosophy tutor and after having every single argument comprehensively shredded at our first two tutorials, my partner and I then started to meet the day before to prepare our arguments. We fared a little better but still lost. There are/were over courses, other than PPE, that included philosophy. Psychology, physiology and Philosophy and there was a Physics and Philosophy joint honours course. I think to survive a PPE degree, you have to learn how to argue that the proverbial black is white. It is, as @Edwardian points out good training for being a gobsxxte. I agree a completely different experience to reading science!

Isn't this what the philosophers called Logical Positivism? My philosophy is a bit rusty these days but the thing that stuck with me, and is the basis of scientific "fact", that a conjecture can disprove an existing theory and that conjecture holds until someone finds a hole in that argument. An example being Einstein's theory of relativity disproving previous theories of the universe. I think PPE'ists spend hours in philosophy tutorials arguing exactly this type of point as to "what is truth?"

I think Liverpool gets the odd direct call from the Far East but most of those ships go to the Rotterdams, Hamburgs and Antwerps. Ships may call en route with minimal diversions to Southampton, `Felixstowe or London Gateway. Liverpool is better suited for North Atlantic trade but does have feeders into those ports. It may well be cheaper, think easyJet style pricing, for a marginal box to go to Rotterdam, be transshipped to Hull/Immingham and then driven to Liverpool.

I think the pubs at both ends serve Bewdley Breweries. Heartily recommend Worcestershire Way. I like to stop at Highley. Exiting the station towards the river, there’s a decent large pub at the bottom. if you have time, the walk along the river from Bewdley to Highley isn’t that arduous and gives some excellent views, notably of the Victoria viaduct. There’s something special about walking through the woods, hearing the chuff and getting a glimpse of a train. Waving a train from one of the gates was a highlight! Also racing them along the valley. Though your child might be a few years away from such fun. Our smaller chap, at 4m, did stop complaining one hot day when a manor arrived in Highley. Get ‘em young….

Lining looks very good.... I'm starting to become tempted. Even though I've the other ones on order.

Phil - no problem at all and didn't notice any queue jumping! We can be extremely slow in going through selections of what we want.... Yes - we're all true Brits....

@Steamport Southport Jason - that's a fair argument. I certainly wouldn't advocate the scrapping of a mothballed loco. I think the argument is different about Barry condition locos and, dare I say it, plinthing some of those locos that have steamed but are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future is probably a better use than them gently rusting in an outside location. Look at the use of the shopping centre in Swindon or the Engine Shed at Highley. A good way of preserving /conserving locos but I do think some realism is needed around this discussion. Not everything that has steamed in preservation will do so again. I'm sure volunteers have put a lot of effort into 7027 and I can understand why to them this is a hammer blow. However, if the loco really was materially advanced, would the owners be selling? Somehow I doubt that. It took a team 20 years to get Pendennis back into steam and that wasn't starting from Barry condition. Given this loco has passed through the hands of several well-off individuals, I'd have thought that each of them would have done detailed surveys as to the genuine cost and work required to resteam the loco. That they've sold it on, tells me that they didn't think it was practical in a realistic or affordable manner.

@neal only two of the kids were mine though! However, both mine described that as one of highlights of the day (thank @Castle). Older one later remarked to me how strange the story of the accident that allowed 4079 to survive. He was clearly paying attention! @Harlequindidnt realise we were sharing a footplate! Good to meet you and Neal! I certainly didn’t need a second invitation to be allowed up… A great day out and look forward to seeing the Dreadnought in service! David

The elephant in the room here is how many locos and of what types are actually needed for heritage operations. If we were casting the clock back to the ups, I bet most of the preservation pioneers would be gpbsmacked that pretty much every single (i know some were cut up in about 1980) Barry loco has been preserved. Rather like us modellers, the loco collection of the heritage sector as a whole is larger than it’s actual operating requirements. If you’re involved in it, you’re going to be more hard headed about restoring locos that are efficient to operate and simpler to restore than others. That’s where focus will shift. in the coming years, I think there’s going to be more of these type of debates. We’re going to see some preserved lines fail. We’ll see some mergers. Inevitably, that means sustaining a fleet of 250+ preserved locos is not going to be possible. David

I’m fairly certain the `iWM had a diorama of the rail sidings at Auschwitz. A good model as I recall. Appropriate in the context there. Would it be appropriate at a regular model show? Probably not.

Echo the thanks to Drew and Co. A great day enjoyed by all three of us! one small request. Can you make sure we have a day 10 degrees cooler next year??? David

It's like debates about the King loading gauge. I think the changes to 6023 are noticeable relative to the unaltered 6000.

I've negligently failed to renew my GWS membership. Does anyone know if it's possible to renew my membership at the entrance gate? David

Can the experts advise whether this tooling is suitable to produce in an as built livery? david

Apologies if I've missed it, but who's making those Barnum resin kits? Appreciate Tony's comments about the preference for metal but I don't think a metal kit is currently commercially available? David

if I’ve understood correctly, Nu-Cast will be doing a version of the kit soon with the later 2500g tender. David

If memory serves, didn't Davies, when he came on board as CEO, make a similar comment that there were too many different product lines?

@The StationmasterI don't disagree with your points. It depends on the numbers such as relative sales. If you're only making 1% of your turnover/margin from the bits and pieces then so it may be a price wroth paying against securing a larger margin on a loco. Even if you make 50% margin on a £3.99 (RRP) so say £2 wholesale platform extension, you may only be making say £1 per unit. For a loco with an RRP of £200 and a retailer margin of £10, you can "afford" to lose 5 platform sales before you lose breakeven. I'd also suggest that how you price offers for free P&P can help drive small item sales. Eg if free posting comes at £200, a loco priced at £195 encourages the purchaser to spend more money... If you're looking at the Hornby strategy, you might think you can perhaps segment and take what you want to sell direct in house and leave others to your traditional model. You could dispose of those elements of the business. I'm afraid it all comes back to the numbers and how the owner maximises the profit figure. I agree that a team up/JV with one of the large retailer would make sense. Use their expertise and leverage that.

Sorry, let me elaborate. Hornby has a market valuation in the tens of millions. That strikes me as being way beyond the ability of even the largest retailers to be able to buy Hornby as a trading entity. However, if the entity was insolvent and the IP/toolings/brand name were being sold by a liquidator, then the entry price to buy those would be way lower. As others comment above, there is value in the Hornby name - whether it is more or less than the Intangible Asset figure is a matter of debate however if you were a shop and wanted to buy the name and market your designs as "Hornby", then it might make sense to be prepared. If a shop didn't already have a manufacturing arm and relied for say 60%+ of its turnover on selling Hornby, then Hornby disappearing is a key risk to your business. Hence, you might want a plan. As @Legend suggests, a consortium of shops may choose to act collectively.

I agree. If you take a step back, what we're seeing across the model rail business in the UK is a convergence of sales and "manufacturing." (recognising that manufacturing is really design and commissioning of a factory in China who actually manufactures). What you've got are businesses coming at the issue from different ends of the telescope. Those with their home in retail / direct internet sales who covet the extra manufacturing margin. Maybe they're operating a leaner model than Hornby and maybe they have one less leg of distribution charges to pay as they bring goods from container port to warehouse and then direct to customer whereas Hornby bring to warehouse, send to retailer and then retailer sends to customer) and the "manufacturers", new and old, who offer both direct sales through their own web channel at full RRP and via retail shops. Inevitably that causes commercial clashes, for example Rails/Hornby. However, the likes of Hornby can't yet cut their reliance on selling via third parties. It wouldn't surprise me if Hornby are looking at the proportion of their sales that come from shops with and without online sales channels. There will come a point where a logical move for them is to no longer sell to the retail trade and run all sales through their own channel. If I were one of those retailers who rely on Hornby, I'd have my plans ready to buy the brand and IP and move into the space.

I spend my working life on a "levelling up" project. I won't give too much details for obvious reasons. I fully agree it is a phrase without clear meaning which is why it's powerful politically. It allows people to read into it what they want and it plays on the mistaken trope that the south gets all the money. However, I did recently hear an MP rightly point out that a new rail factory in his constituency assembling new tube trains was a good example of how investment in the south actually means more jobs for the north. The underlying drivers for levelling up remain. There is gross inequality of opportunity in parts of the country. There is a legacy of not planning for what happens next after the carbon fuelled manual jobs have gone and a need to create new opportunities for those regions. If you don't, you create a pathway to further depopulation where people who can go, do. Tebbitite, if you will. As a generalisation, many people who can have got on their bike and gone. Hence the growth of London (and other cities) and the decline of former coal based economies and a downward spiral is created. None of this is easy to solve. Its systematic and requires large amounts of money and investment. There is that opportunity, particularly around green energy and how it is used as a feedstock for non-carbon fuels for example, but to unlock that requires Government (central and local) to take some risks and use its giant balance sheet strategically. A huge policy area but one that needs genuine long-term planning that of which Whitehall seems incapable. I don't think devolution is the answer either. Many of the ways to unlock new jobs require national policy and sums of money that only HMT can contemplate.

Gosh - that's an incredible layout. Reminiscent of the P4 layout of Jim Wright-Smith of Birmingham New Street and the excellent Liverpool Lime Street! David

Welcome back!

Given the ownership structure of the group, the principal shareholders will be very aware of the trading being directly or indirectly represented on the board. They appointed the CEO and I’d be gobsmacked if there was not a regular dialogue. I’m afraid, though, that the shareholders will care about one thing and one thing alone which is whether the overall net profit (and operating cash flow) metrics are being met. it’s perfectly possible for sales to fall and for `Hornby to increase both their absolute and net margins. They’ll also be in a position to directly see what the sales figures are by each channel, how these sort of decisions impact overall profit on a given production run etc. They also know where the relative balance of power sits between them and retailers. It will be different between one of the larger box shifter firms and with single shops with low retail presence. They’ll have a view that maybe they need two not three, by way of illustration, of the three principal retail outlets. Having one outside that group will help increase Hornby’s bargaining position with the others. With smaller shops, if they want the product, then they have to come back to Hornby. It may be the case that Hornby know they can sell the Dublo models (more expensive, poss greater margin and certainty a higher absolute unit profit margin) and want to insource those to their sales channel but maybe not some other ranges. They may be trialling different pricing/sales strategies and taking the data to see what makes them the most money. It wouldn’t surprise me, for example, if something like the Dublo brand became a web exclusive to them. Merely because it’s always been custom and practice to offer thr full range to all retailers doesn’t mean it has to continue like that. Say they lose a few retailers? If a consumer still wants a Bugatti P2, they’ll go elsewhere. Demand is relatively inelastic. Taking th example above, switching to an exclusive sales model adds the retail margin and possibly cuts the distribution costs (customers to pay p&P)? Could therefore widen both absolute and percentage margin. if I was a Hornby major shareholder/ director, I’d have specialist third party pricing consultants engaged to look at these types of question. This is a low margin, fast moving business. A relatively small increase in sales margin will translate to a big bottom line impact… David

Will it be the same, ahem, substantial sized box as the Deltic?