ruggedpeak

But you know what a Mk1 is, an old outdated and unsafe by modern standards railway coach. And whatever you may or may not know about Harry Potter, it probably does not get you sufficiently excited to pay for a trip on the Jacobite! For the thousands of punters on the Jacobite it is living the dream of being part of the fantasy world that is Harry Potter. They have no idea about the coach or its safety etc as they are buying the experience. For WCRC that Mk1 is not a railway coach, it is device that can be put into a specific geographical location and linked to some IP that causes it to be filled with paying customers who make a nice profit for the company. That is the business. WCRC know the "business". Whether they know railway safety is another matter.

Their business model is to acquire undervalued/underperforming companies or those that are in administration that fit with the wider group business. Hence lots of clothing and retail brands. They will essentially strip out the underperforming parts and sweat the valuable bits. This is often the brand and IP, as the day to day of selling clothes etc is the bit that is not profitable. So they take the brand and IP, get rid of those bits that aren't efficient/profitable and integrate it with existing operations and Fraser expertise in manufacturing, marketing, logistics, sales etc. They are not afraid to take a punt and have lost money on occasions, they accept that as the nature of an aggressive approach. If you are a business person used to the high volumes and potential profits of high street fashion retail etc then would you see TT:120 or indeed model trains as a high profit or growth opportunity? No. But you would see a cheap, essentially unprofitable company with larges amounts of valuable IP in well known toy brands (Hornby, Corgi, Airfix etc) as things that could be leveraged by putting them with more generic toy business activities. Ashley and co, for example, bought their way into a strong position in the outdoor leisure market over a number of years buying the likes of Karrimor, Blacks etc. Karrimor was once a leading UK outdoor equioment manufacturer, and is now basically a brand on generic low cost outdoor kit sold in Sports Direct. Blacks were a failing outdoor retailer but allowed them to consolidate market share in that sector, and they already had expertise in dealing with surplus retail property etc so fitted well into their existing activities. So if Frasers see Hornby as an opportunity, history suggests that making model trains may nor be part of that future as they are unemotional about the brands, and if they continue with model trains it will be an operation that fits with their existing low cost, high volume, high street focused approach. Basically the sort of trains (and Corgi models and Airfix kits) you'd buy in the model equivalent of Sports Direct. Can't see them wanting to keep the international brands, they will be sold off. Obviously this is informed speculation but the concept of Frasers seeing model trains as a significant business opportunity to invest millions in is almost zero.

Which is exactly why Ashely and co are taking a stake. They specialise in businesses with a strong brand but weak management who can't turn a meaningful profit from it.

So not "automatic" then? How strange.

He takes a small stake, gets in and does "consultancy" to understand the business and its potential in detail, if it looks a nice proposition for Frasers he will make a tasty offer to Phoenix for them to exit. Hornby is then absorbed into Frasers. If it doesn't stack up he will exit at some point but the sums involved are piddly for him. Don't be shocked if this is all concluded in a matter of weeks with a "sudden" announcement of a takeover or similar. Ashley's team know how to leverage undervalued brands and struggling businesses. It won't be pretty at our end I suspect.

Given their performance at the Judicial Review I doubt the ORR are overly worried about WCRC and its lawyers. They can't stop WCRC launching more litigation. As the short Corsican warry fella said "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake".

This is how West Coast put the position on their website: "The vintage carriages that we use on the Jacobite Steam Train trip require a central door locking exemption certificate in order to run on the mainline railway network. In past years this has been automatically granted, however this year that has not been the case and a more detailed application has had to be submitted. "[my bold] https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/news/important-announcement-the-jacobite With a statement like that I think it is now only a matter of time until the inevitable demise of WCRC occurs. I sincerely hope it does not involve anyone getting hurt.

Keeping the freight theme, La Velo Postale use rail services for parcel deliveries between cities, Red Star style. Here at Geneva today loading onto the RABDe 500 ICN Rorschach service, something that happens every day.

Hump shunting 2024! Not a great video as the train pulled up ready to start just as I arrived soI just grabbed the phone, plus directly into the sun. Different time of day and proper video set up would be great. They hump all sorts, covered wagons, container flats, hoppers etc. Staff all friendly, shunter gave a wave.

Denges is the station next to Lausanne Triage marshalling yard. From the station you have to walk up steps to the road overbridge that sits over the neck between the receiving yard and the sorting yard. The yard uses hump shunting to sort the wagons like Tinsley used to in the UK. The wagons are uncouple and then pushed over the hump to be sent to the appropriate line, passing through retarders. I was fortunate to arrive just as they started a shunt and have added a video in the next post. The yard is big. Note the control tower, and also the line running underneath. There is a complete loop under yard and back out - see map below. The overpass is the yellow road running north/south, the receiving yard to the east/right and sorting yard to the west/left. Directly next to the hump is a public car park that can be access by stairs from the overpass. Map extract courtesy/copyright of Swiss Topo/Federal Government https://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en&topic=ech&bgLayer=ch.swisstopo.pixelkarte-farbe&layers=ch.swisstopo.zeitreihen,ch.bfs.gebaeude_wohnungs_register,ch.bav.haltestellen-oev,ch.swisstopo.swisstlm3d-wanderwege,ch.astra.wanderland-sperrungen_umleitungen&layers_opacity=1,1,1,0.8,0.8&layers_visibility=false,false,false,false,false&layers_timestamp=18641231,,,, Views of receiving yard: Re 420 296 brings in a new 960 into the yard... then departs leaving the 960 in the yard. Re 620 064 and 420 285 sit in lines 5 and 4 respectively. Locos all over the place! Re 420 273 and 240: Re 420 336 Shunter 923 013 Hump shunt signal. The shunter was uncoupling as the consist was moving, consulting his list and using a long pole. As can be seen in the video, a long Coop container train came into the receiving yard and then passed the by the hump to take the loop back out the yard directly underneath the hump Was there about an hour in late afternoon and a lot of movements going on. The yard is right next to the mainline and the main road up the lake As I waited for the train home a long tanker train arrived in the receiving yard.

That looks an excellent trip, will check tickets, thanks.

Give it a day or two, they've broken the rollbockenmachinen! As it was sunny today I decided to do some exploring, and also to help Mol's planning. So first to Morge expecting to see the tippler and hopper train. It was there but as above the conversion track was being worked on and so the train was sitting still loaded with spoil from Gland behind the workers, unable to go up the MBC. Before going to Morges I went to my photo spot at Rolle, just south of the station to await the approx 1450-1500 postal service. Sun is still quite low in the sky and the track orientation is not ideal for the light but a useful spot to see things going past: Unidentified Re 420, the side numbers were missing and not quite sharp enough to read the front number or data panel. Should be distinctive as I think the number to the right of the Swiss falg on the nose is not common, nor side numbers missing:: And then the post train, and by pure skill on my part I managed to get a Postbus going under the bridge at the same time!!! UPDATE - I passed this train whilst en route to Le Brassus, I suspect it originates at the large La Poste parcels depot at Daillens. Then onto Morges for the MBC: Leman Granulats are a quarry company with quarries at Apples and Biere https://www.mbc.ch/marchandises "The Bière - Apples - Morges railroad contributes to the transfer from road to rail and transports goods such as gravel, wood, agricultural products and military vehicles. Since 2016, our trains have been transporting gravel from the Délices gravel pit in Apples, operated by Léman Granulats SA, to the Ballastière area in Gland, helping to reduce heavy road traffic. Over 235,000 tonnes are transported every year on our network." Translated with DeepL.com (free version) The Swiss are quite practical with things, this PW wagon has normal skips on it (rollbocken in the foreground). Whilst I was walking under the bridge at Rolle the Rescue train passed by which was a tad annoying, but luckily it was coming back through Morges when I was there: I had to wait a while for the next train but it didn't look like the repairs were going well....!! From Morges it was onto Denges-Echandens, where things were going to get even better........

I can advise on the following based upon observations: Nyon station is a regular stabling area for PW trains. Had a lot of wagons, Kirow crane and a tamper there recently, then they left (went south towards Geneva, presumably to La Praille yard before coming back a few hours later heading up the lake, the consist having been reversed with the tamper that was on the rear both times!). Also has beet trains during the season. Can get close t to the line on footpaths north of the station. Will add photos in due course. The MBC train featured above with blue tipplers and green hoppers seems to run most if not every day of the working week, it starts at the sidings in Gland before going up to Morges and then up the MBC towards Biere. Spoil leaves Gland in the tipplers and aggregate/ballast comes back in the hopper wagons. hopefully this week I will get to Gland to see what is going on there and then go up to Biere. These videos are from Friday 15/03/2024 as I was on the train stopping at Morges. The MBC train was waiting next to us, then moved up to the exchange sidings north of the station to then presumably be shunted onto the rollbocken. The second video shows how busy things are at Morges with shunters, wagons etc. The advantage of double decker trains, seeing into the wagons!! Didn't stop to watch as I was on my way to Chur to a 2 day train and RhB extravangza including the Bernina Express! VID_20240315_122602.mp4 VID_20240315_122707.mp4 3. There is a large marshalling yard north of Morges that I need to get up to to see if there are good vantage points. Always seems busy, and they still do loose shunting. 4. There is a southbound mail train of one loco (Re 4/4) and 3 mail coaches that travels south through Rolle at about 1450 each day, no idea where it starts but would guess it goes to the new Poste siding at Geneva. Need to get photos of it. Finding a decent spot somewhere between Geneva and Morges on a week day will through up lots of interesting freight trains. There are good photo spots at Nyon, Gland (On a footpath south of the station), Rolle (next to the track) and of course the MBC exchange activity can be observed at Morges.

The fairness question was answered by a High Court Judge quite clearly. There seem to be a few who still think WCRC are the victims, which suggests they have not read the judgement. That the Judge had to explain in written judgement to WCRC and it's legal team that assertions made in court need the backing of actual evidence is not a good look. I only hope those who made statements for the court case understand that all of their conduct is grist to the mill for any criminal prosecution if WCRC were to be involved in a serious incident.

Not wishing to get into politics or take my own thread off topic, but the Swiss are looking to restart negotiations with the EU after they were abandoned in 2019. One of the issues on the table is the Swiss maintaining full control of what runs over their rail network. On flights, during ski season they can be very cheap. I just had a long weekend back in the UK using Jet2 from Gva to Stansted and back for CHF 61 all in. Prices were discounted slightly, presumably due to the lack of snow. Back to Swiss trains and I'm using up my Coop discounted SBB day passes over the weekend, taking the scenic route to Chur then touring the RhB. Unlimited first class travel CHF 69 per day. Main issue is avalanche risk due to sudden rise in temperatures!

All of us of a certain age watched the first film and are now seeing it all come true.....😱

A Member of the National Council in Switzerland made a formal proposal for a London Basel train last year and SBB are looking at it, but it is the same issue that SBB need agreement from all the other rail companies etc. https://www.iamexpat.ch/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/sbb-planning-new-direct-train-switzerland-london

A petition has been started here in Switzerland for a direct Geneva to London service if anyone wants to sign. I have, although how rail will compete with the £30 air fares I pay at this time of year for the same trip I am not sure! https://chng.it/b7vQvkR65n

A petition has been started for a direct London to Geneva train service, I've signed as it would be good idea, even if flights from Geneva are quick and cheap! https://chng.it/b7vQvkR65n

I know this has been done to death elsewhere, but note that Heljan have produced their Class 25 ETHEL's without a motor. They are the same price as the motorised Class 25's. I haven't seen anything kicking off over this solution even with the unchanged price, indeed the 'kicking off' was over Heljan and SLW models being powered in the first place. My suggestion/thought is that at the design stage, making it relatively easy for multiple unit models that regularly ran in multiples (like 320/321's) to be 'de-motored' so that they have the potential to become trailed units. This assumes suitable pulling power in a single unit, but might assist sales since it becomes a lot easier to run an 8 or 12 car set on the layout. Less faff, no need for DCC consisting etc, maybe more tempting for the average modeller to buy an extra set or two. Given the availability of suitable locos to drag them to storage or the scrap yard for the contemporary scene, this is a futher benefit. Just a thought, no response required.

So in theory Hornby have bought the business (without stock) for £200k, for which they get 6000 subscribers (£33.33 per subscriber) and an additional £2m of turnover with a margin of £300k a year. £2m of turnover pa is £333.33 for each of the subscribers, which is basically every subscriber paying their full 12 months of £24,99 and the £3,99 postage per month (£336 pa). Throw in efficiencies from not selling the product to CMC for them to handle and ship etc, the margins should be improved. The Club says it is now shipping to Europe, which suggests significant growth potential. So for less than 1 year's CMC operating margin Hornby have got 4% uplift in total company revenues. Given Hornby's overal margin is -12%, the 15% from CMC is a positive! On the face of it a sensible deal.

Diesel sets in the announcement? Probably. It is clear that TT120 has been far more planned and developed than many people think, especially those blinded by their need to criticise Hornby. Whilst most consumer product launches fail, TT is going from strength to strength. I will wager that April will see even more coherence brought to the range. All the signs are there that they've got their act together on this.

There are IMHO a number of issues in play. If a company is offering super detailed models it can operate a pre-order system with or without retailers as that segment of the market is happy to use that method. For the trainset and occasional buyer you need actual stock available in virtual or real stores. There is clearly a market for budget models with less detail. My take is that the current design and production processes for a new model are based on ever more detail. This precludes producing new budget models as the process is too slow and expensive. If the volume/margins are there, there may be a logic to setting up a streamlined design and production process to produce new tool budget models. I think this is sort of what Dapol have been doing. If a budget loco has limited parts, little need for assembly etc then it can be made perhaps outside of China. Whether anyone takes a punt on that remains to be seen. At some point the super detail sector may run out of steam(!). The danger with Fraser's is then doing this to take the Hornby brand awareness and use it to front a toy company producing generic products, much as they have done with brands like Karrimor.

I noticed there is a thread started on this in the Rails section, that might be the place to continue discussing what is good news for the hobby in terms of the RoS developments.

Rails have just emailed to say they are taking over the Hattons brand: We are pleased to announce that we have now brought “Hattons Model Railways” into the Rails family! It was a shock to the modelling world earlier this year, when stalwart of the industry, Hattons, announced that it was to close. At Rails, we could not allow the legacy of this esteemed brand to disappear and we have sought a way to keep the spirit of Hattons alive. Many customers reached out to us, dismayed, that the valuable resources on the Hattons website such as the product database and expansive “Directory” system may be lost forever. Rails will soon relaunch these services and will continue to update them with new information. While the original Hattons store and business will remain closed, this iconic brand will live on. Stay tuned to RAILSOFSHEFFIELD.COM & HATTONS.CO.UK for more information!