Chamby

They do some Yankee Pacific's but I don’t think they have anything other than LNE currently in their British range. They have several six coupled tank engines with trailing bogies though.

I beg to differ. The Hornby Duchess will look good anyways, and one R3555 looks very much like another. But the track, signalling and scenics set the stage on which your 'star' performs - and that is where modelling skill largely manifests itself these days. Yes with careful track laying and ballasting, Streamline can look very good and perform very well. But the new bullhead track is so much better visually, and is a much better match to the higher standard of RTR models like the new Duchess.

Check with them re: the availability of a replacement before sending it back! They are selling very fast, though Atholl rather less so than William. Kernow had six R3555 for sale overnight but are not listing it now. I picked one up from their stand at the Bodmin MREx this morning. They are still listing Atholl though.

Yes I had this problem too. The tension lock coupling gets hung up on the moulded coupling hook on the coach ends when in the raised position. So if you’re not bothered about the hook, simply removing it solves the problem. Alternatively, within the rake you can swop in the Hornby (Roco style) close coupling within yourfixed rake of coaches. These couplings don’t raise, so avoid the problem. With railroad coaches, swopping over the wheels to a metal set makes a big difference to the running. These seem to be readily available, but bizarrely come in packs of ten. Edit: correcting the damned auto spell.

My personal wish: LNER B2/B19 Sir Sam Fay, though that probably fits best in Bachmann’s portfolio. W1 “Hush Hush” Other good lookers I would like to see: GWR 15xx pannier. Midland Railway “Kirtley Goods” 0-6-0 And the beautifully ugly Fell diesel.

RRP means very little in a discounted market. It is what products are being sold for that counts - that is the real “price point”. Right now I can buy a new Hornby BR black Radial for £82 and an Oxford Rail one for £88 from Hattons. More than 10 in stock of both... Hornby versions are now on sale at a lower price point than Oxford. That illustrates the points being made by retailers here rather well.

More likely that there are just the two coronations to choose from at the moment. There seemed to be a lot of kings all at once.... I am waiting for a lined black Ivatt Coronation, early British Railways livery. I wonder how long the wait will be?

It’s called a smartphone. I’ve seen a few layouts now being run using a smartphone app - the users seemed very pleased with the system, and let me have a go. I can’t remember the name of the system, but I was impressed.

Fear not, you may have an excuse... with a bit of modellers license I guess. City of Bradford ran between Kings Cross and Leeds in the 1948 locomotive exchange trials. Would have been in lined black livery. RCTS railtours are another possible excuse, City of Nottingham visited its home city’s Victoria station in the sixties, albeit an ex- Eastern Region station by this time. That would have been lined Maroon livery. There may have been others that travelled farther North? Phil

I note that the modelling press have assessed the performance of this new locomotive as “pulling 8 coaches with ease...we loaded both samples to 12 coaches without any signs of slipping...” (Hornby mag 125). Last year at St Austell MRC we decided to see which of our locomotives could haul the most coaches before slipping, expecting a 9F to win. In fact the winner was Hornby R398 “Flying Scotsman” with its ringfield motor tender drive... it happily pulled over 50 coaches on our club layout from a standing start, and would have undoubtedly pulled even more but our club track wasn’t long enough and it was literally chasing its own tail! Remarkably this locomotive was unmodified and has had no remedial work needed in well over 20 years, in essence it is a six wheeled tender pulling all those coaches AND pushing the unpowered locomotive. There’s a video of it on the clubs Facebook page for those interested. Arrr they don’t make ‘em like they used to...

Exactly. Built a sustainable business, rather than squeezing the most out of this month’s turnover (and repeat). The thing is, are we prepared for the less exciting, more steady Eddie manufacturer? We may complain about the famine, but we have grown to like the feast... Maybe we are moving to a market where the core products that shift steadily, such as the more popular Locomotives, Big four staples, BR standards and diesel classes are regularly available from Hornby and Bachman, and the likes of Hattons, Kernow, Locomotion, Sutton’s et al commission the more niche products where premium pricing is more justified and sustainable. Phil

Nice! The time, effort and mechanics involved in installing just one new car on the layout is mind blowing. Phil

I don't think that discounting is completely over though. Cash flow is king, as they say... so discounting will always be an obvious way to stimulate income when things get really tight. It may take Hornby a while for the new broom to make its clean sweep, and their wages and bills still need to be paid in the interim. Also, whilst Hornby may not discount, their retailers may well choose to do so with their stock that isn't shifting. Phil.

Standard Class 5 then, if that makes you happy. Which is an iteration of the Stanier 5MT, is it not? My point was about the very significant price differential for what is a very similar model - that still stands.

Think there will be discounted Black 5’s around well before a year - there’s a lot of versions appearing all of a sudden. And Hattons still have the Bachman early totem version available for under £90. It’s not hard to renumber/rename them either. Re: the continentals, they still knock spots off the UK stuff when you look under the bodywork. As a recent returnee to 4mm from a couple of decades modelling 3.5, I have been surprised how primitive the British stuff is underneath, especially re: motor quality and the flimsiness of its mounting.

OK so here’s what I do... If a new model fits right in with what I am modelling, then I will buy it even at today’s silly prices (within reason). If it is something that I would like, that fits in with what I am modelling with a bit of modelling license, I will wait a bit and see if the price drops. If it bears no relation to what I am modelling but I like it and the price is low, then I might just be tempted. So, drop your prices and the number of potential customers increases, but this means that: I feel good if I get something that I want, that sells out quickly and it therefore doesn’t get discounted. I feel cheated if the price subsequently drops and I paid in some cases £40-50 more than I need have, But at least I have got what I wanted and have to accept that I was prepared to pay that price. For sellers, they have to accept the average profit they will get for all the units sold in a given batch, driven by these market forces. What I really don’t understand is the current practice of producing yet another batch of something that is still on the shelves and now being discounted... Do you really expect me to pay £30-40 more simply to get the same item with a different number on the cab side? Similarly, I really don’t need yet another apple green A1/3, whatever number is on its cab side, or if it is gloss varnished rather than silky. But a British Railways blue one... now there’s an obvious unmet need that you already have all the tooling for. So why are you still producing yet more green ones that are slow to shift? What we seem to have now is a growing mismatch between market demand and what suppliers want to sell us right now. Feast or famine is becoming the new norm. As an aside to this, I have become very appreciative of the small retailers who patiently keep their stock at non-discounted prices. Hunting down an older model that the big guys have long run out of can be very rewarding at times... especially those with good websites like Hereford Model Centre, these are very much appreciated.

Yes, but..... promises of things being back to normal in a couple of days, then they aren’t, but don’t worry... things will be back to normal in a couple of days... and that was a couple of weeks ago now. By now Hattons will be operating in the realms of consequences: even once the original problem is fixed there can be unexpected consequential issues that linger on for some time. Especially if ‘quick fixes’ implemented in the heat of the problem by-passed critical procedures. One of our club members received a surprise parcel from Hattons this week with an item that was ordered a while back and had already been received (prior to their stock take!) Suggests that there are still gremlins around, maybe to the extent that Hattons will have to do another stock take once the dust has settled! Here’s hoping that the Big H can get things back to normal for us soon. I look forward to Hattons Dave’s message that says “we are on top and right back where we want to be” rather than “fixing it”. Hopefully this will be before Bachmann’s new Thompson teak’s arrive!

Reading the comments in this thread I am left wondering if EM2’s are the way to go for me. I don’t want the levels of volume that loosens my track ballast, makes coal jump out of the tender or derails my loco... for me it is about the pursuit of realism, decent bass and resonance that feels right at normal viewing (listening) distance in my 4mm world. I’m surprised that some of you guys haven’t tried using Wireless megabass sub-woofer boom boxes under the baseboards yet... I have ordered EM2’s from Charlie at GETS last weekend to give them a try... and now hoping I have made the right call!

At the Great Electic Train show this weekend, Hornby mag had its November issue on early sale and there is a great review of the Bulleid diesels in there. What a lovely iconic model. Even though I model the Eastern region I will just have to acquire one of these...

The media seem to think that Hornby’s investment in Oxford means buying them out. This makes sense from a business perspective: Lyndon Davies cashes in his company, he’s made his million(s). He also gets a bigger job running Hornby. That’s what I call having your cake and eating it. Hornby’s investors get, in return, Lyndon Davies as CEO and an opportunity to refresh the brand and their portfolio. No conflict of interest here either, once the deal is done. Believe me, they won’t be thinking about Adams radials or mk 3’s yet. What happened yesterday can stay there... it is all about the future now. They will shift existing stock, produce additional runs if the market suggests this might be a quick win, but expect a full ‘ground up’ review of future development. So there may be a slowing down of new products in the short term while the review and its fall-out works its way through. But what comes out in the medium to longer term should be worth the wait.

So we have lean and profitable Oxford collaborating in as yet undefined ways with larger but unprofitable Hornby. This will be all about culture transfer between the two. See what each company does the best and transfer it to the other. Plus economies of scale through dovetailing of production and back office operations. Logically: Railroad brand to become more obviously basic models aimed at toy train and 'trackmat' market. Oxford Rail to be their mid-market, mid sized brand opposite Dapol. Hornby to be more focused on the premium end, opposite Bachmann and looking to meet the needs of cash rich baby boomers. But yes, leaner/meaner and making money across the board.

There is a very clear business model here and it works very well re: developing dominant market presence. Think: Audi + VW + Seat + Skoda. Could be a very smart move.

Rang Hattons again this morning for an update on my order, I must say that their phone staff have remained polite and courteous throughout their current problem, top marks to them. I sense they have been operating in a rather confused environment over the last week, which can't have been easy. My understanding (perhaps Hattons Dave can further advise) is that Hattons have introduced a new system with a streamlined ordering process, but sometime during the stock-take and system upgrade some anomalies occurred resulting in what can be best described as 'phantom stock' showing on the website. Sadly, my order from last Monday - made based on what I saw appear on their 'new stock' web page that day - falls into this category, so my order has now been cancelled. Hatton's are now working through their backlog of orders, I was on a list of people to be contacted about the error, but my phone call pre-empted this. One Additional consequence seems to be that the 'new stock' section of their website is down and recently released items have yet to show up as in stock, so their ongoing business must still be affected. Also, the usual series of e-mails tracking the progress of an order through their operation seems to have ceased. It is not clear whether this is down to the new system, or the hiatus. Shame if it's gone for good, I appreciated the progress reports... Patience and understanding required from us at the moment.

I ordered 5x coaches and one Peco point on Monday 25th last and yesterday I received just the Peco point in a box big enough for the whole order. Seems like the problem is affecting some stuff but not all. Best thing you can do is ring up Hattons for a status on your order, they can tell you its current status but take any promises made with the requisite pinch of salt.

We're not taking any delight in this at all. But Hatton's do deserve a kick in the pants for this mess. Clearly their problems are rather more than just the technical issues affecting despatch they have admitted to. And of course it cannot be any fun at all for the staff trying to resolve things - they have my utmost sympathy. But It is when problems like this occur that suppliers are put to the test... and giving repeated promises over the phone, that are not then met is just not the way to engender positive customer response! I have not had the missive from Richard Davies, but have received an unexpected 'courtesy e-mail' that my stuff has been placed on back-order. Given the state of their stock listing as well (no new stock listed for over a week now) I am still clueless about whether I will receive my order or not!