Widnes Model Centre

Off topic from the main thread but l would like to add: Just to reinforce what Gareth is saying. Our mail order has gone back to pre pandemic levels. Mail order is also a small part of our business. You may be surprised to know it is for a lot of shops. We we are certainly on Saturdays seeing queues outside from opening to closing times. It is heartwarming to see customers return, also heartbreaking as we know of customers who didn’t survive the pandemic. A lot if shops have reduced their opening times to accommodate cleaning regimes. We are also still finding local delivery is still in demand for those customers who don’t want to or feel uncomfortable returning to normalish shopping. As for Model shops in this area.? I can think of ten shops, all within thirty minutes drive from our shop. At least nine of them sell Model Railway’s. Forty five minutes drive will find you at least five possibly six more Model shops. So so there are plenty of Model shops, you are just living in the wrong part of the country. Somewhat a tongue in cheek comment. Certainly true in our case that customer loyalty is very much in prominence.

Doubt they came in a plastic insert like this though Jason. Barry

Yes, you could from memory get an Arsenal and came with Leeds United as alternative plates, it was only the metal plates that were different. They all came with two teams. However if you look at mine, the tender isn’t lined. No lining or numbering on loco body. Even the paint looks like it’s given a thinner coat on the undecorated side.

Correct, Henners84. I bought it as an unboxed loco but in plastic inner,eBay auction . The inner says R133 Sample. 1994. I can only presume l actually bought a Hornby pre production sample. As l said, never noticed for years,

Great win. However you haven’t spotted why it’s probably different to every B17. Look again..... Don’t forget it’s Everton and doesn’t always pan out the way we think it should. It took me about five years to even notice. Barry

Is it anything like my B17 Everton? Look carefully.

I have been following this topic with great commercial and personal interest. Having been a Hornby stockist in the bad old days. We could order what we liked in pretty much any quantities. Delivery and out into the shelves. Fantastic. First customer through the door... ‘do you price match Hornby?’. Check Hornby website and it’s being sold for less than we paid for it. Angry phone call... basically that’s tough... Jump forward to 2020 and Hornby are producing some fabulous products. Announcements made, order in within minutes of the announcement. Let’s use the scenario of what might have happened with the Limited Edition Triangle Rocket. I can almost see the place where the Trials took place. Making 500, bold gamble ‘we will have them all’. Hornby...’ you’re not being fair’. You can’t have them all. But l know we can sell them, Hornby won’t sell them to us. Commercially, Hornby have produced a product and sold them all. Happy shareholders. Unhappy, all the rest of the Hornby stockists . A bit bit far fetched, yes, but no? Hornby are in the business of selling to make a profit , they could have sold them all and saved on sending multiple parcels all over the country. Thankfully for all retailers they haven’t operated like that. Instead they have an allocation process. l am fairly sure when Hornby decide on numbers for a production run, the most important consideration is that run will sell out. Stock in warehouses is a financial liability. Fast forward to the start of this topic. When Hornby decided on numbers, there was no pandemic and no one had heard of Fairlough, Covid and Lockdown would have been the latest film on Sky Cinema. The last twelve months and some more has seen unprecedented gardening, decorating etc. More importantly model railways are being turned into layouts instead of having to find the time to do it, we had plenty of time. So Hornby decided to make 500 of a model, 600 were sold on various websites, customers in the shop etc. Only solution is to cut back on allocation and try and do it fairly. Disappointed retailers, customers and very disappointed Hornby no doubt. Hornby could of course return to the ‘bad old days’ and we could return to the Fire Sales. Results? Very angry retailers, even angrier customers who had bought at full price and now see it at half the price on Hornby’s website. Retailers having to slash their prices just to get something back. Outcome? Another model shop decides it’s no longer worth staying open. Conclusion? Can only give my thoughts. We would love to have more Hornby products that are guaranteed to sell. We would all want to satisfy customers and not have to let anyone down. For that matter we would all love customers who don’t let retailers down. Reading about placing multiple orders to make sure that you get your order from anywhere could just be artificially making the problem worse. We sell out to pre order and then we have the order cancelled by customers who have placed orders with multiple retailers. We will have turned down pre orders as we had sold our allocation. Apologies for the long post. As can be seen this is just my thoughts. Our overriding wish is for Hornby to survive. Indeed my late mother may well have been involved in the building of that old loco in Binns Road, Liverpool. P.s. If you are wondering why l am writing this on a busy Saturday afternoon.? Currently nursing a bad back!

Hope to be reopening on Monday 12th April 2021 Opening times: 10am until 3pm Monday to Friday. 10am until 4pm Saturday. Closed Sunday 128 Widnes Road, Widnes WA8 6AX 0151 424 1196 Reduced hours as above, as we have been asked to continue our local delivery service. No queuing before Midnight.

Last October l posted our experience for the six months from when Lockdown first started with a threat to update in six months time. Here it is: Just over 12 months ago we had not long returned from the Model Rail Scotland Exhibition. Some complaints were heard about feeling unwell from exhibitors at the show. Most of them put it down to lack of sleep and generally having a great time. Then 12 months ago today we were on a short break in a caravan in North Wales. My wife called me to come and see the news. We were given a few hours to leave as the Welsh government was locking it’s borders. Did anyone ever envisage not being permitted to travel to Wales? We all know what has happened since. The Model Trade has done it’s very best to keep us all modelling with a tremendous effort. Supply issues continue. I am reliably informed that some containers are now 350% more expensive than 12 months ago. Assuming that the container ship can get into a UK port. We have been closed in our case for the vast majority of the year. In between National and Local Lockdowns. At one stage and for a short period of time we were one of only four shops in the country allowed to have customers in the shop. We are sadly very aware that we have lost family , friends and customers to this dreadful disease. They remain in our daily thoughts. Mass vaccination has given us renewed hope and the Light at the end of the Tunnel will hopefully be soon shining bright . Assuming we can get the bulb off- loaded with correct paperwork from Felixstowe. The Exhibition circuit will eventually resume but how many of us will be willing to attend? Scotland 2022 is in my diary, nothing before that for me. l regularly speak with quite a number of shops , the networking between us had been absolutely fantastic, supportive and deserves a mention. How many have closed? We won’t l suspect know until the great Opening day arrives. We have been told that Covid 19 Compliance will be the way to remain open, or else. .. So it will still be Hands-Face-Space. Wouldn’t it be great to return to the setting were anyone coming into the shop wearing a mask was intent on committing crime? Now not wearing a mask triggers a different reaction. Assuming we can get to all open on the 12th of April your local Model Shop will be delighted to see you. I will be absolutely delighted to not have to give another update on this subject. Fingers and toes crossed. Stay Safe and Well. Barry, Gill and Tom.

Hi Les, good to see one less thief. We took the decision to inform all our shoplifters that they would not be allowed in the shop until the Government says it is safe to do so. They still have to sanitize their hands and wear a mask. The last time I actually went into any shop was my local hardware shop. If they don't have something they send customers to us and vice versa. They sell, wood, paints, brushes, tools, sand paper, adhesives, nut, bolts, screws and ladders. Err, so do we.....

With many topics covering the current Hornby Rocket etc. I came across this on a local Liverpool History site. Court Hey park runs alongside the Liverpool to Manchester M62 motorway and further over is the main railway line. The drive towards the parking area at Court Hey Park is lined by sandstone sleepers, on which bolt holes and fish-plate indentations can clearly be seen. These are original sleepers from the Liverpool & Manchester Railway when it opened in 1830 and obtained by Robertson Gladstone of Court Hey Hall (a railway director) when it was renovated. Gladstone was the elder brother of four times Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Certainly different to what we would recognize as sleepers today. I used to live behind the green fencing and when walking the dog never realized as I stepped up onto the grass area exactly what these stones were. Photo credit to Steve Horton; Liverpool Hidden History.

Hi Liam, Sorry you feel this way. May l point out that we are not a shop to interrogate customers and the post l think you are referring to was not posted by ourselves. Looks like that post has now been removed but I do recall you posting on there. If you consider our shop and therefore my family to be discriminating against people with disabilities may l be permitted to state the following? From 1992 until 2006, my family and I gave up nearly all of our annual leave and a lot of weekends to assist in the UK with Disabled Sport. We travelled the world at our own expense to help organise and assist in Disability sports. I myself was a Director of the Charity. I am proud to say l was able and honoured to represent England in international tournaments. My wife was selected to represent Canada in the World Championships. Sadly age and our own business meant we had to step down but still keep in touch with the organisation. Still very much miss the camaraderie and was only reminiscing on New Year’s Day with my disabled sport partner of the time when we were British Masters Champions three years on the run. Still think we are ‘that type of shop?’

Thank you for your kind comments. Our own Facebook post was shared far and wide on Social Media. There were some negative comments on some of the Model Railway forums, answered by members of those Groups. The one's above are not from our own page. The support we received was outstanding. Over 22,000 people have viewed our Facebook post to date. The three of us spent most of Sunday and Monday evening replying to as many as physically possible. On our own Facebook page, support was just like the Sanitizer sat on my desk 99.99% effective. I would like to add that the 0.01% negative post was from a poster who had a horrific lung condition, I have to take his word for that as we have done with a lot of customers. A quick look at his Facebook profile showed he had fairly recently walked nearly 4km, with 33,000+ steps and walked up 12 flights of stairs. I will leave you to draw your own conclusion on that one. On the point of whether we have discriminated: We have served and allowed into the shop genuinely exempt people. A father and son who had to lip read. Others with clear issues. We have offered them the use of a mask or a face shield. Not cheap but safety first. But we first made sure they were the only ones in the shop at that time. Customers were very understanding on this. We have kept the double doors open with the back door also open to ensure good ventilation. Cleaning work surfaces between customers whenever we could. With the thousands of pounds we have spent on PPE, cleaning and perspex screens, we made the shop as Covid Secure as we could. We did refuse access to the "you're not making me wear a muzzle", "fake virus" types. The guy who had breathing difficulties who came in sporting the gym wear from the gym across the road still sweating from his workout claiming he was exempt. "We don't wear face masks, government plans to track us all". One of whom did put on a mask when I pointed out that it would hide his identity from the government watchdogs. Genuine customers were not the ones abusing us. On a really positive note; only one customer was known to us. Clearly Boris follows our Facebook page as he decided to follow our example....... Stay Safe and thank you.

Hi all, Posting our Facebook page updates for our customers not on Social Media. Final straw was Gill getting spat at. Be nice to your shops, we all need each other. Widnes Model Centre is sharing a COVID-19 update sharing a COVID-19 update sharing a COVID-19 update.Published by Barry Williams · 15 m · Hi all, following a discussion with all three of us, Barry, Gill and Tom. It is with a very heavy heart we have decided to close the shop to customers actually entering the premises. We have not taken this decision lightly and financially this past trading year as you would imagine has been disastrous. But health and safety of ourselves and our customers has to be our highest priority. This past week has seen us having customers coming in from the South East, The Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire as well as the surrounding Tier 4 areas. We have received an unbelievable amount of abuse from people who we have requested to wear masks and sanitize their hands. We have been threatened with being reported and action taken against us for discriminating against those who are, they say "exempt". Even though we have offered to serve them without entering the shop. The effect this had had on ourselves has not been good. We are a small family run business, we are human beings trying our best for our customers and ourselves. Being threatened once too many times has been to say the least "discouraging". At best we are not achieving our goal of keeping anybody coming into our shop Safe and comfortable. We will still be offering sales at the front door during our normal open days of Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. 10am until 3pm. We sincerely hope you will all understand the reasons for us doing this and look forward to fully opening the shop as soon as it is safe to do so.

Not really sure where to start, but here is as good a place as any: We congratulate all the shops who have made it to Christmas in what has been an incredibly difficult year for us all. Open, closed, open again, closed again, wonder what next week/month/year will bring? We have on many fronts been acting like a Band of Brothers to satisfy our customers needs through our own form of Mutual Aid and we think this deserves recognition on this very special Christmas Eve. So, in alphabetical order, we thank, Stuart at Ashton Models, Mike at C and M Models, Dan at DeRails, Richard at Hattons and Gareth and team at Trains4U. Would have been an even bigger struggle without you guys. We place our thanks on record to Hornby, Peco, Gaugemaster,Accurascale, Metcalfe Models, Expo Tools and Drills and Javis Manufacturing for all their help with our model railway supplies. Merry and Peaceful Christmas to You all. Barry, Gill and Tom. Widnes Model Centre

Can anyone who has received 371-111A confirm the directional lighting? Catalogue just says "fitted with directional lighting". Illuminated Headcode box and rear red lights. Is this correct?

Dont believe everything you read in a forum, sometimes it isn’t correct. Non essential retail was shut down, online and delivery by shops was never shut down. Although l had to clarify this with my local MP. Hattons, to their credit have put the safety of their staff as number one priority from day one. Hattons have done lots of things that you would not be privy to during this Pandemic. None of which has been to their benefit. Usual, no association, just a satisfied nearest model shop.

Wow, l didn’t know that! Truly shocking! There again, having been present on all the Zoom Meetings regarding the industry response to preventing the spread of Covid 19, what you have stated above simply is a work of fiction. Why would Hattons not be able to trade normally? No one was able to trade “normally “.

That actually looks like a very high quality marine ply. Preformed to make the hull of a boat, take it down to the Leeds Liverpool Canal and try it.

Hornby delivery tomorrow, hurrah. Oh wait they aren’t on there. Changing name by Deed Poll in the morning. New shop will by my first name followed by Model Shop. Aaron’s Model Shop in the Centre of Widnes Has a ring to it, going to need a bigger sign.

This makes me feel better, we haven’t received ours yet. Looks like the Alphabetical dispatch system. Might be easier to change our name to A Model Shop (in Widnes).

Just to clarify. Topp Trains are operating on Monday and Tuesday’s. Mike and Steve will both be there to deal with orders.

Hi Fran, Brilliant announcement as ever. Can we order them to run in a 7-2 formation? Asking for a friend, seems popular at the moment.

Where did that six months go? I thought it might be useful for members using web, mail order and personal shoppers to give an insight into running a model shop and how things have changed since early March. l speak to shops up and down the country as well as being a compulsive reader of this forum. I am reading about the lack of customer service being provided by some shops. It has been a really challenging time for everyone. Enforced closure or so we thought. Then only able to post using postal services, or so we thought. We ended up like many shops working 12 hours plus. Delivering late into the evening. Then a return to the new normal. Expensive Covid 19 procedures to follow. We have spent well over a thousand pounds making our shop Covid Secure. Then there is sanitizer and masks. Disinfecting every surface to try and keep staff and customers safe. Then everyone has to wear a Face Covering. We went from total Lockdown with everyone training to try and make the Olympic team. Those same people are now claiming to be exempt due to a lung disease. Returns have to be quarantined for 72 hours. So that right hand point when you actually needed a left hand point is now not available for sale for at least three days. Stock has not been easy to get in quantities we would all like due to worldwide difficulties. It has been incredibly difficult and hard work for us all. Some shops remain Mail Order only. They don’t want to keep you out of their shops, they just want everyone to be safe. Shops have had to close as owners have had to go into self-isolation and not able to get anyone to run their shop. Not to mention childcare, parent care etc... As of today we have gone into a much stricter regime due to rising infection rates. We aren’t the only shop, lots will be, now and it would appear some way into the future. We don’t know what this will actually mean. All the model shops will be working a lot longer hours than what is says on the front door. They, l am certain are doing their very best to provide you, our customers the service you deserve. We all need to Carry on Modelling to keep life as normal as humanly possible. Just pause and have a think of how much effort has gone into getting the rail joiners to you. So, please be nice to them in return , we don’t want any shops to close. Stay Safe and Well. Hope to still be here in six months time to give you a 12 month review.

Hi John, just to clarify: l am a loyal and satisfied customer of Hornby if it’s my post you are referring to. I requested one more model when saw my allocation AFTER, l had submitted my order. At no stage did l say that the Rep had forgotten to confirm my order in writing. Knowing our rep very well he would have tried his best, as he has done in the past to satisfy his customer, us. In my post, l mention he amended our initial order , this was down, not up. Some items “allocated” to us, we chose not to order. It was for me to check that l had received written confirmation, we are one of many retailers who he deals with, many of whom were probably making the same requests. Notwithstanding we would normally have been in Margate on Launch Day. Anyone at the event would have been made aware of their allocation of all the Centenary Products. As the nearest model shop shop to the site of the Rainhill Trials, we would have loved to have received and no doubt possibly sold all of the Limited Editions. I had former colleagues reminding me that we had helped Rocket to make the anniversary event and they wanted one to commemorate their involvement. Sorry, all gone . That didn’t go down well. As l stated in my apology, my fault, not our Hornby reps. No one at Hornby. Simple mistake. Might be a good time to mention Covid 19. Things have not been easy for anyone in Retail. Had the Hornby rep not been forced to stay at home due to government restrictions and able carry on with his regular shop visits my mistake would have been spotted earlier. In normal times he would have gone through what we had due in or on order. As ours is a general model shop and not just model railways, stock has been extremely difficult to find. As an example we have ordered dozens of radio controlled cars, our last delivery was one car. Batteries for those types of cars? You have got a better chance getting two Duchess of Atholl’s.