Ouroborus

Interesting post on Facebook tonight involving Hornby's use of an image to publicise TT and the owners of Farbine Rd WRD.

I'm not sure one of the "big reasons"  for the declining entry of children into the hobby is space. The world has moved on and kids just aren't into it like they used to be.  Airfix kits require little space, yet children being 'into' them has dwindled - its all adults.   

You're competing against screens.

14 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi everyone,

 

Just a bit of "devils advocate", and probably something the OP can only really answer, but would be keen to get wider thoughts...

 

Why was this question posed to Accurascale specifically, and not to any other manufacturer on the forum? 

 

This is not calling it out, at all. I'm just curious!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

Following on from the other replies, for my tuppenth, I can understand the strong dollar causing problems, it wouldn't surprise me if prices went up.   

If Accurascale were forced to raise prices, i would expect it across all the other suppliers as well.  But not the other way around - some of those other suppliers have demonstrated that they're opportunists. 

You're something of a Bellwether - take the compliment!

It was these bit that caught my eye. Orange ?scrapes, Green ?glue

One on ebay - £649

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304624741569?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=8CsvYtP-TtK&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=G1OVwcvjQHe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

7 hours ago, CUCKOO LINE said:

Well mine is for nostalgia, was told a better commemorative item than what else was around !

And i think you're absolutely right.  

Perhaps, in the weeks to come, we'll see a repaint and naming of a mainline loco, with the appropriate model being commissioned.

8 hours ago, tommyliam021 said:

Still a few available on the Hornby website atm too.

Not any more.  I hope people are buying them for nostalgia and not for profiteering 

By the time you read this message, there are none left.

But you'll check anyway

And?

Thanks John,

With my family, I know i'm not going to be off-grid, its all about limiting the damage.   Jun to Jul this year saw us use 15kw per day, that's with an existing 4kw pv array fitted.

You lost me a little when you mentioned lost export fees.  With the FIT now closed to new installs, any surplus electricity needs an export agreement with a utility company.  I know the payments for these vary, but lets say 7p per Kw as an average.  I currently buy electricity from Shell at 29p per kw.     

So to my thinking (could be wrong here!), with a smart meter every unit I export during the day, but buy back in the evening is 7p - 29p = - 22p.  A 22p cost per unit.   If I had a fully charged 9kw battery and minimised export, then give or take, its 9*22 per day (£2) saved, So in ideal conditions where the battery charges to 100% every day, I save £2 per day, thus payback for the battery (£3500), is five years.   But how much would that battery charge in winter?

---

During winter, I'd perhaps look to charge the battery over night on the cheaper rates and looking at charging times for EV cars, it would suggest it should take 3.5 hours.  Based on the Octopus Go rates at the moment, 7.5p/40p, i'd likely be worse off under this tariff due to higher peak prices, especially if mains charging is a slow affair and the battery cannot be fully charged.  If there were two batteries, do they charge at the same rate as one?

--

Without my current setup, (no smart meter) whatever is exported saves me 29p per unit.  No problems in winter, could raise an eyebrow in the summer.  £ for £, a purely solar system with no battery is the best option for me right now, but it all depends if a smart meter becomes mandated and i can no longer freely export the surplus.

Sorry for rambly post.  Some of this would seem to be thoughts to myself to discuss with the installer!  

17 minutes ago, sjp23480 said:

@Ouroborus

 

I think you might want to talk to an expert. 

 

I guess the charging time depends on the capacity of the battery and the number of panels feeding it.  

 

I suspect you should start by looking at your consumption data, that should determine the configuration you need.  Our advisor said it was not worth selling kwh to the grid, the best available rate is <10p/kwh.  So the payback is very slow.  

 

On average my daily consumption is <10kwh per day, so the system is configured to cover these needs.

 

The battery is in the loft space close to the inverter and related circuitry.

 

Steve

 

Thanks Steve,

As you picked up, I'm keen to avoid selling electricity back to the grid.  At the moment, my old rotary meter goes backwards on a sunny day when the existing panels are working.  But having three teenage kids means its never negative for long.   A battery means the proposed additional solar panels will get charge this first and any surplus will go back to the grid and the meter goes backwards again.  Which, to be fair, is a win win position for me.   I could avoid the battery and just dump the excess back into the grid, but i fear with this method that the utilities may eventually smell a rat and force a smart meter on me.  The cash is sitting in the bank, inflation eroding it and pushing up the prices of installs, so maybe a battery now may save money later.

But looking further ahead, if i get a smart meter forced on me, I'll be looking for ways to avoid export, which may mean additional batteries to fully capture the solar energy produced.  The combined pv array would be around 9kw.  During winter, clearly the solar will be minimal, so the use of overnight cheap rate electricity to charge up the battery/s is an idea.  But it's only cheap for four hours and if you can't charge the battery/s in that time, its not worth it.

A couple of questions to those in the know.

Is there any merit to having more batteries than the solar pv's can *normally* charge  (ie, avoid any exporting of energy)

What's the typical time to charge  a (eg) 9Kw battery

Best place for batteries to be sited - indoors or outdoors.

thanks

On 01/09/2022 at 13:25, Metr0Land said:

 

??? only if it's fixed.  Overnight rates are unregulated so if you're not on a fixed tariff now then we don't know what the overnight rate is as no supplier (unless you know differently) is currently quoting  post-Oct rates for new customers on those tariffs.

EDF just quoted me.  Albeit business rates, but 90p pKwH, 60p standing charge, fixed one year.

On 23/08/2022 at 15:37, D9020 Nimbus said:

 

But I don't see how completely covering the outside of the box with parcel tape helps to keep the contents safe"…

The tape helps ensure the box doesn't split or a crumpled corner release the contents.  It also adds waterproofing. It's pennies to do this. 

As for recycling, we don't.  We just reuse the box. 

Its funny reading this thread and the similar Bachmann 37 thread.  Some people seem surprised that you can have loyalty to a manufacturer.  Wander over to the Hornby forum and there is no surprise at all that people are turning their back on Hornby in order to support their local model shop.

Its hardly surprising that people have loyalty.  Even DJM had his followers to the end.  When you see a manufacturer invest time and money into a project and continue to engage with their customers, it shouldn't come as a surprise that those customers want to see it succeed.

I have a handful of 37's on order with accurascale.  I ordered them because of Rule 1.  They were liveries that i hadn't got but wanted.   Bachmann aren't producing any that i want, so i haven't ordered anything from them.  As yet.

I won't be moving on any of the older fleet to make space for the new 37's, they may be older and cruder, but they're good enough and with things the way they are right now, replacing one LL 37 with another LL 37 just because it's newer seems a little incautious.  Perhaps this may be an issue going forwards - whilst the 37 may be a big pool to fish from, is it big enough for two manufacturers these days?  Is the market already fairy satiated?   Maybe, maybe not.

9 hours ago, JSpencer said:

 

Your wonderful observation about dealers collecting orders, driving people to Hornby only for dealers not being able to fulfill them and customers having to buy direct.... is of course totally unfair to the dealers whom have used their time and resources to promote them. 

I think you've misunderstood my comments or misquoted them. 

I certainly don't think the dealers drive people to Hornby.  It's only when the dealers fail to get their orders satisfied by Hornby that customers have to go Hornby if they still want it.    

I never shop with Hornby.com for this reason and if Derails get stung again with some of the items I have on preorder with them, I'd rather go without.

How about Loadhaul, just to prove that point that it looks good on every loco to have it.

52 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

 

 

The one affecting Hornby specifically appears to be the long-run effect of trying to drive out discounting. Put simply, if I am restricted to making x of something by supply chain issues; and I know I can sell the whole production batch without leftovers, why am I giving intermediaries a cut of the profit when I need every last penny of it to survive. It's the last bit that suggest a company that is under stress, because the need to maximise returns outweighs the need to maintain cordial relations with the retail supply chain.

 

Hornby seem keen to drive out discounting.... .... .... unless its them doing the discounting.  Cue the Hornby Outlet shop.  Marginal savings on things you didn't want.

I must confess that i haven't read every post, but there does seem to be an elephant in the room of a company which uses its dealers to collect orders and thus guide them to determine how much to produce.   And of course, Hornby are not the only company that operate this model.

But Hornby seems to be the only one that then cuts off that supply to those same dealers, yet supply to its own internet shop seems robust.

You can't help but be cynical about what's going on.  Very easy to blame supply chain issues.  Maybe Hornby have read all these forum posts of customers having their orders with local model shop cancelled through lack of supply and having to reluctantly reorder with big H.   Maybe Hornby have figured that when customers have ordered a model, it is an uncommon occurrence for them to give up wanting it; that customer will just look to order it from elsewhere - step forward Hornby online shop.

In short, big H will use the model shops for insight and gauge demand, but want to keep it all for themselves.

Can see more and more following Rails' example.

2 hours ago, 60800 said:

True to form, Facebook over the past two weeks has been full of people recieving Deltics who have absolutely no clue, are screaming into the void about non issues (or things that have been remedied / fixed on here in a matter of minutes) and are generally not being helpful to Accurascale's image at all. 

 

If I wrote a list of everything I have seen you would all tell me I was joking, but the latest one was this;

 

Someone is kicking off because they ordered and received 55002 FYE but they were expecting D9002 as preserved. 

 

This apparently is Accurascale's fault as they have got the numbering wrong and is Locomotion's fault for sending the wrong one. Have they contacted anyone at Accurascale? No. Have they contacted anyone at Locomotion? No. Will they admit they ordered the one they received? No.

 

Cheers,

  60800

It's why a number of people are turning their backs on social media.   They're little more than echo chambers.  In a similar vein, YouTube, where the monetisation ("click like and follow me"), is tiresome. That said, there are still a few on YouTube who produce videos about subjects they care about with no thought of self promotion 

BAck to accurascale.  I always wondered whether the pop ups on the bottom of their website saying 'Big Jim has just bought x' were real.   I got my answer on Friday when i bought a deltic crew and saw my own name on the bottom of the screen..  ...😂

Speaking of the Bachmann model, thought I'd compare Nimbus and RSG.  The different front end is particularly striking.   Porterbrook was in two pieces in the box, one very big one, one smaller one.  Any idea what this is off?

12 hours ago, Dagworth said:

You are Piermaster and I claim my five pounds….

 

Andi

Haha.  Close enough.  Send me your email or BACS details and I'll send you the money over.  😂

I wonder if you answered this question and then got robbed, what you'd think?  Likely a coincidence, but why even take chance?

Hattons did the Loadhaul Class 14

Given you can buy individually, it'll be interesting to see if there are any unsold coaches and what happens to them.   

The complete set works out at around £730, which (to me) would suggest they would have been better to sell it as a set, thus getting over the headline figure of £370 for the power cars, which on facebook, is turning people off.

On 28/05/2022 at 17:14, adb968008 said:

Didn't the Glazers use Man Utds own assets as a security of funds to buy the club itself, and thus didnt spend their own money to buy it ?

 

Absolutely correct.  It's a little bit more murky than than.  Without straying too far off topic, it would seem that you need a really good accountant.  In the case of Man Utd, as well as the leveraged buyout you mention, Ed Woodard is on record as saying the players headline salaries were purposefully "bloated" in order to 'offset' the debt.   In other words, 'look at how rich we are'.  Scratch the surface and you find there was a lot of penny pinching going on (ibramhovic recalls having £1 deducted from his salary for a hotel orange juice).  

Bringing this back to Hornby, it would serve to suggest that it would be unwise to make too many 'on the face of it' assumptions.  Clearly they need money.  Whether they *need* to add to the debt they already have or whether this is in essence a remortgage to take advantage of better terms, i guess we don't know