maico

Interesting interview. The original ehattons site was based on high volumes and lower margins however established manufacturing brands work hard to establish brand value. Typically one method is to try and control retailers pricing and stamp out rampant discounting. When Bachmann and Hornby stopped dumping stock Hatton's business model was redundant and needed to be restructured particularly with the worsening supply situation from those 2 companies. One thing they did was manufacture under their own brand. I think reliability issues on a few of those models probably burnt them.

Retail sales have been flat @ 0.1% YoY https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/retail-sales Household disposable income has been rising and in recent times average wage growth has exceeded inflation in some months. Discretionary spending will always be the first thing impacted. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/disposable-personal-income Real wage growth is positive taking into account inflation but only just https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/average-earnings-excluding-bonus

This chap seems deep in thought pondering how the wheels turn...

Bachmann have set quite a high bar on these paint-wise. The livery suits the loco so money in the bank...

Have you had one in hand? AC make no mention of a die-cast body on their spec. sheet that I can see. The running board looks metal mid 1960s

The KR wheels look closer to an American Boxpok built up design rather than a cast Bulleid Firth Brown wheel.

I don't think there is any discernible difference visually. Some of the more intricate models like my black Class 241 are made in China. It doesn't really show in the photo, but there are lots of really small separately fitted parts on this loco so making it in a lower labour cost country is no surprise. (The green version is a photo by Fitz Osterthun)

Marklin Trix haven't put where stuff is made on their models for some time. Most of my older tooled Trix stuff does have 'Germany' on the chassis and on the box. It's a legal requirement to have a COO on the packaging in the US so they have to put a sticker on.

Perhaps but probably not. The last Marklin I'm aware of that had zinc pest was the SBB Class De 6/6 Seetal Crocodile from the early 2000s which was made in China. Here is track and plastic production in Marklin's Győr factory in Hungary. Quality stuff.

It's mostly metal including the tender. The cab is plastic as per usual Marklin-Trix practice as I expect the running board is.

At 2.40 mins a couple of station staff at Powerstock station greet the train. I was wondering what they did all day? There is no scrum of passengers and the goods siding seemed largely empty by this time being closed in 1961. The station became unstaffed in 1966.

The main Marklin Trix factory is in Göppingen Germany and track, wagons, and accessories in their factory in Györ Hungary. They also source in China. For example, the other museum locos like the French 241 and Belgian steamers. They have to stick COO labels on the boxes for US imports. Factory tour videos here. You can spot various metal bodied locos in the CNC machines. The second video gives a better idea of scale. It's a large long building.

Yep. The boys at KR towers should watch this video

Is the COO stated as China on the box?

Lais make quite a few of the motors in our models. They also have a history of bad batches of motors unfortunately, although perhaps not surprising given the lowish price. https://laisdcc.com/LaisDcc_Motor_Catalog.pdf

5 pole brushless motor? The poles are 2,4,6,8 etc. in brushless. Do KR mean coreless motor?

I thought they had mentioned a LT version later. Perhaps photographic grey too. Looking through the spec. I can't see mention if the body is die-cast or plastic?

You can also use RM tracked 48 with the postman collects option for free Amazon returns. Easy to miss because you need to scroll down to find it past all the Evri drop off nonsense. You need a printer.

Except they have previously said it is a run of 500 Dublos. So, sound, dcc ready in potentially WCML and ECML = 2000 max over say 2 years.

Enough. The sound Deltic is sold out on the Hornby site and the there are circa 65 ddc ready ones left. Delivery is still a year away so it will sell out.

Parcelforce is not RM. Given RM will take up to medium parcels which covers most things, I can't imagine why anyone pays more to use Parcelforce unless as a company where rates are much reduced. If something is priority there is always RM special delivery. I used to send out watches valued at £500-£2000. Never had a problem in over 200 transactions apart from sending to Jersey where it arrived a day late IE. not next day. I applied and got a refund. Having worked in other countries I don't think some here realize just how good and how good value RM actually is overall !

Yes, free collection by your postman if requested. They come at the same time every day for me. If I'm not going to be in I type in the secure place for collection. An email is sent to my mobile at the point of collection which is usually the postman's scan. RM Tracked 24 or tracked 48 is the service to use for small parcels. If you are selling on eBay use the RM shipping option when the item is paid for.

I've been using the 80% off for years. It's only available to private eBay accounts not business and you need to make sure you are registered for eBay promotional offers. RM tracked 48 booked via eBay is an unbeatable service.

The main Portescap factory is in India. Some of my Trix models came with their small Athlonix coreless. The larger coreless motor shown bellow in a K-series Trix is a German Faulhaber. Maxon made in Switzerland are the Rolls Royce of coreless motors . Marklin-Trix no longer use them they are way to expensive even sourced from discount electrical factors. My older Trix shunter has one fitted. I guess it's the third party gearbox that can be the tricky part. Replacement Portescap motors with flywheel and brass worm are 48 euros from Marklin-Trix https://www.maerklinshop.de/ersatzteile/26991/motor cheaper at dealers part no. E163818

Looks like a test 3D printed sample rather than the production zinc-alloy diecast body.