kskato

Howard,

 

Unfortunately I reckon the necessary price to perceived value ratio for small model spares is going to be at least 10: 1 as a business. You might hope to pay £2 for the part, but someone breaking models to obtain the spare needs to charge more like £20 in order to have a workable business. Remember this is tiny volume of demand, the spares cannot be got separately 'just in time' but a complete item has to be paid for up front, and then there is the labour to extract the part and dispatch it. and what you have left then sits in inventory with no guarantee of further sales, which is capital unavoidably tied up in stock.

 

I have some direct experience of this, as I have broken complete models quite frequently to get parts for projects: sometimes needing most of a running chassis, but the body, other parts and tender are spare, other times it is just the body required and the running gear can be sold on, that sort of thing. Now I read online numerous complaints about lack of spares for model railway product, so when I offer my spare bits, surely I am swamped with responses? Not a bit of it, demand is very weak, and what is more the price offered is often well below what I would expect. A good example was a complete chassis from a current tank engine model retailing at £50. I should have thought the chassis was worth circa half the retail price, but it was quite a while before I got more than £5 offered. One guy suggested he was willing to pay p&p to 'take it off your hands'. Eventually got £20. The potential customers are few, and it appears most believe they should get the parts at giveaway valuation. I wouldn't go anywhere near model railway spares supply as a business proposition...

Thanks for reply. 34th

I just had this thought err.. notion*.

If other Manf. can do it, well ....

*Websters Dictionary :

[A notion is a vague or capricious idea, often without any sound basis.

[A thought, on the other hand, is an idea that is the result of meditation, reasoning, or some other intellectual activity]

Enough of this tread interuption..

Martin----

Looking forward to your planned H_v_B videos ...!

Howard

Any business is happy to make money by legitimate means. The most likely explanation why Hornby aren't selling 'spare parts' is that they cannot make money at it. If they were to offer spares at the necessary commercial price, they would get very few sales, because the prices would be a substantial proportion of the complete model. The near complete disappearance of the once thriving independent retailers who traded in spares tells the same story. There's no factory supply of spares, everything has to be got by 'breaking', immediately you are into paying for the time of 'someone' taking models apart to isolate the required item(s), and you have to carry the unsold left overs in stock in the hope of them eventually finding a buyer : that adds up to large mark up, and consequently a price the customer is likely not willing to pay.

 

This problem affects the vast majority of mass produced manufactures: well known in the case of the motor trade, which despite operating on a scale several orders of magnitude larger than model railways still has to charge high prices for spare parts. Try buying a windscreen without assistance from an insurance system: the retail price for an item that costs a few quid in materials and manufacturing ends up around £500 even for a 'cheap to maintain' make. There are real costs in sparing; the procurement and dispatching operations, and the warehouse storage and management of the inventory first among them - and then those running such businesses have a legitimate expectation to trade in profit - and this has to be paid for. It quickly adds up...

Sooo.. and I'm asking , not challenging...

The UK customer would rather have a engine setting on the shelf than pay £5.00 for a part they believe to be worth say £2.00 ?

Kato, Athearn, Marklin, etc has some level of supporting parts supply at the Manf. and/or dealer level. And I was glad they did.

And I'm sure the other customers like me, cusses the price and repaired the item and was happy with the item looking right & running around the layout again.

And ohh I'm well aware of the 'parts Dept. in the Automotive world.

I worked at Auto. dealerships for 15+ years.

The existence of a parts Dept. Allows more profit to accessories to be installed on new car purchases.

Profit from wholesale to garages.

Profits from selling to body shops.

Profits from parts to its service Dept. for labor & parts profit.

A correctly controlled investment of inventory is well worth it.

And just plain old showing the customer its support of products under warranty and after.

With that history of mine, its the other reason "I wonder why 'spares' aren't more available"

But its the way it is.

Oh-well ...

PS : I guess its a UK thing?

It's like, I see guys complaining about Manf's duplication of engines.

I'd think the competition would be good for pricing and advancing technology of a product. And the consumer benefits..

One of the pillars of capitalism and all that !! B)

Howard

The motor seems to be one of the standard affair for some of the smaller Hornby locos - definitely 3-pole, but it's the gearing to the driving wheels that seems to be making it so smooth, and doubtless the flywheel helps as well. Word of caution: check the back to backs on the front bogie as it can derail, seemingly, with little provocation in terms of the quality of track laid.

 

 

 

Thank you very much. Now I just have to pluck up the courage to paint it red and line it out! That's for another day I think.

Ahh.. shes rising like a phoenix.

Glad you have the talent to fix it. I don't. Mine would be listed on eBAy if it happened to me.

Happy to hear about the motor. But overall after hearing about the way H has presented the Tornados, I think I'll skip them and spend my money on some other

train items.

Can't understand why Hornby dosent want to make money off repair parts and unpainted bodies.

Howard

Both are in their own ways, good value. The printing of the livery on the Special Edition is excellent, but the box and its sleeve did not impress me particularly. I feel the Railroad model needs to have been slightly lower in RRP - 65 mark - to justify the 90+ price tag of the special edition. But equally, I think the Special Edition is the perfect balance between the Railroad's simplified livery, and the top of the range (detail wise) Bachmann model.

 

Overall, the Hornby SE would be my preference, but then I'd prefer the accuracy over the details. Depends what you'd prefer to go for - a well detailed representation (Bachmann), or a very accurate, but simple, model.

Thanks for the time spent on sharing the above information.

Looking forward to your uTube compilation B4 I decide..