andyman7

Hmm, there's quite a lot of speculation in this thread which misses the actual problem. The issue is not about the funding of the pension scheme whilst the frachise in operation; it is about potential future liabilities. Whether the TOC pension fund is in surplus now is entirely irrelevant to the problem. Even if it is in surplus now, there will be employees who will not be entitled to draw a pension for 10, 20, 30 years - if you are a 25 year old trolley assistant you are many years away from having your pension due. The nature of franchising means that the DfT signs over the operation of a TOC for a few years; and then offers it again in a new competition. Up until now, bidders signed up to the pension scheme obligations for the duration of the franchise - but in an increasingly uncertain world, the actuaries and auditors flagged up to DfT that there was a potential funding risk to existing obligations between the end of the franchise and employees drawing their pensions. This risk by default sits with the government, so the DfT tried to alter new franchise competitions so that the successful bidder has to agree to make up any potential future shortfall that may emerge in future in relation to the pensions of the staff for the time they were employed during the franchise. Whilst this might sound reasonable at first glance, it represents a potentially open ended long term uncapped liability that no company can reasonably accept. It appears that for strageic reasons a bidder backed by the government of another country has agreed to accept this risk, but it's really a pyrrhic victory for DfT as they have effectively killed off the current franchise process as a competitive process. Given the Williams rail review it's probably just as well because the current model is completely unsustainable, and the game of smoke and mirrors whereby the government continues to pretend that the industry is privatised (because it's useful to be able to demonise evil shareholders for any shortcomings) when it is in practice entirely micromanaged by civil servants in Horseferry Road has really run out of road (rail?).

By way of an update, the Wrenn pair finally reached the head of the queue for sorting. Once the mechanisms were exposed and they were on the rolling road, both engines were persuaded to run and freed up once they were going. One of the two was definitely a bit tighter than the other and had a bit of a waddle from the centre drivers but the main issue appeared to be 35 years of non-use rather than anything else. Thanks again for the previous advice/suggestions.

I've always found Hornby very helpful, but would not ask nor expect their customer care to explain how to disassemble models beyond the normal service/maintenance requirements. The best course of action in such a case is to post the query on RMWeb, where I have always found excellent advice and tips from people who have been there before!

and checking whether vehicles are taxed

I don't think it was a public area at all - the photo was taken from a train!

It was parked round the back of Ryde St John's Road station so technically 'off road'. It may well belong to one ofthe depot staff in which case it represents a far more modern vehicle than the 1938 tube stock they have to work on...

I spotted this Austin Ambassador at Ryde St Johns Road last Tuesday - an extremely rare beast these days

The Model Shop in Harrow was on St Ann's Road, opposite the same owner's Toy Shop. He relocated the Model Shop to larger premises on Station Road in around 1978 which will be the one you remember. The Railway Department was run by the redoubtable Norman, a kindly chap assisted by the older and much grumpier Arthur. Norman also I believe ran a model railway club which ran 3 rail 00 with full signalling and bell codes - as I got to know him I became aware that for him Dublo and Wrenn (which the Harrow Model Shop stocked right up until the end of production in 1992) were 'proper' models rather than the later plastic stuff which he didn't personally have much truck with. In the early 80s I regularly used to cover both the Harrow Model Shop and Puffers of Kenton in a single visit - they were about a 15 minute walk apart.

That's reassuring, thanks for sharing your experience

As if mucking around with all sorts of 00 railways wasn't enough, I have well and truly caught the bug with coarse O scale. The scale does of course encompass many churches, but for me the semi-scale approximations of the Hornby E220 and E420 locos and bogie coaches are most enchanting. Following acquisition of an LMS Compound, SR Schools and GW County, Bramham Moor came to me via auction at a relatively modest price due to mechanism being described as 'ceased' (sic) and bits of the valve gear missing. On arrival, the 'ceasing' (!) was quickly traced to one very badly fatigued wheel which was a good few mm larger in diameter than when originally cast. Fortunately I had saved some wheels from another Hornby No.2 loco which had been re-shod and one was donated to Bramham Moor. It needed a missing brush replacing too, and in the end I got Nat Donnelly to give the mech a once over for a remarkably modest fee. Chris Ford supplied the missing valve gear and another vintage Hornby loco was once again operational. A very satisfying project indeed!

I too found that the valve gear had to be completely free running and aligned properly to run faultlessly with tender drive. The problem with the earlier loco drive models on Nickel Silver track is that Magnadhesion is really essential to their pulling power but of course it only works on steel track. The very last Magnadhesion loco issued by Hornby was the 1989 release of the SR Battle of Britain in Golden Arrow finish as R866. I recall it was deleted around 1991, It was also the very last model fitted with the X03 derivative of the X04 motor, and within a year of it coming out of the range Hornby had upgraded its track to Nickel Silver.

Thanks. I agree regarding having the models work but with vintage stuff I have penchant for keeping the mechs all original. I recall somehere that one option with neodymium magnets is to use a small one stuck to the original magnet as a sort of 'booster'. Have I got that right? Does that work? In any case I shall select one for a strip, clean and relubrication as well as testing and if necessary dealing with the magnet. Depending on how straightforward that is I'll decide whether to tackle the second one or sell 'as is'.

I've recently acquired two long stored Wrenn Royal Scot BR 'Grenadier Guardsman' locos. They don't look like they've been used at all, just put away and stored. I've tried both on track and they are barely moving, although there's no short circuits or broken conections, power is definately getting through. I suspect that they need remagnetising but would welcome opinions. I only want to keep one so my other slight dilemma is that normally for a loco as long stored as this, I would give it a strip down clean and lubricate checking connections and cleaning any tarnish to electrical joints; but we are talking Wrenn here and I am wondering whether the one I move on should just be sold as is since it is in effect in ex-factory condition.

I enjoyed the programme, it's not an academic treatise but entertainment and works on that level. I also thought the modellers came over well. Regarding the loss of the old tooling, it's unfortunate but not quite the disaster that might have once been the case. For many years beyond the 70s the lack of budget for investment meant that the only way to introduce 'new' models was often to reintroduce or adapt older ones so the tooling bank was an invaluable asset, but the sheer amount of brand new tooling since 2000 has eclipsed even the heights of the 50s/60s, all of which will be China based, so the range is far less reliant on old tools. It's also the case that although it is still very costly, the rise of CAD/CAM and modern methods have streamlined tooling production from the days when they were all hand made. This leads to the final point, that the loss of original tooling no longer precludes a model being reintroduced - original mouldings can be scanned and used to cut new tooling where the will exists. This has happened with a number of 'lost' kit moulds in the US, whilst the entire Atlas/DeAgostini DInky Toy range is made from new tooling originated this way.

That's rather nice!

Here's a typical model of the era - R354 Class 47 'Rail Riders'. Clip together assembly with a single wire with tag terminals from the trailing bogie to the motor bogie. Contrast with the spaghetti of wiring in a modern Hornby Railroad engine, which will have all wheel pickup via a DCC interface.

I don't think the tender drive version uses the Wrenn City chassis - the first releases in 1970/71 did so but they were loco drive, using the A3 Flying Scotsman chassis. When the model was reintroduced in 1983 tender drives were the order of the day so a new cast chassis frame for the standard Ringfield motor was tooled. I like this era of models, probably because they were the 'everyday' range of my youth. Whilst not in any way sophisticated they are mechanically pretty bulletproof and a boxful of standard spares for RIngfield and X03/X04 motors will keep a whole fleet running.

That's a useful clarification, but the clue is the declining operating profit from 2008. Essentially, from that point the fundamentals were being eroded as the various issues compunded each other. By the same token, it takes time to restore underlying profitability but the good signs are that Hornby at last has a reasonably stable supply chain, product on the shelves, no drastic dicounting etc so I am more optomistic now. I am sure the programme will be entertaining - it will be nice to get some nuggets of insight but I'm not expecting a Pulitzer prize winning insider business documentary!

The story of the British toy and hobby industry is very much interlinked and doesn't just concern model railways. Airfix was brought down in May 1981 by crippling losses from Meccano with the decline and closure of the Binns Road factory followed by the recession and dramatic shift in toy buying habits to computer games etc from 1980. The whole group was acquired by General Mills who owned Palitoy in the UK. General Mills made a strategic withdrawal from the European toy and hobby market in 1985 which by then had changed beyond recognition in just a few short years. During this period, Rovex Limited (who were the makers of Hornby trains and Scalextric) went under in 1981 due to the failure of the parent group Dunbee-Combex-Marx, brought down by the same seismic changes in the economy and the toy/hobby market. From the ashes of this a new company 'Hornby Hobbies Ltd' was established, and has managed to survive now for 38 years, considerably longer than its previous owners. Hornby Hobbies diversified into other toys in the 1980s and shrank the model railway and Scalextric business - most mid 1980s locos had producton runs of low 000s compared to 15,000-20,000 before 1981. In the 1990s the first steps were taken to manufacture in China, leading to the shift of all production east in 1998. This coincided with another golden age - superdetail models at the same prices as the previous UK made ones selling in bucketloads to silver surfers spending their retirement dosh. This all began to unwind after the 2008 crash, with a perfect storm of tightening discretionary spending money, inflation of wages in China, shortage of production capacity and loss of the Sanda Kan production facility, Modelzone going bust, adverse exchange rates....in turn a number of poor business decisions were made (2012 Olympics, Design Clever, direct sales at the detriment of the independent dealer network), followed by the 'new broom' management which includes Lyndon Davies, formerly of Corgi (which as a brand has had a similar story since the crash of its original parent Mettoy in 1983). It's a rollercoaster ride!

Yes Ruddington Lane, then walked south a bit but not quite to Ruddington....

Went there today - I picked up a Bachmann Wickhams railcar, with the closing down discount price was comparale to box shifter sales but meant I could walk away with it there and then. Skaledale and Scenecraft are 50% off with some reasonable items left. Sad to see them go, I also took a look at the last few Great Central remnants in the city (including a tram trip to Ruddington) so all in all it was a bit of a testament to passing ages.

Looks like I'll be able to make one final visit next week during half term, via East Midlands Trains HST....

I suspect that gazwire meant the plated headcode boxes with headlamps - certainly that was my main disappointment with the Hornby model never to tool that variant (as opposed to printing dots....)

Not quite true in my experience. Up until the move of production to China 1998 I was able to obtain parts from the Margate factory, either from the spares list they did or if you wrote to them they would quite often rustle something up - including chassis frames (they were plastic then....). This was in addition to Blackwells, East Kent Models and one or two others holding pretty massive inventories of Triang and Hornby spares. However it's not cost effective at all these days and the spares market is now addressed to some degree by individuals breaking and selling models or parts of models leftover from projects.

I just like to publicly thank Andy Y for getting me back onto the forum so quickly after the update revealed a long forgotton alternative ID and login from the distant past that resurrected itself...I don't underestimate the time and effort involved in sorting all these issues