Legend

On 26/04/2024 at 17:56, LNER4479 said:

Fine in the MkIIs today; not sure what it would be like in height of summer with no air-con running ...

I was just referring to the fact that the doors themselves were locked out of use; otherwise free to walk through them (and in fact had to at both Glenfinnan and Mallaig, as the MkII at the rear was off the platform.

I mean common sense wise that just can’t be right ! The mk2d with CDL is off the platform so you have to walk through the mk1 so that you presumably alight from the next mk2 . So an opening door next to a platform could be two coaches away at the extreme and one coach away at best . Can this be legal?  Also even though the mk1s are not for passenger use surely folks going to the toilet must be considered “ passenger use “ . What is the ORR doing . I just get the feeling WCRC are sticking the two fingers of scorn up . Surely operators that have complied must be furious at these antics 

16 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Sam's done another review of the Black Five, with a replacement. Check it out:   (2) Let's Try Again | Hornby's New Black 5 Take 2 | Unboxing & Re-Review - YouTube

I thought another pretty decent review even if the subject didn’t come out well .

So again, slightly warped running plate 

Crank pin falling out 

Similar issue on tender-loco pick up but this time resolved using contact cleaner ( is that a permanent fix?) 

You step back and then consider this is a £204 model . Really! 

12 hours ago, Barry O said:

Cvr(t) a Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance  (tracked) wirh a FV 430 armoured personnel carrier.

 

You can use both on public roads..

 

Baz

 Probably ideal with some of the pot holes we have round here 

A good reminder of Eric Treacy . I’d bet he’d be thrilled there will be locos on his name whizzing round model railways - especially Lime St 

53 minutes ago, Fireline said:

 

Oh, Sam. Mr "I give anything from Hornby an absolute kicking, coincidentally from around the time they stopped just giving me stuff to review...."

He never got stuff to review from manufacturer. He buys the models himself which is why it’s an independent review .  And frankly he’s equal handed when it comes to any manufacturer . 
 

So he had a model that had faulty tender connection and we now know he is not alone from another YouTuber above

He had glue marks on a £200+ model that were clearly illustrated

He stated the lights were glued in , which others have confirmed they are . I suppose it depends how much glue is used as to how removable they are 

So a verifiable review . Not exactly an unfounded “absolute kicking “ 

2 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Yes. Did the government ever do that?

 

Well okay there is an example of government investing money into the railways. HS2. That's working out...not so well.

Not saying they’ve done it in past, although the much maligned BR did give us a pretty good Inter-City Railway . At one stage I think we had more 125mph trains than anywhere else . But I’m thinking not for profit co that plough any gains back into the business 

4 hours ago, bmb5dnp1 said:

Hello,

    I've never understand why people have problems with shareholders (which may include your pension scheme) making money as without them there'd be no investment or jobs anyway. Looking at the plan (and assuming I understand it) the plans are almost exactly the same as the present government is working towards. I believe that the ROSCOs and freight companies will remain in private hands ? I thought that the ROSCOs were the main thing that needed reform due to leasing costs etc. It does appear that we haven't learnt the lessons of the past that when the railways are dependent on government spending they will inevitably go to the end of the queue. For instance I don't believe the developments carried out by Chiltern (with private money), eg the Oxford link, redoubling of Bicester-Anyho, introduction of extra rolling stock would have occurred in public hands. I suppose I'm a bit cynical but the plan looks to me to be virtually identical to the present trajectory but it will allow the left wing media to have "Railways Renationalised" headlines which will appeal to Labour's potential voters.

 

                             Dave 

Becsuse it extracts money from the railways . Yes as a pensioner with investments I take your pension scheme points. But surely for the benefit of railways and the travelling public as a whole it’s better to plough profits back into the railways . Benefits for the many not just those privileged enough to be shareholders , whether that’s direct or through pension funds . I’d also say Water , Gas and Electricity  but that’s probably trampling into politics 

Someone has tooled a 313 . It must turn up soon surely ! 

17 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

One thing which has changed over the years is the time of payment.  in many cases in the apast payment was not made ion Chinese produced model railway items until they had been received at the UK shipping agent's port premises.  But. certain behaviours by various -but particularly one person - in the UK market has meant that final payment is now often raised at factory gate.  Thus although the goods are not taken into stock at that point money is being paid out.  

 

However Hornby's mountain of unsold stuff has, I'm sure, very little to do with that change of payment arrangement and is largely, if not entirely, down to past mismanagement and very poor to non-existent marketing decisions.  For years a retailer friend f mine was loud in his complaint that if Hornby repeted a model in many cases they couldn't even be bothered to offer a different running number.  If you don't make what folk will buy then you aren't going to sell it.

 

Factory payment arrangements also vary with some folk repotedly still being able to get end-loaded payment where various stages of work aren't paid for until tooling starts or - I have heard in one case, -until end production starts.  The time of paying out during development thus varies although hopefully it will all be ciming out of a development budgeting process which takes account of the way payments are invoiced by the factory.

 

But whatever happens, and presumably exacerbated by the Red Sea shipping route debacle, money is now usually having to be paid out a much longer time before it can begin to be recovered as sales revenue.  But budgeting and cash flow management should, I hope, recognise that problem

Just a bit of accounting here Mike . Goods can’t disappear between paying out money for it and receipt in stock . As soon as you pay for it it’s out of cash in your balance sheet , so the asset needs to be accounted for as “goods in transit” which will form part of their stock figure . 
 

It would be interesting to find out exactly what this slow moving inventory is , remembering it could be Corgi/Airfix/Scalextric  as well as Hornby . 
 

Standard accounting practice is that it should be valued at the lower of cost or Net Realisable Value (ie what you can get for it) - surely we must be on verge of some large write offs ? 
 

Agree with maximisation of tooling and getting as many liveries out as possible . The lack of blue/grey Mk1s this year  and more liveries on the 50 (eg Banger blue) is an example . Also by having blue/grey mk1s they could have stopped valuable tooling costs of mk2e/fs as there would be something for blue diesels to run with .Introduce mk2s later when scale has settled in . Also , while it is early days , according to their 2024 TT120 catalogue they only intend launching Class 37s initially as era 6 (green?) and era 9 (EWS) . Surely if you want to maximise cash flow you would also go for standard and large logo blue ones . TT120 needs critical mass .They seemed to have figured this into their tooling yet won’t get the benefit of it till later . This is a company that needs cash ! 
 

it looks like they’ve decided to make too much of the wrong stuff in the past . But I still think a significant issue is lack of manufacturing capacity which is stopping the maximisation of their tools . They just can’t get the manufacturing slots .

12 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

They should come to Switzerland, here you can open the entire coach window halfway down and fall out to your heart's content!

I suspect the Swiss take vegetation removal much more seriously than the UK.  Much tidier railway over there . 

Wow . Learn something everyday . I assumed that drivers went round when train was stopped not when not was in motion . That would have given the ORR something to think about . 

Yep , these box tops take me right back to my childhood . They could excite a person even before opening the box 

Happy Birthday Roy Cross 

On 10/04/2024 at 22:06, Knapdale said:

Just ordered one of these from TMC via their eBay store. I’ve been waiting for Bachmann to release an SPT 101, as the Hornby one has traction tyres and no lights. However, TMC have reduced the price to £102 making it too attractive to resist!

I’ll be back on RM Web in the near future to ask how traction tyre wheels are replaced and how to fit lights to Hornby Railroad model…

argh you know how to make a Scotsman cry . I paid £121 for mine . Quite happy though , it is a lovely smooth runner but at £102 it’s even better ! 

A nice interview. I really enjoy your chats . It’s like talking model railways down the pub . 

I think a lot of people just need to “chill “ Take a “Helicopter view” and “run the flag up the pole and see who salutes”  . Let’s see how it “feeds through to the bottom line” “at the end of the day” 

Recently retired and don’t miss the corporate spiel at all . 

7 minutes ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

We are regaining confidence. It grows every week.

An unscheduled visit from the Sales Director who spent a considerable amount of time listening to the difficulties we had to try and deal with. Straight talking as opposed to the masquerade we had been subjected to.

 

The abolition of the Tier System, how ridiculous was that? We wanted to spend and weren’t allowed to.

 

Sadly this came too late for one particular retailer. Hornby had rebuilt bridges and had made a confidence building approach. This is very much appreciated and hopefully will continue.

 

TT120 rolled out to any retailers who wanted to stock the product. 

Our Airfix orders and preorders are the highest they have been for many, many years.

 

On a personal note, the Sales Staff, Accounts, etc, all seem happier, that’s got to be good.

 

One thing hasn’t changed, their After Sales Service. It’s way, way above any other suppliers. Problem? Resolved with the minimum of contact. As a small retailer that’s always a big confidence booster.

 

 

Good to know the transformation at the coal face . It just might take awhile to feed through to their figures 

43 minutes ago, BoD said:

That is fair enough if it were only you involved and happy to take the risk.  Others (the majority?) might prefer to have mitigations put in place to reduce that risk. I know you were speaking in more general terms, but  I wouldn’t like to be the one hit by a moving open door because someone else found fitting CDL ‘obnoxious’.

But I'll bet you are a sensible guy that doesn't stand at the edge of a platform when a train comes in . We seem to be designing rules that compensate for lack of common sense , whether that is the guy standing on the platform , who shouldn't be close to edge or the guy on the train that shouldn't be opening the door . 

Now don't get me wrong .There are rules in place and WCRC seem to be doing everything possible to circumvent them . Is this the type of organisation we want on our railway ?

I also remember people falling out of trains , but from memory these were people in high speed trains and inter city trains before CDL where doors could appear to be shut but were on the latch . So yes these trains obviously needed them . I think that's different from mk1s puttering up and down to Mallaig . it's difficult to distinguish between rules on a heritage railway and the Jacobite . Yes I know one runs at 25mph and the other at 40mph . is that 15mph so significant? As I've said before , more people die going up Ben Nevis than are injured on the Jacobite , should we stop them going up the mountain , maybe put railings up ?

There surely got to be a place for common sense somewhere . You can't legislate all lunacy out 

Just now, Fireline said:

The previous regime authorised a lot of investment in tooling. That results in higher costs, but those costs are spread over 3-4 years. What that means is that your tooling never pays for itself in year 1. A big increase in tooling in year 1 means carrying higher tooling costs through years 2-4, with no "new" models to show for it.

Yes but revenue should follow costs . If you amortise something over 4 years it's because there is a value to it  ie you are utilising that tooling in years 2/3/4 .  So there should be revenue from using that tooling in these years . If you don't expect to use tooling again then you have to write it off as soon as you realise that . That is built into accounting principles .  So maybe they are writing off tooling they don't expect to use again . Steampunk yes , but I can't imagine the cost of tooling that was huge .

I think the lack of 0-6-0s in bargain basement is that no one really has been releasing them recently . What was the last one J36?  I know Rails still have the LMS Caley 812 available at £179 , so not exactly a bargain and it was a limited edition .

You have to wonder how may CEPs TMC ordered as they are still there heavily discounted . Unless Bachmann use them as a sales channel to dispose slow moving stock . TMC rapidly becoming my go to supplier as they do seem to have some good bargains .

To be honest the new Black 5 does look good , but I already have 3 . One dating from 1985 and the other two from the 2000s . They are good enough for me , so unless the price comes down I really don't have a lot of interest. And there are other models I'm similarly waiting to see if price drops ahead of any consideration of a Black 5 . 

On immediate reading , doesn't look good . However, they do explain that sales are only 2% up because some high value containers that would have resulted in sales in March (and included in years figures) were delayed until April and therefore in new financial year . 

Margin explanation seems to be in increased amortisation of tooling , not sure I quite understand this one . Have they changed their policy ?

To me this is a company still in turnaround . I know its always cream tomorrow , but hopefully in this case their policies will start paying off 

There was a version after this , the S&DJR blue version that appeared in 1976 and I think ran through to 1977 . It was discontinued after this . It’s replacement was the GWR 101 Pocket Rocket that appeared in 1978 and the Caley pug that appeared in 1980, the last of which went onto be “Smokey Joe” 

33 minutes ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

Guess there hasn't been any further updates for this?

I do wish Hornby would have some sort of projects page with each project a link to news about it and it's progress.

I think there are just too many variables at the moment , manufacturing capacity, longer transit times because of the Red Sea issues . It’s just difficult to predict when things will arrive 

Surprised more people haven’t commented on the hour long Q&A session on TT120 with Martyn and Carl over on Peachys YouTube channel . Refreshingly open about some of the challenges and a couple of hints about what’s ahead , it really is very good . 
 

If you want more info on TT120 then it’s very informative 

19 hours ago, Peachy said:

Absolutely, I can only assume that Hornby have made a conscious decision to subsidise the set prices as they are an excellent attractor to the scale. Having ordered both (the loco packs & the set) I personally don’t feel aggrieved or “ripped off”

I wanted a full HST train now and am quite happy to wait for November to receive a more economical costed set, which I’ll likely re-number or use the chassis to fit a 3d printed class 91 or some such.
The track will likely go in the spares box, the transformer likewise. The box will end up as coach box storage whilst doubling as workshop decoration. 
Oh and the extra coaches and the dummy will be thrown to my hungry pack of 08’s to play with. 

Yeah I’m looking at the sound fitted set perhaps as a way of kicking off a layout in this scale . My loft layout has lots of old OO locos which I enjoy running . As well as my first dabble in TT120 it would get me into DCC sound  .