Legend

They are also constructing the class 385 emus for Scotland . There's an article in the latest Modern Railways

Yes it's well worth the hike up to Perth . Really great show .

Just in case you don't know, the latest Modern Locomotives Illustrated ( June/July) is about Scottish and Tyneside EMUs . This includes the EPBs after transfer to London. I got it for the Scottish emus but lots of good pics of the North Eastern ones

Yes just wondering could white battery box be anything to do with hauling Royal Train?

Frankly if Hornby announced it at Warley this year ie November 2017 it would probably arrive earlier than the Bachmann one. Really they have lost all credibility. 90, V2 , 158................. And as you say who knows the price when it arrives. Maintaining the song motif , how about "until the twelfth of never and that's a long long time"

Really excellent exhibition. I arrived about 12 and left at 3 only because I had a dinner appointment in Glasgow. . In that time I had done one circuit of the both halls. Excellent exhibits , lots to see. Plenty space too, in previous years there had been choke points, but not this year.I think it's fair to say there is something for everyone For me the standout was Thornbury Hill . Southern region, not something we often see north of the border. 6PULS, Bullied double deck stock, emus, West countries , lots of action, great stuff. Clifton and Lowther lovely N gauge layout , Elderslie O gauge lots of action, Alloa, fantastic as always . A little disappointed in Blair Atholl to Dromochter . I do remember this from Model Rail Scotland from the 90s. Then I found it visually stunning but not much going on. I think it's much the same now . I observed 1 train , 67 on the sleepers in about 5 minutes of waiting. Maxwell colliery is similar . Huge layout , visually stunning but not much going on . But overall lots of layouts . Good stuff. Well done to all who organised it. And for £7 well worth it. I took the car and parked it in station car park which is almost adjoining the Dewars Centre . Previous experience had shown all car parking in the centre full. I didn't think £3 a day parking was excessive,

Not in named condition. It's not an issue , will just get paint brush out because that white will jar while watching it go round layout. The point I'm making is that if this is a listening company , faced with evidence that you never saw white battery boxes on a namer in everyday operation ,why are they persisting in making something that the 99% of us will paint out.

But to some extent it's irrelevant. What is certain is that for 99.9999999% of the time these locos battery boxes were covered in muck and not white. Has anyone uncovered a photo of a white battery box.............no? Not exactly prevalent then is it, even if they have one. So if they are a truly listening company, which I think they are , can we ask them why they are persisting in modelling the 0.0000001% Could be a clever ruse to increase sales of Humbrol black paint...............No wait per Widnes it's out of stock!

The latest Airfix products are well received, just like the Hornby ones. But they need to diversify a bit and get more relevant models in there. If you look at Revell they have an Aida Cruiseship in their range (the European arm of Revell is based in Germany where Aida is cruise market leader) . Why haven't we got a P&O Britannia or the Independence of the Seas in 1/350 or 1/600. Why not the Royal Yacht or a Type 23 Frigate . How about some civil aircraft . A 1/72 Vickers Viscount following on from their V Bombers range. I would like to see the modern BA fleet modelled. But I'm not sure if there is a restrictive licence that all Airbus aircraft are modelled by Revell. However what I'm saying is , they seem to be in a bit of a rut with warplanes. How about looking at something else?

Not always the case that overheads go down with turnover. There's fixed (e.g. The cost of buildings, computer systems etc that will be there whether you sell scalextric or not) and variable overhead.. looks like there maybe some fixed costs in distribution as well as that is way too high , as has already been pointed out. It does appear that Scalextric is taking the heat. I suppose while we think the bottom has fallen out the trainset market, the numbers of kids wanting a scalectric set has probably also plunged. And while Hornby can compensate in model railways by going after the aged enthusiast market, is there such a market in Scalextric? If there is , it's probably not very big. Not sure what they can do with this. Airfix is a different kettle of fish . There are serious adult constructors here and a market to be tapped.

Isn't Phoenix Mr Canham ,not Mr Anton. So in effect the largest group of shareholders (Phoenix) bought out the second group (Anton) meaning the turnaround plan Phoenix has in place continues as normal? No leap back to Trainset that Mr Anton wanted

There is also technical inflation. I appreciate I'm a bit of a Luddite but it does appear technical advances are driving costs up too e.g. DCC in mk 2f coaches . I just want an accurately proportioned liveried coach, not one I can switch lights on and off in, through wired dmus. Dmus where door lights come on etc etc

I hear that's when they have to get a new car.........when the ashtrays full

I think that's exactly the point Bernard. I had assumed that we had these protections in place , it was a shock to find out we hadn't . It really has shaken my faith in the procedures in this country which I thought were among the best in the world. Clearly not , and the appalling result a week on is still really so shocking.

Yes you're right. I did say in theory!

I wondered what that bulge was! Think you are correct on quantities. I'm getting the impression looking at a few threads on here where models are failing to achieve crowd funding targets and new dmu models are still available 8 months after launch , that money is indeed drying up.

But it's the same with most factories. Very few make items entirely from scratch, they outsource some parts and buy in others. Buying in packaging is normal.The key is to make sure you have flexibility to increase or reduce numbers . Another good thing is to have alternate sources of supply in case one sub contractor or producer can't provide material in time. An option that Bachmann , being owned by Kader, don't appear to have. Hornby buys in all its models from Third Party Producers at arms length i.e. The producer has to make his profit as well as Hornby. Bachmann is vertically integrated in that Kader ,the manufacturer, own them. In theory this should make it more efficient to produce goods or make more profit if selling at the same level of price as Hornby because all the profit is retained within the Kader Empire rather than paying third parties. So there are differences

I've just got a new book "Triang Collectables" and it really is a bask in nostalgia. The opening of the red box at Christmas as most boys got a trainset somewhere between their 4th and 10th birthdays . The perusing of the catalogues looking at the large layouts wondering where all the track went. Great days. Unfortunately they are in the past . Reverting to a Triang Trainset plan isn't going to do it. I suspect you said that tongue in cheek

Interesting . I do still think their overheads are out of sync for a company their size and need attention. As Andrew points out I'm not sure outsourcing distribution is realising value as it appears to be costing more in % terms as revenue shrinks. We don't know the agreement, though , and it maybe there's a fixed fee and they can leverage growth without an increase in distribution costs going forward. It does look like they have been successful in cutting low margin items from range. Revenue down but profitability up , without huge increases in sales price despite Brexit. They need now to grow revenue with some reasonable margin items. To do this really do need a bit more control over their supply chain. The Peckett was a case in point where presumably if they could have made more at short notice the revenue and profitability would have improved. The Colletts are another example. So I think the action plan should be: Grow the Hornby and Airfix ,more profitable ranges to increase revenue and profitability going forward. Get more flexibility into the supply chain to be more able to react to favourable opportunities. Do more for your independent retailers. Despite the recent work there still appears to be unrest . Although increasing the range and giving them more profitable items to sell should help. Review your overhead costs, I think you really need to strip back to the essentials . These are still too high for the size of business. While the figures appear positive,I think it is getting to the last chance saloon stage. You have to stop the decline in revenue while increasing the profitability or you will run out of cash . Add to that some headwinds that everyone in the UK faces i.e. Foreign Exchange turmoil as we go through the Brexit negotiations , declining disposable income in the UK and a shrinking Market for model railways. Quite tricky environment for anyone to operate in , let alone a company trying to turn things around. I wish them well.

Not actually changing hands, Phoenix just consolidating its position, so turn round plan continues as before. No change.

Agree Kevin, I think the point being made is that at any one time it's difficult to figure out who would have been living there.

I'm not sure there really is a trainset market any more Rockershovel. They may be frightened a lower cost version subtracts from main range sales too. I think it's also been designed to a standard, possibly not easy to down spec it, or at least maybe not easy to take cost out. Really only reason I bought it was because of the blue colour. Not interested in green or black , but if there was a red one........... Not sure any Pecketts ever wore red though

There a big difference between Hornbys normal 0-4-0 like the GWR 101 or Caley "Smokey Joe" tank and the Peckett. These have been produced in their thousands for trainsets etc . The Peckett is priced around double or even triple what you can pick up their traditional 0-4-0 for. So not same market at all. It does show the in flexibility of the supply chain . Hornby were presumably aware it was sold out long before actual production , but could not increase the quantity from whatever factory they were sourcing it from. Just at a critical time for them too, when they needed the cash . While there are advantages in this outsourcing model , mainly cost, there are disadvantages too, mainly inflexibility.

707 about 590mph , at least the ones I remember. These were the days

That shade of blue is gorgeous. I never wanted one, when Hornby announced it , I wasn't interested . But when they came out and I saw it in the flesh I loved it. It's on the layout, doesn't get a lot of use but potters around the shunting yard. I love it, but for me it is the shade of blue, not so interested in the green or forthcoming black ones .