Legend

Good morning from Rome. Flying back after two weeks bouncing round the Med on Royal Princess for about the same price as 2 Bachmann Blue Pullmans

It does capture the atmosphere really well though. Looks good

Not quite Oz. Revenue at Kader was up 8.2% . Profit from Operations were up from 4284 $HK'000 in 2014 to 115443 $HK'000 in 2015. Staff Costs were down although they appear to have lost 396 employees. Looking at costs per employee, although admittedly this can be skewed by mgt costs ,labour costs per person appear to be up 9.6%. Interestingly from these accounts labour appears to be 33% of Kader Revenue. Of course Kader then sell to to Bachmann at a profit, and while there are employee costs in Bachmann , presumably they are not increasing at 9% pa, so I think it's safe to say that a 10% increase in labour costs at Kader should translate to a relatively small increase in Bachmanns retail price and an even smaller one retailer to final customer The other interesting thing is that Kader sell to one customer which represents 50% turnover. Would that be Bachmann US?

Surprised you weren't approached. I always am when I walk in. The prices and specifications are actually on the iPads or iPhones but there's usually someone there to talk you through it.

You didn't Phil. Sorry should have made it clear that was a reference to Jason's post in #22, where he is looking for people to upgrade to DCC because of all the advantages it has to offer. I don't dispute that and for some DCC is the way forward, I was just trying to point out that for others DC has advantages. It's horses for courses and as long as models continue to be supplied with capability for either then I'm happy. It's not a done deal that people should upgrade to DCC as a matter of course though

And what's wrong with that? After a hard day battling with SAP, Oracle , Peoplesoft. Excel,look ups,pivot tables, dealing with 100s of emails , frankly the last thing I need is another user interface, this time with a DCC model railway controlled with something that looks like a pocket calculator. Just plug it in , turn the controller knob and listen to the swish of my train run round my oval with satisfying clatter at the points. Bliss. Computers.........they'll never catch on I tell you! And of course the only chip I've paid for is the greasy one that accompanies my fish. Also I don't like being told what I really must buy. Prefer to make my own mind up ta

Or they modify their pricing strategy. There is such a thing as consumer resistance. It's not organised, of course, but there comes a point where consumers don't perceive it's value for money and go away and do something else instead. I don't subscribe to the statements that we can do nothing about it. Of course it maybe that the company decides it really wants that price as they can make larger margins doing something else. In which case let them withdraw from the market and let other companies in that can meet the consumers expectations and at same time make reasonable margins.

Service and keeping price increases to the minimum do it for me. But it's all about perception. I'll give you an example. I bought my parents an iPad to keep in touch with them. They hardly used it , but after a year the blue screen of death appeared. Just out of guarantee. So off down to Apple Store to see how much cost to repair. Imagine my surprise when the tech guy said, it's the blue screen of death, it'll take me a while to figure out what's wrong, it's just out of guarantee, how about I offer you a replacement instead. I was gob smacked! As a result my next phone was an iPhone and seriously considering iPad pro to replace my existing iPad . Yes they are expensive but it encouraged customer loyalty and overall I felt it value for money. Parting with money was turned into a pleasurable activity! The whole thing was very slick. You can tell the difference buying direct from Apple rather than through Dixons, where you are more likely to know more about the device than the assistant. Contrast that with companies that put up prices 20% pa , even for superannuated mouldings. Just get the feeling of being exploited. Def not value for money as a result now haven't bought anything from them for a year. I remember when younger being engrossed in the Hornby Catalogue , a great marketing device, extolling the virtues of Triang -Hornby and later Hornby. The total system. I think Hornby haven't quite realised the effect their Catalogue/Year Book shambles on overall customer loyalty

Interesting. I knew they'd offered them before but I thought they were tender powered, didn't realise they'd done loco powered ones

A bulk standard BR Castle with Single Chimney, late BR Crest and Collet tender. As far as I'm aware this is combination has only ever been made as a limited edition. How about a mainstream release ? I'm assuming you mean what could they produce from their existing tooling? What about one of the later Britannia's with larger tender (sorry can never remember what it's called) Firth of Forth etc. Blue Grey Mk1s

Nice layout. Great that you are trying to recapture the feel of the original. These were great stories , brilliantly illustrated and evoke a "golden age" even if it is with Rose Tinted Glasses. Looking forward to seeing more and thanks for posting the link to the documentary. I had seen it before , but many years ago.

Fair enough we've had duplications of 47s,37s HSTs all very widespread, but a 71,a somewhat limited prototype.................... Hope It does well for them, but I have my doubts. Of course,the Adams Radial also duplicated , similar limited geographical area but a pretty wee loco. Let's hope that's succesful too

Nice . I just hope Hornby don't catch a cold on this loco. They can ill afford it at the moment. I just can't see that with its limited geographical appeal this will disappear off the shelves quickly. If you consider people are already signed up to the crowd funded one and presumably committed to it . It further restricts the already limited market for this loco

No.They still have to ship to model shops all over the country and are still offering a direct selling alternative. While I don't like it, outsourcing seems to be the way these days, the theory being you are letting people who are experts in the trade do their job rather than be a Jack of all trades yourself. Should be more efficient but it does cost. It does seem that deeply discounted direct selling has stopped and instead stock offered out to the retail trade. Hopefully it was offered widely but so far we seem to have seen Rails and Hattons take them up on this. The benefit being that Hornby get one large sale now rather than lots of small individual direct sales

Or it could be he had made quite an impact and is brilliantly qualified to lead the organisation. Just because it's an internal appointment does not imply second best. Anyway, as we all know Accountants are great guys

Thanks Keith. Yes used lots of Tafwebs objects in TRS2004. Really no idea why it doesn't work on Windows 10 but apparently this is quite common with older program's. There was at tweek you could do , but it didn't work for me As I said I have two subsequent versions I've never used . I'll maybe load 2006 and see if I can Transfer files, 2010 looks completely different. I used to enjoy "Middle England" route . A nice length of mainline running with dome shunting possibilities. Going to try to get back into it. Thanks again for help

Thanks . i 'll maybe give it a go rather than trying to get 2004 to load. Annoyingly it did work on Windows 8 but not 10. I think I have Trainz 2010 which does run. I'll try transferring files but it did look like file structure was different between versions.

I love Trainz but unfortunately it doesn't seem to run on Windows 10. I've got Trainz 2004 . I have subsequent versions but that's the the one that I've got most downloaded content on, and created routes To me Trainz is very good for route creation. You can shunt the yards on it, after creating it yourself

Shock! Certainly not a good year. Seems there's a lot of humour going out of our lives . Thoughts with those who were closest to her.

United Molasses had a depot in Greenock, so that might have generated some traffic

Nice to see Nigel McMillan still around in the article about the 50th anniversary of the Scottish show in this months Modeller. Well I remember his Campbeltown and Macrihanish layout.

Very nice layout. thanks for posting the pics.

Thanks. Yes I appreciated you couldn't have all sounds, but hadn't realised that you would still get the turbines spooling up as the train moves off. It does seem there is limited but useful functionality on DC Pete, by brushed under the carpet, I meant manufacturers are not free with information as to what will or will not work because they want you to go down a DCC route rather than DC . It's interesting that Hornby TTS doesn't make any noise under DC but Rapidos sound chip does , an ESU, I believe. So would there be anything to stop a steam loco fitted with an ESU decoder running on DC with realistic steam sounds as accelerates? I don't know. Yes appreciate APT-P is a more difficult proposition, but then they have already developed the way of making it tilt. A Hornby 5 car replacement would be welcome, with additional centre cars allowing people to build any length they want. As the APT-E proves , never say never

Have to agree with you there. That letterbox windscreen does nothing for it. I didn't see it or hear it for real , so perhaps had I done so it would have been different. I was not so much into HSTs until I heard the pax mans rev up for the first time at Berwick. Interested that some sound functions work on DC , to me this is something that seems to get brushed under the carpet by manufacturers in the hope we will all dash headlong for DCC . I really hope that Rapido do more stuff and at the same price point. An APT- P would have the wow factor that this APT -E has generated , and of course be a lovely running partner. I do look for value for money and there is little doubt you've got it here. The overall package is very impressive. Well done Rapido

IC82 has hot a great review video on YouTube. I haven't ordered one and it's still not my thing, but I enjoyed the excitement of him opening the box , assembling it and watching it run. I can see how you would get satisfaction owning something like that. The sound functions are superb, although I can imagine it eventually getting on your nerves. But I particularly like the illuminated interior of the coaches, they really look good . Looks like a really great model , the way it all comes together looks like an ingenious piece of design.