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Talking About Trains...

Couple of recent additions to the collection. Spotted by a friend of Farcebook.

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As a child I remember going past the old station site where a camping coach still stood. The station site is now a huge industrial estate and Sainsburys now occupies the coal yard site.
 
Big problems with Hornby are poor quality and bad design.

They insist on retooling the big engines (whose tooling wasn't that old) and ignore the small beasties. Oxford Rail just announced a Caley Pug. For over 40 years Hornby had a rather crap rendition of this in their range. Same thing also happened with the L&Y Pug.

Hornby left their (awful) rendition of the Stanier 8F in the range too long so Bachmann grabbed it. Accurascale 'stole' the GWR 57xx off Bachmann. Rapido just announced a new 45xx pinching it (and near certainly the 4575 class) off Bachmann too.

Sadly if Hornby keep making terrible decisions they won't survive the onslaught of new, smaller manufacturers.
 
There's been one big announcement this week. An extinct loco class that's getting close to being out of living memory. GWR 2600 class better known as the Aberdare. Oxford rail have announced it.

GWR 2600 Class - Wikipedia

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Like nearly all pre WW1 GWR loco classes they clanked into oblivion.
 
A rather odd thing is happening... I heard about a loco and a coach that no one else seemed to want, and after it was for sale for a while, the owner was going to cut them up to use them as parts to make something else, and I tried asking someone on a site I am on but he already owned two of the locos and the coach was too long to fit on his layout...
While discussing this with Mum, she said "You have a birthday coming. If you like, I can pay towards them (Leaving me with the ability to raise the rest of the funds which I could afford) so we have gathered enough to rescue them from being cut up and used for parts...
As I was mentioning this before on another site, for some reason something seemed familiar somehow... Then I remembered. Its Oliver and Isabelle! So I will need to find Toad... I kinda met the Reverent Awdry once at a model railway exhibition, and Rev. W. Awdry wrote the books that went on to inspire countless children and adults into this lovely hobby of ours!
So this rescue is something special and my first venture into 0 gauge. Yes, my narrow gauge models are in the same scale, but now I will have standard gauge, which despite Oliver being a somewhat little engine, he is still going to be a LOT larger than our narrow gauge friends who can't wait to meet our new arrivals!
So, we are waiting for the transportation of Oliver and Isabelle to head towards their new home, and the person who we are buying them from is assembling together some track which he says will be offered at a reasonable price. All this has come at a bit of an unexpected shock as I never expected to start in 0 gauge. Yet with this fine little locomotive and its sweet lovely carriage on their way, it looks like I have started modelling in 0. :D
 
maycontainthunder said:
Big problems with Hornby are poor quality and bad design.

They insist on retooling the big engines (whose tooling wasn't that old) and ignore the small beasties. Oxford Rail just announced a Caley Pug. For over 40 years Hornby had a rather crap rendition of this in their range. Same thing also happened with the L&Y Pug.

Hornby left their (awful) rendition of the Stanier 8F in the range too long so Bachmann grabbed it. Accurascale 'stole' the GWR 57xx off Bachmann. Rapido just announced a new 45xx pinching it (and near certainly the 4575 class) off Bachmann too.

Sadly if Hornby keep making terrible decisions they won't survive the onslaught of new, smaller manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Is sad. Hornby has a lot to offer. I think the issue is their real market where they always have been good at is a generally different customer from the ones they aim to attract. It is NOT about making the most detailed finescale models which is where I believe they are getting it wrong, as to keep directly competing foe space in this area will more likely lead to dissapointment. Rather, by making more robust models and specializing in aiming them at the ones who are younger along with their families, which was always the market in the past that Hornby did best at, they recapture the areas they genuinely have always been good at.
The issue is that if we see them directly competing with others, we expect the best from them, but the best pushes them into areas that the bulk of their customers can't afford... And this is what has been going wrong. If they re-capture the segment they used to have, I genuinely believe they will do well which is a very different concept to how you and many others view it... But take a look at the bulk of customers buying Hornby. They go in and buy what looks nice. They are not buying based on it being a specific class of loco that ran on a specific railway. They are buying based on "I like that colour!" which is a totally different type of customer compared to the customers that buy other brands. (Someone on another site mentioned this, and I have to agree that he is right. If Hornby recognize this, they could save themselves).
 
Captain Caveman said:
Is sad. Hornby has a lot to offer. I think the issue is their real market where they always have been good at is a generally different customer from the ones they aim to attract. It is NOT about making the most detailed finescale models which is where I believe they are getting it wrong, as to keep directly competing foe space in this area will more likely lead to dissapointment. Rather, by making more robust models and specializing in aiming them at the ones who are younger along with their families, which was always the market in the past that Hornby did best at, they recapture the areas they genuinely have always been good at.
The issue is that if we see them directly competing with others, we expect the best from them, but the best pushes them into areas that the bulk of their customers can't afford... And this is what has been going wrong. If they re-capture the segment they used to have, I genuinely believe they will do well which is a very different concept to how you and many others view it... But take a look at the bulk of customers buying Hornby. They go in and buy what looks nice. They are not buying based on it being a specific class of loco that ran on a specific railway. They are buying based on "I like that colour!" which is a totally different type of customer compared to the customers that buy other brands. (Someone on another site mentioned this, and I have to agree that he is right. If Hornby recognize this, they could save themselves).
Click to expand...
Running whatever you like is known as Rule 1. An awful lot of modellers do this running anything with anything without any thought to prototype operation. This is the main market manufacturers aim at.

But there's a big hole. Rolling stock to go with these beautiful, often pre grouping, locos. Making accurate coaches for every pre group company is an impossibility.

The late Hattons came up with something that caused the rivet counters (people who want everything exactly as per prototype) to start frothing at the mouth in fury. High quality 4 and 6 wheel generic coaches in their Genesis range.

Within the last few weeks another range of generic bogie coaches finally came out. Rapido's Evolution range.

Now there's two ranges of brightly coloured, beautifully livered coaches that can go with anything.
 
maycontainthunder said:
Running whatever you like is known as Rule 1. An awful lot of modellers do this running anything with anything without any thought to prototype operation. This is the main market manufacturers aim at.

But there's a big hole. Rolling stock to go with these beautiful, often pre grouping, locos. Making accurate coaches for every pre group company is an impossibility.

The late Hattons came up with something that caused the rivet counters (people who want everything exactly as per prototype) to start frothing at the mouth in fury. High quality 4 and 6 wheel generic coaches in their Genesis range.

Within the last few weeks another range of generic bogie coaches finally came out. Rapido's Evolution range.

Now there's two ranges of brightly coloured, beautifully livered coaches that can go with anything.
Click to expand...

Yes, but those are in 00 gauge? I am looking at 0 gauge as I already have plenty of 00 and 0-16.5.
 
They are OO and yes, I'd be very interested in O gauge versions which might happen some day. Slaters do a number of O gauge plastic coach and wagon kits. There are also the ex Ian Kirk kits. which appear occasionally.
 
Might consider , on the topic of Hornby sales, that it might be goid to draw new people kids, whatever ? by developing a intro model railway set . At a much cheaper price point.
New RR modelers need to have a affordable starting point, to develop interest , I think .
Parents often consider childs toxs as a after thought .And budgets are tight these days. Perhaps new parents of children may need a easy to decide on purchase.
 
JayCee said:
Might consider , on the topic of Hornby sales, that it might be goid to draw new people kids, whatever ? by developing a intro model railway set . At a much cheaper price point.
New RR modelers need to have a affordable starting point, to develop interest , I think .
Parents often consider childs toxs as a after thought .And budgets are tight these days. Perhaps new parents of children may need a easy to decide on purchase.
Click to expand...

Hornby have always done train sets. (They didn't do them before trains were invented).

Price is a good point.
 
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