BRM Annual 2006

Ask Adrian Mole to pick one up.

if you wanted to appear literate then a reference to Ivanhoe would be more impressive.

I didn't know BRM had annuals - are they as good as their regular magazine and if so, is it just a compilation of bits from the year's publications?

Thanks

Steve

LOL!

Ashby Castle is the setting for an important scene from Walter Scott's novel, "Ivanhoe". In a tournament held there Ivanhoe and Robin Hood both won fame.

Yep thats him, although think the tournament was supposed to be a couple of miles away at Smisby. Not aware of Robin Hood in Ivanhoe - except the hollywood versions.

But it did give the name to the Ivanhoe line - cunning return OT. Cheers, Simon

No idea about the reading quality but the sale and distribution of it has been a complete c*ck up by many accounts.

MBQ

Yep tis the first one produced at the request of Smiths, who then appeared to make every effort to avoid selling it. After a bit of teasing my local shop found it in their warehouse, but they have a lady that cares for her customers (but dont tell her). Was briefly available via BRM website. Only one article that I recognised - TW on how to spend lots of money and effort, use advanced skills that are way beyond many of us to produce a 9F. Some very good articles, including one of the best beginners layout build I've ever seen. Everyone says use pva and water + detergent for ballast but have never seen described exactly how much liquid to use. This has a photo that explains it very well. Very interesting article by Richard Hallam on his development of live steam from prototype to Hornby manufacture. So was definatately worth me buying it.

Cheers, Simon

I would buy that to see the development article - no way we will get it in the colonies though

bummer

Steve

Steve,

Email me direct by removing the three ??? in my supplied email address.

Eddie.

I applied for one online, but received a letter from Warners that said they had run out of stock, so I am waiting for my money back. I probably will not buy one of the flood of copies that will no doubt now appear on Ebay, as they will probably go for =A325 each and that will not include an equal amount for p&p [/cynic mode]

the colonies though

The development article doesn't give that much detail about the major part of the challenge, IMHO at least; turning a working prototype into a production standard item. The article basically states that the working prototype was sent to China, and then their first sample debugged back in blighty by the inventor.

Whilst I continue to be impressed by the fact that Hornby ( or more accurately their Chinese subcontractor?) managed to turn this 'novelty' into a product, and lots of free publicity, it is still a complete irrelevance to me, at least, in a Model Railway context. minor rant over :-)

Worth it? Haven't seen one to take alook but itf it has a lot of interesting material I'd go looking

Mike

In message , kim writes

Then Kim follows this with a fair approximation of what passes for service at the average UK High Street outlet in wonderful Blair's Britain.

Not only do we manufacture the best part of nothing useful anymore in this country, but as the sometime legendary nation of shopkeepers we stink.

And in that one simple statement is the root cause of the problem! We are the authors of our own misfortune. The 'every time' says it all. Why the hell continue to use an outfit who treats you the customer with such obvious disdain? Do you actually think that by doing so you are going to improve the service? We are undoubtedly all to blame for the appalling standards of service that are dished out to us every day. However while we are content to provide the profits that keep these crap organisation in business nothing will change.

Then why bother. Chase up the publishers directly, who maybe, just maybe want to sell their publications. [Don't hold your breath] Mind you they probably won't notice their abysmal marketing system collapsing until they finally realise that their particular publication is actually going down the pan and costing them money. This will not however become apparent until advertisers begin to abandon the sinking ship. As most of the hobby mags are little more than lists of advertisers, sprinkled with in the main biased reviews of even more of the advertisers over hyped products, it's little wonder that the punter is very low down in the publisher's order of priorities.

They don't care, neither do the publishers so long as the bulk of the magazines 'out the door' are included in the circulation figures that keep the advertisers happy. Who needs readers when the bulk of income is derived from advertisers who base their usage on the 'certified' circulation figures complied by - guess who? The industry :o)

If however you are determined to get a copy of for example Model Rail, telephone the editor's secretary. In the case of Model Railway they usually have copies at their Peterborough office, even if their distributor claims that the issue is sold out. I have done this myself with great success [I only purchase the odd international edition so don't subscribe].

Cheers.

No, no Roy. Don't hold back. Tell us what you really think :-)

-- Rod

What exactly are you trying to say?

You can look up the circulation figures for MR on the ABC website

and you can ask the magazine for their advertising rates. I think you'll find that there's a much closer balance between income from sales and that from advertising. Taking MR as an example: 31,000 copies at the cover price of basic annual rate of =A32.95 is =A391,450 (ignoring the 3,000 discounted copies). I've had one-eighth page ads for =A3100 and been offered them for even less when they need to fill the space. If each issue had 100 pages of adverts, that's still only =A380,000.

The readers are just as crucial to the success of a magazine as it's advertisers, otherwise there would be no advertisers.

So what if the ABC is an industry body? All magazines are audited the same way (only actually RM and MR in the railway modelling field) so it's a level playing field. If the figures are inflated then the advertisers are the ones losing out through higher fees, not the readers.

Do you dispute their claims? As far as the disti is concerned, it probably is sold out since all the copies are on shelves somewhere.

MBQ

The centre of town is a giant shopping mall. I have to walk through WH Smith in order to get home. I do nearly all my shopping in the suburbs these days.

(kim)

In message , Benny writes

As always and without reservation. Come the revolution etc. :o)

Lets cut out all the nonsense and start calling a spade a spade - while we are still allowed to :o)

Cheers.

In message , " snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" writes

Eventually, when realisation dawns that is precisely what happens.

Only until they get wise and vote with their feet. It doesn't take much of a reduction in income to bring a publication to its proverbial knees.

Yes I do and based directly on my own experience. On both of the occasions last year that I tried to obtain copies from the Mag distributor I was told that the publication was sold out of print and that they no longer had any available.

I managed however to get a copy of the requested publication sent to me directly from the editorial offices just by making a simple request. On the first occasion I was told by the very nice lady concerned [MR] that they had 'heaps' of copies there and that the distributors were well aware of the fact. She sent me out the magazine the same day. .

???? Not in my experience - see above. Too bone idle to service the customer base seems far more likely.

Cheers.

In message , kim writes

Free parking in most cases too :o) I often wish the major out of town supermarkets stocked a wider range of the more specialist mags in quantity although the larger Tesco outlets are getting better..

I will subscribe to MR if and when the international edition goes monthly as UK outline is not really my interest. Fortunately my local model shop [Trains4u in Peterborough] now stocks MR so getting a copy is no longer a problem.

Cheers.