End of line for model railway ? YORK

As railway stations go I quite like York Station. It's listed buildings have plenty of character & detail and for the most part a well maintained, the Model Railway's building itself looks like it's recently had it's stonework cleaned.

Companies like National Express fail to understand or choose to ignore they are messing about with our railway heritage.

It made me smile when our son, whilst standing on the outside viewing area at the Railway Museum, waved to the passengers on the trains as they went past ... for the most part the passengers waved back. Apart from at preserved railway events were else would they do that ?

What else do you need at a railway station :-

A place to site in comfort

A shop to get a newspaper or magazine

A decent cafe for a cup of tea and a missed breakfast

Helpful staff

.... and your train to arrive on time ( but you can't have everything can you ? )

Chris

I couldn't agree more - just what is it with this "retail opportunity" stuff - I don't go to a station to go shopping! Mind, the Terminal 5 fiasco is the same - far more thought has been put into getting people into shops than actually checking them in it seems.....

Cheers Richard

"Dragon Heart" wrote

However you look at it, this large trainset in York is a commercial enterprise and if the owners (who also run a retail model business in the same premises) cannot make it pay to the extent that they can afford a realistic rent, then I don't think they've much to gripe about.

Suggestions that any of the TOCs which use York station should sponsor this operation are a total nonsense.

John.

Did you omit an "h"?

I can get a missed breakfast almost anywhere. It largely depends when I leave.

It's getting to a station and parking that's the problem

I can see your point of view but it's not about paying a fair rent John it's about the upheaval cost of moving location, if you can find one suitable.

Yes I know it's an occupational & commercial risk you take when you take on a venture like this but I consider this layout to be an asset to the station, part of it's character.

During my many visits to York the trains both arriving & departing York were almost always full so if they cant make it pay what the hell are they doing in business ? The problem is the station is in a prime retail location but stations, bus or rail, are a dangerous place and the last thing you need is the distraction of a multitude of shops.

Chris

"Dragon Heart" wrote

When I opened my model shop twenty years ago the first thing I did was to agree a deal with my landlord that I could buy the property after three years if all went well. Things did and she stuck by that agreement. Buying the property pretty much guaranteed the future of my business, ensuring it was free from the vagaries of unrealistic rent demands. It also meant if someone wanted the property badly enough they would have to pay me an attractive price to make me sell. The mortgage repayments were 50% higher than the rent I'd been paying, but it was a commercial judgement that this was worthwhile.

It is indeed a commercial risk, and one which if planned for properly can be avoided. I suspect the owners of this model retailer & exhibition railway got the use of the property for a song back in the 1980s and automatically assumed the tune wouldn't change.

John.

With respect, you have been very lucky to be offered the premises for sale. Particulalrly being involved with motor vehicles (even though we didn't do repairs at the time, retail only) we were extremely lucky to get any premises at all, and of the only two viable candidates both were part of indstrial estates, never likely to be up for sale except as a job lot.

That's probably true, but even so they'd be mad not to put a fight, it may just work ;-)

Cheers Richard

"beamendsltd" wrote

No it wasn't luck, it was an agreement I have with the owner when I initially leased the property. If she'd not agreed to that I wouldn't have rented the place.

John.

You were lucky she stuck to the agreement (unless it was made in writing?).

(kim)

Picking the right location these days is a bit like playing 'lucky dip' with your business.

With the way town planners change their minds, or changed for them by big retail developers, a 'prime' location one year may end up the backwater the next.

Derby town centre is one example. Golden Gains, a well know model shop, had a outlet close to the then City Centre. The museum and art gallery was just a stones throw away, at the back was a 'new' mini shopping centre with car park, Debenhams, The Cornmarket, Market Hall, Market Place with Assembly Rooms plus multi storey car park and Saddler Gate all a short walk away. All the major banks and a large post office were nearby.

Now after several attempts to relocate the city's shopping area Derby, to me, is a mess. The new shopping complex is stale and cold ..... seen it, done it , got the T shirt.

The place where Golden Gains stood for many years was a short term lease for a cheap clothing outlet last time I visited Derby. I think the same must go on throughout the UK.

Like Derby, York is known for it's Railway heritage but with the home of the National Railway Museum being just up the road, even with it's 'gimmicky' Ferris wheel, York is still a better tourist attraction than a place to go shopping whilst waiting for a train.

My wife and I have spend many a long weekend holidays in York. The people are friendly, good food and drink is available within easy walking distance and there is always plenty to see for both children and adults alike.

I would like to see a large decent model layout at the museum. With DCC and the help of a computer it could be run without supervision and a day to day basis. Until then this shop and it's layout has been there for almost 25 years, it even has its own street direction signs ( then again so do the public toilets ), so I would say 'let it be'.

The last operator of the ECML /isn't/ in business any more...

Er, I mean you were very luck to be offered the permises for sale at all - commercial landlords very rarely sell.

Cheers Richard

"Location. location, location" but almost more importantly, "Parking, parking, parking" - our local town, Leek, is impossible to park in, even on Sunday afternoons (without a long walk), since Aldi were sold the town biggest car park, so we drive miles to go non-food shopping. Had we opened in the town as intended it would have been a disaster - the vast majority of customers either want just nip into a particular shop, or they go on-line. Leek used to be vibrant, but now is dying. The councils solution? Get Marks & Sparks to open - on the only remaining sensibly placed car park!

Such genius......

Cheers Richard

The Rover assembly plant in Solihull will make a nice retail park, plenty of space to park cars :o)

(kim)

Whatever happened to Rover cars? (seriously) We used to have a factory here in Nelson NZ making leather seats for Rovers, Triumphs ... long ago. When the Triumph 2000/2500s ended the customers started buying Subarus. We got a few of those huge blobby Rovers that looked like punts turned upside down (nice if one likes upturned punts) and eventually what looked like a few rebadged Hondas ... By that time Rovers had disappeared from NZers conciousness. Land Rovers have maintained their popularity here, but I guess that was split off from Rover way back.

Regards, Greg.P.

Its centre of operations was moved from Coventry to Solihull. The name was bought by British Leyland and ended up as just a badge on cars made elsewhere. The Solihull plant continued to make Land Rovers and Range Rovers but has just been sold by Ford to Tata of India. Since Tata make a 4x4 of their own the name will probably end uup as a badge on their own vehicles assembled in India. Few people in Coventry have any idea where Rover was once located.

(kim)

Standard Triumph Rover Leyland group forced into taking over BMC losers and finished up in the same S*it

The Solihull plant continued to make Land Rovers

Come again? The *Rover* factory was initially sited in Queen Victoria Road in Coventry and occupied much of the town centre with a showroom in Hertford Street. It is the *Land Rover* which has always been produced in Solihull.

(kim)