Hornby 2008

Yep its an affordable range with less detailing but still reliable running. Not what I'd call a is a second-rate re-hash, more an affordable less detailed reliable runner. So £60 vs £120.

Still thinking about it.

Cheers, simon

Hornby have spent money they didn't need to upgrading the mechanism and downgrading the body detail. Where is the sense in that? They could have just moved the existing tender drive model into the Railroad range.

(kim)

It *might* be big enough if both companies concentrated on producing state-of-the-art models for discerning adults instead of flooding the market with second-rate re-hashes of obsolete children's toys.

(kim)

kim said the following on 09/01/2008 04:09:

So what would you suggest that children start out with? Surely it's more realistic for them to get hold of "children's toys" than "state-of-the-art models" - they're more likely to be able to afford it, for a start. Personally, I applaud Hornby for continuing to produce what you call children's toys - it's more than Bachmann do.

Hear, hear - well said that man.

Ditto.

Cheers Richard

And indeed Hornby have take the bull by the horns by introducing the Railroad range - consciously splitting what might be termed the adult market from the childrens market. Presumably this is to build on the Thomas toys for the younger (or indeed skint) market and allow the adult versions to carry on going ever more up-market. It is amazing that every model railway discussion group seems to have regular "what can we do to get youngsters involved" threads, and when Hornby actively do something about it they get another pasting! I'll bet if Bachmann had done this it would be the best thing since sliced bread. You'd think people were discussing cars or hi-fi rather than a *hobby*!

Cheers Richard

"beamendsltd" wrote

Hornby have far too much product in their range(s) for the hobby to support in more than the short term.

John.

Quite possibly - but they do seem to be trying to reach new customers. A risky strategy, but then so is not doing anything I suppose.

Cheers Richard

Much more important is common standards for wheels, couplers and coupler boxes, and buffers. There's no reason the NEM or applicable NMRA standards can't be used.

It's IMO a good idea to offer a "lite" version of their models for the children's/beginner's market, but wheels etc should be the same for all.

Just my 2 cents (=1p) worth.

Erm, hi-fi _is_ a hobby.

Interesting comment. Broadway Limited here in N. America sells a variety of brands all based on the same mechs and basic body castings, but with different levels of detail and different combinations of DCC and sound. They offer a huge range of models, most with prototype specific variations in details. They are now pushing overstock at 40-70% off list. May be a lesson there for Hornby.

That's what I thought until I went on a group to try and track down some Acoutsic Research speakers to replace a damaged one. It made Bagdad look like a nice quiet afternoon ;-)

Cheers Richard

So who can tell the difference when viewed from the other end of the loft, from 20 feet, from 10 feet, ...?

MBQ

I'd like to see where Hornby have used that description. Was it second rate when it was first issued? Anyone have any magazine reviews to hand? What was said about then?

MBQ

Sounds worse than a Linux group... ;-)

"Wolf K." wrote

I don't think I've made any attempt to criticise Hornby's 'Railroad' range (although the Americanism is a little off-putting) and sales in the run up to Christmas were encouraging, although I suspect at the expense of their regular range.

The real problem is in the number of varients of each model - I think I counted 20 differently numbered versions of their 'Seacow' ballast hopper in Dutch livery alone, for instance, all released within 12 months. On the loco front the variation is also prolific (6+ King Arthurs as an example) in less than six months and each available with or without DCC decoder.

How soon before they have to start 'dumping' in the same way that Broadway Limited have in the USA? Although that has already started to some extent with Southern 0-6-0s (along with other models) being heavily discounted by Hornby during the summer.

John.

wrote

That may be true for those with layouts of that size, but these days I only have a small L-shaped layout in my study, and the model are very much in your face. I suspect there are a fair number in a similar situation.

This incidentally is not an argument against cheaper, less-detailed models in Hornby's 'Railroad' road, which I do believe is serving a potentially useful purpose.

John.

On 09/01/2008 16:26, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com said,

I should be so lucky! (lucky, lucky, lucky) :-)