The message from Fred contains these words:
It's surprising (or not) how many young people, friends of my lads who are 20+, come into the railway room, wait until their friends have wandered off to do something else, and then ask tentatively "Can I try having a drive...?"
And it's not just the lads who ask!
Have you got some more details of these women in their 20s who want to play with model trains...? ;-)
Arthur Figgis wrote:-
It's not that unusual. I remember as a boy the giant layout they used to have each Xmas at the Owen Owen dept store. There were an equal number of boys and girls around the layout but only us boys were ever asked if we'd like to drive one of the trains.
(kim)
Blimey - that makes me feel old! Are Owen Owen still going? The branch in my home town (Wolverhampton) changed ownership some years ago now, being under the T. J. Hughes banner these days.
David E. Belcher
The message from Arthur Figgis contains these words:
Yes, if you would like further details I can pass them on, but I think you really ought to go to the uk.r Y-P meet and introduce yourself to mrsarthurfiggis... ;-)
David E. Belcher wrote:-
Regretably not. The store I used to frequent now trades under the name 'Alders' and is in a shocking state of disrepair. Like many other dept store chains they had already abandoned model railways long before that.
(kim)
In message , kim writes
Allders hasn't abandoned model railways. They're Croydon store has a fairly comprehensive model railway section, but it's all Hornby so it's probably run by Hornby as a franchise department.
It makes me almost glad not to be a Y-P anymore!
There was an interview with Hornby's Finance Director in Real Finance magazine last month and he talked about how Hornby had bucked market trends by focussing on their core businesses of model railways and Scalextric. He also reckoned that Lima had been in the situation Hornby had almost come unstuck from of trying to be too diverse and trying to keep production at home. From this I'll bet they want to concentrate on those areas but that could be quite healthy from a railway modelling point of view.
In lawyer speak, "certain assets" merely means whatever's listed in the contract. It could be all or just a selection. You can't tell without further information.
Why?
Your wouldn't want them to acquire Lima's debts, the factory and workforce would you?
John.
G'day All, The Lima deal is very close to completion. Just a few things to be sorted out with the Italian Unions. Graeme Hearn
"Graeme Hearn" wrote
That's an interesting angle. What influence are the Italian unions going to have in China? Or are we looking at redundancy packages?
John.
Perhaps it's a euphemism for "Mafia".
MBQ
More likely that , if Italian law is like French law, then the unions could try and use an injunction to stop the export of the tools and machinery. Ironically, Joueff workers tried this very approach when the new owners of their factory started to strip the machinery from the Jura factory. The new owners were,of course, Lima.... Brian
G'day All, They Italian Unions would prefer Lima etc be made in Italy as this does affect their members jobs. Graeme Hearn
Does this include N Gauge??
"Graeme Hearn" wrote
Just like I'd prefer HSBC to operate their call centres and credit card authorisation services in the UK, but it ain't gonna happen!
It's China or get stuffed for Lima I reckon.
John.
"Yoda" wrote
It includes Arnold if that's what you mean?
John.
Shouldn't Lima N gauge be left to die in Italy? :-)
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