Hornby has recently become a huge commercial success. Even before the live steam announcement, their stock was higher than it had been in years.
The reasons for this commercial success are easy to see. They are now catering for modellers, rather than the toy market. The Black 5s are excellent (three of them now grace my layout) as is the new 8F. The Bulleid pacifics are just as good - again, three of those are on my layout, which is ostensibly an LMS line in the 30s or 50s....
So, how financially secure is the company?
I hate to be a wet blanket, but how likely is the new Live Steam venture to be a failure? Five hundred quid is a lot of money to pay for a single engine. If Hornby release a Coronation, then I'm very likely to buy one, but I can't see myself buying a large number of live steam engines - that would mean remortgaging my house!
Supposing that this venture is a complete and total failure, how much effect would that failure have on the company as a whole? Would it cause a rethink of the policy of catering for modellers? I would hate to see Hornby withdraw from the superdetail market. A future without new Black 5s and 8Fs (not to mention whatever else is in the pipeline) simply doesn't bear thinking about. Does Hornby have the capability to build new conventional models at the same time as the Live Steam range?
-- Enzo
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.