Hornby Lyddle End

From studying the pictures, I believe that these are "variable scale", and are most likely produced for Hornby by a maker who normally produces for the miniature village market. That market doesn't care about exact scale, just wants cute thingies that fit into the scene without overwhelming it. I think you'd have to check each one. Besides, the largest market for these things is in N. America, and not the scale model railway market. For example, MicroTrains offers several sets of "N scale" buildings for a Christmas Village, a Haunted Village, etc, but almost all of these are larger than N scale, closer to TT in fact, and a couple wouldn't look out of place on an HO layout!

HTH

While in a model shop some months ago I remarked to the owner that the huge variety of the Hornby Scaledale/Lyddle end ranges was somewhat overwhelming ,and that there must be a lot of people out there building layouts and having the funds to do so. He replied that he had a small but new customer base that were not interested in model railways but did enjoy building model villages /landscapes as a hobby of its own so it looks as if this is not confined to North America. As the OP is a model shop proprietor I wonder if he has gathered any such customers himself? The Shop I was in also supplied parts for Dolls houses which can be a far more complex hobby than the title may suggest .This did mean he had a footfall outside of the model railway fraternity already. A purely model railway shop may not get them. Best of luck to Hornby if they have managed to tap/create a market outside of the traditional one.

G.Harman

A couple of my customers are more interested in scenery and townscape than running trains, but they want a train just because "there should be on running through the village...."

Not far from me in Port Hope, Ontario, there is a Dollhouse and Model Train Emporium that sells Hornby stuff, including Skaledale. I wonder if they get much crossover?

wrote

We sell a lot of Skaledale and a significantly lesser amount of Lyddle End. Whilst I'm sure most of the sales are to those with model railways, it's difficult to know what the motives are of everyone buying these items. I'd guess some buy them for non-railway use, but I couldn't say so with any degree of certainty.

I've got to say that the two ranges are becoming over-whelming for small model shops such as mine, but this is symptomatic of Hornby putting far too much product into the market place.

ohn.

This is what I wondered when I started the conversation with the owner of the shop I was visiting. All those boxes some of which are quite large need displaying and storage somewhere and the cost of holding such stock just in case someone decides they need a prefabricated Canal can not be insignificant. At least with kits such as Dapol, Metalcalfe, Wills etc you can fit a few in the space taken by a Scaledale box. Going off at a tangent slightly has there been any effect on the sales of this type of Kit by the ready built Scaledale range?

G.Harman

wrote

The only really significant change I've seen in kits sales relates to Metcalfe Models - these have decimated the sale of Superquick Kits in my shop.

John.