We have been notified of price increases on the new Hornby Gresley coaches which are shown with a recommended retail price (RRP) of GBP25.00 in the current Hornby UK price list.
Those in LNER 'teak' livery will now have an RRP of GBP35.00 whilst the BR (carmine/cream) liveried versions will be GBP28.00, the difference apparantly resulting from the relative cost of the print processes for the two types.
I used to, but I'm afraid I totally lost patience with some of the utter drivel which appears on there. Not I hasten to add from the publisher, but from some of the idiot email contributors.
Well they claim they are *in the process* of sending this bulletin out to all retailers, but this Hornby Collectors' Centre hasn't been graced with a copy as yet. Funny that Bachmann can send a Trade Bulletin to every retailer every month without this sort of hit and miss approach.
I'm not prepared to criticise the price increase until I've seen the models and made a rational decision whether they represent value-for-money or not. At the end of the day if they're really good then people will probably buy them; but they're going to have to be better than the 'new' Pullmans which I reckon are inferior to the much cheaper Bachmann Mk1 coaches.
Why? If I recall correctly did the LNER not run into London Kings Cross, Cambridge, Norwich, Oxford, along with parts of Wales even? Were there not inter-regional trains workings as far south as Bournemouth and Poole and as far north as Abderdeen and Fort William?
Yes, should someone wish to purchase a rake they could always justify it as a football special or cross country formation going into another region, but not many modellers other than LNER people are going to purchase them in any number. Certainly, no one in our club (even modellers such as myself who model every region to a degree) has any views on putting a rake together at these higher prices, as we are out of region.
Indeed, since the LNER operated the GC main-line throughout the entire grouping period, a great number of LNER cross-country trains passed into foreign territory.
Ronnie
-- Volunteer guard on the Great Central Railway, Loughborough, Leicestershire Visit the world's only double track preserved steam railway!
London Midland Region made extensive use of Grsleys in BR days to relieve a chronic shortage of coaching stock. Photographs of the period show ex-LMS engines pulling entire trains of Gresleys while BG parcel vans were being used on the LMR right up until electrification in 1960's.
BR(WR) also used lots of Gresley coaches for Summer Saturday strengthening of its trains following the cull of GWR coaches around 1961. I have photos of the Pembroke Coast Express in South West Wales with three Gresleys at the front of the usual Mk1 chocolate and cream set.
I'm in the North and I model LM/NE but I certainly wont pay that much for them. That kind of pricing will simply make me buy more kits and/or scratch build. Mike H
And that is absolutely your perogative, but some of us don't have the spare time to go along that route, and we'll shortly have the option of deciding whether it's a fair price or otherwise.
The sad thing is if no-one buys them, then I reckon it will be less likely that Hornby would go along the 'quality' route again in the future.
If they're 'that' good then they're cheaper than a Comet kit + paint/decals and almost certainly better than most people could scratch build/finish to the same level!
From my point of view they are the wrong railway, and not likely to visit the area that I am trying to be impressionistic about.
However, if Hornby were to introduce some Collett suburban coaches, I would buy about a dozen (i.e. 2 trains + some loose coaches for strengthening), even at the prices being discussed here.
Good point. Maybe someone ought to remind Hornby that I used their flexible and semi-flexible track for my garden railway; more than 400 yards of the stuff. (I had to use Peco points and crossings because Hornby don't do the sort of things I was after.)
The first and second phases of my layout are mostly dead straight for
150 feet, apart from the ends of the dogbone which are large radius curved, so I thought I'd try their semi-flexible track. Having bought lots of that, it seemed only natural to buy their fully flexible track in order to get something that matches. Unfortunately, it doesn't match but it's a better match than Peco is (I've got a few yards of that for comparison somewhere).
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