New or Old Locomotives and Rolling Stock

My personal opinion on this matter is maybe to just not buy the new models, maybe that way Hornby will see sense and decrease the prices, I myself like to buy the old Hornby Railways stuff from the 80's as it is quite reliable and can be picked up for some pretty cheap prices if you look carefully, though it's not up to me to decide what you do

This was the reason I posted my question and expanded on it, I personally have been buying some of the models from the early 2000's which are almost as detailed as the current ones, yet can often be bought for a 1/3rd of the asking price of the current range.  To me that is a far better proposition, however I have also picked up some of the older stuff as well.  As Super will confirm I've picked up some that are anything up to 50 years old, yet have never been run.  Sure they are not as detailed not having all the extra add on bits and they tend to have noisier mechanisms.  But they are often made with brass parts rather than nylon, metal parts instead of all plastic, to date I've not had a single one that with just a little lubrication and a gentle run have burst into life and run like new.  But when you can pick up say a  Flying Scotsman or similar model for around £35 who cares!!  They are great for my nephew who just wants to play with them

 

... maybe that way Hornby will see sense and decrease the prices...

I wonder if you've had a look to see how profitable Hornby PLC is? 

Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for Hornby Railways.  There's a reasonably up-to-date summary of their financial position at the bottom of the section titled 'Financial troubles, PAM takeover'.

There does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel in the form of an upsurge of interest resulting from the lockdowns of the last couple of years, but whether that will be sustained into the future is questionable.

British toy companies have a long history of going bust after a few years, then being bought and re-launched by someone who thinks they can turn them around with a new business model. Mostly it doesn't work.

Chris,

I totally agree, apparently Hornby went through a 10 year period where they were in the red constantly.  When I was purchasing back in the early 2000's they had just shifted their production to china and were offering stunningly detailed models at prices as low or lower than the competition and they flourished.  Then unfortunately my father died and as it had been a hobby we shared I just lost interest.  It seems during that period there was a boardroom revolt and Simon Kohler got kicked out of the chairman position.  The new management spent money like water buying up other European manufacturers who they had put on the ropes (Lima, Joeuf, Rivarossi, Arnold, Trix, the list goes on), they also moved out of the factory premises they own and rented swanky offices at the cost of literally millions of pounds.  Then the market crashed somewhat and all of a sudden they were in the doldrums and the 10 year period of loses.  Recently the board brought Simon Kohler back as chairman, they moved back to the factory offices and made other cost savings and then Simon tried to re-juvenate the product range.  Mostly that combined with the pandemic has worked and they are back on track (no pun intended) and making a profit.  However the massive price rises - also being seen from Bachmann etc... - are making a lot of their loyal customers complain, they have also dropped the ball a little with their distribution plans, some corner cutting on the latest models, the whole shipping debacle etc...  So are now in danger of messing up.  Personally I hope they work it out as it would be a shame to see them go after the recent centenary celebrations, but they need to stop upsetting their customer audience...

 

Nigels, do you subscribe to any mainstream OO/HO model railway newsgroups, forums, etc.?
Are there similar conversations happening there?

I keep an eye on some groups, but not all, its mainly just to keep in the know about new models coming.  If anything I watch more youtube channels to get reviews of new models to find out if they are any good, how they perform, obvious design flaws etc... mainly because of the cost involved in buying the new models.  If you do buy one you want something that is good quality, performs, is robust and will therefore hopefully hold its value in case you decide to move it on or even change gauge or something.

But yes, youtube especially is alive with complaints about the price increases.  I mean 20% across the board, including already released product does not go down well.  It means for example a simple tank wagon is now typically £20-25, that is simply outrageous.  Coaches starting at around £45-50 each, bearing in mind you typically need 3 to make a reasonably acceptable looking train (ideally double that number).  Of course it makes train sets look better value if you can get a set with a loco, 3 carriages, track, controller, psu and maybe some accessories for say £150.  If you can do that as a set why are the individual items so expensive?!?  In some ways you would be better off buying a set, taking say the parts out of it you want and selling on the remainder...