AndyMac1707817969

ColinB it’s been getting more and more obvious over the last year or so that Hornby is pushing sales directly to the public. It’s more profitable for Hornby to sell directly and what other reason would they now have for a loyalty scheme other than to promote their own direct sales. There may well not be enough model shops left to handle an entire minimum production run so they have little choice anyway. It was not that long ago that Hornby would not allow retailers to discount more than 10% yet the Outlet is back with prices undercutting this. I have a good idea what a retailers mark-up is, if you have ever placed and order with a certain retailer (I will not mention whom) when their accounts department send you an invoice for the outstanding amount there is a second price in brackets about 60% different from the price being charged. An example, another production run of the APT was scheduled for release this summer but then pushed back to 2023, I would expect this push back is nothing to do with production issues but rather, none of the original production run has sold out except for the NDM. As of this evening Hornby have 99 sets of the 5 car APT still in stock, other retailers have this discounted to below £300 and they still have 50 of them in stock. My point really was not producing models that were scheduled for 2021 is probably quite a good idea. Production and their schedules have to be subservient to demand.

The first job I ever had after leaving university was a company which was the target of a hostile takeover and the directors were all let go. For a couple of months one of the directors would sign on at the local dole office. He used to joke that while me was in signing on he could collect the rent as he owned the building the dole office was housed in. Can't blame him, he paid his taxes, a lot more than most. After all, the founding principle of the welfare state was that of contribution and benefit not entitlement.

It would be pretty dumb for Hornby to plough on producing new models when they have not sold what they have got in stock. The catalogue is an intention to produce the items in it but if circumstances change which they have then it would be naive to carry on regardless, cashflow is key to any business. At the end of the day buyers are just indulging their hobby with whatever spare money they have, manufactures and sellers are trying to make a living and provide a livelihood for their staff.

For £149 I will have one. Wait a minute, not £149, just ordered one, you get the 10% Cub Membership as well so £135. Can't help thinking there has been a mistake here

I guess Limited Edition just means a limited number of that production run, it can be a numbered limited edition or an unnumbered limited edition. Often limited editions never appear in the catalogue but then again items that are not a limited edition do not either. Many years ago Hornby produced R2199M a train pack in the maroon coronation loco and coaches. There were 3 additional coaches produced R4141, R4141A and R4142 which in themselves were not a limited edition but never appeared in any catalogue. I guess whoever commissions a limited edition or limited run of an item only get exclusive distribution rights, everything else stays with Hornby to do with as they wish at a later date. The number produced does not always determine value, you mentioned R3083 Turkish 8F limited to 200. Comes up on eBay from time to time. One last month failed to attract any bids at £250 though subsequently sold for £275 as a buy it now. Well below what you might expect. The R3001 class 91, "Battle of Britain - Lest we Forget" was selling for over £500 but has now dropped back, the last one selling for a mere £150 since the one now due next year was announced. As soon as any new model, especially limited editions are announced you always see all the old ones appear on eBay very soon after as people try and offload their prior investment. When Bachmann announced their DBSO in Network Rail and Anglia One livery on came a load of repaints from their existing BR blue & grey and Scotrail liveried ones. Ironically having repainted them they were then only a fraction of the value had they left them in their original livery and just waited for what was inevitably going to be produced at a later date.

A limited edition by its nature is a low production run so is only ever going to be repaint / renumber of an existing or soon to exist loco or item of rolling stock. Sooner or later you will get it pop up again with some minor difference different as a production version. I purchased the first DP1 from the NRM when it was released thing it was limited but this was followed by about another 3 batches mainly just in a different box. Never quite sure why they issue a certificate, it would not take me more than about 30 minutes to knock off a descent copy of the certificate, the loco would take a lot longer I seem to remember a Hornby authorized reseller once telling me that when a retailer releases an exclusive model they are guaranteed 36 months exclusivity before it can be released as a mainstream model. This would fit with items such as the Drax Biomass hoppers which were released exclusively through Hattons back in 2019 with the next release of R60176 and R60177 three years later, all of which are already sold out on pre-order so I guess we will see lots more releases in years to come.

Is that not the question he is asking, what type of wire, surely if he knew the external / core diameter then he would not have to ask the question? It not unreasonable to assume the wire required is that which links the pickups to the motor. As most wire is supplied in a large range of colours I don’t see why that would need to be stated either, I am guessing red and black would be the obvious or just black as used in most locos, DCC was not mentioned. I would assume ratings wise 12v at approx. 1A would be more than sufficient so just about any type.

As usual people want the items to be the same price as they were years ago but ironically don't want their wage packet to be the same. When I was a child I think a loco cost my mother over a week’s wages. Hornby don't have to justify anything to anyone, they are a business not some charitable institution. Let’s face facts the average person in the street has no idea how much it costs to make anything. They just dream something up in their head or pluck a price out of thin air as how much they would like to pay but of course have no qualms about paying less if they can get away with it. It is not as if other manufactures are much different in price unless you have some conspiracy theory about them all running some price cartel. Companies have bills to meet, staff wages pay and debt to pay off. You do not price items on some individual basis, some have to be sold on a lower margin if there is more competition so others have to make up the shortfall. Hornby just don’t have to compete with the other traditional model makers they have compete with retailers like Hattons selling directly to the public. Hattons have a cost of manufacture and a sale price there is no middle model shop also needing to make a living. Companies have to make profits or else very soon they won’t be making anything. They often have to make it where they can. Rather typical of the hypocritical public who sell their house for a much as they can get for it don’t think that should apply when they are the purchaser of something.

High price for a metal body but then I guess that is why they are normally made of plastic. So the cost of this loco at £362, the average weekly wage being about £580 compared to the proportion it was when the original Dublo locomotives. In the 1950s the average UK weekly wage was about £7.50, I am guessing it’s now actually a much lower percentage than the original Dublo loco.

I assume it’s meant to be a D311, the first two (a and b) being built to move the Dora rail gun around its track quadrant. The second two (c and d) were built to manoeuvre the Schwerer Gustav 2 but that rail gun was never completed. Fleischman / Marklin do a version of these in various liveries and I seem to remember a larger scale version by Trumpeter to go with the absolutely huge Hobby Boss 1:35 scale kit of Dora. I think one set survived the war and we used for banking.

9F 92079 with a headlight then more likely than any of its predecessors

Are they not different bogies on the 170s and 172s? They are never going to be 'exactly' the same. Comes down to how much of a difference you are prepared to accept.

I have about 35 orders pending. I only order from places where you don't have to pay upfront. Even if you order with a credit card and the supplier does go bust you can have difficulty getting your money back. You have 18 months with a credit card to make a claim, seems a long time but my longest wait for a Bullied Diesel loco from Kernow was over 8 years. Even when you make a claim for something that is pre-ordered and not yet delivered then if the liquidator disputes the claim, they often do, then you have to prove you did not get it. Learnt my lesson from DJ Models, thankfully the liquidator was helpful and got Dave Jones to confirm the item had not been supplied as when DJ Models went bust it was well after the expected delivery date. Liquidators just don’t automatically take your word for it, neither do credit card companies, I am sure they get their fair share of buyers trying it on. Got to be especially careful placing an advance order by phone with a full or partial payment. You need to get something in writing else you will have no proof of what you paid for which you will need for any claim. Often you get nothing and it’s your word only, that may not be enough

If you are a collector looking a model you wish people would not run them, once you have acquired one you wish they did. Makes your one rarer and even more collectable. People should spend their money on what makes them happy. Of course people only look at things from their own perspective, hard to find anyone who views themselves with the same critical eye as they view others. Having purchased one for £244 when they are currently selling for at least twice that, did I rip the seller off knowing paying an amount much less than what I knew it now to be worth? People are generally only interested in what benefits them so seeing only others capable of ripping off them and not the other way round. As someone once said, if they made hypocrisy a criminal offence everyone would be in prison.

They were sold out at Hornby long before the events of the past week. Those who had bought them to sell are not taking advantage as I am sure they always intended on selling them. I do not think the 1.6% of them, about 40 out of 2,500 that have since appeared on eBay is hardly a huge number. I purchased one yesterday from an online retailer for £244 (their last one) so it would seem those who missed out did not try very hard to get one. I guess if someone is prepared to pay 4 times the original price then they must really want one, probably a lot more than those who are complaining.

Very simply put, it’s their model, they bought and paid for it. They can do what they want with it, no one’s business but their own. I doubt anyone will be sticking their head in the oven over what someone else thinks. It’s the dichotomy of the buyer and seller relationship, seller wants as much as they can get for something, the buyer wants it as cheap as possible. No one has the right to claim the moral high ground. Whatever anyone says I doubt anybody on this forum would sell someone their house cheap. It’s just buyers again thinking they are the most important person in a transaction and everything is about what they want. It was available top pre-order at the original price, it was obvious it was going to be popular.

Hornby like any other business is just that a business. The idea that any business should pick and choose its customers is ridiculous, everyone’s money is the same colour. No business can afford to hold back stock just in case some specific customers might one day grace them with their presence. Businesses have people’s livelihoods to support so it is their moral duty to support those employees, if someone is willing to pay a higher price then take their money. Always amazes me why some who want to pay as little as they can for something (they often like to refer to this as a fair price) like to believe they are claiming the moral high ground. I doubt if one of these were to appear priced at £60 their principles would quickly disappear out the window and they would be as happy to snap it up at four times less than the RRP as any seller would take the money at four times the RRP. Whether it's a buyer or a seller few peoples principles ever extend far past their wallets.

One has already sold for £950 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275453888512 Four have sold for £650

The first of many I am sure https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275453888512 Nice piece of caching in

@Topcat Is that not what the output does, LED is on for 1/8 of the cycle, off for 3/8, on again for 1/8 (with polarity reversed) and off again for a further 3/8 of the cycle. You could use an 8 bit counter to give you 256 separate states for more precise control. Work out the logic and blow it onto a PAL / GAL or some such device. Sorry been 30 years since I did this sort of stuff

Surely to control part of such a circuit all you need is a simple truth table, the inputs being say a 3 bit counter (could go to 4 bits for a greater granularity of control). Two outputs that essential connect to the anode and cathode of the LED. If there is insufficient current then a simple current buffer or even a suitable PNP / PNP transistor pair could be used to sink / source enough current for anything. (This will be all over the place as I have no option for a mono-spaced font) Inputs Outputs B2 B1 B0 C A 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 If you want this to happen say over a period of 4 seconds then clock the counter at 0.5Hz. A bit limited here with notation but the Boolean algebra would be trivial C = NOT B0 and NOT B1 and NOT B2 A = NOT B0 and NOT B1 and B2 Been a long time since I did this but I am sure De Morgan could reduce this to a few NAND gates.

Would like to see a steam loco done with thermochromic paint.

Wonder will we see a purple Jubilee class 67 from Hornby

Like many people I read content on multiple devices including phones and tablets without a proper keyboard. These are rarely logged into any account. It very easy to read content on one device such as these and then forget by the time you get home to log in and respond on my home PC. It may not always be intentional.

You will find lots of bogie frames on eBay for very little money for all types of Hornby HSTs so why not replace like for like