What About The Bee
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Posts posted by What About The Bee
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The Chassis Conundrum
The chassis is the component that ties all the floating bits together. The motor will be held on position to the gear. The gearbox will be supported and made rigid, transferring torque to the wheels. In the instance of OO Planet, it must support all the valve gear without the body shell on. Additionally, the chassis must not interfere with any parts, particularly rotating gears. Without further ado, here is my current solution. Naturally, it is subject to change and adaptation as I go along.
Of note are all the notches, openings and cutouts. I was forced to add and cut out various bits and bobs as each feature was added. This is to be one cast metal part (hopefully). I took my clues from the various Era 1 Hornby models I possess.
Here are the bearings, bearing supports and wheels, to give you a sense of orientatation.
The gear box was far more challenging. There are four main vertical plates which support several axles. The center plates have a tab which notch into the chassis. Each main plate has subordinate cap plates which restrict the lateral motion of the axles. Note the presence of 0000-160 screws. These are provided to permit assembly and disassembly, but mind, the screws must not interfere with any gears. I must also be able to actually assemble the gearbox, no use designing something that cannot be put together!
Add in the gears
Add the outer plates. Note the outer plates have screws affixing the plates to the chassis
Add a top plate and some 00-90 screws. The gearbox is now rigidly attached to the chassis. note the blue tabs from the main gearbox plates slotted up and into the top plate.
The motor nestles into the chassis, with a notch in the top plate such that the worm gear clears as the motor goes straight down
I was hopeful of being able to get flashes of the eccentric rods working under the locomotive. I sculpted away quite a bit of material, but I think I am safe
Whilst the valve gear isn’t yet attached, I do hope you can see the reason for the fore and aft vertical plates
Of course, all of this is useless if it doesn’t fit in a body shell. All 290 components turned on. The vertical plates will take the place of the body shell in those regions, so right now you can see both blue and grey at those locations.
The reader should understand that I did not start out with a shape in mind. Rather, the shape evolved as requirements were met. This was a major challenge, now sorted…I think. A few tweaks perhaps!
Bee
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People on this site seem to justify it until the cows come home, so far none of their arguments really stack up.
I prefer to understand what the current state of affairs at Hornby are. Call it empathy, trying to see it through the eyes of the organization. Call it curiosity, trying to understand what they are doing. It is interesting to me. Call it self interest, because if I understand what Hornby are doing, I may adjust my actions to better my results. Knowing the current situation
In simple point of fact, automotive manufacturers have a marketing department as well. I am not discussing sales, but rather deciding on what models of cars to produce, and in what quantities. I will not address UK manufacturers, out of respect for the UK, but will certainly point out that production lines of certain automobiles in the US are shut down when the sales market is flooded with cars people don't want. Employees are furloughed, purchased supply chain goes idle and sunk costs are swallowed. All because that twit in marketing chose poorly.
In simple point of fact, it isn't justification, but rather analysis of the way things are.
Bee
BTW Colin, I seem to recall you discussing Hornby over the HM7000 / Android App kerfuffle. I did understand your point at the time, but surely you have downloaded the Hornby app and had a go. Would you care to describe your experiences, likes and dislikes?
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Paul,
That is a wonderful explanation.
The back EMF will only be generated whilst the motor is in motion. When the forward commanded voltage stops, the motor and gears will gradually come to a halt due to friction and motor cogging.
The back EMF voltage will be a function of motor velocity and when that motor velocity drops sufficiently, the voltage generated will be insufficient for the LED to light. Obviously, a stopped motor will generate 0 volts of back EMF.
Hence the alternate direction LED flicks on then off, when the dirt momentarily interrupts the forward voltage
Bravo! Perfect sense!
Go Paul!
Bee
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Hello DRC
You asked if the chuffs could be estimated from the velocity notch on your control unit.
That would provide a first order approximation. That is, you could calculate all the gears and motor revolutions, such that the chuff is played at a particular time relative to the frequency of wheel rotation and therefore command.
But therein is the first issue. A real steam engine exhausts steam at a particular orientation, not some random orientation of the slide valve. That information is not contained in the commanded velocity.
Another issue is that motor velocity is not a constant over time, nor perfectly proportional to command. It is an open loop motor, meaning no feedback as to position. No encoder. Therefore, when you apply the power to the motor, you will certainly be within a range but you will not be spot on. Thus the chuff will not occur at a specific wheel orientation, rather, it will be at a random orientation that drifts over time.
A simple feedback mechanism synchronizes the chuff to the wheel orientation. It could be as simple as a tiny rare earth magnet affixed to a driving axle. The sensor could be a hall effect sensor which detects the magnetic field. Each time the hall effect sensor detects a field, produce a chuff. You desire 6 chuffs per revolution, have 6 magnets. 8 chuffs? 8 magnets. 4 chuffs? 4 magnets. This self synchronizes and produces perfectly timed chuffs to drive wheel orientation.
I do recognize that the sound of a particular chuff is related to the velocity and therefore the chuff sound profile must be manipulated with respect to the chuff frequency. That's a knock on problem, once basic synchronization is solved.
Bee
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Hi Alan
As this is your first post, may I extend a warm Welcome Aboard!
I'd like to answer your question in various ways, so please do bear with me.
There are currently 240 locomotives listed in the Hornby catalog. Of those, 130 are pre-order and 110 are available to order from stock. You can apply filters to your browsing experience to select for this. Perhaps you may be enticed by a locomotive currently in stock.
That doesn't address the root of your statement. If I read it properly, your statement asks Hornby to not have pre-orders, but to make items available as they are announced.
Suppose for a minute Hornby names you as Marketing Director. I do understand the role is currently available. Your job, as Marketing Director, is to select what models will be offered and in what quantities. Now I am an ERA 1, Liverpool and Manchester Railway enthusiast, so I put forward that you should select the Twin Sisters maintenance of way locomotive. Twin Sisters was used also in the construction of the LMR. Is this a wise choice? If you select this model, how many units will you prepare? 500, 5000 or 500,000? You must choose wisely, but how? Remember lad, your choice can bankrupt the company! How many will you put in stock before the announcement?
At Hornby Range Launch, some announcements are simply trial ballons. Will the enthusiasts order? Will the major retailers order? With the initial pre-orders in hand, Hornby can make an informed assessment. Some never get built, based on the pre-order interest.
To achieve your wish, Hornby could model every single blessed UK outline locomotive, every piece of rolling stock no matter how obscure, in every livery, for every era. Stock all of this in a gigantic warehouse, making everything available, all the time. No one goes wanting. The carrying costs of all that kit sitting there will swallow any company.
May I suggest what others have. Place your pre-orders, informing Hornby of your interest. Wildly popular items will get made and Hornby knows this from pre-orders.
Bee
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Hello Ken
Just sign in, and tap the three dots at the top of your "offending" post.
A pop up menu should appear, permitting various choices. The one I favor is "edit", as I do not like my posts to have typographical errors.
Another choice is "delete", meaning you, Ken, have the power to delete any of your posts at will.
The only time these menu choices do not function is when the thread is locked. That happens from time to time and then you must obtain moderator assistance. Its rare.
Don't worry about being a neophyte, we all started out there!!
Bee
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I'm specifically posting this in the off hours to permit Mods to react.
Mods, if this isn't permissible, just edit it to remove the name. Feel free to delete the post outright. I have no intention of breaking rules.
The rules say no self promotion. It is unclear if I, a third party, am permitted to say the name of 81F's shop on Shapeways. We do mention Lendon's of Cardiff and Peters Spares, me mentioning a shop isn't much different.
In any event, the shop isn't hard to find, 81F's avatar here is a featured model there. Took almost 3 minutes to find 🙂
Stafford Road Model Works
Bee
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Hi 508006
I understand wanting to build this yourself. Perhaps you are unaware that Hornby carries a Big Boy?
https://www.hornbyhobbies.com/products/big-boy-4014-steam-heritage-edition-fuel-tender-hr2884
Its the old Rivvarosi Model, acquired by Hornby. US store.
Bee
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It should be fairly easy to determine root cause.
Clip power leads directly to the motor leads, cutting out the track, wheels, pickups and etc. Apply power as before, forward & reverse.
If the root cause is dirty wheels & etc, then the opposite to direction flicker will no longer be present, as that has been removed by experimental setup.
If the root cause is back EMF, then the opposite to direction flicker will remain.
Bee
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The amperage delivered is a function of your controller, not the power clip. The power clip should handle ANY modern controller's amperage.
In the off chance that you have something odd, please do tell us what controller (company, model, type, etc) you intend to use.
Once we know the amperage of that your controller produces, we can recommend the minimum wire size.
Charlie, at Chadwick Model Railway, gives an excellent review of the topic and provides you the tools you need to specify the wire size
If you can't be bothered, bigger wire doesn't hurt! So you may use enormous wire with the only penalty being its awkwardness. The amperage capability of a wire will be STAMPED ON THE WIRE.
Start with your controller and work from there.
Bee
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Hello Edvard
Points may be spent on pre-orders. This is a certainty.
Here is what to do. Do not touch your current pre-order. Pre-order the same item again.
If Hornby accepts your pre-order, then you will be asked how you want to pay. It is at this moment that you can specify points.
With your new pre-order established, paid with points, you may delete the previous pre-order.
DO NOT DELETE THE OLD PRE-ORDER UNTIL THE NEW PRE-ORDER (paid with points) SHOWS IN YOUR ACCOUNT.
In this way, you can cash your points in without risk of losing your existing pre-orders. If Hornby does not accept the new pre-order, then you still have the existing one. No harm, no foul. Further, if you do this during non business hours, there is little chance Hornby may suddenly ship TWO 🙂
Bee
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Hi Top Cat
Whilst you have computed the watts, there are two other primary criteria which must be considered to determine if the unit will produce smoke.
The first is the liquid, which is mineral oil. The boiling point of generic mineral oil is between 260°C and 330°C. The actual boiling point will be a function of the precise petroleum distillate in the smoke oil. We need to raise the temperature of mineral oil in contact with the heating element to boiling point. The actual boiling point can be found empirically for any given smoke oil product.
The second criteria is the conversion of watts to temperature. For this, we need to know the mass of the object (heater element) being heated and its thermal resistivity.
Without knowledge of these criteria, the power to be dissipated is insufficient to determine if a unit smokes.
The "mass of object" is the heating element. I think this calculation must ignore the large mass of the mineral oil, considering only the small volume of oil in close proximity to the heat element. Is it just the surface film of oil on the element? This part will require some more thought.
Bee
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ADDENDUM
With the gearbox nearly complete, I indicated I needed to define the separation distance between the worm wheel and the worm gear that is on the end of the Hanazono motor.
I start with the worm gear on the end of the motor. I measured the major diameter and pitch and sketched those in FreeCAD. Was it correct? How to check that?
I used the optical comparator trick, commonly used in Incoming Inspection. Use the image of the actual worm gear and optically compare it to the image from CAD of the same part.
Here, the result of successive iterations has occurred. Pressure angle is 20° and the pitch is indeed 1 mm.
Again, successive trial an error yields a precise length, 4.5 mm.
Confirmation. With the CAD image partially overlapping, it looks very nearly perfect!
With the characteristics known, it is merely an exercise to create the worm wheel in CAD. The only tricky bit is that the teeth aren't straight across, they are at an angle that matches the pitch advancement of the worm.
The worm wheel gear and the worm gear are non enveloped. This will reduce my cost and further, the efficiency simply isn't required.
PROBLEM SOLVED
The separation distance between the axles is now defined, the motor placed firmly in model, the gear box adjusted and I will be moving on to the chassis.
Bee
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Hello Fazy
Thank you for your excellent suggestion.
The short answer is "speed matching". I have a 3rd Generation LMR Tender which is motorized with a Hanazono motor bogie. Testing showed wonderful tractive effort with that motor boggie, with well over 20 pieces of rolling stock easily hauled. I posted about that earlier this year. OO Planet should speed match the Tender. As a comparison, Hornby's Rocket cannot handle anywhere close to 10 pieces of rolling stock. In real life, Stephenson's Planet was recorded pulling a consist of 20 wagons, the tonnage hauled and the time between Liverpool and Manchester.¹
The longer answer of speed matching must account for how a DC motor operates and the velocity it provides. The urging force of a DC motor is the magnetic field of the coils attracted to the magnetic field of the rare earth magnets. The magnetic field of the coils is a function of the wire turns and how densely the turns are packed. The magnetic field of the rare earth magnet is a function of the density of the neodymium product. The primary retarding forces are the inertial mass of the rotor as it relates to acceleration and the frictional forces of the rotor stator arrangement. There are other forces, of course, like the back EMF & etc, but we just need consider the primary forces. The torque produced is generally stated as a torque constant (torque/amp) but even this is must consider the temperature of the coils, higher temps change the resistance, which reduces the torque. Even by this highly simplified paragraph, we can observe that for a given DC voltage and current, some arbitrary motor will NOT have the same rotational velocity as the Hanazono motor. You can see this on your DC layout any time you please. Plunk two locomotives on one track and turn up the controller. You know as well as I do, they will not run at the same velocity.
So if I wish to have any chance at speed matching the tender, OO Planet must use the same motor. Even that is fraught with speed mismatch. The two Hanazono motors will be very similar, but not identical. For example, the gap between the two fields affects the force produced, small changes in gap produce large changes in force (1/r²). Yet the same type of motor will still be far superior to an arbitrary motor, if I wish to speed match.
I recognize your suggestion as an excellent one, and it has been recommended to me before. It is a valid strategy and one I may pursue should the gearbox prove outrageously expensive or not feasible. I would still need to use the Hanazono, but I would substitute the band for the gears.
Bee
¹ I checked the reference. "Penny Magazine" 1833. The locomotive: Planet. The number of wagons: 18 (whoops, my memory failed me!) The tonnage: 80 tons. The time between Liverpool and Manchester, 2hrs 54mins. [including two stops for water/fuel at 5 minutes each]. The distance: 31 miles. This works out to just over 10 mph average speed. 2 mph over the limit for luggage!!
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Those images are great!
Peckett 1107 is propelling a chaldron. It has those odd buffer extensions similar to the ones I made for OO Tiger LMR58.
The chaldron and Peckett buffers do not align. Those extensions are needed.
Bee
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Hello Rana
Heavens! Just how many do you have? From this seat in the peanut gallery, it appears that the answer is "not enough" 😁
Surely you have an older controller that can pump serious amperage. And you need not run them flat out, reducing the draw. The peanut gallery would like to see you run 12, simultaneously!!
I do understand completely about trying a sample paint livery on a loco you do not care so much about. Practice makes perfect. Good luck!
Bee
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I am making an effort to keep the word descriptions smaller and use more illustrations. In doing so, I recognize that there are details which I do not discuss and may slip by the attentive reader. If there is something you’d like to investigate or ask about, please feel free to do so.
Stephenson’s Planet
Period drawings of Stephenson’s Planet show the support structure. The wheels sit on the track. The axles are supported by the wheels. The axles ride in horn blocks, which in turn ride in the horn guides (yellow). Between the axle horn blocks and the sandwich frame are springs. The mass of the remainder of Planet is fully supported by those leaf springs and the sandwich frame constitutes the base to which everything else is attached.
Whilst the footplate is bolted directly to the sandwich frames, diagonal struts support the boiler, the smoke box and firebox.
OO Planet
There are differences. Aside from the obvious size difference, OO Planet is supported and driven differently. An electric motor drives a gear train. The load of OO Planet is transferred to the axles via axle bearings. The exact scheme is shown in the following image.
To clarify the rotating end of axle, this sketch is marked up
Many months ago, I sketched a gear train based upon a mathematical analysis. The analysis considered the Hanazono motor providing 1 unit rotation. OO Planet’s tender is driven by a Hanazono motor bogie. When power is applied, both OO Planet and Tender should run at the same velocity. I sought and found the gears that will cause OO Planet to run at the same velocity as the tender, for that same unit motor rotation; even though OO Planet’s drive wheels are of a different size. The sketched gear train was found to be feasible and it was left as a feasibility sketch, as I moved on.
FULL CIRCLE
While I played around in Freecad, learning the tool, I created many parts and components. But in the background was looming a difficult task. The chassis and gearbox integration was lurking, waiting to pounce. It was always there, haunting me. I finally had to slay the dragon.
Here, I’ve placed the OO axle bearings (red) on OO Planet’s rear axle. The very start of the chassis is shown in blue.
The first dilemma is how far apart the OO axle bearing flange faces must be. Instead of performing a mathematical analysis, as detailed by the Scale Four guys, I simply drew a second radius curve of two rails and placed the axles and wheels on that track.
It should surprise no one, lateral play in axle mounting will NOT be required for a 2-2-0. Perhaps when I get to 2-2-2 Patentee, or any of the Bird class where a central axle requires lateral play to permit the locomotive to get around tight layout curves but for now, no excess lateral play is needed. Simple clearance is all that is necessary. That is, the flanges should not bind the wheels. The Scale Four guys claimed that simple clearance of 0.0635mm total, inclusive of both sides, is all that is needed. Thanks very much but no! That is just a bit too tight a tolerance for my preferences and practical machine tool experience. I selected 0.1mm per side or 0.2mm total. That is still less than I measure on my Hornby Rocket but should easily prove sufficient.
With that dilemma resolved, I examined the clearances of the gears to the axle supports, should they have some sort of chassis to hold them in place. Needless to say, there was conflict. Sigh. It was finally time to revisit the gear box. Thankfully, this time around, I have a better grasp of Freecad.
GEARBOX REQUIREMENTS
Any two meshing gears must be held at a specific distance apart. Too close and the gears bind, inhibiting rotation. Too far apart and gear lash occurs. Gears do not float in space, rather, they are mounted to axles. Each axle must be constrained vertically, longitudinally and laterally with respect to OO Planet. These requirements must all be simultaneously met, without interference with any other components.
GEARBOX DEVELOPMENT
I begin with vertical planes. These will constitute the beginning or end of an axle, or the lateral beginning of all gears that mesh.
Illustrative only, far more vertical planes exist!
From the planes, gears were placed and accurately sized to fit within the allowable space. The axles also begin or end at the respective planes, now turned off so as to see the gears
To constrain the axles vertically and longitudinally, plates (blue) with through holes are placed in the gearbox, again with the aid of the invisible vertical planes. Note the clearance around each axle in those plates, permitting simultaneous free rotation. With the blue plates in place, both ends of all axles are supported and the radial distance between gears is fixed.
Additional plates are added (green) to constrain lateral motion of the axles.
A top view of the gear box, with plates, axles and gears is presented. It is very tight, but indeed, it all fits.
The gearbox designed meets all requirements so far, except one: interference with other components. I will table that until later in this discussion.
ECCENTRICS
Up until now, I have not shown the interface between the eccentrics and gear box. Here they are!
The next image shows the eccentric endcap removed; the keyed eccentric disk and the eccentric rods extending forward. The hole is for an axle shown above. Note there is a gear on this axle driving a gear on the rear wheel axle, see above, with a one to one ratio. Thus the eccentric motion is mechanically bound to wheel rotation, meaning the “chuffs per rotation” or in my case, “handle wiggles per rotation” is matched perfectly to velocity. Yes, it is properly quartered!
VALVE GEAR
I’ve made every effort to make Stephenson’s valve gear function on OO Planet. I’ve written about that extensively, there won’t be repetition. Yet here is the valve gear with the eccentrics. The chassis will need to support all of this kit with the body off.
The motor must also be supported and constrained by the chassis
The exact separation and mesh between the Hanazono worm and worm wheel is still being investigated, yet you may still see that mesh. Once fully defined, all internal objects will be on location, permitting the chassis to be resolved.
WHAT ABOUT INTERFERENCES?
The critical interference check is the body shell vs the gear box. As such, the gear box is shown top center, with three views of the gear box with the shell on, less any decoration that may distract the eye. From this, we can observe it fits, without interference!!
DECORATED
All the other tiny bits and bobs are now added on. OO Planet will have all of the requisite controls. Its details that make a model pop. If you look towards the back, under OO Planet, some gear faces are still peeking out. The sandwich frame and accoutrements shown in the first image are still missing. They will go a long way to hiding the mechanism still visible under the boiler. Yet, in the end, there will remain some peeking through. This is the price to pay for speed matching the tender and the great tractive effort already demonstrated for that tender. In essence, OO Planet need only drive itself and wiggle its handles. Any excess will simply contribute to the tender’s tractive effort.
The gearbox was a difficult challenge, taking most of this update period to get right. While this write up may take you a few minutes to review, it took hour upon hour upon hour of struggle to make everything fit and work properly. It is virtually 100% parameterized, so in the event something needs to shift, everything will move programmatically with that shift, including plates, axles and gears. And shift it may, as the mesh of the Hanazono worm and worm wheel still eludes me.
Bee
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If it were me? Pass. There will be other identical items.
If you are asking about the glue damage, you are bothered by the glue damage. It will be tricky to get it to look perfect. Frankly, I don't think it possible to "unsee" defects, even after they are fixed.
Unless there is a tremendous discount and you can get beyond the glue damage, let someone else "win" that one.
Bee
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Hi LT&SR_NSE
A journey of 1000 miles starts with one step. I'm on my way, but heavens, this is challenging.
Thank you for the encouragement! Hopefully, all this work yields something worthwhile.
The next update has something exciting and spectacular. Do not miss it! 🙂
Bee
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Hello ColinB
[Joke] I have CDO. That's the same as OCD, except all the letters are arranged properly.
So I do check the models I have on pre-order on a regular, regimented basis. I note each change in artwork, capturing it for study. I note each change in due date and price, recording this aling with the date of change. These are accurate facts describing my behavior. The only thing I have not disclosed is the frequency of my checks, because it is ridiculously, embarrassingly high 😁
Of course I pre-order. That is where the smart money is. Price rises do not affect us, but we must be patient.
As to the Coronation Coaches? They caught my eye! Gorgeous! I look forward to seeing them, but only on someone else's layout as they are decidedly not my focus. To your point, these aren't something produced before, thereby elevating the risk of a mistake. Smokey Joe cost rollup is probably known to 3 decimal places, possibly 4. Coronation Coaches not so much.
For those who pre-ordered, be happy that you should get them and be happy of your price. For the fence sitters, this is the conundrum. Your price just went up and maybe they will sell out.
As to clients in general? Its a tough business. Heavens above we are a terrible bunch to sell to. Every detail dissected. The prices criticized. The schedule criticized. youTube reviewers can make life miserable¹. Misinformation, handed wildly about.
The business model could stand improvement but it isn't as dire as it is made out to be. There is nothing nefarious going on here. Its just business. You charge what the market will bear. You attempt to recover cost and make a profit. If that doesn't meet the client demands, the public will go elsewhere.
Bee
¹example R60164. They are most clearly utility wagons, used extensively by all early railways. They are depicted in period drawings everywhere and Stephenson himself approved of the artwork of the Rainhill Trials, in which the wagons feature prominently. YouTube reviewers have called them "Rocket Tender Knockoffs", a disingenuously smarmy statement. They were used at the Trials specifically because they were available. They were NOT custom built for the occasion.
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Hi DRC
I say it is possible for mistakes to happen.
There are a very large number of items in every range release. How much time is devoted to each model in regards cost rollups? That is one very busy department!
Production was outsourced to China. Hornby doesn't own the production facilities, Hornby buys finished models from a vendor. They get to set the price to Hornby, not Hornby dictating price to the vendor. It is possible there is a disagreement, followed by negotiation. The vendor is not going to produce at a loss if they can help it. That increase will be passed along.
So is it possible to make a mistake? Sure. On every model? Of course not. The models I have pre-ordered have not experienced any price rise. 0%. I realize this is anecdotal and I have not surveyed the entire product line.
The alternative is to say mistakes never happen. I'll leave it there
Bee
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A recent train of thought (heh) has occurred to me.
Its mid-September, and the range launch is coming. The Marketing team decides that a fancy Era 1 carriage should be in the range launch. Fortunately, a certain Queen's Saloon is at the museum. Its marvelous. R40357 will be in range!!
So with some preliminary sketches, a render is made. And come range launch, the announcement as well. With a price.
Now mind, there are no detailed drawings yet. Since there are no detailed drawings, there can be no detailed prices. There may be a tricky bit of assembly, or a low yield part that is tricky to make. Those decorative flourishes on the front of Adelaide's Saloon are quite detailed and it should be a veritable nightmare to make tooling.
But a price must be set, and so it is.
Later, after range launch, Hornby's Engineers specify each bit, each bob. Hornby then negotiates with the manufacturer over cost. Perhaps those special decorative flourishes require a special process. I think that in the real article, they are gold foiled. To be an effective detail, the paint must reproduce that, requiring that special process. Perhaps Hornby properly estimated these decorative flourishes, perhaps not. In any event, it is only at this moment that Hornby shall understand actual unit cost, not estimated unit cost guesstimated at range launch.
The cost of doing business is added on. The business loan interest. The accounting staff, etc. Overhead. It is surprising how much overhead there is.
It is only then that Hornby can add in their profit margin. And viola! The new price is presented to the public.
These price increases are simply a function of the way they do business. Would it be better to do all the development and pricing of actual components, the overhead and profit FIRST and then launch? Sure. And what if Hornby does all that, and nobody wants it because the Marketing team chose poorly. Tremendous sunk cost.
Range Launch is a marvelous tool for the Marketing team to judge their decisions about what is to be in range. A fantastic tool for the Production team to decide quantities. Will it be 500 or 50,000? Or for the Management team to kill the item, because there were 16 pre-orders.
So Hornby raised the price, to account for all the additional costs to Hornby that were missed in the excitement of range launch.
Bee
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Thanks Wairo!
Major update coming...
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Hello Rana
A crazy thought just occurred to me. Can you run all 12 in one consist? Nose to tail, 12 in a row. All with one controller!
Bee
Hornby Stores?
in General Discussion
Posted
Hi SteveM6
Of course you do!
Can you run trains? Project enthusiasm and happiness? Show that what you are doing is fun?
And if you get a question you do not know the answer to, the correct response is: "I do not know, but I will be glad to find out for you (smile)"
What are you waiting for lad!?!?!
Bee