model power

[mr bachmann]

it looks like Model Power are in trouble , it will be sad to see them go , for those who dont know the name , in the past they have introduced many a new commer to model railways , especialy in the US ...

http://www.modelpower.com/

it also looks like Vollmer are heading the same way ...

http://vollmer-online.de/en/archive/anouncement_2014.html


alan

[painbrook]

No matter what you model it's always sad to see another shop/manufacturer go..

[Paul B]

Shame about Vollmer - so I am even more glad that I bought my Vollmer boxed set from DM Toys when I did!

[trainsdownunder]

How long before we see the "rare/vintage" tag applied to any Ebay sales ?

[longbridge]

Pretty hard to cop all these companies closing down, I notice the American Online rRetailer "Discount Trains Online" have also shut shop.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Hornby join the has beens in the not to distant future, Hornby no way, well if a gigantic company like Kodak can bite the dust so can Hornby, they are in all sorts of trouble with Kader in China so is Atlas.

[Chatty]

There have been closures and consolidations going on for sometime even in the so called good times.

Kind regards

Geoff

[mickey26]

Re, all these closures. When I started railway modelling back in the 1950s, here in Birmingham there seemed to be a modelling shop in every district including Beaties, the big model railway store in the city centre. Many did a part-exchange system and you could change outline, period or country's railways at relative small cost. Sadly, the last modelling shop I dealt with for many years, Bobs Models in Sheldon,  closed a few months ago. Now, I only know of one shop _Allens Books Shop _ in the city centre.
       I think there must be fewer clubs too, because there doesn't seem to be as many of the smaller club exhibitions as there used to be. Saturdays especially were good days for exhibitions in church halls or scouts huts.
       Re Longbridge's remarks about Hornby's problems. Didn't they have something simiiar in the '60s?
       Ahh Nostalgia, Nostalgia!  Have we had the best tmes? 
       Cheers, Mickey 26

[EtchedPixels]

       Re Longbridge's remarks about Hornby's problems. Didn't they have something simiiar in the '60s?

Different brand owner but yes - Horby Dublo went under for a variety of reasons including lack of standardisation and too much exposure when the market turned sharply downwards. The brand was then bought by the Lines Brothers (aka "Tri-ang" - three Lines brothers!) who flogged the Dublo tooling off to G&R Wrenn (allegedly as a backhander for dropping their rival to Scaletrix but all the relevant records are long gone so it remains an unproved story). Tri-ang used the name as Tri-ang Hornby for a while before becoming Hornby. Lines brothers also made Sten machine guns for a period!

The Hornby Dublo tooling went from Wrenn to Dapol to some collectors.

So in a way Dapol has as much claim to "Hornby" as "Hornby"

Model railway company history gets very convoluted when you start following stuff around - some Hornby OO is ex Dapol eventually ex Airfix, Bachmann's UK range started out of "Mainline", and the Dapol OO plastic kits are from the original Airfix.

When the companies go under the tooling is generally sold on as do the names, but often not to the same people!

[longbridge]

Re, all these closures. When I started railway modelling back in the 1950s, here in Birmingham there seemed to be a modelling shop in every district including Beaties, the big model railway store in the city centre. Many did a part-exchange system and you could change outline, period or country's railways at relative small cost. Sadly, the last modelling shop I dealt with for many years, Bobs Models in Sheldon,  closed a few months ago. Now, I only know of one shop _Allens Books Shop _ in the city centre.
       I think there must be fewer clubs too, because there doesn't seem to be as many of the smaller club exhibitions as there used to be. Saturdays especially were good days for exhibitions in church halls or scouts huts.
       Re Longbridge's remarks about Hornby's problems. Didn't they have something simiiar in the '60s?
       Ahh Nostalgia, Nostalgia!  Have we had the best tmes? 
       Cheers, Mickey 26

I also started in the 1950s Mickey and also in Birmingham my home town, you are right there used to be loads of hobby shops in Birmingham back then, I remember one just down the hill opposite the Bull Ring, the one we used a lot was just off Bristol Road in Northfield, ah those were the days.

With regard to Hornby today, the problem is that Kader in China own Bachmann, Bachmann of course make OO Gauge Branchline models which I believe is a better product than Hornby, Hornby have long delays in supply, this all came about when Sanda Kan the manufacturer of Hornby and many other brands sold out to Kader, Atlas America was made by Sanda Kan and also have a supply problem, they asked for Kader for their moulds so they could get their products made in a different factory and they were told "no way the moulds are ours we bought them from Sanda Kan, there are some real problems in the model railway industry at the moment, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future, maybe Hornby would have been better off keeping their production at Margate.

[Zakalwe]

Pretty hard to cop all these companies closing down, I notice the American Online rRetailer "Discount Trains Online" have also shut shop.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Hornby join the has beens in the not to distant future, Hornby no way, well if a gigantic company like Kodak can bite the dust so can Hornby, they are in all sorts of trouble with Kader in China so is Atlas.

Kodak died because they didn't see / react / believe in a step change in their industry.   

Hornby may go because they didn't see / react / believe that a rapid change the in Chinese manufacturing.

you could add a million tech companies including apple in the early 1990's, all guilty of not seing or reacting to a change.

[Michael Hendle]

Hi
maybe in the climate we are living at present,with prices for food, utility bills,council tax,all going up people haven't got the disposible cash they used to have.

I have just got my state pension increase a whole £2.00 per week,my employers pension went up £4.25 a week,because of these increases my pension credit went down from £14.00 to £9.00,I'm now worse off than I was in 2013,so sadly I will no longer be buying any N gauge items this year.Saleries and Pensions aren't keeping up with prices.

The new prices of over £100.00 are now out of my price range,and I think a lot of people are haveing to think twice before buying,the manufacturers went to China to get things made cheaply and sell high,now they have come unstuck.
Mike

[longbridge]

I think many of us are in the same boat, with the cost of living going up and being on a pension myself I  buy second hand, I cant remember the last time I bought a brand new loco.

Back about 7 or 8 years ago I spent many thousands of $$$$ on model railways but due to the fact that I like to change gauge's and nationality of model railways all of my models were traded on whatever I was interested in at the time.

To be honest I am getting more out of the hobby now than I ever did, I find 90% of second hand locos I have bought run as good as new ones, I do far more scratch building now than I ever did before and spend far less cash on the hobby, frankly I can see why the hobby was so popular before all this Chinese built stuff hit the market.

I am sorry to hear that Volmer and Model Power are shutting down but it wont make one iota of difference to the way I go about this great hobby.

[EtchedPixels]

The new prices of over £100.00 are now out of my price range,and I think a lot of people are haveing to think twice before buying,the manufacturers went to China to get things made cheaply and sell high,now they have come unstuck.
Mike

Bachmann are a Chinese company in the first place, and the manufacturers went to China to keep prices reasonable. On a UK build I imagine the prices would be way higher by now.

In real terms versus disposable income models are still pretty cheap but the prices are going to keep on rising so we might as well get used to it.

Alan

[joe cassidy]

I just read a review of the railway related items in article about the Nuremburg toy fair in a French magazine and it seems that although some of the well-known names are going under there are plenty of new companies entering the market.

What struck me was that :

1) TT seems to be making a comeback in Europe

2) compared with plastic, laser cut wood or paperboard seems to be becoming more popular for structure/building kits

Best regards,


Joe

[trkilliman]

Sad to hear that a couple of well known manufacturers have gone to the wall...will more follow? Manufacturers may need to look again at their prices if they are to capture custom from people who are up against it financially.                                    The British are renowned for their stiff upper lip. When people are financially stretched they are very often loathe to be open about it. I believe masses of people have nowhere near the disposable income these days after they have paid the large mandatory bills we are all faced with in today's society. It would only take a couple of interest rate rises to push large numbers over the edge. Relating this to model railways it's surely a case where once people would impulse buy, but many now think carefully about their purchases. This may account for so many items becoming available at a reduced price within months of their initial release. Could it be that the £100+ locos are released with their price tags to capture the market that can or will pay the price. Items are subsequently reduced to a level where they become more attractive as a reduction, also capturing customers who very nearly purchased at the release price...just a thought. I do remember reading that the Ixion Manor cost around £17 to build,although with nothing credible to back this up this is perhaps best  treated as a rumour. If this was indeed the cost then when you factor in shipping from China, any taxes, U.K. distribution costs, advertising etc etc, it does appear on the surface that somewhere some healthy mark-ups are to be made. If a loco with e.g. a £140 rrp on it's release can  appear 6 months later at say £89, then the respective people involved after manufacturing costs must still be getting a reasonable return?  Purely a personal view, but I think the world recession is far from over, but being talked up by politicians. I think some manufacturers may have to review their release prices if they are to capture volume sales from the point of a models release. How many times have posters said on here that they will wait until a models price comes down?  Whilst we wait for the price reductions manufacturers/stockists have their money tied up in models sat on shelves.Cash flow problems spring to mind...   I may be widely off the mark here, but it's how I see the situation. I know this, I do not have the disposable income I did a few Years back, so really think before I buy. With an ageing population this will surely affect more people over time.