Graham Farish and their shrinking steam range

[gc4946]

I think they're discontinuing their tender drive models.
Farish are upgrading locos with Next 18 and sound capability. However the tender driven models will need a new loco drive coreless motor chassis, with speaker and Next 18 socket housed in the tender.
I don't know whether the loco/tender bodies of those tender drive models will need modifications to fit the new chassis.
Farish will promote new versions of the former tender drive models but there'll be a time lag of several years before they reappear in the range.

[honk843]

[/quote]I'm not sure how that makes a difference to the number of models available? One run of one model is still just one model on the shelves regardless of whether it's a new type or a rerun of an existing model...
[/quote]
Between 2004 and about 2012 I suppose Bachman re-released much of the former Graham Farish catalogue with a new chassis and at the same time produced new models such as the V2. We were spoilt by the shear volume of new models.
Since about 2012 they have continued to produce new models such as the C class which hopefully sold well but producing new model like the Standard class 4 tank and then repeating it with a newly tooled body seems to me to be expensive and unlikely to find enough buyers to justify the costs.
By TINGs 2018 thy told us demand for N gauge was so poor that they were reluctant to produce any new models. They told us figures which did not seem to justify that decision. So they decide people do not want steam outline anymore rather than look at their own policy.
With the upturn in sales - and hopefully new N gauge modellers - and difficulties in production the earlier decision to cut back new n gauge models is affecting availability

[Roy L S]

I think they're discontinuing their tender drive models.
Farish are upgrading locos with Next 18 and sound capability. However the tender driven models will need a new loco drive coreless motor chassis, with speaker and Next 18 socket housed in the tender.
I don't know whether the loco/tender bodies of those tender drive models will need modifications to fit the new chassis.
Farish will promote new versions of the former tender drive models but there'll be a time lag of several years before they reappear in the range.

It seems likely that models will be upgraded over time, but possibly not all. For example it was said that the J39 only came into being because they could reuse the B1's tender-drive, and while I would be absolutely delighted with a loco-drive version I am not holding my breath.

Regards

Roy

[Roy L S]

Between 2004 and about 2012 I suppose Bachman re-released much of the former Graham Farish catalogue with a new chassis and at the same time produced new models such as the V2. We were spoilt by the shear volume of new models.
Since about 2012 they have continued to produce new models such as the C class which hopefully sold well but producing new model like the Standard class 4 tank and then repeating it with a newly tooled body seems to me to be expensive and unlikely to find enough buyers to justify the costs.
By TINGs 2018 thy told us demand for N gauge was so poor that they were reluctant to produce any new models. They told us figures which did not seem to justify that decision. So they decide people do not want steam outline anymore rather than look at their own policy.
With the upturn in sales - and hopefully new N gauge modellers - and difficulties in production the earlier decision to cut back new n gauge models is affecting availability

To clarify the first point, the initial products produced by Bachmann were almost all reintroductions of the old Poole Farish range, the only differences were essentially better tampo-printing and finer wheels. The first all new loco, the V2 had in fact already been under development before the takeover, and significantly reworked became the first brand new steam loco. There were other new tool models earlier on, the 66 being one example. The flurry of new tool models began around 2007 and came in at a phenomenal pace for a time, but that was never going to be sustained, it was to establish a range.

It was always said to be the plan to introduce new tool variants of some of the old favourites, such as the 4F 0-6-0 and 4MT Standard Tank, and I respectfully disagree that re-tooling them to modern standards was a bad plan. Comparing new to old is like comparing chalk and cheese, the new 4MT is exquisitely detailed, far more accurate and DCC ready, as with the Fairburn Tanks currently awaited, I am sure we will see more runs of the 4MT Tank, hopefully variants with the tablet-catcher they have tooled for.

In all my conversations with Bachmann people on their stands in recent years they have never said that sales of N were poor, these products make up a significant chunk of their portfolio and turnover. There has been growth, demand has been good, but they haven't been able to grow sales as fast as they would have hoped.

The arrival of the 8F is clear evidence that Bachmann do see a future in steam locos, as is the upgrade of other locos like the 5MT for easy sound conversion. All that we see on the Bachmann website is models that are either in stock or in the current pipeline, be they re-runs or announced new tool models. I am pretty confident that behind those there will be plans for both brand new and re-runs of further models.

Don't forget the Covid pandemic has had a serious impact on both manufacturing, supply chain and shipping, and on top of that Farish N models have to compete with others for production slots at the Kader factory. In the last six months Bachmann has had a big push on Thomas ranges both in OO and N, and I wouldn't mind betting that those have been a big priority. If you look at the OO Branchlines range you will see a similar issue to Farish (in proportion to their larger market possibly even worse) with more models in the pipeline than in stock!

I think we will see things improve as the pandemic eases, the lockdowns have rather ironically seen more people take up modelling at the exact same time as supply has become more difficult.

Regards

Roy

[acko22]

Hi all,

So my little take and I actually think that what I am about to say doesn't just effect Steam locos but their whole range....

1) Covid
As @Roy L S points out this is having an impact with measures presumably and from my understanding been taken at factories which has reduced the work force available so the production cycle is taking longer meaning those slots which are limited and fought over are currently even more contested with the more profitable and less complexed models taking precedent (less complexed means less workers required and lets be honest diesels in this case require less work than a steam engine with all the intricate exposed valve gear).

2) Changing demand
As @N_GaugeModeller suggests there could be a changing of the guard and diesels taking over from steam as the most sought after locos, but for that to swing so massively in such a short time I wouldn't say that's an issue in this case as it would generally creep in over time rather than numerous steam models be ditched in favour of diesels.

3) Upgrading models
Lets be honest no model design is perfect forever and with the advent of Next 18, Sound, etc many of their models need upgrading or in some cases a complete redesign, none of this is cheap let alone free so they will be waiting on funding been available (through the sales of already offered models) but also the space in the design offices which is where Farish could have tripped themselves up.
As has frequently been lamented Farish seem to be going through a consolidation phase trying to catch up with the backlog of previously announced models so while they are playing catch up with their own catalogue they are also having to update their large offering of models to keep up with the standards and innovations we have come to expect in an RTR model, put my Farish 66 next to my Dapol 68 and the detailing difference is stark!
Lets be honest since 2005 N gauge in terms of detailing and innovations have come on leaps and bounds compared to the 16 years prior to 2005 and keeping a catalogue of 100s of models up to the expected new standards as well as introducing new models is no easy feat.

4) Change of business strategy
As we have all seen Farish have change how they announce models coming to shops from an annual announcement list to every 3 months they will announce what is on the way which means instead of an annual waterfall of models we are been drip feed the same list but in 4 stages through the year.
Farish has always held its cards close to it's chest even at shows they are rather tight lipped compared to others, and this is just another way of tightening them lips some more, why you may ask well in 2014 we had Farish and Dapol, now we have to add Revolution and Sonic into the mix and unlike the old status quo where Farish and Dapol generally stuck to their patches the new boys have shaken the status quo up been willing to go at what may have been the traditional patches for Farish
While it may appear they have stopped production of a model all they are showing now is available models so that model you could be after and fear discontinued my actually be in the finishing stages of production and part of their next 3 month announcement and we have to find out if the next drip feed will come up good for the model you want.
(so far not so great for me Capaugh 60, Northern 319, TPE 350, how I wait with baited breath)

These are just my thoughts as I say it's not just effecting Steam but their whole product range and while it is annoying I can see why things are as they are now, but even if they did begin to quietly drop some models I am sure after a while others would take note...

[Chris Morris]

I largely agree with acko22. The only difference is that I reckon the most likely log jam is the tool making in China. Kadar will have requests for new tooling from many places within their international organisation. As a business you must give priority to the projects that are most likely to give the best return on investment. With British N being small volume compared to almost any US based model or indeed British 00 I can see that it will be difficult for Bachmann Europe to get a slot in the toolroom for British N gauge products; there will always be something with better prospects for a return on investment. The other side of this coin is that there isn't much in the way of mainstream locos that haven't been covered in 00 (ref Rapido newsletter) so the law of diminishing returns must set in sometime. I have no idea how well the US locos are covered. I do know that Kadar have refurbished some of the Aristocraft G scale tooling ready for production. These will be much smaller volumes than British N but also a much higher profit margin per unit sold. It does at least prove that lower volume items can still get to the top of the tooling queue. It seems to me that once the larger volume items (US stuff and British 00) are tooled up to today's standards then maybe, just maybe we will see a few of the big gaps in N being filled over the next few years.