New Farish models

I was pleased to learn that Bachmann (Graham Farish) were planning to introduce some new long open wagons to their range in the shape of the 12 ton pipe wagon. At Warley the first painted examples were displayed, however, following a quick check of the Bachmann website I was shocked to see the RRP cost - £17.95. I knew that prices were going to rise but this seems crazy. Even new released brake vans are set to cost £16.95.  This is way beyond what I would be prepared to pay for a piece of plastic around one inch in length. I can accept paying a bit more for locos, but the idea of a rake of ten wagons costing a few pounds short of £200 is a bit much,  I doubt they will sell too many.
Bob

When the Bachmann 'Skarloey' NG loco was announced in the US at $149, they showed at the same time un-regioned NG wagons by Peco at about $35 each!

The locos are now in US discounters at $99, the wagon prices remain unadjusted [AFAIK] don't know what it means other than good news for kit-providers, until demand gives them the idea to up their prices too.

Poo.

Doug

The price hikes in new models over the last couple of years have certainly curtailed my purchases.

I guess we probably had it fairly easy 4 or 5 years ago but I understand Bachmann UK (or probably Kader) were being subsidised by Sanda Kan so prices had to go up.

It does tend to make US outline look progressively more attractive - this is one case where size does matter. :roll:  The UK outline market is pitifully small in this global economy everyone talks about ……………………..

As you say Doug, maybe the kit suppliers will make a comeback.  Needing some brake wagons myself recently, (OO Gauge), I looked at the price from Bachmann (don't like Hornby stuff) and came to the same conclusion you did Bob - "you're joking - for a bit of plastic a few inches long" !!!  Had it been a new model, then I'd understand that the research and design costs would have to be covered, but this model was as old as the hills.  I bought some of the old Airfix/Dapol kits instead.  Not perfect models but good enough for my purposes and at less that half the price ………………..;-)

Its something I noticed when I dabbled in N gauge, the prices weren't vastly different from 00 gauge stuff, and in the end it was half the size, its one of the reasons I changed back as it felt like you got more bang with your buck in 00

One of the reasons kits lost their attractiveness, in my mind anyway, was because rtr was becoming much more life like plus there was much more variety I built a Midland brake van in OO then Bachmann brought out the same van in much better detail than my effort and by the time I had bought the paint and transfers the cost was fairly similar then their prices shot up and its making kits look attractive again it is the same with O gauge now, rtr wagons from Dapol and their like are about the same as kits in price and no work to make them, however the variety isnt there yet so some kit or scratch building is still necessary which I think is part of the fun, but thats just my opinion, I am not sure I would get the same pleasure from struggling to build an N scale kit with my eyesight! I have built 009 kits and they were a pita soon gave that up  .


Pete.


    

I was going to make a comment about prices being cheaper today. So I found a site that calculates the price then and what it would cost today.

I found the price of a Hornby Dublo 3 rail A4 in 1959 was £3 14s. Now this equated today to £67!!! not the answer I was expecting.

Looks to me as though the perception that model railways are rather expensive is right. Maybe production should return to a cheaper country?

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

I guess we probably had it fairly easy 4 or 5 years ago but I understand Bachmann UK (or probably Kader) were being subsidised by Sanda Kan so prices had to go up.

Actually Peter, Bachmann has been owned by Kader for many years & a couple or three years ago, Kader purchased their main rival Sanda Kan Kader - Wikipedia

And also Sanda Kan Shake-Up Affects Model Trains - New Releases & Product Announcements - JNS Forum

I stand corrected Sol - I knew it was it was one or the other who owned the other .................:roll::oops::oops:

[user=1300]wahiba[/user] wrote:

I was going to make a comment about prices being cheaper today. So I found a site that calculates the price then and what it would cost today.

I found the price of a Hornby Dublo 3 rail A4 in 1959 was £3 14s. Now this equated today to £67!!! not the answer I was expecting.

Looks to me as though the perception that model railways are rather expensive is right. Maybe production should return to a cheaper country?

The only problem nowadays is 'where is that cheaper country???' We're all aware that due to progressive wage increases in China, model prices have gone up quite sharply, and we can't deny that their workers deserve a standard of living in this day and age. Like myself, many will recall electronic items around the 1960's being "Made in Hong Kong", and when their wage rates rose, it became "Made in Japan", then Indonesia, and so on, major Companies 'jumping ship' to wherever the cheapest labour costs were, aided by those countries governments offering big incentives for a company to move production to that country with resultant jobs for the population. This kind of 'hopscotch' of companies moving production from one country to another in turn will doubtless continue, driven by boardroom profit motives, which, after all, are a companies 'Raison d'etre', as the company wouldn't survive otherwise. There are some products ('bog-standard' TV's for example) which are probably cheaper like-for-like than back in the 1960's, but that's only because of largely computerised production methods, whereas something like a model locomotive which requires much more hand assembly with the complex detail we modellers demand and expect, will continue to suffer cost increases. Unfortunately, there are no 'cheap hobbies' nowadays!
Keith.

You're right of course Keith.

Manufacturing companies have always chased low wages - labour is the highest single cost in manufacturing.

Britain used to be the centre of manufacture but, when she started to price herself out of the worlds markets by constantly increasing wage costs coupled with constantly reducing quality, manufacture moved elsewhere.

It has almost done the rounds now and one wonders if it will go full circle and return here.  Somehow I doubt it.  It's easier to make money shoving bits of paper across a desk in the City than to stand on an assembly line in a factory.

The problem is, and I'm not sure we've learnt it yet, but those "manual" workers will start to demand the same standards and remuneration as the fat cats currently enjoy - otherwise, they'll down tools and we'll all have to eat paper !!!  

On the plus side Peco have reissued their N scale wagon kits at £3.50 a go. They take about 5 minutes to make, need painting, but are a great way to assemble some long freight trains. There are around six types at the time of writing.

Bob

While labour costs were the reason certain types of production went abroad it is not the whole story. Investment in machinery helps, hence the reason car production is very buoyant in the UK at the moment. Virtually all foreign owned but that is down to crap management rather than the workers.

Another major cost is transportation. Check out where plastic boxes in Poundland come from. Not all are PRC. Probably the best around at the moment are the 'Really Useful' brand, made in the UK!

The reason model trains are probably still being made abroad is the large labour content. There are limits to automation and robotics.

There are many other signs though that things are changing. Nearer home Snugpack are actually making jackets in Yorkshire that are cheaper than those from other brands made elsewhere!

Whether the Institution of Production Engineers will ever return?