Hornby to cut number of toys in turnaround bid

This isn't really news. It's has been known for a while in modelling circles as Hornby cancelled a number of prospective 00 scale reliveries announced for this year and pushed some new products announced for 2016 to 2017.

The doom and gloom merchants have had their teeth in Hornby for a couple of years now, but I think you're wide of the mark in predicting the death of the company. Hornby is simply too prestigious a household name for it to entirely disappear. Worst case scenario would be either a buyout or the company becomes a much more specialist, niche, manufacturer.

However, I think all have to accept that a golden age of railway modelling is now over. For over a decade from around 2002, both the sheer amount of new, high quality railway models being brought to market and the price of them was unprecedented. As late as the 1990s, who could possibly have imagined being able to have Kestrel passing Lion passing DP2 on a layout, for example? Or a stunning rendition of a Blue Pullman passing a Brighton Belle? And for them all to be largely affordable?

As with all such things, it was too good to last. We have to accept that the days of locos for under £100, carriages for under £30 and wagons for under a tenner have gone. Now we're looking at £150, £60 and £20 respectively.

The reasons for the significant price rises have been well-documented (and are, in my view, justified). We had it wonderfully good for around 12-13 years and should be grateful that it happened at all.

 

Those of us who like to collect OO scale model locos for display have been spoiled rotten in recent years. There is so much choice now that I can only afford to buy a fraction of the mouth-watering selection available.

The market for high quality models is getting increasingly competitive. Whilst Bachmann and Hornby remain the biggest players, we are now being tempted by finely detailed models from a variety of other vendors, including DJ Models, Heljan, Locomotion, Hattons, Oxford Rail, Rails of Sheffield, Kernow Model Centre and more. It's hardly surprising that Hornby are feeling the pinch.