Model Railway Forum banner

Catalogues - to be or not to be?

4K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  Rail-Rider 
#1 ·
Following on from Rail-Riders strongly held views on catalogues in the Simon Kohler topic in the news section, it has to be worth having further discussion about this.

QUOTE In my view, train catalogues are far too expensive and, in addition to the enormous cost of producing them, the cost of shipping, whether in bulk to dealers or direct to individual customers, is prohibitive in itself. Paper is heavy!

Now I do have a very traditional view of model railway catalogues in that they are informative, easy to browse through, have a nice look and feel, are collectable, and represent very good value for money.

However, I do see Rail-Rider's point of view also in terms of the inflexibility that they offer throughout the year. And of course more people (non modellers especially) would be more likely to have a look at a catalogue if it was free! Every outlet could hand them out to every customer that comes in. This could draw more people into the hobby.

Now there may be grounds for producing 2 catalogues. A quality one that has lots of nice pictures and provides modelling ideas and includes feature articles helping modellers to make a start. This would be tremendous value.

And then a low cost version with a selection of the products available that are likely to appeal to the family who purchase a train set and a few accessories. Yes, there is a page included with each trainset but you have to buy a train set to get one. Something like the 16 page Mainline catalogues of the 1980's would do. Go into Toys R Us and a lot of hobby shops with a small selection of the Hornby range and visitors simply do not appreciate what is available (Hornby have in excess of 1000 products apparently!)

This could all be supported by the other ideas that Rail-Rider has for internet catalogues. Although I am not too sure if shopkeepers could cope with some of the ideas put forward here. How many hobby shop owners have room for major hi-tech equipment in their shop and how many would be able to use it?

Basically, I still want to see a traditional full blown catalogue to add to my collection and I am sure a lot of people feel the same way. And catalogues do have value over time. You only have to look at a certain site to appreciate this.

Its not as if it a promotion catalogue which has products in that are here to day gone tomorrow. The model railway catalogue contains a lot of information about the range for a particular year and somebody coming back into the hobby now might need information about past locomotives going forward as they are for the most part only ever produced once by the manufacturers. Historical catalogues help here and it is useful to build up a collection as an archive.

Happy modelling
Gary
 
See less See more
QUOTE would also seriously doubt whether the income from new catalogue sales alone makes any kind of significant contribution to the manufacturers profit

I suspect that a loss is actually incurred even at ÂŁ6 a throw!

How can Marklin produce their glorious hardback catalogues for under ÂŁ10 each?

Totally impossible.

Hornby had to charge ÂŁ30 for theirs when they produced a 50th anniverary hardback collectors edition.

If they were given away free as part of the Argos catalogue then I wonder how many more youngsters (and parents) would take up playing with trains? (or Scalextric!
)

Although it would make the Argos catalogue even thicker than it already is.

The other point to make though is that if every Argos customer decided to start playing with trains as a result, then could Hornby and others cope with the demand?

Think about how the Harry Potter train set dissapeared off the shelves a few years ago when it first came out. If the product is right then parents do dive in.

There would simply not be enough to go around and then where would we be?


By charging for catalogues it does at least put a choke on the growth of the hobby.

And who would pay for all this technology that shopkeepers are being asked to install?

It hardly seems fair for one company to cover it and then for every company to use it!

I can just imagine what my local shopkeeper will say when I tell him he has to install the "Patented Rail-Rider Catalogue Production Module" at a cost of ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ!


Happy modelling
Gary

PS however it is a neat idea!


Just one thought though. I operate a colour laser printer and printing on glossy paper is expensive at the best of times. How much is it going to cost to print off 128 pages of catalogue with the glossy presentation that manufacturers want to offer from this machine? And who pays for that?
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
One other thought (or two possibly?)

A catalogue helps a lot of modellers with planning. I have seen literally hundreds of used catalogues in my time and the great majority have ticks and crosses in or are marked in some way.

It is only the perfect catalogues that are genuinely collectable. This is why they are collectable!

Is there a better way of working things out than a catalogue?

I suppose you could argue that there is a lot of software around these days that does this job but even then it is very difficult to browse and I still suspect that folk refer to a catalogue at the same time as working with software on a PC.

Happy modelling
Gary
 
Notwithstanding all this it still points to the fact that no matter how its presented, and the form that it takes, manufacturers want people to look at something. Maybe a special "green" edition on recycled paper would encourage those of a certain disposition to take up modelling.

So have they got it right?

And is an online presentation an acceptable alternative or does it supplement the catalogue?

What about issuing a catalogue in the form of a ring binder that we could update as and when new pages are available to be printed off from the manufacturers website?

I have an old Beatties catalogue and its full of those sticky pictures that youngsters collect and stick in football albums. Thats how Beatties did it then. Folk would pop into the Beatties store and collect the latest set of stickers to add to the catalogue.

Or are we simply content with things as they stand and happy to accept whatever the manufacturers offer us?

Happy modelling
Gary
 
Worth pointing out to HO modellers that Fleischmann do this Warship and one other in green:-



and these Bulleid coaches with variations:-



The Fleischmann website has simple navigation and is basic with no bells and whistles.

I would agree with earlier comments regarding lack of content over and beyond that of showcasing the model range.

The Fleischmann site is still not a replacement for a catalogue.

What websites need are something that points visitors in the direction of coaches and wagons and locomotives given that they favour a certain locomotive or period. They all fail on this count and yet it is the primary consideration for modellers!

The Hornby catalogue for example.

Rather than putting all the locomotives in one section and all the coaches in another, why not put all the BR Blue period locomotives and rolling stock in one section, all the LNER locomotives and rolling stock in another, and so on?


Yes, there might be duplication, but so what!

This presentation would make it very clear to folk like Rail-Rider and others what is available when they are thinking about modelling a certain period.

Now the Hornby website actually does this to a degree.

Enter "LNER" or "LMS" into the search and see what comes up.

The issue is that I don't want to see BR locomotives in the search result!


And when I do a search for "BR" I get Thomas the Tank Engine stuff appearing. There are some who would say this is appropriate!


Happy modelling
Gary
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top