One of the biggest issues I can see as has been highlighted by earlier posters is the starter trainsets which used to help get new people into the hobby have simply increased in price ludicrously...
I realise that I am a fair degree younger than many other posters, however remember clearly recieving a
Hornby GWR Mixed-Traffic in 2004 as a birthday present. This was ~£50 then (now 18 years ago...!). This had in-box a couple of wagons/coach, circle of track and a siding. Some play-value for younger-me to get started.. Using the
BoE's inflation calculator, this should be ~£73 in today's money...
Looking at Hornby's current trainset offerings
on their website, you're paying ~£160 before you're anything like a comparible set. Most of these are using the awful 0-4-0 mechanism that cannot go below warp-20... That same 0-4-0 tooling was listed for ~£20 when I started, and are
now ~£50...
When parents and children are comparing the above to video games that cost £20-£40 once you've bought the console, I'm not surprised that models are increasingly loosing out....
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Those with opinions aligning with the question, please explain why this is not a solution.
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See above costings - Those ancient
Lima/Hornby/etc toolings are now more expensive than the 'super-detailed' Mallard/Grange/etc that were released in the early 2000s (~£60/each in 2004)...
I realise that for the above I have been using the new pricing from Hornby.com, but it is worth remembering that whilst many/most on this forum would be quite happy browsing ebay/exhibitions/etc for deals, for that very first 'trainset' purchace, this is normally done by an enthusiastic parent that simply wants to be sure that it will 'just work' for the birthday/christmas/etc present. Even browing the likes of
Hattons (new items only) doesn't enlicit much savings...
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The newest tooling would be the class 25 which must be near 20 years from introduction, the selection determined by what he has seen on preserved lines.
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I can definitely say that much of my interest selection in the early days was determined by what was seen on preserved railways.
Regards,
Cameron.