[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Doug @ 4 May 2007, 07:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It had to be done though. It was either that or bankruptcy.

But would it ?

Question I would really, really like to know is (& this does not apply just to Hornby) :
How much extra would it cost to have the products made in England (or Germany) ?

In other words :
If a locomotive is to have a RRP of say £120 to be made in China - what would the RRP be to have it made in England ?

Would it really be that much more ? The answer is there - if we can find it.

If the "premium" was in the region of up to 10%, making it around £130 would people be prepared to pay the extra - I certainly would & not just because I live in Margate either.

Maybe it's really all down to profits & keeping shareholders happy - all this talk of cheap disposable motors makes me think it is.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Ravenser @ 4 May 2007, 22:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Ref BritHO's comments - I believe the issue with the cheap can motor is that it is a sealed unit so there is no access to replace the brushes when they wear out. This is certainly fitted to the cheap 0-4-0Ts , and evidently to the Terrier. What they have fitted to the old chassis under the Single and B12 I don't know. But the prestige new steam engines use something completely different as do the diesels - all of them , whether pancake or centre drive or Limby. It's misleading to suggest that the disposable can is Hornby's standard motor

Well, the Clan Line I bought , as my first (& most likely last) OO model purchased for decades had trouble with anything more than 3/4 free running FLM coaches on the flat !
I remember that the instruction leaflet clearly stated that 150 hrs was about the maximum obtainable running time with the motor fitted ! Maybe, they fit better motors now.
I think I'll stick to my overpriced German stuff, which, incidently I can easily obtain spares for, direct from the manufactures, even for locomotives approaching 30 years old.

 

[Brian Considine]

Looks like mine was a duff then - apart from it's serious lack of pulling power it was fine - quiet, smooth & would literally crawl on a variable transformer analogue DC controller.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the leading & trailing pony/bogie wheels were sprung too much & lightened the weight from the drivers. Must admit I did not check at the time, but then again you should not have to if quality control is doing it's job.

 

[Brian Considine]

We are now tending to revert to the good old fax more than e-mail these days !

 

[Brian Considine]

Take your points Sol,

We are lucky enough to have a stand alone fax, but most computers have a fax facility buried somewhere in the software.

Pity you had a bad response from the UK - not a good example of customer service.

The spammers will probably manage to kill off e-mail in it's present form. Eventually I expect we will have some sort of 2-tier system that you subscribe to where you have 2 pay something like a penny or cent for each e-mail or 10 e-mails you send - that's the only way I can see of reducing it.