Hornby says it will post £8m profit

QUOTE Having just looked at the 50 quid train sets you are talking about on Hattons you get a smaller loco with a plastic body with the Hornby one. The loco with the Trix set has a metal body, is a lot bigger and has a high degree of detail for 10 quid more. So you can take your pick, theres not a lot in it.

€109 is actually £78 at the current exchange rate of about €1.38 per £1.

This is too much money for a starter set with one loco and two wagons. Junior likes to have lots of bits to play with and is not fussed about metal bodies and detail. This is how dad might see it when looking at the packaging. And a big loco looks a bit lonely with just 2 wagons. Better to offer a small loco with two to four wagons.

Maybe the new Marklin owners need to look closely at their marketing department.

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE Maybe the new Marklin owners need to look closely at their marketing department

The previous owners already went on a bit if a starter set drive creating about four new starter sets. Two anologue and two digital. These are good value when you consider what you get. Metal bodies would have more chance of lasting with junior getting a bit boisterous as kids do. But I have to give it to you. Smoky Joe is cheaper if your preference is for a small plastic loco with several wagons.

QUOTE From a starter point of view and getting new blood involved the UK have got it right

Yes they do. But I would suggest that Trix and Roco also have it bang on for the German market.

The best value by far in my opinion are the Roco digital start sets mentioned before. They are the cheapest way to get into DCC. I bought one myself a while back for that very reason.

QUOTE The best value by far in my opinion are the Roco digital start sets mentioned before. They are the cheapest way to get into DCC.

Bachmann currently do a DCC starter set for the UK with 2 locomotives and 3 wagons for around £79. Excellent value and with incredible play value.

And Hornby DCC is almost upon us.

The Roco digital starter sets are top value if you are interested in European outline.

You definitely maximise the DCC benefits £ for £ or € for € by entering at the budget end of the market.

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (Gary @ 2 May 2006, 09:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Bachmann currently do a DCC starter set for the UK with 2 locomotives and 3 wagons for around £79. Excellent value and with incredible play value.
Don't forget that the Lokmaus has more options than the E-Z command. With the Lokmaus you can control more than 10 locs (not at once ofcourse). You can also program your decoder up to CV 99. And the Lokmaus also is a very nice handheld control.

QUOTE (Gary @ 2 May 2006, 09:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The Roco digital starter sets are top value if you are interested in European outline.
There are shop-owners (here in the Netherlands) who separate the Roco startsets and sell them 'piece by piece' (to earn more). So it's possible that you will find a Lokmaus, with booster and adapter for about 40-50 euro.

Werner
No, i'm not a Roco-salesman, just a satisfied costumer

Marklin are in a different situation to Hornby Dublo in terms of 3 rail.

Hornby Dublo had a relatively small range and was not considered to be a collectable at the time.

Marklin have a long history with 3 rail and a large collector base.

Their current 3 rail track actually looks pretty good, has a look of 2 rail about it, although is expensive.

The real issue is that it is totally incompatible with anything else that anybody else produces. And so they can only sell their track system to Marklin users. This limits their market to Germany and expats living outside Germany who have a fascination with Marklin.

When times are tough as they are in Germany, they are unable to compensate for this by large sales in overseas markets where the economic cycle is favourable.

Now I don't know how the Trix brand is doing however I suspect that Marklin make more money out of 2 rail Trix than they do out of 3 rail Marklin. The daft thing is that Marklin is the stronger brand.

I would simply drop Trix and call it 2 rail Marklin. Instant cost savings and instant appeal to new markets.

Maybe the new owners have a similar idea.

Now Hornby do have ownership of the Hornby Dublo brand and trademark. Maybe the time is right for a relaunch as an upmarket version of Hornby with retro packaging.

And maybe Hornby should develope and reintroduce a 3 rail track system so that Marklin have some competition. This should ensure a further healthy increase in Hornby profits!

Happy modelling
Gary

PS not really!

QUOTE The real issue is that it is totally incompatible with anything else that anybody else produces.

Roco, Fleischmann, Lilliput (German Bachmann), Brawa and Piko all do three rail AC locos. This is exclusively to encroach on Marklins three rail AC market. They really have to do this due to Marklins dominance of the German market. While three rail AC may seem a bit of an anachronism to us they do have to excercise a degree of loyalty to their following and continue to provide AC three rail product to people who have been buying this for many years. Like the guys who don't want to modernize and take DCC on board there are also many who have no wish to change over their system to two rail DC and find they have many locos which they can no longer use.

Trix express was a three rail DC system which died out a long time ago but up until recently Trix did make the occasional model for this small market. Maybe a similar approach could be used by Marklin.
A solution would be to gradually faze out the three rail AC and simultaneously increase the two rail DC. This may in fact increase sales as many people who run two rail DC do not look at the Marklin catalogue and do not know they can have wagons and coaches converted to DC wheelsets for free by the shop.

QUOTE Now I don't know how the Trix brand is doing however I suspect that Marklin make more money out of 2 rail Trix than they do out of 3 rail Marklin. The daft thing is that Marklin is the stronger brand.

I would be very interested to see this as Trixs new product did actually contract this year. There were no new American HO items this year but a few new European items especially budget ones. Maybe their research suggested that this is where there future is?

QUOTE I would simply drop Trix and call it 2 rail Marklin. Instant cost savings and instant appeal to new markets.
I do not care which it is called but would not like to see it disappear as it is fantastic product. I don't think this would be an issue for anyone except Marklin three rail diehards.

"I don't have the space for HO but if I did I would switch to Marklin in a second and never look back."
why on earth would you do that?
they may be good but they aint that good. i think you wold have to be barking to start with 3 rail in this day and age. i admit the track dosent look too bad but why would anyone start modelling in 3 rail? what happens when one of your freinds brings his new 9F round and pops it on your track? or your grandson comes over with his hornby thomas? how are you going to explain the virtues of 3 rail then?...

Roco and fleishmann are just as good and they cover most of the range. and you dont have a grandson throwing a tantrum because his thomas dosent work!

on a side note i did once try and convert a marklin loco to 2 rail but no luck. the problem was that the wheels wernt insulated at all. i would have had to replace all the wheels and the motor. or alternativly just buy a roco.

Peter