The age of the £100k train set - The Times

[sjp23480]

Interesting article from The Times today.  

 

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/luxury/article/train-sets-times-luxury-vqtlbmqkc

[Mol_PMB]

Interesting to see the manufacturers that get name-checked aren’t just the big names. Cavalex, Rapido, Accurascale as well as Dapol, Heljan, Bachmann and the inevitable Hornby. 

[gwrrob]

So they should, they are the lifeblood of our hobby.

[Hroth]

Interesting.

 

But the title, "The Age of the £100k trainset", was a bit misleading. 

 

Yes, it namechecked some layouts that were estimated at that level, but apart from mentioning that Hornby produced starter sets at considerable fraction of that eye-watering price didn't admit that most hobbyists expended skill and ingenuity to produce layouts that got nowhere near that total! And it didn't mention the layout(s) that possibly more members of the general public have heard about and seen, Pete Watermans WCML efforts.

 

Then the little bit at the end about popular gauges mentioned O, OO and N. While it also showed a Hornby GWR HST train set, there wasn't anything about it being OO gauge. A Hornby "The Scotsman" box was also shown, but didn't say anything about it being a different scale/gauge to the other three mentioned and why...

 

At least there was no sneering or cheap jokes about toy trains.

 

[MattR]

Yeah, the headline doesn't really match the concept of the article: Lots of people love making layouts -- people with not a lot of space are trying to squeeze in whatever they can, while other people with the space and money are making massive expensive ones. Just an observation of the two ends of the spectrum I suppose? 

 

 

Edited June 11 by MattR

[osbornsmodels]

good publicity overall and to be applauded. one error --------N Scale stated to be 1/144 but the casual reader the article was aimed at would not notice or care

[sjp23480]

I think we have to accept that the headline is click bait. 

The subjects of the article are selective but assuming the writer is not overly familiar with the hobby it's a good read.  Agree with @Hroth, overall a positive story.

 

 

[Nova Scotian]

Useful headline for me - sent it to my partner and said "see, told you I was doing it on the cheap".

[PatB]

Not a bad article overall. Certainly as good as I think can be reasonably expected from a general interest piece in a mainstream publication.

[ovbulleid]

It’s an interesting contrast to the ‘death of the hobby’ articles a few months back. That section is normally filled with things like ‘the best watches to buy for under £10k’ so I was expecting it to cover the more high end/ super detail/ large scale corner of the market, or analysis of how much you can expect your 27th limited edition class 66 to go up in value. However it was a good plug for the sheer breadth of the hobby these days

[PaternosterRow]

Decent article.  At least the MSM is starting take the hobby seriously again.  Up to very recently, and as I was once firmly told by an irate student that lived next door to me, it was considered a ghastly pastime practiced by slightly bigoted, old white males who were merely interested in recreating some sort of weird representation of a bygone age before the modern multicultural world!  Odd generalisation given that most of us, in part, are merely reliving our own childhood memories through our layouts.  I was also highly offended by this crude assertion given that both my parents were actually Irish immigrants to England’s green and pleasant land themselves!  

Edited June 18 by PaternosterRow

[PatB]

6 hours ago, PaternosterRow said:

Decent article.  At least the MSM is starting take the hobby seriously again.  Up to very recently, and as I was once firmly told by an irate student that lived next door to me, it was considered a ghastly pastime practiced by slightly bigoted, old white males who were merely interested in recreating some sort of weird representation of a bygone age before the modern multicultural world!  Odd generalisation given that most of us, in part, are merely reliving our own childhood memories through our layouts.  I was also highly offended by this crude assertion given that both my parents were actually Irish immigrants to England’s green and pleasant land themselves!  

I never cease to be amazed by the number of people happy to offer a detailed opinion on matters about which they know absolutely nothing. I have come across people who have studied various subcultures deeply enough to be granted PhDs on the strength of their research, whilst remaining, IMHO, utterly clueless about said subcultures. It's very strange.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Re: clickbait headlines - what caught my attention was how it appeared on my iPad as I scrolled down the RMweb Forum list:

 

”The age of the £1…”

 

I wonder what I can get for a pound, thought me 😀.

 

Enjoyable read and, as others have said, a positive article for general consumption.  Have a good day, Keith.

[franciswilliamwebb]

8 hours ago, PaternosterRow said:

I was once firmly told by an irate student that lived next door to me, it was considered a ghastly pastime practiced by slightly bigoted,

 

Yes, they do tend to look down upon those who've only attained "slightly" level😉

[Hroth]

I think that if anyone totted up how much they paid for their collection of locos and rolling stock over say the last decade just for insurance purposes, going on current ebay "values" the replacement total might be uncomfortably large, though not approaching £100,000!

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

28 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I think that if anyone totted up how much they paid

This challenge came my way as we made progress on a major clear out and tidy up over the winter. Not yet a fifth of the way to 'target', must try harder? Read on.

40 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I think that if anyone totted up how much they paid for their collection of locos and rolling stock over say the last decade just for insurance purposes, going on current ebay "values" the replacement total might be uncomfortably large...

Never mind a decade or s/h: based on current retail prices, now about 5x what they were in the early 2000's when the low cost Chinese productions flooded in, which was when the majority of my purchasing occurred: if a total replacement programme were required the headline number looms uncomfortably close, especially if track and DCC fit  are included...

 

This confirms the correctness of the decision a group of like minded friends came to all those years ago. Let's stop pushing up the value of brewery shares while frequently grumbling about lack of model railway progress, and instead meet at each others homes and do some modelling or operation. I have stuck to the 'beer budget' ever since, and have a way smaller waistline. The money is irrelevant, would have found a way to spend it, and not only had fun with it, but also now have a model railway to show for it.