I don't know how many of you guys are active in the HO/OO model train arena, but it seems to me that prices are quickly becoming insanely high. This year for example with the announcement of the new Hornby range for 2022 we have seen a price rise across the board of approximately 20% which is claimed has been caused by increases in production and transportation costs. While the initial response from me was simply they are trying to 'gouge' their customer base this changed to a realism that we all know shipping costs from China to the rest of the world have increased dramatically post pandemic and of course the days of 'sweat shop' wages in China are long gone and the workers are now demanding more realistic wages to improve their way of life as well as they are beginning to realise what people in other parts of the world doing similar jobs are earning. It is also obvious that Hornby are not the only model maker in this market whose prices are rising rapidly year on year.

This could lead one to conclude that maybe these companies should consider the radical approach of moving their production from China back to the UK as this would allow them to improve the development cycle as designers could work with the manufacturing team in the same building rather than having to wait ages for production samples to get shipped half way round the world, only to have to modify it and then wait for the next sample, etc...

However I don't think this would solve the entire problem as one of the issues about the pricing is that each new release is getting more and more detailed, thus taking far longer to design and manufacture as well as costing more in assembly etc... One of the mitigations Hornby tried in recent years was to divide their range into two distinct lines, "Railways" which is effectively the latest and greatest high detail models and "Railroad" which are models based on older pre-existing tooling which have less detail and separately fitted parts and which are therefore cheaper to manufacture. However as the years progress they seem to be slowly phasing out the cheaper "Railroad" range as it is probably taking sales away from their more expensive "Railway" offerings. The thing I don't think they have realised is that these lost sales of the more expensive models are probably already lost for a number of reasons. Firstly the prices are now at the point that nobody apart from the very rich can buy as many of these new "Railway" range models as they would like. Secondly although the "Railway" models are stunningly beautiful to look at they are also relatively fragile in comparison to their "Railroad" cousins. So if you actually want to run (or should that be "play with") your trains the expensive "Railway" models can get damaged pretty easily as all these extra added detail components are often very small and fragile and open to damage if the model is handled too much. Thirdly when they decided to re-use the old machine tools for the cheaper "Railroad" range, being Hornby they did actually go to the effort of improving the mechanical running parts in line with more modern models and of course although lacking some of the detail parts they still apply a much better quality level of decoration to this cheaper range. This makes it sometimes difficult to tell the two ranges apart at a glance and you only find out which is which by looking closely at the detail levels. Finally the "Railroad" models not having all these individually added parts are ideal to be used on a working layout or to be used by your kids.

I should point out here that this issue is not one facing only Hornby, all of the major UK manufacturers such as Bachmann, Dapol, etc... are also constantly increasing their prices dramatically. But unlike Hornby most of them only have the one main range containing beautiful but expensive models.

Anyway to give you a clue as to what I mean about these price increases and the effect it is having on the hobby let me give you some examples of price changes over maybe the last 10 or so years.

A small 0-4-0 loco, ideal for kiddies would not so long ago have cost maybe £20, not exactly pocket money back then, but the kids could if determined quickly save to buy one or could have one as a special treat or a birthday gift. Now a similar type loco is priced at around £50 which makes even an adult think twice rather than just make a snap purchase.

Yesterday I noticed the latest version of a Bachmann class J83 0-6-0 loco (affectionately they are known as 'Jintys') is now priced at £129 - I remember when you could buy the same class of model for £30!!

Pacific class locos or more realistically any 4-6-0 configuration steam tender locos which used to hover just below the £100 mark are now well around £230 each, if you want a DCC fitted or god forbid a sound enabled DCC version you could be looking at anywhere between £300-350 each. That of course is just for the standard releases, anything that is a numbered limited edition have prices that can be massively more than that.

Train Packs - typically a loco + either a couple of matching coaches or a rake of wagons to make a specific type of train or a named train service used to come in at around £130, which compared to buying the loco and rolling stock separately was relatively good value and saved you having to hunt for specific rolling stock to go with a loco. These are now priced typically around £300 or more. One recent release for example was the Hornby version of the latest Hitachi high speed passenger train, this is a 5 car set, one powered car, three passenger cars and a dummy car. While it is nice it is priced at around £450 - who can afford that as a casual purchase?!?

Even standard rolling stock is getting silly, £20+ for a single tank wagon, £15+ for a simple open wagon or box car, coaches at £50+ each!! The point is that these prices are rapidly making the hobby inaccessible to youngsters even if granddad tries to get them interested by buying them a starter train set for Christmas as the days of granddad or dad taking the kid to the local model store to add a new piece of rolling stock, a building or other accessory is becoming a once in a while event rather than something that can be weekly spend of pocket money (maybe topped up) or even a monthly trip. This leads to loss of interest in the kid who likes to see his train set growing and instead leads to boredom as he doesn't have anything new to add and play with. Ultimately this could mean the end of the hobby as if you can't get new blood into the hobby eventually the current generations of collectors and modellers will eventually pass away and where does this leave the manufacturers?

My solution to this sad state of affairs is to turn increasingly to the 'pre-used' market. While I love the new models and will when I can afford them buy them I find myself having to be increasingly choosy about what I buy to add to my collection hence why you may have notice most of my new stuff these days tend to be unusual or rare items that have simply never been made in the past. Instead I'm happy to buy models from say 10-20 years ago as the level of detail on those is plenty good enough for a working layout (which is my ultimate aim) and yet can be picked up at much lower prices. You also are not sacrificing much either as the mechanisms from that era are generally pretty close to what we have offered to us in new models and often you can find models that were purchased by collectors purely for display. Which means they are often pristine and so long as you are confident enough to open them up and clean/service/lubricate them before use you will often end up with effectively an unused or only test run model which is nearly as good as the current ones, but just missing the latest detail levels which I've already discussed the plus and minus points of. I'm also using it as a source of items to give to my nephew in order to feed his growing interest in trains and modelling. Sure at this point he is only really at the 'play' stage, but he is quickly becoming hooked and wants to expand his collection. This is far more affordable as I can often find good models at very reasonable prices which for me keeps the hobby alive.

So the question is what is your view? Do you do the same and dip into the used market or are you considering or even got to the point you have given up the hobby as it is simply becoming too expensive..?