Upheavals

Oh all right. I’ll do it too.

Almost everyone is doing it. Everyone has thoughts and opinions of the matter. The great thing about the internet is everyone has an opinion and can share it. Also, the worst thing about the internet is everyone has an opinion and can share it. So here’s mine.

There has been a lot of upheaval in the model railway world this week. What with the closure of the UK retailer Hattons, (for US modelers this would probably be like Trainworld closing). Then there’s then announcement that the Warley show, the UK’s largest train show will be no more, (Americans, think in terms of Trainfest). Then there’s my own upheaval, but that can wait. 

The first two I have involvement in, and experience of, so I can at least share a thought or two of my own.

Firstly, Hattons. 

I have ordered from them in the past, and I had orders and pre-orders with them when they announced their closure. So I’m affected by that. The pre-orders are no more, but the other items are on their way to me. Hattons were a huge global online retailer, their turnover was apparently around 16 million pounds ($20.3 million), and they had just bought US retailer MB Klein (AKA modeltrainstuff) so everything seemed bright and cheerful for them. Quite how the closure affects the Klein side of things I don’t know, or probably won’t understand.

Hattons was pretty important to me as a modeller of the UK scene in the US. If I needed things, I could get them, and their heavily discounted prices meant some items became quite affordable. In fact, it was stock for a forthcoming project that I had waiting with them when the closure news was released. 

Many say that post-Brexit trading in Europe has become difficult or almost impossible, and in my experience, post covid parcel delivery services have certainly been much worse than before. Some small retailers won’t even ship outside the UK due to all the problems.

Hattons sold trains at heavily discounted prices. Were these low, low prices part of the problem? Were they eating into the operational costs too much? Discounted prices are great, we all love them. Like I say, I couldn’t be a modeller of the UK scene in the US without them. But what are low prices against the future of a business? 

I transferred my pre-order to Rails of Sheffield, another retailer who offer discounted items. Hopefully they’re still in a strong business position. 

Perhaps this is the end of the discounted retailer. Perhaps we will have to pay full price more often from now on. 

The Warley show. England’s largest show is no more. The show had been held at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham for 30 years. A place where they held Englands premier Motor Show. I’ve seen Iron Maiden, Rush and other big bands there. It’s a major, major venue. With huge car parking lots, and a railway station all on site. As befits the venue, the show is a colossal undertaking. I never went to the show when it was there. But I saw the pictures, they had full size steam locomotives in the hall for heavens sake. What’s the logistics behind something like that? 

When they say that the organizing committee had been doing the job for 30 years and wanted to retire. Then I have no problem with that. That they couldn’t find anyone to take on the task of organizing is a concern. But who in their right minds would want to be charged with the responsibility of getting a full sized steam loco into an exhibition hall? 

Even a small exhibition can be a task to organize. I have memories of being out on the roads around Mablethorpe putting up signs to our exhibition as it was getting dark the night before our show, before getting up to be at the hall to let exhibitors in before 7am so they could set up. It’s a lot of work, and ours was a tiny show. Warley was hundreds of times bigger. You need to organize teams there, where a couple of people could rope in their supportive do the jobs at a small show.

Layouts are getting bigger too. Heaton Lodge the 0 scale masterpiece is huge. It has be moved in three or four rental trucks. Pete Waterman’s “Making Tracks” is just as large and must be moved in a similar amount of vehicles. All costs that have to be passed on and recouped. (American modelers should know that layouts that go to shows in the UK receive expenses as a matter of course. Something almost unheard of in the US. I only receive a donation from the St. Cloud Train Show that covers my petrol expenses. I received nothing from going to Trainfest). It must cost thousands of pounds to get layouts like Heaton Lodge to shows. 

The press release reads that it is the end of the Warley Show at the NEC. They will probably put on a smaller show. I remember going to The Warley Show before it was at the NEC. I was a student at Wrexham Art College. I took the train to Smethwick Rolfe Street and walked to the show. It may have been at the Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre, that name seems to ring a bell. Now this was not a small show at all. It was one of the biggest shows I had seen to that date. So if Warley put on another show like that. It won’t be small. But it will be good though.

For sale. The box is full of stock too.

So to my own upheavals. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I’m having a huge clear out. Over the years I’ve accumulated so much stock for each of my micro layouts that I need to make room in my model railway workshop in the basement. On30 and H0 US outline, it will all go. I have no interest in it all. I tried to learn about US railroads. But it’s too much like hard work. The 0n30 is fun stuff, but I’ve never built a layout with it. I did have plans, but nothing has ever come of them. So it can all go. I do still have the US outline 2 rail O scale layout I’m working on at the moment so it can stay.

Operating Nowhere Mine in US and UK forms side by side taught me that English trains are what I know and should stay with. I’ll stick with what I know. What I grew up with. Granted, given the news about Hattons, getting hold of things will be more difficult. But as I mentioned earlier. I will just have to I re-think my strategies.