petes blog

I have said for some time now that I felt our hobby could no longer continue in the vein that it has for the past 2 years and now I think the time has come to take a step back to consider our position and evaluate where we are going.

I attended Model Rail Scotland in Glasgow at the weekend and if this is the way that the year is to unfold then we all are in trouble! The gap between the ‘box shifters’ and the ‘modellers’ is now too wide and although there is room for both genres, it is imperative that exhibitions make it clear to the visiting public which field they are focussing on. I believe that these shows can no longer be a servant to two masters. So why do I say this? Well, if like me you are a railway modeller then it’s fellow modellers that you want to see but if the very person that you are trying to serve will not attend because he sees the show as an exhibition of toys or a swop meet, then your being there is pointless.

In the current economic climate you have to offer value for money and when you take into account the petrol cost as well as the entrance fee, your potential customer will think twice about setting foot outside his door if he is unsure as to what kind of exhibits he is going to see. To an avid modeller, seeing locos taken out of a box, running at speed around a track is not impressive and nor is seeing someone with all the members of one class of loco in all its colours. If this is what the show is about then the modeller has wasted both his time and money because what he wants is to see is a like soul – someone who can inspire him – someone who has used their skill to produce a scale model. This will not only maintain his interest but, hopefully, will also sustain our hobby.

I praised the Wigan show at Christmas and I felt it did an excellent job with the layout but now I think we have to look at what the shows need to do for the future. Clubs have to decide whether they are for the family or for the modeller – they cannot do both. I’m all for families attending shows but we now need to separate them because the small traders who have been the backbone of the model railway enthusiasts for over 50 years, are shrinking fast. At the weekend I heard 2 or 3 traders saying that they’d had enough and they would retire. If that were to happen then it would be a tragedy because some of these traders will never be replaced. Sadly, this year has already seen some such experts go to the wall.

When I heard complaints about the Wharley Show at Christmas I got very worried and not a little disappointed because this was one weekend that I’d looked forward to year after year but this has stopped me in my tracks and made me think. We are suffering from being too big and outstripping the market place. There is a fall in demand for our product and more importantly not enough layouts to sustain the interests of the visitors with too many of the same type of trade at the same show.

How many times over the last 10 years have you heard that all competition is good for the customer? Well let me tell you, as an expert on the subject, it’s nonsense! It’s a short term argument born out of panic because we now see that the market will collapse as the cake doesn’t get bigger, the portions just get smaller and when you reach the point that the customer doesn’t like paying for the smaller slice then things go bad. Discounts fool nobody because if items can be sold so cheaply why are the prices so high in the first place? If this is good for the customer then I’ll eat my hat!

I believe that it’s time now to fine tune the amount of shows and to literally decide who the traders are in the hall and who is their target audience. If we do not start, this year, with the aim of putting into action our thoughts for next year, then I confidently predict that there will be no shows thereafter to go to. I therefore say to all the clubs do not bury your heads in the sand, I have been here before, we have seen this happen.

It’s time to think about quality and not numbers and we should be bringing entrance fees down not increasing them. If the venues charge too much then we need to find cheaper venues. In terms of quality, compared with other hobbies of similar stature, we are lagging far behind and we need to address this.

We have to make up our minds now whether the shows are for toy train people or for the modellers. The choice at the moment is yours – it may not be in the future.

Now is the time to act to save our hobby because that is more important than a few big shows.

I have been doing a bit of filming in my spare time and wanted to share a few clips with you of one of or steam locos!

and a lovely trip through the countryside!