Cost of N Gauge Models in Context

[emjaybee]

@MatP thanks for the info/bio, interesting stuff. Well done for all the railway volunteer work. Love the wagon.

@Rabbitaway, moving on...

...what's the V8? I'm having a day of intrigue on here today.

[Rabbitaway]

Vauxhall Monaro, important from Holden by Vauxhall in small numbers, these cars are well known by our Australian friends

[emjaybee]

Vauxhall Monaro, important from Holden by Vauxhall in small numbers, these cars are well known by our Australian friends

Ah yes, one of Mr Walkinshaws toys. I used to do about a months decorating a year at his farm down the road. He owned 51% of Holden Special Vehicles.

[Rabbitaway]

Unfortunately not a 6.0 VXR, just the 5.7 CV8

[PGN]

Alternatively, you could compare the cost of model railways "now" to the cost of model railways "then".

The Peco Jubilee, when it came out in the early 1970s, cost £17. Also in the 1970s, my father bought the house I grew up in (a 13 room house in a village just outside Cambridge) for £37,500. Were that house to come on the market now, it would easily sell for £750,000 ... a 20-fold increase.

If the price of model railways had inflated at the same rate as the houses in which you put your railway room, your big express locomotives would be costing you £340 or thereabouts. Sooooo ... are those Chinese-built masterpieces REALLY so expensive?? They may feel it ... but they're still much more affordable, in real terms, than the equipment which the pioneers of N were working with!

[Bob G]

The Peco Jubilee, when it came out in the early 1970s, cost £17.

Actually mine cost £9 10s 0d or £9.50 in 1970. The price you are quoting for a Jubilee is about 1980 prices.
Minitrix Britannias were £7 17s and Warships were £7 in 1970.
When the Farish Holden and 94xx Pannier came out in 1971 they were £5 give or take.
Excluding Lima, there were only six BR outline locos in N at that time. Jubilee/Britannia/Class 27/Class 42/Pannier/Holden
Lima did a Class 31 and a class 86, but they were even less realistic and worse running than the ones mentioned above.

[PGN]

The Peco Jubilee, when it came out in the early 1970s, cost £17.

Actually mine cost £9 10s 0d or £9.50 in 1970. The price you are quoting for a Jubilee is about 1980 prices.
Minitrix Britannias were £7 17s and Warships were £7 in 1970.
When the Farish Holden and 94xx Pannier came out in 1971 they were £5 give or take.

My father fastidiously transcribed the prices from the price list to the catalogues.

£17 was the price he had written in the 1974 Peco catalogue ... which came at the end of the massive inflationary period (27% in 1973) ... so I'm assuming your price is the price paid by those who ordered when the Jubilee was announced, and then had to wait 2 years or so to get their hands on the model they'd paid for.

The Holden tank was marked £5-35, and the pannier tank £5.65, in the 1973 Graham Farish "Romance of Steam in Miniature" catalogue.

[PGN]

By 1980 a Jub would cost you about £30 ... and I paid about £15 in that year for my Lima 4F.

[Bob G]

I had my Jubilee when it first came out in 1971. And I was fastidious about knowing the prices of these models. I was eleven years old and things like that mattered!

[ntpntpntp]

By 1980 a Jub would cost you about £30 ... and I paid about £15 in that year for my Lima 4F.

Yep. Mine cost me £26 in 1979. I was working my summer job on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and treated myself to one.  A Farish 0-6-0 cost me around £13 I think.

[honk843]

I joined the NGS in 1978 and the Winter Magazine has some figures. The Jubilee was £26.80 but available to members at £21.50. however the Farish Black 5 was £21.75 but available at £17.95. A year before Hattons (figures from Railway Modeller) were offering the Jubilee at £23.75 or a Farish Battle of Britain for £12.75
There were various wagons at £1 a piece but the Blue whisky wagon was £1.50 RRP and a Farish Pullman £1.75.

Seems that if a 20 times rate of inflation is correct we are not doing too bad but it would mean the Railway Modeller would now be £7 and Peco wagon Kits From £11-£20 each.

Incidentally the NGS mag show a Lima J50 for £7.55 RRP. Perhaps the longest wait for a model to reach production? 

All tongue in cheek.

[Bob G]

All tongue in cheek.

I'm sorry I didnt quite hear that 

[PGN]

Incidentally the NGS mag show a Lima J50 for £7.55 RRP. Perhaps the longest wait for a model to reach production? 

I hope you didn't pay for one on pre-order.

If so ... I suggest you ask for your money back ...

[ntpntpntp]

Incidentally the NGS mag show a Lima J50 for £7.55 RRP. Perhaps the longest wait for a model to reach production? 

Yeah I remember that in the catalogue along with the King and the Western.  All doctored OO photos, all never to appear from Lima.

[honk843]

Perhaps rather than suggest even more let-downs some of those previously - supposedly seriously - promised could be produced. -J50, King, Western, J72, Thumper, Class 17, Class 21, 23, 29, Raven Q6, all at originally quoted prices of course. Not to mention GT3, Fell et al.

Seriously, and bringing things back to topic, I think looking back what is missing now in N gauge is manufacturers passion for their products (with the notable exception of Revolution) and longevity. The Chinese do not understand the market they are producing for or at least they do not show it. The quality of product cannot be denied and the associated cost but I wonder how many will still be around in thirty plus years time.

Simon Kohler at Hornby shows what a difference one man and his passion can make.