as ever, one of the largest large-scale shows in UK, added to the gala weekend of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway.
Met up with my BIL and Mr Bing Cheng of AccuCraft et al from China, with his gorgeous lady assistant [she seriously lit the place up, I can tell you].
Apart from the usual traders and their multiplicity of wares, one thing really stood out among all the other features - the prices.
Gentlemen, the prices have gone through the roof, and then some. Models that were £1500 last year are now £2000 - second-hand this year had last year’s NEW prices, plus a bit. It was a frightening thing to see the new loco from Roundhouse - the cute 0-6-0 Baguley-Drury diesel, ‘Harlech Castle/Castell Harlech’, depending which side you looked at.
£850 manual, and £975 with sound [crappy sound, BTW], and, look at this, an EXTRA £40 for the FR transfers!!! WTH? Nobody else actually has one of these locos, so why charge extra for it to look like the only one there is?
MY ‘Harlech Castle’ is over five feet long, weighs about 600#, will haul 30 people, has Dallee sound and a fully-transistorised control and safety fit, and cost me just over £2000.00. You can see it in action on Fenland light railway site, or on my youtube channel - tac’s trains
The great deal that Bachmann is currently doing for their Spectrum Forney hasn’t reached us here - there were two s/h models for sale at just over $1000, and a NIB for $1200…
In fact, I could actually fly over to NY, stay overnight and have a decent meal and bed, collect my Forney, and fly back, and still have change.
UK - Ripoffburg extraordinaire.
tac, not a happy bear
I drove over from our mud hut here in East Anglia at HUGE expense, and bought two bits of sectional brass…