Over the forty plus years of adult model railway modelling (starting at 17 years old) I've assembled numerous locomotives from kits, and also disassembled, painted, DCC equipped, and reassembled many more locomotives. Still, looking at the level of detail and complexity of modern model locomotives even I am awed by what's involved in designing and building them. I can appreciate why almost no current model train company offers locomotive kits anymore. Most would probably end up being returned to them by the customer in order to correct them and make them work.
It never ceases to amaze me that as a hobby, people have so little respect for the model makers, mainly in China, who do extraordinary working in assembling the fantastic models we can buy now. If you think OO is challenging, just look at the finely detailed models in TT:120 😳 they are stunning!
This or the locomotives in bits needs to be sent to all of those who complain about the prices of the models to see if they can make these models in the same timescale and keep under the time to make the build job profitable.
Fantastic! Kudos to Mr.. Morley and yourself for this video. It gives an amazing look behind the scenes as to what is involved in producing something as "simple" as a "toy" locomotive. Having a friend who actually produced a plastic model kit, there is a ton of stuff involved. My friend got his kit into production (it's still in production I believe) and lost everything in doing so (we warned him). Sadly, he has never recovered from the expenses involved...
Found this video really interesting can't wait to see the second part, I will admit I wouldn't of had the patients to do what you've done in this video.
I laughed when Phil mentioned not opening all the bags. Anyone who's ever bought a complex lego set and tipped all the numbered bags out to start. Will get it. 😂 But this takes that to the nth degree. Gteat Idea, cant wait to see the next part.
Fascinating insight into the complexity of putting these models together. Although assembly line workers would get familiar with the assembly process, perhaps I shouldn't complain so much about the price of these locomotives given the amount of meticulous work that has gone into putting them together.
I’d certainly get better and faster for each one. However the work is mentally and physically taxing and anyone who thinks minimum wage would cut it has no idea of the realities of the World. This would need some serious premium pay.
Got to see your upside down magnetic loco on tv last night. Pure brilliance . On my Japanese layout I'm using led back lights and projection for backgrounds.
I would LOVE to get my models in bits like this. For starters give me ALL the seperate bits, price can be lower, and i always end up disassembling them to fit working lights anyway so may as well come in bits.
Great job, Jenny! I've never trusted my soldering skill. I would never make the locomotive model run lol Looking forward to seeing the 2nd part. Cheers Patt
i know it would be tricky to manage and possibly cause issues with privacy, corporate identity protection etc, but it would be fascinating to see inside the factory to see how they do the builds and painting ? I've always wondered how they do the lining etc having manually lined a loco and how long that takes. It really goes to show the skill of not only the designers but also the folks who assemble them Likewise how they machine the tooling to form the various pieces. Great video :-)
This was interesting to me as I have worked on an assembly line. I had to know how to make all the sub assemblies to finishing the product and testing, so I could teach others how to to it.
I get the feeling they'd not be into that these days as it would muddy the waters greatly as to what is or isn't an issue on their end once the models started entering the market as second hand items, you know some naughty person would seek out a box appropriate for it and stick it in there and sell it as a preassembled one.
As opposed to how the Chinese contractors build them like an assembly line so that each person becomes an expert on one particular sub-assembly before it moves down the line...from having seen Rapido and ScaleTrains video tours of their respective Chinese contract factories.
Some comments on this video are claiming that ECHR membership forces the UK to set an uncompetitive minimum wage. That is nonsense. Hungary and Romania, where Märklin and Roco are produced are both ECHR (and EU) member countries. Piko, a German company, make all their H0 stuff in China but only in a factory in which they have the maximum 49% ownership/control permitted by Chinese law. Piko's owner regularly visits the Chinese factory and production line and produces excellent youtube videos about it. In my opinion Hornby's mistake was to offshore and outsource at the same time, thereby losing far more control. They probably did that because of the UK's historic links to Hong Kong. No doubt there were plenty of English-speaking middlemen in the HK/China toy industry who could link them to Chinese contract factories. Far harder for British companies to do business in Eastern Europe in the early 2000s because Brits are as a whole so incurious/rubbish at languages. Unlike German and Austrian companies who do business across Eastern Europe all the time.
Making the models in the Uk requires millions of pounds in investment in a state of the art production facility, training / development of staff & a logistics operation to distribute the end product. Manufacturing can return to the UK now that the SEZ's/ Freeports are up & running to take advantage of generous tax breaks / state subsides, these areas have vast powers , the main area is that for the staffs wages / working conditions / working hours to be driven down the country has to remove itself from the ECHR that protects these regulations. Making models to standards in excess of Hornby is a everyday occurence for Marklin whose models are made in Hungary & Roco who make theirs in Romania, trick is why Hornby are not using these companies to make their models closer to the UK rather than 3rd party vendors located thousands of miles away & the time it takes for the prototypes, samples etc to be mailed back & forward to China from Margate. One can have very little respect for Hornby selling out its UK workforce to move the production to China to cut costs, take adavantage of so called far superior far eastern tooling technology of which if you have any of Marklins / Rocos stuff the German / Austria eastern europe is just as good if not better, especially with regard to the grades of metal used / tolerances etc.
My understanding is Hornby essentially had to move production to China in order to offer the same detail improvements that Bachmann were starting to offer. I believe Bachmann had already moved their production to China before Hornby. 20 years ago, the new Chinese made products were far better than anything Margate had produced. Over those years I think the Chinese have had too much input in the upgrading process and materials specified. We hear stories now of how Chinese producers are using off-spec (cheaper) materials and duping the European/US customers into believing they did use specified materials. A simple example would be if a European designed product might specify that there should be 0% regrind in the plastic but the Chinese injection moulders could easily add 10-20% and it will still look OK but won't be to spec.
Driving down wages to Chinese standards is not the answer. Modern process and automation combined with a skilled workforce can definitely succeed in "onshoring" even complex and detailed manufacturing. The Raspberry Pi is proof of that. It takes money, determination and sufficient volume sales, but it can be done without putting workers on the poverty line.
I wouldn’t be so quick to extoll the virtues of Roco these days. Terrible issues and completely uninterested in customer service. Wages are not ‘low’ in China and haven’t been for decades, particularly in skilled areas including model making and assembly.
If it’s a choice between having a model railway item built in UK at the expense of lowering all our wages, increasing our taxes and losing our human right protections as citizens, so as to enable bigger margins for business owners, or maintaining our salary levels, employee rights and principles of democratic accountability while existing model-making workers elsewhere in the world continue in employment to support themselves and their families, I know which I would prefer personally.
@@Teesbrough I doubt there is sufficient skilled model makers in UK to build RTR models and there certain isn’t any of the specialised equipment. It would as mentioned take £millions to even make a start and everyone moans at current prices.
I’d prefer buying I assembled models from Hornby and put them together myself!… As I do not trust Hornby to put anything together properly. Whenever I buy a new model I always rebuild it properly. I have built over 1000 locos and could do this entire assembly in 60 mins max!
