Simon Kohler interview with PeachyTT120, Hornby, TT120, HM7000, Model Railways
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- A Fascinating Interview with Simon Kohler, giving his reactions to the latest launches and range from Hornby's TT120. Special thanks to Chris from PeachyTT120 for joining us!
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What a lovely way to spend an hour listening to this. The TT community is indeed a positive one, long may it continue.
Lovely see and hear Simon again. Thanks Peachy and MacTrains for putting this together
No trouble at all I assure you - we both thoroughly enjoyed chatting Simon.
@@mactrains he is a lovely gentleman
a great update with Simon and you two
Many thanks Stephen - Simon is very generous with his time and always interesting to hear from.
I am a typical example of a newbie to TT-120, i saw it at the Warley show in 2022 for the first time, i was thinking of maybe trying to build a layout and went to Warley (having never been) for ideas. I was sold straight away on the TT-120 size and ive been absorbed ever since. Ive spent lots of money but i am enjoying my 8x4 layout and all the new challenges along the way. Well done Hornby you have a loyal customer now for many years to come.
Always great to hear of folk returning to the hobby, whatever the scale - though we do have a soft spot for TT!
Morning all . A great chin wag with Simon that hour flew by cheers lads 👍👍
Morning - "chin wag" is an underused expression these days! Must make an effort to use it more... Thanks for watching
Our pleasure Ian
Good to see Simon K again 🎉
We were delighted to get him back
Another fab TT120 discussion guys , looking forward to the next one!
Glad you liked it! Hopefully more to follow though nothing yet certain
What a great interview. Simon always has so many interesting insights and I have a great deal of time for him. Thanks so much for creating this video 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wonderful interview. So nice to hear such positivity :) TT forever !
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great to hear from Simon, and thank you both for another great interview and the positivity you all bring to modelling, here's to everyone who can keep the joy in both modelling and RUclips videos! :)
Thank you again for taking the time to watch and comment. We are aware these are not short videos, but hopefully worth the hour or so
@@mactrains Listening while putting together a new Metcalfe kit, time flew in
Good video and good to listen to SK again. Instrumental figure in getting me hooked alongside TT 120 and Hornby as a whole. I think many are ignorant to the fact that without Hornby there would be very few railway modellers!
Glad you enjoyed it. Simon has always been very generous with his time
Fantastic video chaps, I really enjoyed that. It was like being down the pub having a chat over a swift half. Very interesting what Simon was saying towards the end about the unfair aggyness directed at Hornby etc. Funnily enough I've had a video made for a few weeks now on that subject and how there is absolutely no need for such behaviour, I haven't posted the video because once I get on my soap box I do tend to waffle on a bit and I don't want to bore everyone to death with my monotone voice 😂😂 Id probably end up making more enemies than friends by posting it 😂😂. Anyway keep up the great work chaps and keep banging the TT:120 drums.
Post away - the more folk say their bit that this moaning and grumping is no good, the more hope of curtailing it! Your own stuff is always great fun - no negativity allowed!
Really enjoyed your discussion tonight and the conversation and positive energy about TT:120 is infectious. Always look forward to seeing and hearing from Simon and he is spot on with what he says about the value of this hobby with its varying skills to learn, experience and enjoy. I am some way off building a quality layout however am very much enjoying the journey. Thanks to you all for sharing. Bert 🚂
Thanks to all involved for this interview. Both enjoyable and informative. I do hope other companies listen and take note. TT120 is growing. I model in both OO Gauge and TT120 but have invested a considerable amount in the latter because of the level of excitement and enthusiasm for this new product.
It'd be good to have Montana on too!
It would be good to see her but I suspect her insight into things going forward would be more limited.
Thanks for putting the time and effort into this guys. The value of the content you both produce is not to be underestimated, especially for this little avenue of the hobby that’s still in its infancy.
It was especially interesting to hear Simon’s response to the issue of unnecessarily negative critics of the scale. I thought it was well reasoned and professional. Something that the proponents of such criticism could learn from.
It’s a shame when clicks or anonymity can make people forget the dignity of the unexpressed opinion!
"The dignity of the unexpressed opinion." I like that. Reminds me of the old Proverb "Even a fool, when he holders his peace, is counted wise" Thanks!
A very enjoyable and informative hour. We'll done to you both, it's a great format. Lovely to hear from SK. He knows a lot more than he's saying.
I think you are spot on Derek - he does indeed! But its fair enough that he's not going to say everything to us - at least not yet...
@mactrains SK is in a difficult position; we're he to criticise Hornby too much it would be seen as sour grapes. I'm sure there will be a legal check in place that prevents him from saying too much and stealing Hornby's thunder. I think you both got the maximum out of him.
Good interview, I look forward to the next one.
I'm asking this for a friend: What is the loco Simon was referring to as his suggestion for Accurascale to release as their first foray into TT:120?
Nice group chat and a further insight into Simon Kohlerworld. Personally, I would say you can take the guy out of the company but you can't take the company out of the guy.
@NewModelRailway1 - it took me a minute to figure it out - never was fast on the uptake - but I think he is hinting strongly at a Deltic. And yes, I suspect that to his last day he will be known to most as "Mr Hornby"!
@@mactrains Can you imagine a TT:120 version of 'The Black Watch' Deltic from Accurascale? That would tick so many boxes.
What a great interview and thanks for the discussion about the negativity and sniping that seems to be prevalent within this hobby
It makes no sense at all as you say
Sometimes it really should be called antisocial media
Keep up the good work guys and I wish Simon all success
"Antisocial media" - I may use that phrase - but sadly true.
A great follow up from the first one with Simon & his enthusiasm & dedication to the hobby, Hornby & TT:120 goes far beyond the usual trappings. It comes down to simply one thing and as The Beatles sang, you can't buy it & it's all you need. Dishing out Accurascale gifts like OO gauge candy to popular channels is fine. Call it what you will but, if that channel then give Hornby A Hard Days Night & them a Love Me Do in the next breath, in the same video, over & over, is that good for the hobby & do we really want to see that in TT:120?
Morning Andy - thanks for watching and commenting. Even without your handle I think I would have known from reading the comment who wrote it! Totally agree we want to maintain TT120 as a place of encouragement for modellers as much as possible. Not that we shouldn't be able to offer constructive criticism certainly, but moderated with an understanding that no company are trying to make poor models.
@@mactrains No division. I wouldn’t buy an Accurascale model in OO or TT:120 and not just due to the significant issues they’ve had across the range as a fledgling company but, due to the bias of some influencers who must be the most lucky on one hand with their products and most unlucky when it comes to Hornby’s. I feel Bachmann who get it as well these days too, would be the better company to focus our positive attentions on. The figures aren’t even by the ones soaking up a lot of sun after seeding, very clever and apart from that distraction, another great interview. 👍
Thanks Andy! Though I think I would be very tempted by an Accurascale one myself...!
Loved that ! Well done brilliant entertaining and informative video
Glad you enjoyed it
Really enjoyable video. I met Simon at Kings Cross when the Hornby stand was visiting the station on the weekend Flying Scotsman visited as part of its centenary celebrations. Had quite a chat with him about the new TT range and he answered my questions and was pleased to know I was about to venture into the gauge with one of the starter sets on order. He certainly knows his stuff and has always been helpful when I've contacted him while he was at Hornby. I'd always get a prompt reply to my email queries. Regarding the negative RUclips reviwers, I've found myself unsubscibing from their channels because their unfair criticism just winds me up! Yes of course if there are problems with a model they need highlighting but they need to be addressing the positive as well as the negative. And yes model railways are expensive but manufacturers don't set out to 'rip people off'. They are businesses not charities. I really don't agree with buying a model you dont like in the first place just to find fault and give it a rubbish review. At the end of the day if something's not your thing then don't buy it! Anyway each to his own I suppose but sometimes the nit pickers can be a bit much!
Delighted you found it worth watching Rob. YT is very much a two-edged sword, but hopefully we can keep things on the sunny side!
Great interview, really like how he's open on honest in the explanations he gave. Even if you don't agree with what's Hornby has or hasn't done at least it gives some understanding of the rationale of why they did or didn't do something.
I'm certainly glad they released TT, even if I'd have gone OO I'd still only have a 6x4 board to work with. In turn I would have bought a few locos and the wagons and coaches would make up smaller trains due to space. In TT my HST has 4 coaches, in OO I'd fit 2 so Hornby have made more money from me because of TT120..
Hi Tim - thanks!
If TT would have been available at the time I restarted my hobby in 2020 I would most certainly have chosen it over H0 and OO. Apart from the great Hornby TT models, there's also continental stock available. Now I have lots of OO/H0 and it's however difficult to sell everything and start all over again in TT. 😢 But I wish TT all the best!
Totally makes sense. I wouldn’t expect or ask anyone heavily invested in HO/OO to ditch the time effort and love they have put into their layouts. TT is an alternative for those who want it. Thanks so much for your comment. Spot on.
Well done, a good listen.
Thanks Colin - glad you liked it
Greetings over there🚂
Ah - a visitor from across the puddle by any chance? Welcome indeed!
@@mactrains yes from Southern Africa🚂👍
Awesome! Beautiful part of the world. Used to live in SA, and have visited Zambia a few times.
@@mactrains hello, glad to hear from you. Yes beautiful SA, thanks for chatting, always welcome
53:25 Well said peachy
? The timestamp is for Simon talking.
@@mactrains it was Chris was saying about Hornby been a small company and people have mortgages etc
Ah yes - a very valid point I felt too. We forget the human element sometimes.
Great interview again from you both. Again looking forward to what’s next in TT-120 as a scale but what’s peachy and Mactrains get upto next 👍
Good question! Answers on a postcard please...
52:50 Problems happen, issues arise. The real measure is how the problem/issue is handled and reolved. A good and effective reolution is the best of outcomes when things don't go as expected. I believe that Hornby's customer care and after sales service is really good (in my opinion).
Yes, that seems to be the general consensus. Good after sales care can really help keep customers onside.
Yet another great (surprise!) Q&A session guys. Any bets on who will be first to get a TT Deltic produced? I'd bet it would be a massive seller whoever it is.
Thanks Barry
Accurascale are masters of tease . So the fact they’ve supplied TT120 measurement figures I don’t think signifies they will build a TT120 locomotive . The issue for Accurascale is whether a TT120 loco will generate more income than say an OO class 40 or an 8F. I think an OO 40 or indeed a fair few models will sell a lot more than any loco in TT .
Great discussion though. Thoroughly enjoyable
Here we go! 😂
Damn you. I was just about to post a 'FIRST' comment.
@@NewModelRailway1 🤣🤣
What could possibly go wrong...!
@@mactrainsnothing the ever professional presenters you are
@@East_Mallingford_RailwayAmazing how you could type that and keep a straight face at the same time😂😂😂
Wasn't only Lima who tried British HO. Rivarossi offered a Royal Scot loco (and coaches?), and Fleischmann offered a Warship at one point. All sank.
Can I make a suggestion? Edit down the very last section about positivity/negativity in the hobby and release that as a stand alone video. Everyone in this wonderful hobby needs to get behind the hobby and take a bit of responsibility. The naysayers and negatives have been having it their own way for too long. 👍
20:54 - I am a newbie/returning to the hobby after 48 years gap. I have no idea what Accurascale locomotive Simon is talking about that fits with the A3/A4s - what is it please? 🙂
Yes, it took me a bit to figure out too - Chris and I discussed it and we're fairly sure he meant a Deltic.
No idea why he has to faff about with all this "nudge, nudge, wink wink, know what I mean guvner ' nonsense. It's all very silly.
Something that might help reduce rants etc, because I don't want to be mean to people who work hard, would be clearer routs to give constructive feedback. I have a range of Hornby locos, some choices, and they are choices, leave me scratching my head and it would be useful to be able to give feedback and say, this was good, please keep doing that, that was not, please try a different way. A good example is I play a Star Trek Game, the game developer has a Discord group anyone can join etc, one of the RUclipsrs does regular community surveys and we see changes made in game, based on our feedback. Not always, but often and the developer does a good job of acknowledging issues as well as publishing road maps etc.
Yes, having an outlet for any issues we do come across is useful to us as modellers. Certainly Hornby make available their customer services email, which is one avenue for any issues to be raised.
Definitely worth dropping a line to Hornby as a suggestion.
A small affordable steam engine to get new members into the hobby can only be a good thing. Not everyone can afford an A4 set as a starter set.
I run Tri-ang TT as well as N and OO gauges.
Does Hornby not have memories or some insight from the Tri-ang TT experience?
IN fairness TriangTT was a long time ago, but great to know it's still going strong for you. And yes a small steamer would be lovely!
Whatever happened to Montana
As far as I know know she moved on and got a good job in another field.
Love Simon to death. However it’s starting to feel asking him about Hornby strategy or products is getting a little irrelevant. Things have changed. Musings on trends and history are great. Also love his answer to the question about the naysayers on social media
Thanks Damian. Yes, certainly as time goes by Simon's perspective will change from being effectively still an insider, to being a very well-placed observer. No doubt he still has his ear to the ground and hears far more than the rest of us.
Now I'm going to upset the hole TT community, but I think it was a stupid idea to lunch TT range in the first place, without offending the people that bought it, but rather to Hornby even if Peco a bit.
And I'm going to try to explain why.
I get the smaller scale, less place, N is too small and OO to big, correct in one way, but If you look what people have done with shelf layouts in OO and other existing scales, I find this a faint excuse.
I've been a OO gauge collector for more than 40 years, and I can say it has substantially been growing over the years.
To start with I'm not a brand freak, and those who bring something out that I like, will have me as a costumer, and my pallet of choice is more than my wallet can bear, so no shortage there.
We all know that the range of models in the other scales is vast, and there is something for everyone, although for some it's never enough, but we're going to leave that endless nagging out.
What I'm afraid of, is that the Big Bang of the TT range launch has started to faint now.
In the first place you're not going to convince collectors like me, to sell their collection for TT or even add TT in their range.
It will take decades to even come to the availability what's on the market of all the other scales, and sorry but I've seen enough A3 and A4 and all the rest that is common popular stock now in TT.
Life is expensive, and a lot of collectors buy secondhand, and now an than buy a brand new product, if they can, so you excluding a very big part of people on a small budget who also deserve a bit of joy in the hobby.
You don't have to be a mathematician to know how bigger your audience is, the more you can produce and the more you can offer.
And that doesn't mean you can bring out something exclusive, look at Bachmann with there 009 range, genius move, you can combine it with 00 on a layout, because it's in the same scale, and now there doing it again for 0 gauge.
What Hornby should have done was to launch broad gauge in scale 1/76, than like 009, you can extend it to your existing the collection if you want, and it would have been an extension of Hornby's new historic range, what I by the way, find a good genius move of Hornby.
What I'm now afraid of, and I really don't hope it's going to turn out that way for the people who bought TT, because they will be the victim in the end.
When the bang is gone, a lot of people, are going to drop off, because the range is not growing fast enough, because it expensive, and Hornby is making already a circus of there prices, and the other brands are not following, except for Peco a bit, etc..
So my fear is that Hornby is coming to the conclusion, that there are not enough buyers, and are just going to stop production in general.
And it's not the first time we've seen such a stunt from Hornby, think of the OO gauge live steam, o yes they already had a TT range that died due to this reason, the 3.5 inch live steam Rocket, their first attempt to go digital, etc..
So no offense to the TT modeler, anyone who's in the model railroad hobby is a spirit alike, but that's my view on TT and I really hope, that I'm wrong…
Hi Danny - no offence taken at all - you may well prove to be right one day, but like you, I hope you are indeed wrong. We don't know the future of TT, or any gauge for that matter. But if you like it, buy it. Not sure I buy into the 009 being a genius move. I feel it is very very niche. Lovely yes, but I suspect a limited market. TT120, being a new scale has far more room to grow - at least thats what I hope! Thanks for watching and taking time to comment. And don't forget to come back for more...
My gut instincts disagree with a lot of what you have written, as for broad gauge, this sounds like wishful thinking. I believe slowly other manufacturers will come on board. I wonder if Revolution models will produce a wagon and slowly it will take off. A new scale from scratch is always going to take time. Rome was not built in a day etc,etc.
Stupid? No. Brave? Yes. Faint hearts never change the status-quo in business. Some succeed, some fail. If it was easy we could all be doing it. This is not for the collector. This is for the operator who wants an interesting layout in a smaller space. I was given my first train set in 1960. I have boxes of OO stock which I can run on a local large layout. And yet I am building a TT:120 at home. It hits the sweet spot for me in terms of realism (my The Scotsman stock looks superb) combined with the ability to build an operationally interesting layout in a domestic space.
Not many ever expected 00 users to ditch their layouts for TT, but new people to the hobby are going for TT, like myself. I would never entertain a dublo layout but love my TT one. Even if it all stopped in a few years (which it won't), we would all have our layouts in the perfect scale.
@@mactrains Sure I come back, anything model railway related, is of interest to me and your channel is a good concept.
And like I sad, I hope me pessimism towards TT is wrong, and I really do hope for those who are so trilled about, may enjoy it and that it will flourish over time.
@115steve wishful thinking is something what we all do, otherwise TT was not realized, but in my view still not established, as is my personal favorite era1 in 00, also still a big question mark how this will further develop.
A lot of people find Era 1also not necessary, I love it…
Time will tell, you may not agree with me, but you know as I do, the world is not all "happy".
And what I did want to express where my concerns towards TT, due to my skepticism towards Hornby, as this is not the first time they let people down who had invested in a new system.
Again, as I stated, I do hope I'm wrong, what I rather would like to see is that everyone's dreams come out.
It's not about my way or the highway, as they say.
Grumpy Andy Dork moaning as usual on RMWEB. tut Tut.
I'm not familiar with Andy, so really cannot comment on these things. Best to avoid name calling though I'd say?