Model Railway Forum

Before making any decisions on pre-orders, I thought I'd check on what Hornby are charging compared to the main "box-shifters". As a "southern" modeller/collector, these are the models I've looked at, but the price comparisons between the suppliers is pretty much the same. I have compared the Hornby price with, Model Railways Direct (MRD), Hattons (HA), Kernows(K) and Rails (R). I've listed a few examples:

BR Terrier R3767X (DCC Fitted) - Hornby £109.00 - MRD & HA £99.00 - K & R £98.99

BR M/N Ellerman Lines R3649 - Hornby £179.99 - MRD & HA £162.00 - K & R £161.99

BR Lord Nelson/Walter Raleigh R3732 - Hornby £169.99 - MRD & HA £153.00 - K & R £152.99

BR H Class R3731 - Hornby £119.99 - MRD & HA £108.00 - K & R £107.99

What this shows is that you can save between about £10.00/£17.00 by buying from one of the main box shifters. The price difference between the "box-shifters" is £0.01p. Looking through the range these variations are pretty much across the board. There will of course be the odd supplier who will manage to undercut these prices, but I doubt by much. So the decision to make is: Order from Hornby, pay a bit more and get guaranteed delivery, or order from a box-shifter, save a few pounds and hope he gets enough models to get one to you. BB

Don't forget postage to add on top - although some offer post free (ie Kernow on orders over £175). I very rarely pre-order as usually their are stacks of a model doing the rounds and I always prefer to read comments on the actual model when released, is it accurate, is the livery right, does it run well (accepting that their will always be the odd duff one and its owner probably will do their best to slate the model at every opportunity) and are their any issues fitting it with a decoder /what decoder fits. Their have been a number of models whereby waiting for the second batch pays off as errors/faults with the initial batch get corrected. Also that prices are likely to fall after a while as stock sits on shelves gathering dust.

All very valid points Mike. My only concern with not pre-ordering, is from previous experience, you can miss out and then wait months for a second production run - assuming there will be one! At the end of the day, and I'm not a millionaire, a ten pound saving is not a major decision changer. BB

I believe Hornby will honour the price currently on their website for pre-prders even if the price has increased by the time the shipment has arrived from China.
Hatton’s however, only say they will advise you if the price has increased when they get the stock, so you have an option to cancel.
Just a shame that Hornby no longer give a 10% discount to Club members.

They do Steve - I have always paid Hornby the price quoted at pre-order. In saying that I have had the same with MRD. Of course with Hornby you do get free postage - can't remember over what price of the order, but most loco's fall into the "free postage" category. Barry

Interesting point about ‘free’ postage.
Yesterday I pre-ordered four locos, total cost will be around £360. Two of them are actually under £50 and guess what? The invoice quotes postage on them but not the ones over the price limit.
Presumably their T’s&C’s will say something about the value of each individual parcel dispatched.

Boxshifters are limited to a maximum 10% discount which is why their prices are all the same. I believe this restriction is for a limited period from when a new model is first available.