According to Chris…
Chris ponders the future of model exhibitions in the UK.
Iwas delighted, at the end of June, to visit the first model railway exhibition I’ve been to in at least a couple of years. Like so many layout owners, I had shows cancelled last year – Egham, and the show that my village friends here in Barnwell were planning to put on.
I think that ship has now sailed, owing to my age, and though I’ll be happy to volunteer for stand duty with Model Rail, I don’t think I’ll be taking layouts anywhere ‘under my own steam’ in future.
The show I attended recently was the 16mm Narrow Gauge Association’s event at Peterborough Arena. Though we don’t cover anything as large as 16mm:1ft scale in Model Rail, I was keen to see how a post-covid indoor show might look. First of all, the age demographic is probably a little higher than it is for the smaller scales so I suspect that the vast majority of exhibitors and visitors had had both vaccinations. Peterborough Showground and Arena has a good reputation for its handling of events under Covid restrictions, but it was also clear that the organisers had planned a well spaced-out event that could have coped with many more people than the number who were there on the Saturday afternoon. Nevertheless, there was a goodly number of visitors and a varied selection of displays, layouts and trade stands covering not just live steam garden railways, but pretty much everything in Gauge 1 and larger. I was impressed and I think it augurs well for well organized, carefully arranged exhibitions, in the right venue, once further restrictions are lifted and while we continue to live with Covid.
I must say I had forgotten how much better REAL live-steam locomotives sound than the digital sound that we’re growing accustomed to in the smaller scales.
So, now I think it is time to change the subject, and to talk about the goings-on in the model railway industry. I am prompted to comment by something written by Jason Shron of Rapido Trains. I will quote it in full:
“In comparison to many industries such as tourism and restaurants, model railroading has been largely spared the negative effects of Covid. Apart from an extended shutdown in February/march 2020, production of model trains was almost normal for most of last year. In fact, our hobby has received a boost in interest and sales as many people rediscovered their love of model trains during the various lockdowns. However, Covid has had The scale may be big but the layout doesn’t have to be.
Chalfont, a fictitious terminus in 13.5mm:1ft scale. Maybe complex trackwork is easier to build in bigger scales.
Inevitably, the keyboard warriors fail to understand any of this and simply go online to berate manufacturers
a knock-on effect which is now hurting us in a big way. It started late last year. Normally, factory workers go home a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year and return a couple of weeks after. This past year, a number of provinces in China advised their citizens to come home early or risk not coming home at all. Many workers at model train factories in Guangdong province thus went home early and this caused many model train deliveries to be delayed.
The next hurdle has been a global microchip shortage. Most of the world’s microchips are produced in one massive complex in Taiwan. The demand for microchips has far exceeded supply, and every industry is affected. For Rapido, this meant that our B36-7s sat in the factory for three weeks – mostly assembled! – waiting for circuit boards. Decoder manufacturers are in the same crunch, and model train companies around the world are not able to get the decoders we need for our models.”
So Jason explains two reasons for the delays to deliveries of models. One does not have to dig very deep to find others. There is a global shortage of containers and it is not just owing to 18,300 of them being on a ship held hostage in Egypt, though the knock-on effects of the Ever Given disaster continue. Many ports around the world have been working at much-reduced capacity owing to staff shortages, and containers are awaiting off-loading from ships and emptying. Five per cent of the world’s container ships are said to be waiting outside ports. This, in turn, has led to a shortage of ships to move the containers that are available.
It is a worldwide chain of events that will take time to resolve. Inevitably, the keyboard warriors fail to understand any of this and simply go online to berate manufacturers. However, in the UK we don’t have manufacturers who are generally as open with their customers as Jason Shron, and this lack of openness fuels the speculation and downright nonsense that is peddled on-line.
So, how about it, British-outline manufacturers? Who would like to give me some background to their particular experience of production in a pandemic, the problems they face and where they are headed right now – open and on the record?
Modeller CV: Chris Leigh Suffering from stay-at-home blues and really feeling the need to go somewhere!