OOLS Service & Repair Scheme
One of the long term aims of the club has been to ‘source and stock spare parts to guarantee the continued running of locos. As a natural progression we also occasionally discussed what would happen when Hornby stopped providing support for live steam.
By the time of the 2017 AGM individual skills within the club had improved to the point where we considered offering a repair service as a viable option and the committee voted to identify and discuss both the risks and logistical issues associated with the club reaching an agreement with Hornby to take on the responsibility of providing a service/repair scheme for Hornby OO Live Steam Locomotives.
It was agreed to progress the following items
11. - Members loco servicing – implementation date – provisionally 1st January 2018
11.1 - Agree Standard Operating procedures (SOP)
11.2 - Agree Terms and Conditions
11.3 - Agree who will volunteer to undertake services and will be able to commit to the process
11.4 - Agree initial contact and distribution responsibilities
11.5 - Progress the club ‘How to’ servicing video's
11.6 – Negotiate a spare parts agreement with Hornby
Although we made progress on many of the agenda items a particularly difficult problem to solve turned out to be providing protection for all involved from any public liability claims. The choices were for the club to become a limited company or increase the current show insurance cover.
The necessary research and discussion took quite a long time and had still not been resolved prior to the 2018 AGM. Also we had still not negotiated any agreement over the supply of spare parts and Hornby were still servicing/repairing locos for £25, a price we were not prepared to match.
As a result, following further discussion the following four points were agreed.
· For now the proposed club loco repair plans should be put on hold.
· This should be reviewed annually whilst Hornby are still providing a repair service.
· To progress the loco servicing videos.
· To progress the planned ‘Loco Care’ Pack
After the 2018 AGM the shop manger produced the ‘Loco Care’ packs and although the initial batch sold well when it came to restocking there was a problem. Individual component prices had risen so steeply that producing a pack became uneconomic. Also by this time the club had published two sets of video tutorials and these clearly identified all the items needed to undertake work on the locos.
Getting Started . . . . . . 002 - Tools and Preparation Tutorial
OOLS Maintenance . . . 009 - An Introduction to Servicing
As they were no longer a viable OOLS Shop product the ‘Loco Packs’ were discontinued.
Fast forward to 2021 and the club were made aware that Hornby had made the decision to stop servicing the OO Live Steam locos so9 the club committee started the process of finalising all of the unfinished details from the 2017 AGM.
The decision was made to provide public liability protection for the club and members by extending the club insurance policy to cover the new service & repair activities.
Contact details were given to Hornby to pass on when they received any requests for work on locos and by December 2021, with club insurance policy extended to cover this work (excluding North America) the club began to undertake the service and repair of Hornby OO Live Steam Locos.
Why was no announcement made to members?
I refer you back the seven (eight including public liability) items from the 2017 AGM. The truth is that although we were aware of the Hornby decision to stop maintaining the locos, the communication from Hornby was almost none existent.
Not all the final details of this OOLS Club Service & Repair Scheme had previously been agreed or finalised by the club committee and although the administration for the scheme was steadily developing the individual steps had not actually been tried and tested.
Between December 2021 and April 2022 the club have successfully serviced and/or repaired 20 locos. We have used this time to identify and resolve any issues within the process and satisfy ourselves that we can successfully deliver this ambitious new scheme.
The club ethos is to help members enjoy OO Live Steam. It should be noted that this scheme is a service provided purely for the benefit of club members and is not intended to be a commercial profit making enterprise.
All these loco are now between twelve and twenty years old and the service/repair of any loco will often take many additional hours of work before it can be returned to a satisfactory working condition. These locos are expensive to buy and at commercial rates would also be very expensive to maintain. The OOLS Service & Repair Scheme charges are not designed to recoup the full cost of any additional time needed but rather they are designed to strike a balance between the real cost of the work and a ‘fair and reasonable price’ cost to both the club and the service & repair team members.
The team members undertaking the servicing and/or repair will always endeavour to ensure that a loco is returned to working condition, no matter how long it takes.
We are now ready to ‘go live’ and officially launch the scheme.
wow, what great news !
Have to say that sounds a fantastic step forward for the club.
A huge thank you, must go to all of those in the club, that have been quietly working on this and finding answers and solutions to all the different conundrums that this must have thrown up.
The pricing looks very fair for the amount of work/inspection/cleaning etc that takes place during a loco's service.
I hope it works well for the future, so that these miniature marvels can be kept running....
Joe