Simon Kohler at KX 170
Simon was at the 170th anniversary of the opening of KX, showing the new TT120 kit. I was there to see the Flying Scotsman's and I just happen to ask him about Hornby bringing back the OOLS range and he said they would love to, but it's a totally different type of consumer, more of the collector type and with inflation and the cost of the dollar a loco on it's own would need to retail for at least £1500, but that the technology is still there and could even be refined.
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Adrian,,It’s not negativity, its facing facts. Most garden rail projects would not choose OO gauge as a first choice and if live steam was the ‘draw’ then gauge 1 would be the ultimate gauge. What we have was the brainchild of one man Richard Hallam, and eventually hornby commercialised it to much fanfare and then grief!! Those of us with an inquisitive mindset have gotten immersed in the product as is, and enjoy it as is! Our locos are not re-manufacturable as they are and as a crossover product combining small gauge and live steam we already understand their foibles and misgivings. Any new development would entail huge development costs of £300k plus and locos would be £1500-2000 and be hard to shift for many years to come. I don’t think you would find one entrepreneur willing to pile money into such a similar project knowing the pitfalls Hornby had endured. Simon Kholers words were ‘It nearly killed me, literally” when referring to the marketing of the Live Steam range, and he was just an employee, not an entrepreneur!! Hornby Live Steam will one day, (hopefully away off), join the Modelling Hall of Fame where Zero 1, Dublo and many other Hornby ventures have laid ther heads!