Whatever happened to Hornby shop demonstration layouts?

There is also one in the Swindon Outlet Centre where Hornby have a shop. This replaced an earlier one which is now on display at 'The Wonderful World of Trains and Planes' in Birmingham.

There is one in Boswells, Oxford. Although this has Scaledale buildings and is not the original I remember from a teenager.

There is one in Boswells, Oxford. Although this has Scaledale buildings and is not the original I remember from a teenager.

 
 I said that on page 1 81F keep up now. It's not a very good one is it? 

Hi

The demonstartion units were a Hornby marketing exercise. My father was manager of T & G Allan's shop in Morpeth, Northumbreland and they had a coin operated example.

When the shop was being refurbished in 1983-4 they were going to scarp the model. I bought it and converted it to run on 2p coins. It kept my two children and their friends amused for hours.

I still have the model in the loft. The track needs replacing as the curves are worn out. Not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions? 

Pity you can't get it working again and take it to shows. You'd make a fortune, in 2 pence pieces, but still a fortune, well a small one. 

The demonstartion units were a Hornby marketing exercise. My father was manager of T & G Allan's shop in Morpeth, Northumbreland and they had a coin operated example.

I used to love trips up to Morpeth, for T&G Allan's and the little model shop in the arcade of the main street, whilst mother was in Rutherfords.  T&G Allan's was brilliant.  I remember they were selling off the Live Steam rocket quite cheap and my dad offered to buy me it (I was spoilt!) but I actually said I didn't need it.  I probably had something else I was after.  I haven't been to Morpeth for years and years.  

For the record, I've not had a chance to speak to Chris at Fenwicks about their layout, but will do one day!  I did just notice the other night the link on this site to the Corporate Layouts site - it looks like they made the layout for the Flying Scotsman layout - typical of these layouts in shops.

One of our bigger model shops in the city has a large demo layout based on the Noch Silvretta layout with more tracks around the outside.  Primarily HO of course including some Marklin centre stud track but some Hornby running incl Thomas.  All sorts of little interest features added like a Tardis, flying Harry Potter car, a fishing lake just for you PJ, Santa arriving by flying sleigh at Christmas and more.  Always more than one train running and no coins needed.

It was my inspiration to get back in the hobby and I still drop by to look at it.

Hobbyco, Fishy?

Actually bought the Skaledale LMS signal box there last October when we came down to the exhibition at the Whitelamb centre. Three different prices. The lowest price was at the back of the bootom row of items!

Spot on CS, can't be another one like that in the country.

Actually thought of building something like it myself. Designed it in OO with Anyrail but gave up the idea of inclines as too risky.

As a kid, those layouts were the equivalent of someone on Youtube today demonstrating their layout and saying 'just look at the possibilities!' I still spend far too long watching the small layout in the shop at the NRM. Seeing them in Toymaster and Allders in Leeds (what a loss Allders was... that top floor was a dream) were the catalyts that drove my desire for a model railway from the age of 4 or 5. I got my first set at 11 in 2003, I think, and to be able to ride up the escalator armed with £50 (which would buy you a lot more in those days) and take my pickings from the shelves was a dream come true. Sadly Allders shut down in 2005; Toymaster had already binned their layout and Merrion Models was bought out by Modelzone so Leeds was left without a decent model shop.

I guess it's clear why shops don't do that any more. Increased costs makes shop floor space a premium, meaning they can't afford to give the space over to large displays. A crying shame because I'm sure they'd acutally end up selling more if the products were demonstrated in a good quality model environment.