I have the following items on order for quite some time now:

1. Brawa E95 43157 on order since September 2015 originally planned for Q4 2015
2. Brawa E75 43207 on order since January 2015 originaly planned for Q3 2015
3. Passenger coaches 46155+46153+46154 on order since January 2015 originaly planned for Q3 2015
4. Wagon 47258+48714+48713 only recently on order

I had some other orders running, but I dropped those in the process (f.e. E95 without sound and some passenger coaches)

In 2015 every quarter or so the planned delivery dates were postphoned again and again. The 'auslieferung' on the Brawa site has not been updated since january and actually stil holds the January and February delivery lists.

I'm normally quite patient with expecting orders, but this is getting a bit to my frustration and I'm thinking of cancelling the whole bunch and go for another manufacturers altbau Elok.

Does anybody share this experience with Brawa or has a clue whats going on?

Rinus

The whole concept of announcing new items, not yet produced, in the model railway hobby have always puzzled me and i never really start paying attention before the models are actually produced and in the shop.

The idea it should spark interest and increase sales I think it has the completely opposite effect. Users getting frustrated by waiting and waiting.

Why not just keep the announcement secret a bit longer and only announce when the production is up and running?

Brgds Lasse

Problem again in China.

Hornby about 20 items from 2016 new items was cancelled, About 80 2016 new items delay until 2017.

Hornby is cleaning out warehouse stock to dealers at up to half price sale to need money into Hornby bank.

Hornby Blame high price and too low orders from customer because of lack Quality lining painting/Parts broken off.

Hello, al my rolling stock coming from US dealers have the Made in China sticker. Locomotives and rolling stock from EU, with no really clear origin

Thats perhaps the best thing to do. I think I'll leave the new items for what they are at the moment.

Oh boy that's rich "Blaming customers for too few orders (Hornby)" How about making the models people want and the quality they require! I remember Hornby from the 50's - 60's and they were quality products then. I was amazed to see the Hornby loco's at the National Railway Museum in York, very lightweight poorly made locos with numerous over sized fasteners and nasty paint work! Of course ALL made in China! Marklin on the other hand has maintained a much higher level of quality and attention to detail. Very sad to see Hornby slowly descending into "Shabby Land". My apologies to those who love Hornby.

Not all China models develop zincpest, but zincpest models made in this century are most likely made in China.
And Brawa had that problem, too.

A report in a 2004 MRR magazine indicates that Brawa used Sandakan as producer since the 1990s, but was still producing in Germany.

Reports from 2010 suggest that Brawa had a lot made in China by 2010 - hence the big problems after Sandakan stepped out.

They advertise "German engineering" on their website - I didn't find a word about "Made in Germany" there.

One major European model train dealer here is the US has openly stated that nearly all manufacturers limit the number of production runs on each item they sell. He went on to say that the production run is based on the number of pre-orders. If the numbers do not meet a certain amount (profit over cost), the run is simply delayed until the number is met or they simply cancelled after an amount of time has pasted. I have seen ROCO, Piko, and Walthers all cancel releases. On a recent cancellation of run of locomotives, Walthers announced that they did not receive enough pre-orders to justify making the locomotive.

I have seen cancelled items with Roco and with Trix.
Trix cancelled an item I was interested in - so I had funds for another Piko loco. Such is life.

So maybe you do not get the item you wanted in the first place. But you buy something else - maybe not even MRR related.

It's good for the profitability of MRR companies to cancel the least wanted items and make more of the most wanted items. But they will lose some funds and maybe even some fans that way.

You didn't get the loco you want? How much does it hurt one year later? Not at all.
MRR is addictive. Those cancellations help to cure this addiction. We should be grateful for every cancellation.

There are always more locos to fall in love with than you can afford. If it is a "want have" then wait for next years "want have" items.
If it is a "must have" then consider a credit or wait for a livery variation a few years later or buy it second hand a few years later.
In both cases tell yourself "I do not really need it, I do not really need it, I do not really need it".

That is usually the problem. At least for me.

It comes to a Gollum like debate with my self:
"Me want it so much!"
"But you do not need it"
"But me want it, precious!"
"But you do not need it!"
"STOP! Stop, telling me what to do..."
"Okay, go buy it, go, go!"
"My precious!"

Welcome to capitalism 101 - no one is going to put money into a product where there is no guarantee of a return based on the number of pre-orders.

At the same time, how does a manufacturer get the number of pre-orders they need without advertising the item? It's a two sided gamble, does ROCO or Piko or whomever invest to manufacturer 10000 units and only end up selling 100? At the same time, do they order 100 and end up with 10000 orders? There isn't really a perfect solution alas. I really wanted a specific Marklin lok that never even reached the US because the number made was less than demand. There will always be Swiss Crocodiles that sell for $1000 because they're so rare and so many 4423 Gonadala's that you can't sell for 1c because there are so many of them. Maybe one day the perfect solution might be found

Actually Hornby has a lot of fine detail these days compared to what they used to and thanks to having a better business model the company has become a surviving monster that swallowed a lot of of other well known companies that produced better stuff than them.
Unfortunately when it comes to quality I do agree with you there are so many wrongs that despite all the detail their models still don't look 100% that is what still kept me from buying British models otherwise there are lots I want. I have also seen Chinese Hornby suffering zink pest and the mechanical quality of the Thomas range is appalling for something aimed at kids which should be extra tough.

Some German shops are offering loads of cheap Brawa stuff so it may be they are having financial troubles as well

Bob M.

They make clearance sales every year to get rid of stocked items.