OK, this is an interesting one to review. Obviously, I know Simon, and have done for many years. When he left Hornby for the second time, I nagged him to write this book. I'm interested in the history of model railways, and no one has been at the centre of things for a longer period, than Simon. With that in mind, as soon as it came out, I paid my £34.99 for a copy.
TLDR: It's a good read, and if you are like me, very interesting.
The book traces Simon's working career from his earliest days at The Model Shop, in Northampton, through H&M and then the many, many years at Hornby. Over this period, the hobby changes quite dramatically.
However, the single overriding question I think most people will take out of this is: How is Hornby still in business?
Simon charts the various changes behind the scenes, both in management, and more importantly, in attitude to the hobby. We have the firm focusing its efforts away from their core activities of model railways and slot racing, to toys, and souvenir items, almost at random, and certainly with little understanding of the market at times.
Now, this is one person's view, and it's only natural that if you write a book like this, you portray yourself as the hero, and to be fair, there are many times when Simon admits he made mistakes, or simply didn't speak up to try and stop others making them. That said, I've known him a long while, and also some of the other personalities involved, and it's, as far as I can tell, a pretty fair account.
One of the most interesting areas is the move of manufacturing to China. We tend to think that this was purely based on keeping costs down, but it was heavily driven by a desire to produce models with high-levels of accuracy and detail. We couldn't do this in the UK, often as much due to attitude as ability. This ties in with Jason Shron, of Rapido Trains comments when considering moving manufacturing to Canada. Only the Chinese have the ability to produce the quality that modellers now demand.
There are certainly plenty of interesting stories along the way. One of them saw me present Simon with a 3DS system to talk about at the NEC. This was classic Hornby management devising something that is a bit rubbish - and thinking it would be a major part of the company's output. At the time, they felt threatened by computer games, but the result didn't set the world alight.
At 336 pages, this is a pretty big read, and it took me quite a while to go through. As I say, I found it interesting and enlightening. Some of the activities that caused Simon to leave for the first time are well-remembered by those of us trying to keep a lid on ranting modellers determined that Hornby was evil. Finding out exactly who was to blame wasn't a surprise...
If I have a complaint, it's that the later stages of Simon's career, mainly the second stint at the firm, feel a little rushed. I could have happily read another 30 pages to allow the story to breathe a little. Of course, there is the TT:120 book covering this, so that will have extracted a chunk of story. I wonder if it's too close at the moment, and while people mentioned in earlier parts of the text are long gone, those from the recent past are still around, so discretion plays a part.
Whatever, as I'd hoped this does cover a lot of ground. If you want to know how the model railway business has evolved, that alone makes this worth a read. I could also see it being interesting to those interested in business generally. Hornby has never been afraid to try things, and some simply sink without trace.
Which brings me to the biggest issue. Having read this, I know some of the items that didn't sell - and now I want to add them to my collection, along with the 3DS. A velodrome to start with, and then a Hornby livery HST. The last one was a surprise to me. Just proving that all the experience in the world doesn't mean you get all your guesses right!
