chris

ah, I see what you mean. If they were all produced and sent to Ireland a while ago (say a couple of months) why are prices being amended now? Well without being privvy to the exact details of MM accounts and contracts there could be several reasons. Payment terms could be one, if MM are not paying all up front and have structured payment it may be a consideration, possibly unlikely though given the nature of smallish companies dealing with Chinese giants. Most likely it'll be up front or 50:50 type arrangements. Or it could be that overall business is being looked at and the profit margins now need to be increased to allow funds to be set aside to go towards affording the next run, which could already be at a planning / prototype stage and require funds to progress. There could be other considerations, I don't know the specific industry well enough to comment specifically on it. But note as well that Chinese minimum wage is set to rise substancially this year and will be a big impact on production costs too. EDIT: Just re-reading the blurb from Murphy: "".....due to the currency exchange situation between Euro/Sterling and Euro/Dollar we are having to increase prices on all new stock arriving in as we cannot afford to absorb these price rises."" To me this could imply that there are several runs of various stock sitting at the manufacturer, stored at factory rather than stored in Ireland and if MM only have to pay on release of shipment then that would certainly impact the pricing of the current runs against those previousl shipped even if all produced at the same time initially. This would make sense production wise I think. Lets take the mk2 as an example and say that all liveries were produced at the same time for the same cost and have sat in storage in China since, with MM only bringing them in staggered so one livery is sold before the next released. That would mean that initiall the cost of the Galway / IE / Supertrain was all the same. But with the Supertrain only just release the FX rates will impact it now rather than at production and cause the price rise. If say there is also an IR livery next up in 6 months the price could rise even further if FX rates continue in the same trends. Again I'd just like to point out this is all speculation based on my general business experience and may be off the mark entirely, it's just what would seem reasonable as an explanation to me .

maybe, or maybe not. Depends on what credit Terms MM gets off the supplier. A likely option is a 50:50 split payment perhaps with 50% up front before production and the remaining 50% on shipment. (some of our contracts require this - totally unrelated industry though). If we say a loco cost $100 to produce MM could have paid $50 / 38eur on 1st Sept but the balancing $50 would cost 45e today. Overall cost of loco would then be 83e instead of 76e if all paid for initially. Big difference, especially if selling price was initially set in September based off known or estimated costs then. In addition in my experience USD is also used as the default shipping currency so once the bill for shipping lands it'll be higher too due to FX. Even something like the declared value on import for tax purposes would change based on the FX rates and incur extra customs & duty charges potentially.

Business in China by external companies is (almost) always in USD. You cannot get Yuan outside of China, hence the USD rate is the key one. Chinese companies are mandated to quote in foreign companies, ultimatly as a way to build national foreign reserves. Many of the models may also get shipped direct to UK rather than Ireland and then UK. If fact the Irish bound stuff is probably trans-shipped through the UK (or Holland) Same with many south American and African countries.

well the 141s are really bachmann, not Murphy aren't they? A couple of my 201s are terrible runners and struggle badly on the club layout whereas the 141s will pull twice the loads with no problems. One of the 201 needs a whole gear tower stripped and redone and I haven't even bothered to figure out the other, it's just goen back in it's box until I've a home layout to figure it out on.

Must be, note the multi-gauge trackwork its sitting on

another option for those interested: http://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/gruppenliste/Decoder+without+sound/9-4-0-0-003001-0-0-0-0-0-0-grp-gb-p-0/gruppenliste.html I buy some Swiss stuff from them from time to time, not only good pricing but great service and you get points per spend which quickly add to freebies

Rapido certainly seem keen on the crowd funding setup for the foray into the British market. I wonder would it be worth approaching them with a proposal?

I would be interested but would much prefer a wagon to start with. There's a lot to go wrong with a loco and a lot of potential disappointment. At least with a wagon its simpler to design and produce

a pack of 124 and 134 with one being a dummy unit would be a good idea I think, may also help keep the cost down a little without the second set of running gear.

our club layout has a 100m mainline, a scale 8.7km

Yep plenty of 00 Irish. 141s, 201s, mk1&2s & cravens and few other bits and pieces. Some Swiss N stuff as well. Moved here from Ireland 2 years ago. Drop me a PM if you're ever down New Plymouth way and I'll show you around the club layout, Palmerston to New Plymouth modelled with US stock, over 200m of trackwork. Haven't got one of my own yet

Took that from Pamly to Welli recently, the open car is great! A bit windy but well sheltered, right behind the loco. The carriages are very nice, comfy seat, good AC, lots of food and booze available in the snack car and the full height and roof windows are petty cool. You can even listen to an audio guide of anything interesting the train passes. Of course it was and hour and 20mins late and Palmy is possibly the worst station in the developed world. Luggage van at one end and observation car at the other. IIRC there were 3 or 4 carriages and a snack car.