That’s interesting. I’ve been a member of the Hornby Collectors’ Club since it started up in 1998 and my subscription is currently up for renewal, but I can’t bring myself to fork out the cash to benefit from what seems to be becoming an increasingly mediocre offering. I too have become bored of the repetitive complimentary club model: I know that Hornby only have a limited selection of small locomotive designs that fit the 0-4-0 chassis, but surely they could do something a bit different for the club, such as bringing back the old “Nellie” loco body especially for the club model. They don’t even seem to be exclusive any more, and the quality and accuracy of the liveries carried by the locos seems to be increasingly poor. This years’ offering is an absolute joke, which is part of the reason why I’m not inclined to rejoin the club.
The quality of the magazines seems to be going downhill as well. I liked the original format of them at the start, but this has now completely changed and not necessarily for the better in my eyes. There also seems to be an increasing number of errors creeping in.
What wagon do you get if you join the Bachmann Collectors’ Club, and how much does the annual subscription cost? I feel that this may be the way to go. There’s always room for a new wagon or two on my layout, but not for an ever increasing number of small 0-4-0 locos gumming up the shed roads (I keep all the Collectors Club models as they might be worth something as a complete set in the future).
