Following the passing of John Humphry’s the issue of any Live Steam spares becoming available Margate has occasionally been discussed at shows but prior to today I have not had anything specific to report and for long periods it appeared that the whole idea could just fade away.
However the good news is that our patience has finally paid off so here is the full story.
In October 2022 when we first learned of John Humphry’s passing on behalf od the club I contacted Hornby to offer our condolences, inform the new people about the newly established OOLS Service and Repair Scheme and enquire about the future plans for any spares that John might have been holding.
I received the following reply from Andy Walker, Head of Quality
Thanks for your kind words and for the information.
I did know that John had tentatively set up a link with you guys but didn’t get the details so this will help greatly.
We are having a good sift through the mountain of John’s stuff and as we come across anything Live Steam we will be keeping them together and once we have a sizeable haul we will arrange to send what we have. I’m sure most will end up just being worthless to you but figured that you will know more than we will so apologies in advance for any “junk” you get!
I then contacted Andy to say ‘We would very much appreciate anything you can send to us, perceived as junk or not as I am sure it will be useful us’ and a week later received the following reply.
I’ve been meaning to respond to this for ages but just so hectic at the moment.
We will definitely put aside anything that we think may help and send it through. I will let you know in advance before we do (may still be a little more time as a lot going on)
I replied that we would wait to hear from them and then made periodic attempts to follow up but received no further replies for around nine months.
Then in August 2023 one of my emails was finally replied to by a Sam Coventon, Quality Control and Technical Support Assistant.
Thank you for your email, I hope you are well. My name is Sam and I have been brought in over at Hersden (pinched from the Hornby Development Team) to take over some of what John dealt with before he sadly died towards the tail end of last year.
In tidying up our QC department over here, we have located considerably more parts than we had anticipated, and indeed that we believed that we had. To this end, and due to the weight of components, I believe posting them may be difficult. If you want me to detail some of what we have, and pack it rather more sensibly than it is at the moment, I would be happy to let you know exactly how much we have (at the moment it is sprawled over a pallet). It would potentially be easier, should you or some of your members fancy a jolly boys outing close to the Kent coast, to arrange for them to be picked up by yourself.
I confirmed that we are very interested in the parts and asked “If there is more than originally expected can you let me know if you will need any payment” I also agreed that if it is weighty then a trip to Margate would also be sensible option. I wonder if it might be possible to arrange for us see the visitors centre and One to One museum as I am sure that would be enough of an incentive for a four of five of the club to travel down to the coast (244 miles for me!)
After sever further prompts Sam eventually replied
Thank you for coming back to me, and apologies for not getting back to you sooner. We have been very busy and time seems to fly here, if you had asked me how long ago it was that you had emailed I would have said three weeks, I now see that it is coming on for two months, again, apologies for this.
I have asked around and I have been able to get you access to the 1:1 collection, the museum in the making, next door to the Hornby Margate office on your trip down here, I also can’t imagine it will be a problem getting access to the new visitor centre provided it has opened at the point that you come down (they aren’t letting anyone in, even staff, before it properly reopens). As we, and the spares, are located at our Hersden warehouse it would mean collecting them and then heading over to Margate but that is only a few more miles down the road.
At the moment the plan is for the revised visitor centre to reopen towards the end of next month, so I would look to pencil in a date in a week at the start of November if that fits. Purely as an example, the week of the 6th to the 10th November would look good to us, if there is a date in that week that would be suitable for yourself and whoever you wish to bring.
NOTE: Although I asked so far they have not put any monetary value on the spares
I have replied that as a committee we will need a little time to discuss and agree a way forward but the first week in November should be fine.
We now have two options
Option 1 - A small group of those who are interested take a trip down, visit Hersden and collect the spares and then continue to Margate for a day out.
Option 2 - Two people (Nick plus one other visit Hersden to collect the spares
So who fancies a trip to Margate? (Provisionally on Wednesday 8th November).
I am away at Centre Parks for the next five days and will collate the responses next weekend. If there is enough interest we can have a day out. If not we will just arrange to collect the spares
Well Folks, we had a call from Sam at hornby on Monday re the spares/repairs made available to us and I was able to shoot down and collect all the contents of John Humphrys 'Desk'!!!!
I even have his original controllers he used to run and set up folks locos!!!! It all fitted easily in my trusty 'Bentley'!!!
After Gaydon, I will set about collating all the stock onto a spreadsheet so we all know whats there and the condition thereof.
Much of it is returned locos in peices so a lot of used but possibly useable parts which will enable the servicing department as and where needed.
This sheet will be viewable on the committee website in the usual place (Reports) so all the committee can have a look to see what's available should they need a tricky part.
End of an era for Hornby and Live Steam!!!! Never will they revisit this range of the most exquisite models they ever made, so it all down to us now to nurture our members and keep these locos running!!
Thanks
I have just recieved an eamail from Sam at Hornby and have now confirmed with him that Charles and Nick will be collecting the spares so hopefully he will now release them quickly.
Also the original 8th November offer to visit the museums was tied in with the spares collection but his email suggests that this invite may still be extended at an agreed convenient time. I will keep you posted.
Relevant extracts from the OOLS WhatsApp group
To ensure that we have a trackable record I have extracted these relevant posts from the WhatsApp discussion
Hi everyone. I was in Canterbury yesterday and took the opportunity to make my acquaintance with Sam Covington and associates at Hornby. I’ve visited the Hersden dept. on a number of past occasions when John Humphrey’s was alive. I viewed the available spares and I will post up the photos. Lots of bits and pieces. Some pretty useful to have. Not a lot in the new dept. You probably won’t need a palette the boxes although fairly heavy will stack in a 5 cwt van no probs. Charles.
The loaded palette measures approx. 1.2m X 1.1m x 500 mm ht. Hope that helps. I shall shortly be putting a write up on the website.
In respect of the Hornby spares. I would say the deal is pretty well sealed and I would hazard a guess at No Charge.
Posted by Nick
Nice work Charles! Don’t need the pallets obviously so do you think the boxes would all fit my Bentley estate! LOL
Posted by Charles
Hi Nick. I think they would stack up ok. There’s a couple of partly dismantled Papyrus that I could see, all the rest seems to be Mallards and FS Certainly no GFs or SLs apparent. The tenders all appeared to be Mallard & FS. I didn’t spend a great deal of time trying to list everything but it was great cementing the relationship between the OOLS and the Hornby guys.
As Charles has already made contact with Sam Coventon logically we should now leave the collection of the spares from Hornby to be organised by Charles and Nick as soon as possible.
I will start a seperate discussion (including the photos provided by Charles) so committee members can discuss the options on how we should make use of the parts.
I can help Nick collect parts on the 23rd of October if this helps
Trip to Margate I can do 9th but the 8th I think I'm at work
It definitely needs two people to go. If only for one person to wield the camera while the other person "receives" a box from the Hornby folks - Adrian is dead right about it being a "news" opportunity. With any luck, the box may be so big it needs two to carry it!!!
Also available almost anytime if needed - it's great being retired 😉
I would suggest collecting the spares asap and do the museum bit in November when it's re-opened. I can go anytime!
Well done Chris. It sounds as though there may well be a treasure trove of bits to collect. I would echo Adrian's comment that it may be better to separate a museum visit and the collection. Striking while the iron is hot, may mean we get the spares, before someone else does. Waiting and trying to fix a date when committee members are abailabe could delay the collection. I suggest speed is of the essence.
Wading and treacle come to mind.
Don't let any potential trip to a museum get in the way of our collecting the spares.
The sooner the better and I;ll volunter to help.
We MUST get a photo for publicity when we collect - our securing these spares is a big new story.
AsI say the sooner the better and I have my car keys in my hand.
Excellent news. We're both up for a day out on the Kent coast. We're free any day that week; Weds 8th is perfect.
This sounds great news for the club, I would be very happy to go but cant do 11th-15th Nov otherwise ok