Modelworks Administration

[alanstepney]

I spoke to the Administrator yesterday (to be accurate, to his secretary) and they still have not completed the sales pack, for prospective buyers.
That should be finished "in a few days", and then it will be sent to those who have expressed an interest in buying the company, or parts therof.

Until then, whilst various people might be making plans, they cannot be finalised.

[jvas]

Thanks for the reply.

I will remain patient until I hear further news. Hopefully some future will be seen by the potential purchasers.

I have written to the Administrator in regard to the remaining Bagnall kits I am missing and hopefully they are interested in the potential cash flow. I am confident that alot of the current Modelworks customers have also written to the administrator with not only the requests as creditors, but cases of where they are willing to purchase kits to improve cash-flow and therefore provide any buyers with hope of a more successful start to an acquisition.

Regards

Jeremy.

[Deleted]

I received a letter from the Administrator this morning (Saturday 21 June 08). I had written to him about support for building my 7&1/4 Brittania but when he replied the subject was "Re Brittania 5". Have any Duchess builders had a similar letter ?



He wrote

"Please be advised that there are not any parts or completed kits of the above model remaining at the company, but it is understood that the customers will be able to source these items elsewhere. Unfortuneatly, I am unable to provide you with details of these manufacturers.

As a result of the above, you will be scheduled as an unsecured creditor of the company."

[Deleted]

Hi Jim,

I received a letter with identical wording this morning - I had written asking about the few missing parts for my 5" Britannia (injectors, dome casting and AWS battery box casting). It may be that they overlooked the distinction between the 7 1/4" Britannia and the 5" - they are accountants, not model engineers.

I wasn't really expecting them to have the parts that I wanted, but I'm surprised that they said that there were no parts at all, since they had mountains of various spares on the shelves last time I visited.

Regards,

John

[Deleted]

Hi John,
Well at least you seem to have virtually all of your loco but I imagine you have paid the full 100%. I hope there is nobody that has paid for a kit that they have not received.

Did you have a contract with Modelworks ? I would be interested to know the payment terms because it seems you pay a deposit then buy 24 kits. OK if you get up to the last kit like you did but the Duchess builders are in a poor position.

I spoke to the administrator's assistant a bit back and asked her if he was looking at the subject of the company trading whilst knowing it could not pay its debts. As standard practice they will do this.

I am hoping this fiasco does not spoil the kit market. Its a good concept but IMHO I would like to see a prototype built first or a performance guarantee issued to customers at the time the contract is signed in cases like the Duchess kits where there appears to be no prototype.

Regards

Jim

[jvas]

Hi All,

When I spoke to Helen at the administrators a week or two ago she said something a little odd, which at the time didnt really register with me, and in retrospect it should have maybe caused a little alarm.

Roughly she said "I've been to Modelworks and from what I could see there was absolutely no stock left in store or very little". I hope i havent miss quoted her here. This statement does worry me a little, as I seem to remember something similar happening to Winson? Just as the company went into administration the owner/directors? took the available stock and passed it onto a third party or then started to build them and sell them on with no respect to any of the current kit builders.

Is this correct? - Hope I can be correct on this one. Please help us out on this one Dean.

Jeremy.

[Deleted]

Hi Jeremy,

Perhaps I exaggerated when I said above that 'they had mountains of various spares on the shelves last time I visited', but for example I wanted to swap a running board which had been made from the wrong thickness steel and they had about 20 spares for it in that particular slot in the racking, and there were lots of other parts in the surrounding slots. This was a few months ago. It may be that they didn't have many useful spares, though.

They also had a lot of raw materials, but I don't know if this raw material stock was owned by the company that is in administration.

The letter to creditors invited us to give the administrators any information on the conduct of the directors that we thought should be brought to their attention. I've emailed Helen to ask who the directors are, since I was under the impression that the only director of Modelworks International (Sales) Ltd is another company rather than an individual.

Regards,

John

[Deleted]

Hi Jeremy and John,
The sole director of Modelworks is another Company but the Director of that Company is, from memory, a Mr. Jones. So ultimately he is responsible. Companies House is offline today but I can verify the full details tomorrow.

It is very strange if there is no stock. I don't believe all 25 (?)Duchess's were sold so the unsold kits 1 to 14 must be somewhere because Modelworks would have produced or had their subcontractors produce all 25 in expectation of selling them later and also a bigger batch would keep the price down. I hope the administrator is considering this sort of thing.

Anybody got any idea how many Duchess kits were sold and therefore how many should remain ?

Regards

Jim

[tbsteam]

According to the website,there are less than 10 remaining.

[paultomlinson]

According to MW 50 Duchess kits were made but 10 remained unsold. When I spoke to the Administrators I too was told there was virtually no stock yet according to one MW manager we have been informed that the next Duchess kit is almost complete!!
Be interesting to find out how much stock there is as this seems to be similar to the Winson demise.Indeed I have bought two Winson locos from Bob Jones and I know he has sold at least another three.

[jvas]

Hi,

The plot thickens!!! I hope there hasnt been any bad behaviour by the directors behind the scenes?

Who is the company director? Is he the same Jones as mentioned in Pauls post?

It looks like Modelworks may have been a bit naughty/clever in hiding and clearing all the potentail assets? Very easy to leave the obvious display engines and remove the more valuable (worthless in an administrators eye) kit form engines to a third party. Ho hum, will have to wait and see.... I will be unimpressed if I see completed Bagnalls appear on the open market in the coming years.

Regards

J.

[Deleted]

Companies House reveals that the sole director of Modelworks International (Sales) Ltd before administration was Redjumper Limited.

The sole director of Redjumper Ltd is Robert Johnson Jones d.o.b. 14/05/1944, occupation given as retired and who resides at an address in Surrey.

The last accounts lodged for Redjumper Ltd was a dormant company balance sheet as at May 2007. Money in the bank was £1 and paid up share capital was £1.

The Administrator of Modelworks is aware of all this.

Regards

Jim

[bungle]

SOMETIME AGO (I THINK EARLY 07) I ASKED STEVE B HOW MANY 2" BURRELLS HAD BEEN ORDERED, WAS TOLD 35 FROM THE BATCH OF 50. IN THEIR WORDS 'AS THEY HAD SOLD SO WELL THE BATCH HAD BEEN INCREASED BY ANOTHER 50 TO 100 SETS' THAT WAS MADNESS IN MY EYES, BUT HA HO.
IF THAT WAS TRUE, AND I DOUBT MOST THINGS I WAS TOLD BY MW- NOT BY PARTICULAR STAFF MEMBERS, AS I THINK THEY WERE TOWING THE COMPANY LINE- THAT SHOULD LEAVE 65 SETS OF 2" BURRELL KITS ON THE SHELF !! MY BET IS THEIR NOT THERE !!

BRUCE

[jvas]

Was Robert / Bob Jones involved in the Winson outfit?

J.

[stantheman]

If the address given for Redjumper Ltd is correct, multi map picks up a fairly prestigious house on its survey map of the area. Just doodling after a day constructing a new bridge across the garden pond for the garden railway. Makes a change from doing work on the 'Brit'. Garden railway is 45mm gauge by the way, 'Brit' is 5" gauge, never the twain shall meet !!!!

[6233]

It makes me sad to read yet more stories of good honest people being let down yet again. the only sight I have had of MW products was when I helped a friend with his Duchess, the crank axle was well I have thrown better in the scrap bin.
I only wish there was some way I could help you all, but at the moment I as so busy building an LNWR loco from scratch for a customer and aslo working on a prototype model for Michale Breeze who is a very good friend.
That said if I can help anybody esspecialy the Duchess or Brit builders please drop me an email at [e-mail] and I will try my very best to help.

Best regards

Mark

[bungle]

NICE OFFER, MARK
WELL DONE

BRUCE

[6233]

Bruce,

No problem as I have said I will always try my very best to help anyone in any way that I can.
Please dont hesitate to ask.

Regards

Mark

[fentmar]

Jun 6, 2008 12:31:43 GMT kiltman20 said:

Hi Fentmar

I too am 7 kits into a 14xx loco, but to date have had absolutely no complaints as to things going together. A couple of missed countersink which were easy to do. Couple of design issues to over come - The brake rods interact with the crankshaft being probably the most notable.

Communicated with Dean yesterday and he suggested that who ever ends up with the company might be able to mostly complete the 14xx kits out of stock. Only time will tell on that one.

One of the other alternatives might be to get drawings and parts list from others who have completed their build and learn a few more engineering skills. Body work might be the most difficult bit.

Patients might be the best thing at present and "Don't Panic" - all may not be lost.

Rob M

[fentmar]

Letter from administrators today suggest there is 1 set of kits for the 14xx!!!? I didnt know if you had heard anymore?