BLI's foray into On30

Anyone know if BLI's first On30 locomotive was considered a success or not? They said that it was an experiment, and that anything they would do later would depend on the success of their 2-8-0...

Reply to
Frank Eva
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I know a few people around my area bought them and were happy. How many they sold and general perception I have no idea. From the latest releases I would guess that the numbers probably favor HO engines! Remember the number of modelers in that scale is small.

Reply to
Jon Miller

That may be the case, but BLI says that On30 is the "fastest growing" segment of the model railroad hobby. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they bring out some cars to go with their locos.

I, for one, was very disappointed that they released their On30 with an HO scale coupler on the tender. They pulled a Bachmann, instead of attempting to do a true narrow gauge piece of equipment. If anything sours the public on this foray, that might do it - who really needs anything more than a Bachmann On30 train set, with all of the equipment included, if all they want to do with it is run it around their Xmas tree?!

Reply to
Frank Eva

My local dealer said they sold like hot cakes! He was a very very happy man...

Martin

Reply to
DRGW482

Frank, I don't see what coupler height has to do with Xmas trees. Many modellers in On30 use the HO coupler height standards - and a kadee #5 is virtually the correct size for a 3/4 sized coupler used on many narrow gauge lines. You seem to be of the opinion that if a modeller is choosing to use that coupler height then he might as well be running his trains around the tree. Bizarre logic, to my mind.

Even the concept of modelling 3' gauge lines on 30" gauge track, whilst unusual to many, doesn't concern me. After all a large percentage of On30 modellers worldwide are modelling 2' gauge using On30.

John Dennis

Reply to
John Dennis

My main concern about the Bachmann approach (and now BLI) is the fact that to make the engines and rolling stock accept an HO coupler, they build the coupler boxes totally out of proportion. You'd never see this on a Brass HOn3, now would you? My point about the Xmas tree is that when you build for the masses, you're not building for the narrow gauge connoisseur, who will have to modify every piece of equipment to get it to look like true narrow gauge. The masses are most likely to run their train sets around their Xmas trees and really don't carry how "prototypical" they look.

Reply to
Frank Eva

Yes, but the masses running those unprototypical trains around the tree and through their dickens villages have kids. And you never know, those kids might just grow up to buy fancy "scale" trains like the rest of us.

Just a thought, Nemo

(Who wishes the toys back in the '70's were as scale and worked as well as the Bachmann On30 stuff.)

Reply to
Cap'n Nemo

"Frank Eva" wrote in news:FvQ0c.22220$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com:

That 'connoisseur' gets cheap equipment to modify because the 'masses' are buying sufficient quantity to keep the prices low. If the 'connoisseur' wants proper proportion out of the box, he can try brass at Big Bucks per item.

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Reply to
Lobby Dosser

You can be a connoisseur of narrow gauge without being wealthy! It's just a matter of attitude. For that matter, I'm looking forward to Precision Scale's first foray into On30. Perhaps they will do it right.

Reply to
Frank Eva

But what's right? Is producing a 3' gauge loco gauged to 30" any more wrong than having a different coupler height?

And from a marketing perspective, would you release a RTR On30 loco which will not couple to any other RTR On30 rolling stock without modification?

John Dennis

Reply to
John Dennis

I think it's "right" to produce a narrow gauge locomotive that has all of its appliances in proportion to its scale. Bachmann's solution is atrocious - everything has to be modified to get it to look like narrow gauge.

A "marketing perspective" is exactly what leads manufacturers like Bachmann and BLI to do what they do. It's too bad they didn't decide to release something from the perspective of a narrow gauge fan. Then, they could also have released all of their rolling stock with appropriate size/shape coupler boxes and couplers.

Also, how many On30 fans really run on HO track, which uses a tie spacing that is nowhere near what it should be for narrow gauge? It would seem to me that the majority of On30 buyers should probably care less, but if you poll the users of this newsgroup, I'll bet the majority say they are running on On30 track... because it looks more like the prototype!

Reply to
Frank Eva

Appliances but not the gauge?

BLI are just jumping onto the On30 bandwagon, and what they did makes sense in the marketplace. Bachmann coule easily be blamed for the coupler height problems, but they certainly had no idea that On30 would take off the way it did.

No On30 modeller in my experience uses HO track - as you say, they use On30 track because it looks better.

Clearly this is something we aren't going to ever agree on. Incidentally, it doesn't worry me at all, to be honest, since my modelling is based on both 30" and 24" prototypes, and the HO coupler heights are close to correct for me, so close I certainly can't be bothered changing anything.

John Dennis

Reply to
John Dennis

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