EM has been 18.2mm gauge for around 40 years. Nothing to do with allowance for marginally overscale valve gear.
It's probably easier to convert a steam outline loco to P4 than EM - the measurement that matters is the distance over the outer faces of the wheels. Although the gauge is wider, the wheel is considerably thinner, so you end up with slightly more room for the valve gear.
That's not it, there is a second design of mechanisim (taken from their V200) which required a redesigned chassis/underframe in the 1980s, so they had to be selling sufficient models to justify that change.
You're confusing 00 with 1:72 scale used by military modellers - that's nearly
6% difference in size.
1:76.2 is only used in the UK and as a very marginal scale in the US with almost nothing being produced there since the late 1940s. (plus of course those who model UK railways outside the UK)
There is nothing to stop Europeans from buying British outline now. They run on the same track. They fit within the loading gauge. The 08 diesel is used in Holland. The UK modellers who buy European outline use it on continental style layouts. They don't run foreign and British models on the same layout as it would look ridiculous so there is no reason for them to be made to the same scale. If anything 4mm is a bit all for British outline and some modellers have defected to the slightly larger S-gauge. The more you complain about 4mm the more enthusiasts you will drive into the EM, P4 and S-gauge camps.
No, but if someone made decent 1:87 models of them I would buy - I grew up with such cars! I still remember finding the limit in rear suspension cornering ability in Mum's Triumph Herald and managing to recover it!!! Now a 1948 Ford Prefect would be just the ticket - my very first car! It never once started on a Friday or Saturday night when I had a date but it always started to get me to work in the mornings.
Pola makes/made some Brunel style buildings. Ok ok, (G)WR again.
Take a look thorugh the piles of small scale military hardware kits at your local model shop and you will find a large proportion produced in 1:76. Manufacturers which spring to mind are Airfix, Fujimi and Revell. Cheers, Bill.
But many more British modellers/collectors would buy them in 1/76 and the tooling costs are the same for either.
75 degree steering lock and a tighter turning circle than a london taxi.
That must have been why it was called the Prefect :o)
They once made some very British-looking buildings for the Playcraft range but they didn't sell very well. There have been many attempts to sell H0 in Britain over the years but none has succeeded. One problem is if you add just one model in isolation it will always look 'underscale'. Thts is why if I was tooling a British outline model for H0 I would choose one which also looks at home on a continental layout.
To you maybe but to the average parent buying one for a youngster their chief concern is whether it it will run on little Johnny's track. That is the economic reality of the mass toy market without which no major producer could survive.
Yes but then most continental locos look like toys to me. Shiny black bodies, flourescent red underframes and pastry cutter wheels. Bachmann's WD at least looks like something I would have seen in real life when I arrived in Britain in the 1950's.
The 08 isn't used in Holland. The loco illustrated here is *very* similar, but they are certainly not identical with the British 350hp shunter. I think they're 400hp for starters.
I had their E3000 and their Western loco and I remember them as being pretty good models, and they ran very well. One bogie was powered with a very good five pole motor. When I changed scale to S, I had thoughts of keeping the motors to use in S scale locos, since they were such good performers, but someone twisted my arm to part with the locos for a sum of money :-) - and by the time I had scratchbuilt my first S scale loco, the Portescaps were available.. I can't remember now what rolling stock I used behind them but I remember building a fair number of Airfix kits and re-wheeling them with Jackson wheels and Peco cup bearings, and probably building Kitmaster coaches as well, so that might have shown up the scale differences. The layout didn't last long. It was built for the first Glasgow exhibition to make up layout numbers and was broken up shortly afterwards.
I have a feeling that the E3000 started life as a Liliput model which Trix "took over" to launch their (yet again) new range of models.
By your reasoning (British trains look ok on European layouts) British modellers would/should buy HO cars, buildings etc because they look ok.
Sure, but that swing axle swinging under at high speed (25 mph) was nasty - luckily there was no other traffic and I could use both sides of the road to recover!
Didn't do much for my intended/imagined lovelife of the time.
If you keep going the seing axle is never a problem. Lose your nerve and back off the throttle in the middle of a fast corner and you're in trouble though.... Cheers, Bill - looking after Heralds for a living!
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