Whingers and the Easily Pleased?

There have been many messages discussing the relevant merits of new RTR diesel locos, ranging from the "Rivet Counter" disappoinment to the "Easily Pleased". I must admit falling somewhere in between the two stances.

There are many folk out there who would take a look at our layout and cringe, any rivet counter out there would probably have a fit! I very much believe that everyone has different aims for their layouts, and therefore have different aims. Personally I want a layout where I can exercise my large and very varied collection of models in a reasonably realistic environment, due to that large amount of variation I cannot really claim a lot of protypical correctness, if I want to run my 50 on a rake of Mk1 and Mk2s, then later run my Q1 on a long frieght, then I will.

I have a lot of respect for those people striving for the highest degree of accuracy, and I can see the points they make about the recently released diesels. If there are things about these models that they cannot live with, then fair play to them. However I'd suggest that perhaps they should be a little more constructive in their criticism. After all you don't HAVE to buy the models, there are plenty of folk out there like me who can live with what are pretty damn good models.

Take the 50, OK some people don't like the cab fronts, having been a

50-phile in their final years on the Waterloo-Exeter I think that is pretty accurate, perhaps a fraction of a mm out but 98% there. People have dismissed as gimmicky the moving fan and grilles and opening doors, perhaps a few quid could have been shaved off the price by having fixed items, but in the end does it really matter? Not to me, I think it is a lovely model, it is really going to show up my Lima Defiance!

Some folk talk about the quality of US models, and yes the ones I have seen are impressive. Then they go on about the price. Think about this:

Population of USA - 300million. Population of UK - 60million. Assume the % of UK pop. who are modellers - % of US pop. who are modellers. Therefore US model manufacturers have a market 20 times greater than UK manufacturers (excluding the rest of the world). Assuming the production costs for a US model are similar to those of a UK model, the US manufacturer has up to 20 times the demand, so in such a larger market surely the costs are spread over much larger production runs? Perhaps if Bachmann and Hornby had a 20 times greater customer it would be a fairer comparison?

I await the flames! Djo

Reply to
DJO
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"DJO" wrote

UK 60m, USA 300m - that equates to just 5 x the size of the UK market to me, and information suggests there are a greater proportion of modellers in the UK than in the US.

No point if you can't understand basic arithmetic! ;-)

John.

Reply to
John Turner

Population of Switzerland - 6.5 million, Population of Denmark - 5 million, Population of Norway - 4 million. RTR Model available for all of these countries of a quality greater than the best of the UK stuff.

Oh and 300 divided by 60 equals 5.

Reply to
Nigel Emery

You obviously assumed different figures to me :)

Using your kind of maths the country with the largest percentage of railway modellers would be China.

To be honest, if you want to know how many locos a manufacturer sells all you have to do is ask them. There's no need for inaccurate guesswork.

Using this kind of maths it could be argued that US outline models should also be 5 times cheaper, but it don't work that way.

Far East sourced models are done in batches. The cost of each batch is the same and the only development costs that could be spread are those done at the design stage. How much the design stage costs depends on how much time is taken over designing it. If the design is correct first time out of the box it'll cost a lot less than a model that is inaccurate and has to constantly go back to be redesigned. It's therefore far more cost effective for a manufacturer to get it right the first time.

Pete

Reply to
mutley

Yes, but do they have such a huge range of different prototypes to model, I wonder? There is a wide range of models to choose from in the UK. By this time next year, there models of all the major diesel classes available (08,

20,24,25,26,27,35, 37, 40,44,45,46,47,50,52,55,56,57,58,66 and probably some I've missed) That's quite a range. Do the Nordic or Swiss manufacturers have to cover such a range or do they sell more of fewer classes?

I don't actually know the answers to these questions, but I have my suspicions. I'd also guess that there is some cross-over of types between european countries, with models from the same tooling being sold in more than one country...

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

Yeah? and just take a look at the prices...........and I bet they don't have to do a 60 hour week to make £250 !!!!!!

Reply to
jimedvic

One of the latest diesels from Roco (Austrian 2016) is about 30% more expensive than a Heljan 47. It's difficult to compare the cost of an electric loco as there has been nothing usable for the UK. Would the UK market be prepared to pay the extra? I don't know but I do know that's it's not long ago that we were being told that the UK market would't support a price of £70 - £80.

Sorry but I can't see the relevance of that comment.

Reply to
Nigel Emery

In message , Nigel Emery

Reply to
John Sullivan

Reply to
jimedvic

"jimedvic" wrote

The reality, in my experience, is to the contrary. There is certainly a significant number of people out there who are willing to buy new loco's if not on a weekly basis then certainly quite regularly (more than once a month) providing the quality is there. This is not to say that, for one minute, this is the rule with everyone, or even a majority.

Now looking at the issue of "Sparkies" as raised by Nigel, in my case if a really top quality model of the Woodhead class 76 came on the ready-to-run market, then that might impact seriously on my modelling plans. I'd certainly be willing to buy say half-a-dozen over a period of time at a price of, say £90.00, providing the manufacturer (or another) were also to produce 1500v DC overhead equipment.

Having said all of that I've got a reasonable level of disposable income, but if my finacial position were different then I would cut my cloth accordingly. I would still want top quality models, but in significantly smaller quantitiies. Gone are the days that a Hornby tender drive anything would find space on my layout, let alone some of the other crud which most of the manufacturers have produced at some time or other.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

This is possibly why I see railway modelling as a cheap throw-away hobby, as my financial situation has dictated that I'm basically still running the same stock I had 15 years ago, and my track is PCB.

My more serious railway hobby is in helping running the real railways - in my case the GCR. I find that work very rewarding and it costs me very little to get a full weekend of fun.

Ronnie

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Reply to
Ronnie Clark

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