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