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Parkside Dundas


Ben Alder
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Good to hear the kits are in safe hands. Hopefully they might expand the range too, I kept asking about getting the 7mm GWR N24 reproduced in 4mm to no avail, maybe now with new owners...

 

 

 

 

I would not hold your breath for that - or any further kits.

 

Peco have done nothing more than maintain the Ratio range and I think that is all they will do with Parkside.

 

Good to see it in safe hands and still available though.

 

Regards,

 

Craigw

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Peco have issued quite a few new Ratio (and Wills) kits. Just not new wagon kits, and to be honest I don't really blame them since the RTR manufacturers have released versions of half the items in their ranges.

 

 

 

Jason

Perhaps true of 4mm but Parkside are a very important 7mm manufacturer and their kits, usually being slightly unusual, haven't been copied by the new RTR ranges. It will be disappointing if development of that range ceases.

 

Paul Bartlett

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I thought Peco had reduced the Ratio wagon range.

 

Not that I'm aware of. The only ones I can think of as being missing are ones that were well past their sell by date such as the GWR Open C, NBR cask wagon and NER coke wagon.

 

They still even have the CR/LMS iron ore bogie wagon that many experts reckon either didn't exist or was only a prototype. I wish I knew that before I bought five of them.  :senile:

 

 

http://www.peco-uk.com/prodtype.asp?strPageHistory=category&numSearchStartRecord=0&strParents=3340,3344&CAT_ID=3350&numRecordPosition=1

 

 

 

 

Jason

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I'd stock up with any Parkside kits you may want before the prices go up under new ownership, as with Slaters taking over the 7mm Coopercraft wagons. They are good value as complete kits. All credit to Andrew and Richard for their great contributions to the hobby for over 30+ years.

 

Dava

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Not that I'm aware of. The only ones I can think of as being missing are ones that were well past their sell by date such as the GWR Open C, NBR cask wagon and NER coke wagon.

 

Jason

Three pretty useful wagons I'd have thought. Luckily the Open C is from just after my modelling period, and I've got two built and one unbuilt. Wagon kits don't have sell by dates like food does, unless someone brings out a better one!

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Three pretty useful wagons I'd have thought. Luckily the Open C is from just after my modelling period, and I've got two built and one unbuilt. Wagon kits don't have sell by dates like food does, unless someone brings out a better one!

Early Ratio kits turn up quite frequently on ebay. I've bought some of the older pattern interchangeable GWR signal kits (LQ123 and LQ456) very cheaply.

 

Another early kit they did was a hopper wagon, very like the old Mainline model (but to scale). Before they used plastic, they used to make wooden coach kits.

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Three pretty useful wagons I'd have thought. Luckily the Open C is from just after my modelling period, and I've got two built and one unbuilt. Wagon kits don't have sell by dates like food does, unless someone brings out a better one!

 

Oh they do. The kits listed are very dated. I don't think that even Ratio have sold them since the early 1980s.

 

Compare a recent Parkside kit to some of their earlier ones for example. They are totally different beasts. Earlier ones being misshapen bit of plastic that half of the kit goes into the bin, whilst the newer ones are state of the art models that are a pleasure to build. Thankfully most of the earlier ones have had a revamp over the years.

 

 

Jason

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Oh they do. The kits listed are very dated. I don't think that even Ratio have sold them since the early 1980s.

 

Compare a recent Parkside kit to some of their earlier ones for example. They are totally different beasts. Earlier ones being misshapen bit of plastic that half of the kit goes into the bin, whilst the newer ones are state of the art models that are a pleasure to build. Thankfully most of the earlier ones have had a revamp over the years.

 

 

Jason

Early Kirk Parkside were poor. But the early 1960s Ratio were quite reasonable models. Has there been a reasonable alternative to GWR Open C, Pre nat Iron ore hopper or NB cask wagon available. And I stress reasonable which in my book excludes etched kits.

 

Paul

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Early Kirk Parkside were poor. But the early 1960s Ratio were quite reasonable models. Has there been a reasonable alternative to GWR Open C, Pre nat Iron ore hopper or NB cask wagon available. And I stress reasonable which in my book excludes etched kits.

 

Paul

For the Open C I believe there is a very good model in the Dave Geen range (although I only found out about it after building a Ratio one). 

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For the Open C I believe there is a very good model in the Dave Geen range (although I only found out about it after building a Ratio one).

 

I have about 8 Ratio Open C's....as long as you pack the 'w' hangers with a piece of plasticard to spacer them in a bit to accept 26mm axles they are nice kits.

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Three pretty useful wagons I'd have thought. Luckily the Open C is from just after my modelling period, and I've got two built and one unbuilt. Wagon kits don't have sell by dates like food does, unless someone brings out a better one!

No, but they do have a finite manufacturing span before the tools begin to wear and the quality of the mouldings becomes compromised. I presume that's why the Ratio kits mentioned are no longer current.

 

I have built a couple of discontinued Parkside kits acquired from club stands at exhibitions and entirely appreciate why they disappeared from the range. They have made up into very nice models but they took an awful lot more effort (especially in getting the bodies together square with neat corners) than the modern ones do.  

 

Nowadays, I make a point of buying plastic kits whilst the tooling is still "fresh", hence the fairly large box of them in the cupboard under the stairs..........

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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I have about 8 Ratio Open C's....as long as you pack the 'w' hangers with a piece of plasticard to spacer them in a bit to accept 26mm axles they are nice kits.

I would need to run a ruler over it to confirm, but was this because the model is too wide or because the solebars are too far apart?

I had to do a similar mod to her my springing units installed.

 

If peco were planning to expand the range this would be a good choice in my opinion.

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I would need to run a ruler over it to confirm, but was this because the model is too wide or because the solebars are too far apart?

I had to do a similar mod to her my springing units installed.

 

If peco were planning to expand the range this would be a good choice in my opinion.

For some reason the original wheel axles supplied with the kits are longer than modern ones.
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As a supplier to Parkside Dundas and having known about the intended plans for the PD empire for a wee while now but sworn to secrecy I would like to wish the guys all the best for the future and thank them for having faith in Lanarkshire Models & Supplies. When we started the casting of wagon buffers back in June 2010, they took the then twelve types of buffers onto their trade stand at shows and eventually their website, LMS have grown somewhat since then and although PD don't stock all our products they sometimes sold more than us in a month especially the bufferstops, thanks guys.

Peco are not taking the LMS range of cast components and Richard, Andrew and I have agreed that LMS are well known enough now and could stand alone with the website and specialist show presence.

As far as my personal modelling is concerned, Parkside wagon kits have been the mainstay of the wagon stock on my own layout for the past thirty years with many more waiting to be built, where would the BR period modeller be without them.

 

Once again Andrew and Richard, all the best and thanks.

 

So from the end of July LMS products will only be available from the LMS website or specialist exhibitions like Scalefour North or the EMGS EXPO North and maybe the odd other shows we keep being invited to.

 

Dave Franks

Edited by davefrk
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Its good to see that kits for the traditional modeller are being maintained and Parkside was always one of the best, practically falling together. Although a lot of the early ones where basic but they have been re-introducing new tooling for these earlier ones and I'm waiting to see how they've improved the LNER brake van.

 

They did at least show courage by introducing engineering wagons for the modern modeller in the form of the Rudd and Clam. 

 

Hornby have introduced both wagons in RTR form at very keen prices so I wonder how this would affect the sales on the kit alternate specially as the Clam is a challenge to paint in Dutch livery?

 

I can only see Peco continuing the brand but I can't see them introducing anything new specially with the strong RTR alternate - maybe I'll be proved wrong.

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The main concern here should be for those modelling in 7mm scale, where for the present at least R-T-R alternatives are thin on the ground. I can accept some rationalisation for the 4mm scale range of kits where alternatives are both accurate and widely available; in fact the proprietary manufacturers have over the years produced copies of several of the prototypes long covered by PD.

 

At present PD offer Slater's wheelsets with their 7mm scale kits to coarse, finescale and ScaleSeven standards and in split spoke, plain spoke, 3-hole and plain disc wagon and Mansell and plain disc coach types. Peco do not manufacture such an extensive range themselves, offering only plain spoke and 3-hole disc wagon types to 7mm finescale standard. Will an arrangement be concluded with Slater's for continued supply? The concerns about availability of spare moulding and the range of accessories such as the end and roof vents, various buffer types whether moulded or cast and couplings, are not yet addressed either - again Peco tend to produce items based on GW practice.

 

One of the principal problems with the Peco website is that it is still not the updated version and items remain tedious to locate - more importantly the news page is not kept up-to-date - try finding out anything about the 4mm scale BH trackwork. Some form of informative (for modellers) information release from Peco would either allay concerns or allow them to be raised beyond speculation.

 

Modellers will no doubt wish Richard a long and happy retirement and Andrew continued success with his product ranges and thank them for the extensive range of kits developed over the years. With regard to comments above about the early Kirk kits being poor I would, in defence of Ian, take issue with such an ill-informed generalisation. At the time they and the subsequent range of coach kits were far ahead of many other offerings and of more than comparable quality compared with other products of the time. Indeed it was the (relatively) superior quality of such developments that led to the proprietary manufacturers improving their ranges. Ian's early kits remain in demand on auction sites and similar.

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Ian Kirk has himself admitted his early models were poor in the Coopercraft thread. It's not ill informed but fact. I've built dozens of the things. I would still buy them, but they need replacement parts. Funnily enough from people like LMS, Bill Bedford and the now departed Mainly Trains.

 

Does a good kit need almost the entire chassis replaced and new buffers and wheels as a minimum? 

 

The bodies were good, the rest went into the bin as useless I'm afraid.

 

 

 

Jason.

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I would be sorry to see any of the earlier period Parkside 7mm scale kits [eg PS01-6] go as they are of prototypes such as Scottish vehicles unlikely to be replaced. The moldings are slightly of their time but I built a PS01 last year and was delighted with it.They are used as the basis of the PO printed sides.

 

Dava

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Didn't you know? Grey is the new freight brown.  :wink_mini:

 

 

 

I'm very happy for the Parkside boys now that the news is out. It was always a pleasure to deal with these gentle folk.  I hope the last kit that Richard had planned before his well earned retirement is released before the hand over.

 I well remember when Peco took over Ratio it became the norm for no spares to be sold separately. Bang went buying the roofs from their Van B kit to correct the profile of the 12 ton SR box vans. Parkside D came to the rescue.

 

I've never approached peco for individual spares for years. It might be different now?

 

P

 

I spoke to Richard recently and he has had to abandon the 13 ton BR Hopper if that's the one you were thinking of. So the new retooled LNER Toad is the last one.

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