Recent developments in the hobby have thrown several factors into relief, including the relative cost of new models versus spending power, and the general demographic of modellers as we all age. I've certainly been spending less on my UK outline in the last year or so, although it took a conversation in a model shop - talking about the relative merits and price points of the Accurascale and Bachmann Class 37s  - to finally pin-point, to me, the reason why I'm spending less, at least on engines. I've got a number of Class 37s, but other than a revamped Triang-Hornby one from the early 70s, they're all from about 2005 - 2010, when the second wave of Bachmann ones arrived, along with the short-lived but quite acceptable ViTrains ones. I've not been tempted by the newer models simply because, while I can see their obvious merits, the older ones already hit that "good enough" spot for me. Perhaps it's because my modelling tends to be big-picture, more focused on the 3-foot view of trains in the landscape, but these models don't represent enough of a step-change to get me considering a purchase, let alone a wholesale upgrade of the fleet. And taking a long, hard look at my modelling priorities over the last 30-40 years (back to when I was into trains as a teenager) I can't help but feel that "good enough", for me, more or less coincided with the arrival of the improved RTR locos from Mainline, Airfix/GMR (and even Lima) in the late 70s and early 80s. These models didn't necessarily look great out of the box, with shiny wheels, shiny motion awful loco-tender gaps and crude couplings, but they were (generally) more or less the right shape, were painted and finished well, and had a decent amount of separate detail - more than could always be said for the contemporary Hornby models of the period. Where the details weren't quite right, it was within the scope of the modeller to improve them. And the better models from Hornby were coming along as well, so things were generally on the up.

At the risk of undermining my thesis, I did buy an Accurascale Manor. I wasn't intending to, but when I saw one in a shop, it looked so good that I had to succumb. And, it's a lovely, smooth-running model that absolutely screams "Manor".

But then again, my 20-year old Bachmann one still does it for me - it also couldn't possibly be anything other than a Manor, even though there are subtle and less-so-subtle differences in body shape between the two releases. The Accurascale one has a slightly lower, sportier look, for instance - but that's only really apparent when they're next to each other. My Bachmann one, despite being a split-chassis model, runs superbly on DCC, complete with a decent sound decoder in the tender. Other than converting the chassis to accept a decoder (not too hard with these GWR locos) the only mod I needed was to add additional pickups to the bogie. For me, again, the advantages of the Accurascale one are plain to see, but it's a delta rather than a step-change. For that reason, unless I'm tempted by a livery not represented by my Bachmann examples, I'll likely stick with just the one Accurascale example, beautiful model that it is.

In similar vein, I've retained my fleet of GWR moguls, not being tempted by the Dapol examples. When I saw the reviews, I could see negative deltas as well as positive ones - the unrealistic flare on the slide bars, for instance. Again, I'm sure they're basically very nice models, but they weren't quite enough to tempt me, not when I already had a couple of DCC-converted 53XX moguls to keep me happy (again, one with sound) which I knew to be reliable performers with about 20 years of running behind them.

I'm not sure if Dapol have done the 93XX variant, but again, my preference was to turn to an older model already in my collection. There's a minor issue with the Bachmann body, though:

The front footplate profile is correct for a 53XX but wrong for a 93XX. For the latter type (with the side-window cab) the footplate drop starts further forward, and the bit behind the buffer is correspondingly shorter. In one of his books, Iain Rice describes fixing this via a cut-and-shut conversion, so I thought I'd give it a go. Here, in true Blue Peter fashion, is one I did earlier:

In essence three cuts are required, using a razor-saw. Separate the entire front of the footplate, including the drop, by cutting up from below in line with the smokebox saddle. The moulding gives a nice reference for this cut. With the front part then detached, make two additional cuts to remove a section from the flat part just above the pony wheels. This bit is then used to extend the main footplate, pushing the start of the drop out by a couple of mms - more or less in line with the front of the smokebox. I let this bond harden overnight, while simultaneously glueing the buffer beam section to the now-isolated drop, producing a shorter front. Once I was satisfied that these two bits were welded, I joined them together using a crude levelling platform to keep the whole assembly from drooping while it hardened off. Some Humbrol filler and Mr Surfacer was then used to tidy up the joins a bit.

I had to fabricate new support rods - not sure why, as the "geometry" shouldn't have changed - but I couldn't get the old ones to fit neatly without distorting the footplate, and they were too stiff to rework. I guess it's a case of tiny variations being enough to throw things out, so it was safer to make new ones from 0.45mm brass.

The shortened footplate section gives the loco a much more pugnacious, purposeful look in my view.

There's more that can be done. The chimneys would benefit from replacing (but I don't have any suitable at the moment), while the undersized cylinders can also be improved. This is a cheat as it's a 53XX I did earlier, but grafting Comet castings and etchings onto the Bachmann ones isn't too difficult:

(Sorry about that front pony!).

There's no soldering involved, just a bit of filing, glueing and filler. The same cylinder mod will make a big difference to the 93XXs, too. The Comet GWR 2-cylinder parts can be obtained from Wizard Models at a very reasonable price.

So anyway, more of a ramble about personal modelling standards and what's "good enough" than anything earth-shattering, but here we are. I must stress that if I didn't have any GWR moguls (or ones that ran well) I'd have jumped on the Dapol ones, but with a number of legacy models already in my collection, and liking the opportunity to do a bit of hands-on modelling, I'll be sticking with these for the foreseeable. Given that they're all more than 20 years old, there's every chance of them having another 20-odd years of gentle running in them ... at which point they might well see me out!

Happy New Year to all readers, if it isn't too late to say so.