BMacdermott

Hello Ben I will send you a PM. Can I just clarify the comment above: "...including N isn't worth their while."? The Poll Team has felt for a number of years that we weren't able to do the N Poll justice as we simply didn't have the broad range of knowledge. Added to the fact that certain time constraints are being placed on me at home - plus our desire to improve the 00 Poll for the benefit of 00 modellers - we took the decision to not run. An accusation was laid against us elsewhere that 'we don't care' - but that is exactly the point that we do care and want to see an N Poll run by N people - properly. Hence we have offered to hand over our hard-won Guide notes free, gratis and for nothing to a suitable team (albeit with a handful of sensible caveats). If you are at GETS today, I will try to find you to say hello. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello David As you know, we have comparison records going back to 2012 (and even further back from when the previous encumbents ran The Poll). The results have been reasonably consistent. If we saw a 'paradigm shift' in any category, we would immediately investigate. All we ask is that people vote for what they would realistically buy at anytime in the future. That premise has stood the test of time so far. If anyone has concerns, they are welcome to either PM me or send an email to The Team as below. Hope that helps. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team) thepollteam@gmail.com

Hello David An extract below from Q&A - The Wishlist Poll 2018. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team) Is there any limit to what voters can vote for? You can vote for whatever you would realistically wish to buy at any time in the future. Please note that The Team reserves the right to delete without query any entry that it feels is not based on that premise.

Q&A – The Wishlist Poll 2018 From The Poll Team The Poll Team is delighted to say that The Wishlist Poll 2018 will run from early on Monday 15 October to midnight on Saturday 3 November. Although you will find this Q&A within The Poll itself, we felt it worth repeating here before you take part. What is the purpose of The Poll? To provide an easy and enjoyable way for modellers and collectors to indicate to the major manufacturers and commissioners of ready-to-run 00 railway models what they would like to see made from all new tooling (excluding models announced, tooled or made since 2000). It aims to seek what you would realistically wish to buy at any time in the future, bearing in mind that new models take around two to three years to develop. We chose the year 2000 and ‘all new tooling’ basis to give us an agreed cut-off date of items for listing and to preclude us making ‘quality judgments’. If voters feel that any pre-2000 model is fine – and many are – there is no need to vote for them. We don’t expect makers to scrap their tooling and make a totally new model that might only be marginally better! Who has been involved in putting The Poll and Guide together? The 9-man Poll Team has put every item and every word of The Guide through a thorough process of review. It contains approx. 95,000 words of text and around 1,800 ‘links’. For comments and help with various matters, we would like to thank Mike Bootman, Chris Foren, Brian Hardy and ‘Fris’ Friswell (both London Underground Railway Society), Peter Hughes and David Newby. Our grateful thanks also go to Andy York of RMweb for yet again preparing the computerised voting aspects. Andy doesn’t have any direct input to the actual content, but there wouldn’t be a Poll without him! Do you get paid? No! The 9-man Poll Team is totally independent, but we are most grateful for the support with space and publicity we receive from RMweb as well as numerous magazines, clubs and retailers. What’s new for The Wishlist Poll 2018? Time constraints – particularly on ‘lead role’ Brian Macdermott who acts as a ‘carer’ for his disabled wife – have meant that we have decided to run just 00 from now on. The upside is that we are now adding many new items along with Guide entries. We were getting far more requests to list additional 00 items than N and there are far more new 00 models announced so we hope you will understand. But all is not lost – talks are in hand for an N group to take that part from us! We have deleted the 39 items announced since the 2016 Poll Results and have added 92 new items. We now ‘spell out’ what were previously abbreviations, obviating the need for a Glossary. Which companies do you see as the ‘major’ manufacturers? Accurascale, Bachmann, C Rail Intermodal, Dapol, DJModels, Heljan, Hornby, Oxford Rail, Peco and Rapido. Which companies/organisations do you see as those who commission models? BRM, Drax Power Station, Flangeway, Hattons, Hornby Magazine, Ian Allan, Invicta, Kernow Model Centre, Model Rail, National Railway Museum, Olivia’s Trains, RMweb, Rail Exclusives, Rail Express Modeller, Rails of Sheffield, Real Track, Revolution Trains, STEAM Museum (Swindon) and TMC. What is included or specifically excluded from The Poll? We include a wide selection of locos, rolling stock and infrastructure of British Railways, its predecessors and successors as well as Standard Gauge Industrial locos and London Underground rolling stock. Many items of a ‘heritage/preserved’ nature are included by default. We could easily show over 30,000 items – there are over 400 types of GWR coach and 250 LMS wagons – so we have to ‘draw a line’ somewhere! We specifically exclude any item that has been announced for production from all new tooling or actually produced from all new tooling since 1 January 2000. Other examples excluded are: Channel Tunnel (apart from Eurostar); dock and military systems (apart from any that may be in the Industrial category); airport inter-terminal systems; broad and narrow gauge trains; tram, tram-train, metro and underground systems (apart from London Underground); and ‘Thomas the Tank’. What is the running order of categories for the 2018 Poll? 1 Locos: GWR & Constituents 2 Locos: SR & Constituents 3 Locos: LMS & Constituents 4 Locos: LNER & Constituents 5 Locos: BR Standard, WD & USATC 6 Locos: Gas Turbine, Diesel & Electric 7 Railbuses, Railcars & DMUs 8 EMUs 9 Coaches: GWR & Constituents 10 Coaches: SR & Constituents 11 Coaches: LMS & Constituents 12 Coaches: LNER & Constituents 13 Coaches: BR & Successors + Pullman Cars 14 Coaching Stock: Non-passenger-carrying 15 Freight Stock: Pre-1948 (but inc BR descendants) 16 Freight Stock: 1948-1963 17 Freight Stock: 1964-current 18 General Railway Service Stock (Departmental) 19 Standard Gauge Industrial 20 London Underground (inc IoW stock) Note particularly that Freight Stock: Pre-1948 covers not only diagram designs up to 1948 but also vehicles perpetuated to those or very similar designs by BR. We have done this to give the maximum time-frame. So, if you want freight stock for the main BR steam era, please look at this before the 1948-1963 category. What will voters find when they first ‘click’ into the The Poll? The title page gives some background as well as a ‘link’ to The Guide which includes a Jargon Buster. You will then find the 20 voting categories. If you are only interested in, say, GWR locos, all you need do is click on those items you wish to vote for, then scroll to the end and hit ‘submit’. If you are an experienced modeller who knows what you want, you can ‘dive straight in’ via the links. However, whilst there is no actual need to access The Guide, we strongly urge you to do so, as we give you a summary of all the items in each category. You will be able to get an overall feel for what you want to vote for before going into the voting section – especially the Freight Stock categories. The Poll Team has created The Guide in the same running order as you will find it in the voting categories. Each item has had a few lines of text written about it to help you put it in context. It is not designed as a ‘definitive history’. Where possible, we have provided ‘links’ to further detail – but these should be treated as a ‘general reference’. Locos and rolling stock often changed in appearance slightly over the years. All ‘links’ have been given in good faith and were working at the time of publication but we leave it to the discretion of the voter whether they click on any. We cannot take responsibility for the information on those links or any subsequent impact on pollsters’ computers. The Guide is particularly valuable if you are a less-experienced modeller who doesn’t know – for example – the build-dates of the various BR Mk1 catering vehicles, or whether one particular 0-6-0 loco will suit your needs better than others. As noted above, The Guide is presented in exactly the same order as the votable items; you can print it out and use it as ‘a pre-planner’. Why do you specify BR running numbers? Does this mean we can’t express a Pre-Grouping wish? The addition of BR running numbers was made some years ago at the request of voters and we have had notes of appreciation for that. They are there simply to assist identification. It is impossible for us to take into account the vast array of variations within classes over the years. The manufacturers will ‘get as much as they can’ from any model via the use of slip tools and so on. It seems to make commercial sense for them to produce models which span a number of decades and which appeal to a wide audience. Do you say if kits are available? We have mentioned kits in the past but have found that it takes an inordinate amount of time to keep information up to date. However, you will find a link in each category to take you to kit makers and other suppliers. This is – after all – a Poll for ready-to-run items! Can voters vote for livery options? We investigated the possibility, but the subject is so vast that it is impractical for us. However, companies such as Kernow, Oxford Rail and Revolution Trains announce models and seek customer views on liveries. Is there any limit to what voters can vote for? You can vote for whatever you would realistically wish to buy at any time in the future. Please note that The Team reserves the right to delete without query any entry that it feels is not based on that premise. Please note: Only one entry per voter is permitted. Do you ask voters for email addresses to enter The Poll? No. Entry in The Poll will not generate any email correspondence whatsoever. We will only contact you in response to valid queries as below. Can voters print out what they have voted for? Yes, but please note that you will get the entire list including what you haven’t voted for. We’re sorry but we are unable to change that. A way round is to ‘pre-plan’ your voting: Go to The Guide. Print out the summaries of the categories you want to vote in. Tick the items you want to vote for. Use this to help ensure you don’t miss anything when you actually vote. What if voters have any technical difficulties while voting? Please email Andy York: info@rmweb.co.uk. What if voters have: difficulty accessing The Guide; have comments on it; have any suggestions for 2019; or need impartial help or advice? Please email The Poll Team: thepollteam@gmail.com. An acknowledgment will normally be sent within 24 hours, but a full answer might take a few days. We will also answer queries on RMweb. When will the results be published? We aim to publish the results by early November. Many printed magazines will carry an abridged summary. Does The Poll Team expect ‘the top items’ to be made? We would ask voters to appreciate that manufacturers lay plans anything up to three years or more in advance and have to continually balance requests against their current models and proposed portfolios – as well as those of their competitors. To us, it’s a hobby; to them, it’s a commercial decision. We make no claim that models are made specifically as a result of The Poll. However, you may find it interesting to see how 00 models announced since the 2016 Poll up to mid-September 2018 fared: 10 Top 50 17 High Polling (exc Top 50) 9 Middle Polling (and six of these were higher than the overall half-way mark) 3 Low Polling We hope you enjoy taking part in The Wishlist Poll 2018! We are hoping to get a record number of voters this year, but we can’t do that without your help. Please drop an email about The Poll to your friends along with the posters – they might vote for the items you want! Thanks! Link to poll The Poll Team Neil Burgess, Robert Carroll, Chris Knowles-Thomas, John Lewis, Jeff Lynn, Brian Macdermott, Nick Stanbury, Ian Taylor & Glen Woods 1. 2018 Poll A5 Mini-poster.pdf 2. 2018 Poll A4 Poster.pdf

Note to Mods: Could you please 'lock off' this thread sometime? I will be sending a new topic entitled: Q&A - The Wishlist Poll 2018 later today. Many thanks Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Grahame I will send you a PM shortly - I just have to log off for a while. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Thanks Phil and Craig - appreciated! As noted, we have had some very good help with N over the years but it really needs a strong, committed, knowledgeable team of a least eight or nine members to get a broad view across the eras, locos and stock. There are nine of us in this Poll Team with nearly 500 years of modelling experience - but even we have needed 'outside help' in a number of areas. (You will see a note of thanks to those involved when The Poll goes live on Monday.) We couldn't organise the N Poll to the standard we aspire to (balanced against time constraints etc). Hence our - highly reluctant - stand down. I am pleased to say that two N modellers have 'volunteered' and their names have been passed on. At present, I have no more news about any N Poll but we hope one will be put together in the not too distant future. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Adrian I'm pleased to tell you that the 15xx has been in The Poll since we started in 2012 and you will find it waiting for your vote in the 2018 Poll when we go live on Monday. My list at post #1 is only what's new (or amended). You will find it listed as: 0-6-0PT GWR Hawksworth 15xx (1500-1509). We list by wheel arrangement, smallest to largest. GWR Locos is the first category so you won't have far to look! The 15xx has been in The Top 50 since 2015. (And I wish I had a penny for every time I saw one as a train-spotter of the late 50s/early 60s!) Enjoy the voting! Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello again Chard I said I would come back on this... I can't give you a firm decision yet on whether or not this will go in to the 2019 Poll, but it is on the Agenda. Our guiding criterion is that we don't list anything that has been announced or made since 2000, and these types were made a few years ago, albeit in somewhat limited numbers. However, it has caused us to look at some other items and the point about Brighton Belle being listed is a case in point. Rest assured that it will get a fair hearing. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Metr0land I will, of course, put this on the Agenda, but our 'purpose' was written to give us clarity that we stay on track of just listing what models voters would like to see made. We know it doesn't cover every wish, but we delete announced items and add new ones each year. (If I recall correctly, it was your goodself who gave us a highly valid suggestion some years ago which we put in action very quickly.) The Poll has the potential to gather various other bits of 'modelling data' - is DCC increasing? What point motors do people use? Which magazines do you read? etc etc - but such extra work is outside our remit. We were tasked in 2012 to 'rationalise' The Poll and most seem to think we have done that to good effect. If someone wants to set out a case for No.53807 (and I, personally, would support that!), it could probably be done here as an RMweb thread with the summary being sent to Bachmann. Part of our hope with The Poll Results is that modelling entrepreneurs will seize on chances where they see 'gaps in the market' and that might be where 3D comes in. All the best Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello again Mark Sorry...just remembered a case in point. Bachmann has made the S&D 7F as numbers 53806 then 53808 to 53810 in BR livery. No.53807 is missing. Reason? She had a unique smokebox saddle after rebuilding with small boiler. I (personally) was involved in the R&D and production of the 7Fs and was told that they wouldn't make this loco as the tooling costs would be too high. I can see a clear-cut case to list it as it 'fills a gaping hole'. But we don't, even though sister 53808 has been made with her special tender. No.53808 is a 'celebrity loco' whereas 53807 isn't. Just one example of a myriad of similar decisions. Where does one draw a line? Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello again Mark When we first started running The Poll in 2012, we originally has a draft category entitled: Special Cases. We soon found that we couldn't define that precisely and dropped it! There are many items that aren't currently in catalogues - if we made that a criterion, The Poll would be very much bigger. The bigger it is, the harder it is for people to find what they want. And we were tasked in 2011 by Pat Hammond to make it more relevant. Rest assured, though, that your thoughts on Class 86 are already on our Agenda. Brian

Hello Mark As noted in my earlier posting, what we list - or don't - is often a matter of long debate within The Team. We can't lay certain hard and fast rules as we found they made life very difficult and created all sorts of anomalies. The 'effect' is worse than 'the cause'. However, we do stick to the year 2000 cut-off (but see later for a caveat to that!). Heljan released its Class 86 in 2010, hence it doesn't appear. We cannot take into account stock levels etc. You are right about the Brighton Belle, though. It was listed to give people the chance to vote for the only livery not yet done and - arguably - for the most popular time-frame. If you look at the listing, you will see it is specifically for c1957 to c1964. Our reasons are also given in The Guide notes. It is 'under review' for the 2019 Poll. A similar item is the LMS/LNER/BR Trestle Wagon. It could possibly 'spin-off' from TMC's Plate and Double Bolster Wagons but - as they made no mention of it - we listed it separately this year. We have re-listed the Wickham Railbus despite it having been announced, we believe, some years ago. We have been in touch with Heljan and been told it was being made - but time has moved on. A lot of time. Have we 'busted the 2000 rule'? In the technical sense, yes, but those who requested it to be re-listed will be happy. We have 778 items in the 2018 Poll. 80% of them were pretty easy to list. It's the other 20% that cause 80% of the debate! I can assure you that The Poll Team doesn't get any 'tip-off information'. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Thanks Ian - but sometimes the best ideas come from unexpected places. No idea is rejected until we have looked at it. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Ian We would never 'sharpen our knives' and are always open to suggestions or comments (positive or negative). We grapple - and I choose the verb specifically - with variations in what we could do and/or list. What you see 'on the voting slip' is the result of months of emails to-and-fro between the Team members. The main difficulty is that ideas often seem plausible, but when you start working them through, they soon become entangled in a web of difficulty and subtlety. My recycle bin is full of stuff that I or The Team have set out thinking 'this is the best idea ever' only to fail as we delve deeper. That's not to say your thoughts won't work - they will go on the Agenda and be given a full and fair hearing. The one difficulty I see immediately, though, is the 'what we think needs upgrading' scenario is subjective whereas we do our utmost to be objective - hence the year 2000 cut-off date (which is currently under review). One thing is certain despite our best efforts...we will never be 'all things to all modellers'. But we keep trying! Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Frond Sutton Locomotive Works as per link below. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team) https://www.railexclusive.com/products.php

Hello 34 Point taken. We always review the cut-off date as part of each year's Agenda and it has stood the test of time - up until now. It was always on the 'game plan' to definitely move forwards from 2020 anyway. The subject will be fully explored. Thanks again. Brian

Hello 34 The purpose of The Poll is clearly stated, with a cut-off date of 2000 so that we don't make 'subjective quality and fidelity judgments'. If I understand where you are coming from here, it would mean running a Poll - or an add-on to what currently runs - that listed all items made since 2000 and an 'upgrade' vote made against those items. Bachmann, for example, has introduced around 70 locos, DMUs and EMUs since 2000, and much in the way of coaches and wagons etc. And then there are liveries, body variations, sound fitting complications and so on to consider. Things could get massively data-centric very quickly. It could be done in bite-size chunks - say, Bachmann steam locos that need upgrading, then Hornby steam locos, then Heljan steam locos etc - but, I'm sorry to say, it won't be The Poll Team running them and that is due to the time constraints noted in Post #1. Or were you meaning that we select those that we feel need 'upgrading' no matter when they were made? Even so, it would still breach our cut-off date and 'no quality judgment' criteria. There might well be a case for stating a little more clearly what stock ran with what locos and I will look into that as part of an Agenda proposal for 2019. We already make reference where reasonable within The Guide, but it might be possible to have some sort of 'look-up table'. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello MJI The stock has been High Polling since 2012 and has been either in The Top 50 or only just outside it since then. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello everyone A big thank you to those who have downloaded The Poll posters at #1 - much appreciated! Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Chard Leave that with me. It's not my area of knowledge but I know The Team has discussed it but discounted it for (seemingly) good reasons. By chance, the two Team members I need to mainly speak to about this are on trains on their way to see me. I will speak with them, then email the rest of The Team and will get back soon. Allow three or four days, but I will probably get back sooner. Brian

Hello Chard I forgot to look there! On my screen, The Results 2016 isn't showing up, but you will find it via the 'search' box if all else fails. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Chard One way is to go to the 'search' box at the top right of the page, then enter Results - The Wishlist Poll 2016 in the Forum Index. You will find the results presented in three different ways as PDFs. Any probs, give me a shout. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello MJI Those are already in The Poll and have been for some while. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)

Hello Steve If you want to drop me a PM with your email address, I will happily forward that to the person concerned. Brian (on behalf of The Poll Team)