ixionmodels

Thanks, Mike. Glad to know that they reached you safely. We're thrilled that you like them. @monkeysarefun is an outstanding designer! We also printing the Morris 1100 and a couple of our other UK cars - Lotus Cortina and Ford Capri - plus some of our scanned colour figures in 1/120th scale for our local hobby shop's Hornby TT:120 display shelf. The bigger they are printed, the better they look! Regards, Lindsay O'Reilly (co-owner of both Ixion Model Railways and West Edge 3D in sunny NSW, Australia).

Ben’s observations are spot on. Successful model railway manufacturers are canny. (If they’re still in business, that’s all the evidence you need.) As I noted a few pages back, we follow the trends as well as the money. The great thing about the early years of a new scale is that so many potential models are up for grabs, and crazy personal favourites can be considered, as well as the ‘tried and true’ obvious classics like the GWR staples: 14XX, Collett 0-6-0 and small Prairie; B-Set, Toad brakevan… Plus the Jinty, J94, J72 etc etc - you know the list. You can be sure that manufacturers who know their British model production history will be recalling how OO and N got started, and what locos and stock were offered then that built momentum and the now loyal customer base. Their number one consideration is, of course: Is there a profit in it for us? Hornby (and of course Peco) have done a remarkable thing in offering track, accessories, locos and stock in whole new scale without an existing base of kits and users, and deserve plaudits for taking what had to be a gamble. A massive one, in Hornby’s case. And now the smaller sharks will be musing on whether nipping in and biting off a chunk of TT120 might be to their advantage. I think some will do it, so long as they can sell direct for a while - as Hornby did - in order to return their investment faster which makes the next model possible sooner. Regardless of the selling method, I feel pretty confident in saying that in a few years’ time the range of available and announced/promised UK outline TT120 models will be vastly different to what is on the list now. So here’s a fun speculation: which existing company do you think might be the next to join Hornby and Peco in RTR 2.5mm scale? (Spoiler alert: it’s not Ixion Models. 😄)

I am one of those people who have difficulty grasping the size of a model scale without actually having something to hold in my hand. I have looked at the TT:120 display in my local model shop in Newcastle (NSW, Australia) but am too cheap to pay for an orphan loco or wagon just to have it sitting on a shelf. I had some spare time yesterday, and a troll through the Thingiverse website turned up a few 3D files suitable for printing in 1:120. This is a doddle for me because, as well as Ixion Models, I also co-own West Edge 3D, a full-colour 3D printing business. I loaded an STL file of a static model of a TT:120 7-plank wagon into a simple 3D painting program and gave it a black chassis, buffers and ironwork, and red sides and ends. For fun, the oval plate on the solebar was coloured yellow. Out of a misguided sense of mischief I then resized a Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST body file (that my Ixion partner Phil Badger had made some years ago for the 2mm Scale Association) to 1:120. (This is the same engine Ixion made in 7mm scale). I ‘painted’ the first one all over green, but it wasn’t very convincing, so I put in a bit more effort and made a red one with a black smokebox and funnel, and a yellow cabside Maker’s plate. I printed them all on our Stratasys J55 and here they are. My evaluation? The cyan, magenta and yellow resins the J55 uses are transparent unless of a certain thickness, and this is painfully obvious on the wagon body. The cab roof of the red loco body suffers from the same issue. Nevertheless, for a couple of hours’ work, I got some properly sized models to help me understand the physical size of TT:120 models. I had previously printed some of our West Edge 3D cars and human figures in 1:120 for display on Frontline Hobbies’ Hornby TT:120 display shelf and found that it truly is a beguiling and attractive scale. The photos here show the models described above posed in front of an Ixion N gauge ‘Manor’; then on my hand; and also the above-mentioned TT:120 display in Frontline Hobbies. [Warning: commercial plug.] All the cars and figures shown in the third photo and many more can be seen and purchased at www.westedge3d.com.au/shop; just choose your scale, N to Gauge 1, from the drop-down menu. Lindsay.

Hi Maurice, the moulds were destroyed, being to a useless scale. They were oversized, but not to the extent of being to 2.5mm scale. Cheers, Lindsay.

With due respect to Dapol for their efforts since, my answer to the question above is: We did. In 2013 Ixion Model Railways released the first mass-produced injection moulded finescale steam locomotive: the Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST. When I phoned from Australia and sounded out a major O gauge retailer in - let’s call the town ‘Darkpond’ - he asked how many we were planning to make. I said ‘1,500’. He actually laughed out loud, and said ‘OK, it’s your money. But there’s no market for them’. We made and sold 2,000, plus 1,000 Fowlers before moving to Australian engines. Lots of companies are, I imagine, watching TT:120 quite closely. With so few obvious models left in OO, new releases are some pretty esoteric prototypes. RTR OO9 is now a reality. Smaller manufacturers will wait until there’s a proven ‘critical mass’ of customers, and then they’ll jump. Some might dip the toe with a wagon first, others will do all the groundwork on a popular loco and then announce it along with the CAD images and/or 3D printed pilot model. That’s the way we’d do it. If buyers stay loyal and Hornby keep even some of their ambitious promises, in a year or two the models available will expand dramatically. Model railway manufacturers are businesses, and will follow the money and the market. History and O gauge prove it. Hurrah for capitalism! 🤓 Regards from 🇦🇺 Lindsay O’Reilly, Director, Ixion Model Railways Australia Pty Ltd.

Both these statements are only accurate in part, and quite wrong in others: a few Australian model manufacturers - Austrains in particular - have had a sales model of selling direct until tooling costs are covered, and then supplying shops; but most, including my own Ixion Models, supply shops from the outset on the release of a new model, as well as selling direct from the company website as a service to modellers in rural and remote areas who can be 1,000 miles or more from a model shop. As to there being only 3 model shops in Sydney, this is simply not so. I live in Newcastle, so I don't know them all, but I've also been to Woodpecker Model Railways in Pendle Hill (recently and famously visited by Rod Stewart), Australian Modeller in Seven Hills, Model Railroad Craftsman in Blacktown, Hobbyland in Hornsby, Bob's Models & Hobbies in Seven Hills, and ScaleModelCo in Thornleigh...

@Flying Pig, sorry, you have lost this Aussie. What’s a Landcrab, and an ADO16?

Hi @Nile, that’s correct - I assumed the OP was referring to the second, correct production run of the N gauge Manor. All the oversized models were returned to the factory and scrapped in order to recycle the (jolly expensive) titanium weights for the second, correct production run. I retained one for company archive purposes, and Ixion co-owner Phil Badger may have one. I don’t think the late Chris Klein (our then UK Ixion partner) kept one, and I thus doubt there are any others out there “in the wild”. Note though that the Mk1 chassis was still correctly gauged for 9mm track, so my previous comment about the challenge of regauging for 12mm/TT120 still applies.

Hi @natterjack, sorry, I’ve no idea of the exact measurements now. Find a Manor drawing and divide by 148 is how I imagine you could get them! 🤓 I doubt, however, because it had a cast metal chassis with outside cylinders, that you could widen it in any simple way from 9mm to 12mm gauge.

And, gentle reader, if you were wondering what else is available in the West Edge 3D colour 3D-printed car range, here’s a couple of extra photos for your illumination. Most are Aussie cars.

Despite my user name here (I co-own Ixion Models) I wanted to post an update on what my other company West Edge 3D has been up to recently in TT:120 in Australia. We own a Stratasys J55 full-colour polyjet 3D printer, and produce a growing range of colour scanned and colour printed scale figures and accessories: see www.westedge3d.com.au. Think ModelU, but in full colour. 🤓 With Hornby TT:120 arriving at my local model shop (Frontline Hobbies in Newcastle, NSW) the shop asked if we could print our stocked scale figures in 1:120. We went one better, and also printed 3 of our scale cars as well as four figures for them. Most of the 22 cars we are soon to release are Australian prototypes, but our designer has drawn up a Ford Capri, Lotus Cortina and Morris 1100, all in multiple colour schemes. The photos show the figures and cars added to the TT:120 display cabinet. We intended the cars for N scale, but they seem to work well in TT and HO as well. The next car will be a 1963 Morris 850 - the first Mini, and chosen because it was my first car! If there is interest from customers, we will over time add more British models like Escorts and Cortinas, the Ford Zephyr, Austins etc. You can see lots more photos and info in our recent Facebook and Instagram posts - search “West Edge 3D”. If you’re not a Facebook user, our FB page is also reproduced at the bottom of our website’s home page and you can scroll back through the posts there. Cheers, Lindsay O’Reilly.

The American loco crew figures are the first two sets on this page: https://westedge3d.com.au/shop/ (American Loco Crew 1 and American Loco Crew 2.) Click on one, and you'll find a drop-down menu showing all the readily available scales and the relevant price for the chosen scale. Postage options are shown in the checkout. We can also print in any custom scale, like 1:24 or 1:64 - we're jolly helpful and flexible chaps. 😀

I co-own two companies, Ixion Model Railways (which you might have heard of), and West Edge 3D (which you probably haven't) 😀. The latter has recently produced these North American loco crew figures, which are made from our own colour scans and printed in full colour on our Stratasys J55 colour polyjet printer. No painting required! They will look good on my shortline cameo layout alongside the MP15 and the GP60. We can print them in any scale, and orders from HO modellers in the USA have been particularly strong. You can see them and more at www.westedge3d.com.au/shop. PS - I know the second Reading MP15 is sold - sorry! Cheers from Oz, Lindsay.

And more pics of Chris' collection which will all be for sale. (See my previous post.) Road trucks and track has started to appear in his recent posts.

Further to my question of a while back about O scale availability in the UK, I thought I'd share what happened then. Just as I had decided it was too hard to find US O scale things anywhere, let alone at home here in Australia, a gent named Chris Corton appeared on a Facebook group I'm a member of with a ton of contemporary US O models to sell. His collection was huge, by my standards. I picked up a Reading Lines MP15 and a Vermont Railway GP60, both Atlas O DCC & Sound fitted for AUD $500 and $800 respectively, plus a corn syrup tank car from the same manufacturer for $120. A chance find of four older 40' & 50' boxcars at AUD$25 each has seen my 5' x 2'6" micro fully stocked! Chris is only getting to some of his collection each week, so there's more to come. I don't know if he would ship to the UK but you could ask him if any of his collection appeals. The Facebook group is called "Aussie Larger Scale Model Train Trading Post", and if you join you could scroll back and see what's already been posted. I've posted some pics of what I bought, plus other photos he sent me of the collection, to whet your appetites... I'll have to add the pics over a few posts as there are so many. Enjoy!