2019 Accurascale Modeller Survey - Have Your Say!

[Damo666]

On 14/07/2019 at 17:44, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

So that's at least four of us who we know of so far that voted for a new OO Gauge 37. Seems as though a new 37 would be popular. 

 

For me you can just never have too many 37s especially in DRS, Colas, Europhoenix/ROG and West Coast Maroon liveries. 

Hands up, me too.

[dj_crisp]

I didn't vote for a 37 but a good one would save me doing loads of my vitrains.... and I'm sure Brian @ Shawplan is fed up of me asking for some underframe tanks

 

And what better to go with a  37.. some CDAs.

[No Decorum]

10 hours ago, atom3624 said:

Here's a novel idea for you ....

 

Why stay in the 21st Century?

Why stay even in the 20th Century?

 

Done by Hornby in part, 40+ years ago, why not have ....

 

THE STEPHENSON SERIES

 

You can start with Rocket, and it's Trials wagons ...

 

You could add Locomotion, Planet ...

 

As an aside you could add Lion and even meander into the Titfield Thunderbolt ....

 

Just a thought.

 

Al.

Bachmann produced a model in pewter which had to be discounted to clear stock. Perhaps that puts manufacturers off. If so, it’s rather misleading because that model would not be in harmony with anything else on the railway. It’s now a matter of a manufacturer being willing to take the risk. I think that nowadays it would be possible to produce these tiny articles using coreless motors, although I’m not a fan of the things at all. The way I would consider doing it (if it were me) would be to put the power unit in a carriage to push a free-wheeling locomotive. I think a series of early locomotives would be wonderful but that doesn’t mean that they would be a commercial success. Manufacturers have yet to feel their way backwards, so to speak, to see if models of earlier Victorian locomotives are viable. Coppernob might be a good place to start; a Wainwright D better. The Midland 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 produced by Ratio as kits would bridge the gap too.

[Accurascale Fran]

6 hours ago, No Decorum said:

Bachmann produced a model in pewter which had to be discounted to clear stock. Perhaps that puts manufacturers off. If so, it’s rather misleading because that model would not be in harmony with anything else on the railway. It’s now a matter of a manufacturer being willing to take the risk. I think that nowadays it would be possible to produce these tiny articles using coreless motors, although I’m not a fan of the things at all. The way I would consider doing it (if it were me) would be to put the power unit in a carriage to push a free-wheeling locomotive. I think a series of early locomotives would be wonderful but that doesn’t mean that they would be a commercial success. Manufacturers have yet to feel their way backwards, so to speak, to see if models of earlier Victorian locomotives are viable. Coppernob might be a good place to start; a Wainwright D better. The Midland 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 produced by Ratio as kits would bridge the gap too.

 

Hi everyone,

 

Interesting chat about the earliest days of the the railways. As we have just hit 1,500 (yes! I know!) respondents, who we thank very much, I can tell you that a grand total of 0 have stated that they model Era 1 1804-1875. So, not a huge market sadly!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

[Steamport Southport]

3 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi everyone,

 

Interesting chat about the earliest days of the the railways. As we have just hit 1,500 (yes! I know!) respondents, who we thank very much, I can tell you that a grand total of 0 have stated that they model Era 1 1804-1875. So, not a huge market sadly!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

Many of them have ran in the modern era though. Either the originals or replicas.

 

Lion even went mainline in 1980. As it also did in the 1930s and 1950s. It even went under the wires.

 

http://www.gwrarchive.org/site/sitel2pg/uk/uk.php

 

 

 

Jason

[Accurascale Fran]

4 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Many of them have ran in the modern era though. Either the originals or replicas.

 

Lion even went mainline in 1980. As it also did in the 1930s and 1950s. It even went under the wires.

 

http://www.gwrarchive.org/site/sitel2pg/uk/uk.php

 

 

 

Jason

 

Hi Jason,

 

Of course, but it still wouldnt be viable. Sorry, not for us anyway!

 

Cheers,

 

Fran

[Steamport Southport]

It's alright, I wasn't really suggesting them. 

 

Just that demand for early locomotives are probably coming more from people who model other eras rather than those that model Era 1.

 

 

 

Jason

[atom3624]

I like, basically, anything which takes my fancy, is well assembled / performs well, and which I may have seen in the past.

 

Steam - I'm mainly collecting those which are preserved - sort-of get-out clause for 'why's Pendolino alongside Flying Scotsman / Britannia / DoG' ...

 

Al.

Edited July 17, 2019 by atom3624

[classy52]

49 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Jason,

 

Of course, but it still wouldnt be viable. Sorry, not for us anyway!

 

Cheers,

 

Fran

 

Excellent...now get back to the Class 37 preparations ...or am I

[Fitzer]

10 minutes ago, classy52 said:

 

Excellent...now get back to the Class 37 preparations ...or am I

 

You do realise we had to pester them for 2 years to do the A class...

[No Decorum]

2 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Jason,

 

Of course, but it still wouldnt be viable. Sorry, not for us anyway!

 

Cheers,

 

Fran

I’d say you’re right, Fran. Too risky at least until you get firmly established. Whilst I would love some of these early machines to be modelled I (obviously) didn’t suggest one. Certainly, there may not be much demand but possibly the reason that no-one suggested them is because no-one thought there would be any chance of one being produced.

 

On the other hand, we have 37s from several manufacturers but we do not have Electrostars, which is what I requested. Nice that I’m not alone. Did anyone else ask for a Gresley K4? Beautiful little locomotives, carried names and LNER green as well as BR black. One preserved.

[ThaneofFife]

On ‎15‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 08:09, 66738 said:

Would really love some Mk 2B coaches to add to my 2A’s. I can’t believe I’m saying this but would prefer Bachmann to crack on and produce them rather than Accurascale. An Accurascale Mk2B would look way too good next to the Bachmann 2A. 

I know it’s a bit left field but I Wouldn't mind a Manchester Pullman rake! 

66738

 yes in both their early liveries grey/blue and executive

[Porcy Mane]

Has anybody mentioned the Conflat "L".

[classy52]

41 minutes ago, Porcy Mane said:

Has anybody mentioned the Conflat "L".

 

...or the KFA log carriers!!!

[Gibbo675]

3 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi everyone,

 

Interesting chat about the earliest days of the the railways. As we have just hit 1,500 (yes! I know!) respondents, who we thank very much, I can tell you that a grand total of 0 have stated that they model Era 1 1804-1875. So, not a huge market sadly!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

Hi Fran,

 

Perhaps the reason no one has stated that they model era 1 is that little to nothing is actually produced RTR, should it be produced then they might do. It is my observation that most that do model era 1 scratch build and in some cases 3d print their own stuff and are not so bothered about RTR in any case. It is likely that GWR broad gauge may well be placed into a similar category with the added complication that 14mm, 28mm and 49mm track isn't available for the three major RTR scales.

 

I like early 1970's BR Blue and I have been bashing AC electrics from the old Trix bodies for classes 81, 82, 83 and 84 are not available, neither is a Cartic-4 for which I have been building a laser cut kit for myself and anyone else that wants one. Should any of the above mentioned have been made available previously I would likely have purchased such models as I might do for era 1. I don't quite have the skills to make such a small mechanism for something the size of Rocket or Planet but I do like the idea all the same !

 

I understand that commercial viability of one of the prime concerns of any manufacturer but this is a survey, about which suggestions are made and sensibly discussed. It would seem most probable that era 1 is a nice idea that would cost a fortune to implement and return only a small amount

 

The good thing about suggestions is that thoughts are free, unlike tooling for potentially unsold models.

 

Gibbo.

[atom3624]

I reckon the 'Stephenson Series' would be quite interesting ...

 

A sort of 'folly' alongside the mainline.

 

Al.

[Fenman]

17 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi everyone,

 

Interesting chat about the earliest days of the the railways. As we have just hit 1,500 (yes! I know!) respondents, who we thank very much, I can tell you that a grand total of 0 have stated that they model Era 1 1804-1875. So, not a huge market sadly!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

 

Ha! This is *exactly* the sort of false conclusion I anticipated in our earlier exchange, when I was questioning why I was only allowed to pick one era. 

 

Excuse the shouting, but — SOME OF US HAVE MULTIPLE INTERESTS! 

 

If you make us pick only one of our interests, it should be no surprise that you are leaving commercial opportunities on the table. But to argue that because no-one has picked that era means there is “not a huge market” ... well, I would suggest you can’t draw that conclusion. 

 

An APT-E did not fit with any of my modelling interests — none. So you would conclude I couldn’t possibly have bought one, and there was no commercial opportunity there?

 

Incidentally, even though you wouldn’t necessarily conclude this from my answers, I’d love a definitive Class 37 *and* Mk2b stock. That’s the basic 1970s InterCity train on the Fenline. If you introduced those, it would change my modelling priorities. 

 

This survey stuff is tricky!

 

Paul

[phil gollin]

.

 

I do NOT want to put words into others' mouths, but the main reason for restricting such surveys to single, or small number of choices, is to try to concentrate the respondee's mind, otherwise they might swamp the survey with "wishlisting"  -  witness what a VERY FEW people have done above.

 

Look at my footnote below, LOTS of things I would like, but I had to choose carefully for the survey.  I think my answers are perfect, but I'm just me, hopefully the survey will make more sense to Accurascale (especially if other people share my peculiarities).

 

. 

[Fenman]

20 minutes ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

I do NOT want to put words into others' mouths, but the main reason for restricting such surveys to single, or small number of choices, is to try to concentrate the respondee's mind, otherwise they might swamp the survey with "wishlisting"  -  witness what a VERY FEW people have done above.

 

Look at my footnote below, LOTS of things I would like, but I had to choose carefully for the survey.  I think my answers are perfect, but I'm just me, hopefully the survey will make more sense to Accurascale (especially if other people share my peculiarities).

 

. 

 

Yes, I understand that point. But Fran seems to make a leap from the fact that no-one has chosen an era to the conclusion that there is “not a huge market”. Well, it may not be “huge” (other than TTTE what model railway market is?), but it may still be commercially viable. 

 

Two different things. 

 

Paul

[dj_crisp]

19 minutes ago, Fenman said:

 

Yes, I understand that point. But Fran seems to make a leap from the fact that no-one has chosen an era to the conclusion that there is “not a huge market”. Well, it may not be “huge” (other than TTTE what model railway market is?), but it may still be commercially viable. 

 

Two different things. 

 

Paul

 

Agreed - who knows as it's proabably an untested market. You could argue a great opportunity as no-one has done it before but far more risky than say a CDA  

 

Commercially I'm sure it makes better sense to sell something people buy in trainloads, like the PFA or PTAs as an individual customer will probably by quite a few per order (whoops).

 

 

[Accurascale Fran]

1 hour ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

I do NOT want to put words into others' mouths, but the main reason for restricting such surveys to single, or small number of choices, is to try to concentrate the respondee's mind, otherwise they might swamp the survey with "wishlisting"  -  witness what a VERY FEW people have done above.

 

Look at my footnote below, LOTS of things I would like, but I had to choose carefully for the survey.  I think my answers are perfect, but I'm just me, hopefully the survey will make more sense to Accurascale (especially if other people share my peculiarities).

 

. 

 

Hi Phil, this is exactly why we did it. We wanted to get the clearest indication of where a persons main interest lies so we can better understand what are the surest bets to produce in the future. Very few of us are disciplined in era and I am guilty more than most, with big 4 steam up to TPE class 68s and a huge amount in between. We wanted to find the ‘main area’ of interest, gun to your head, pick one situation. This will help us most in our market research.

 

 

43 minutes ago, Fenman said:

 

Yes, I understand that point. But Fran seems to make a leap from the fact that no-one has chosen an era to the conclusion that there is “not a huge market”. Well, it may not be “huge” (other than TTTE what model railway market is?), but it may still be commercially viable. 

 

Two different things. 

 

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

Is it a huge leap? You must accept then even by the law of averages in a sample size of 1500 so far that someone would select it if they had interest in multiple eras and so many of those people had an interest in this particular period? This, coupled to pretty much zero RTR models from any manufacturer currently or over the last couple of decades would speak volumes to me, but I might be completely wrong. I understand the creating of markets by producing something in that space that was previously untouched, indeed we have seen that in the Irish market over the past 20 years, but I know if I went to my MD with a proposal to make a model in this period he would be contemplating looking for my P45 in the filing cabinet. Maybe it will be worth one of the long established companies taking a punt on it, but for a growing one like us it would be far too big a risk. Novelty items might work once, but multiple bangs from the tooling? I just can’t see it and that’s what Accurascale needs over the next decade. We just do not see that period as commercially viable to Accurascale right now.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

Edited July 18, 2019 by Accurascale Fran

[atom3624]

I still think a series of Era 1 would be fascinating.

 

Al.

[classy52]

2 hours ago, Fenman said:

 

Yes, I understand that point. But Fran seems to make a leap from the fact that no-one has chosen an era to the conclusion that there is “not a huge market”. Well, it may not be “huge” (other than TTTE what model railway market is?), but it may still be commercially viable. 

 

Two different things. 

 

Paul

 

Why doesn't Hornby do it, they love Steam...probably because as Fran stated it actually isn't commercially viable.

[Fenman]

1 hour ago, classy52 said:

 

Why doesn't Hornby do it, they love Steam...probably because as Fran stated it actually isn't commercially viable.

 

You may well be right (and I wouldn’t punt my money on it), but you seem to be missing the point. 

 

Very few of us seem to have just one interest which has a monopoly on our purchasing decisions. By actually designing a survey that insists each of us may only declare one era, you will inevitably get a distorted view of the potential market. I’m interested in early and transition BR; and 1970s blue; and in pre-war M&GN, ex-GER and ex-LSWR. I buy stuff from all those. And others. But, as far as Fran is concerned, my sole interest is in transition-era BR. 

 

I’m not at all criticising the company for going where they think the biggest market is, and there was a nice clue from Fran that it’s in prototypes which offer the opportunity for multiple runs and variations (so that class 37 might be looking more likely, then?!). But I am criticising the logical leap that says this survey proves whether or not there’s a viable market. 

 

Paul

 

 

[wombatofludham]

3 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Phil, this is exactly why we did it. We wanted to get the clearest indication of where a persons main interest lies so we can better understand what are the surest bets to produce in the future. Very few of us are disciplined in era and I am guilty more than most, with big 4 steam up to TPE class 68s and a huge amount in between. We wanted to find the ‘main area’ of interest, gun to your head, pick one situation. This will help us most in our market research.

 

Despite having multiple interests myself, I found the "choose one era or the puppy dies" approach extremely useful as it helped me focus on the main RTR gaps I would prefer to be filled.  My only caveat - and it's one I've raised before - is how widespread the database will be as not everyone in the modelling community is a member of this forum, or Facebook, and how that might reflect in the results.  That said, I'm not entirely sure how you get round that and reach out to those not aware of the survey (or the annual wishlist for that matter) so it's probably the best we can hope for.

By the way, one of my other interests is Irish railways - is there a similar survey being planned for the Irish side of the business or is it a case that the smaller pool of subjects more or less defines what your plans are for the range?