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The Rapido Great Model Railway Survey


rapidoandy
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Morning all!

 

I am looking for some help from all you lovely people and I am asking if you could complete a survey about the features and expectations you have for new models:

 

The Great Rapido Model Railway Survey

 

I’m always keen to hear about what people want and our product suggestion page has been very popular. However, I often read comments on pages and forums like ‘ why does xxx manufacturer include/not include that feature’.

 

We are really keen to find out what modellers thoughts and expectations are for new R-T-R models. To this end we have designed a survey that covers many of the topics that will guide us in our future decision making.

 

We’re offering three random prizes of £100, £75 and £50 vouchers to spend with us to those who complete the survey (and who leave an email so we can contact the winners).

 

This really will help us determine the features we design into our new models and the direction we will go in. This really is your chance to have a say.

 

Please don't be put off that it looks like 84 questions! You wont answer this many (depending how you answer you skip various sections) and the ones you do answer are closed questions which are easy to answer and will take less than 10 mins of your time.

 

Please share this with your model making friends, clubs, Facebook groups etc. The more date we can collect the better!

 

Happy modelling!

 

Andy

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Already completed it.

 

Very refreshing in its approach to questions asked, and very “moorish” each set of Q’s I felt I wanted to give more input in the next.

 

(you didnt include a wish list, but tbh thats probably a good idea otherwise you’d be inundated with at least one request for every ever made).

 

Theres at least 4/5 greenfield markets in oo not yet explored, yet so many other manufacturers are happy to step on each others toes re-repeating / reduplicating models, some which aren't that old, I dont see how that's healthy or less risky on a product that doesnt consume itself.

 

good luck 

 

Edited by adb968008
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I've done the survey and as somebody who models electric railways (SR 3rd rail) I was dissapointed in being forced to choose between steam and diesel, with no option to chose "electric".
How to bias the results of a survey, lesson 1. ;)

 

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1 minute ago, Phatbob said:

I've done the survey and as somebody who models electric railways (SR 3rd rail) I was dissapointed in being forced to choose between steam and diesel, with no option to chose "electric".
How to bias the results of a survey, lesson 1. ;)

 

 

And what about gas turbine and bi-mode, eh?  :)

I think that a preference for motive power is probably a less useful data point than a preference for era, since era will, to a large extent, determine the motive power anyway. But, traditionally, model railway manufacturers and retailers have used motive power as a primary classification - a distinction which, I think, dates back to when "steam" meant "historic" and "diesel" meant "modern image", although that's no longer really accurate. So I think it has to be included in a survey, because people will expect to be asked it.

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Flattered to see the background photo! It spurred me to complete the survey which was an interesting set of questions in terms of individual features. No doubt you'll get a variety of responses on, according to whether the respondee considers them to be essential or merely a gimmick.

 

Might a free format comments box or two add to the survey?

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Which question are you referring to? My recollection of the only question that ask you to chose between steam and diesel is in relation to Industrial locos (where I deliberately did leave out electric).

 

Like many things this has been structured to allow me to interpret the data in a manageable way. We could break the regions down further  for example but it just provides a data set that becomes blurred for the results i'm looking to find.

 

MarkSG is correct - there are lots of questions about era and location which will allow us to make some conclusions about things like 3rd rail electrics etc. This has been written to provide us with answer to questions we are interested in - it might not seem logical on the outside but on the inside it is :-)

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Just now, LNER4479 said:

Flattered to see the background photo! It spurred me to complete the survey which was an interesting set of questions in terms of individual features. No doubt you'll get a variety of responses on, according to whether the respondee considers them to be essential or merely a gimmick.

 

Might a free format comments box or two add to the survey?

 

Free form does run the risk of giving us to many responses that cannot be quantified. We do have a free form (sort of) product suggestion form on the website that allows people to make general suggestions to us :-)

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I completed two thirds of the survey when the website said there was a problem and had to reload the page.

 

This it did back at the beginning of the survey - so I decided I had better things to do...

 

Cheers

 

Darius

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The survey asks:

Quote

what would you hope to pay

 

What I'd hope to pay is less than what I'd expect to pay!

 

For example, I'd hope to pay less than £20 for a 4 wheel wagon in N Gauge and I answered as such. The reality is that I'd expect to pay £20-30 and would do so.

 

Although I priced a small tank-engine at less than a larger express one, I'd expect the price difference to be as much down to the complexity rather than just size - I'd imagine a BR std 2MT tank engine would cost as much, if not more than something like the LMS Turbomotive.

 

Steven B

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I had been dubious about 84 questions, but Andy had assured me it was not as tedious a it sounds, and he was right. Sorry Darius had a comms problem, as my answers provided on a Eurostar leaving Paris have worked fine - and taken my mind off the endless inane babble from a girl a few rows away!

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11 minutes ago, Steven B said:

The survey asks:

 

What I'd hope to pay is less than what I'd expect to pay!

 

For example, I'd hope to pay less than £20 for a 4 wheel wagon in N Gauge and I answered as such. The reality is that I'd expect to pay £20-30 and would do so.

 

Although I priced a small tank-engine at less than a larger express one, I'd expect the price difference to be as much down to the complexity rather than just size - I'd imagine a BR std 2MT tank engine would cost as much, if not more than something like the LMS Turbomotive.

 

Steven B

On the pricing question, I don't see why a small tank engine shouldn't cost as much as a big express.  I imagine the cost and complexity are comparable, in fact a small loco may present a more demanding challenge in terms of packaging and engineering.  In N gauge the Dapol Baby Warship usually seems to be more expensive than the larger Western, which I assume is because it's a more complex model to make.  I've got multiple examples of both and the price didn't put me off (full disclosure, I have more Westerns, but only because it's one of my favourite locomotive classes and I've tried to get one of every livery).

 

I'm trying not to put down those who appear to evaluate their loco and stock purchases on a £-per-lb or £-per-inch basis, but I think I just have.  Sorry.

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56 minutes ago, Phatbob said:

I've done the survey and as somebody who models electric railways (SR 3rd rail) I was dissapointed in being forced to choose between steam and diesel, with no option to chose "electric".
How to bias the results of a survey, lesson 1. ;)

 

I was pleased there wasnt an option for clockwork myself.

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Well in typical Rapido fashion that was fun although in one or two places I would have liked to click more than one box in order to give an accurate answer (for example where the answer had to be either 'Yes' or 'No' both applied to me but I decided on 'No' because that might steer you in a more useful direction ;) ).

 

I managed to press 'submit' at the end without - I think - ordering myself another copy of the newsletter.  Now can I have another go using my other email address, er please?

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24 minutes ago, peach james said:

I filled one out, even though I don't live in the UK...as I model the UK :)

As did I for all of the above reasons. Curiously when I clicked submit it asked me to please wait and remained in that state until I finally closed the window. But I’m not worried as Rapido (assuming Covid is not playing the spoiler, again,) is supposed to be in attendance at the Great British Train Show (April 30, May1, at the James Archdekin Arena in Brampton,Ontario) so I can tell them all the same information then. 
 

Cheers,

 

David

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4 hours ago, davknigh said:

As did I for all of the above reasons. Curiously when I clicked submit it asked me to please wait and remained in that state until I finally closed the window. But I’m not worried as Rapido (assuming Covid is not playing the spoiler, again,) is supposed to be in attendance at the Great British Train Show (April 30, May1, at the James Archdekin Arena in Brampton,Ontario) so I can tell them all the same information then.

 

Perhaps Rapido needs to fund a trans-Atlantic field trip for Rapido UK?

 

Or maybe in order to compensate Bill for his inability to travel to the UK last month Bill gets to go to glorious Brampton?

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Hi Andy and team.

I’ve filled in the survey and will encourage contacts to do the same. I thought the survey was well structured and I hope you get some useful data to inform your product decisions. 
Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable festive season!
Ian

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