Railtec Transfers

[railtec-models]

12 hours ago, Half-full said:

Hi Steve

 

Just a quick q to see if you plan to do the Northern Spot pack for Class 155's as per the 5294 156 pack?

 

Asking on here as the email function is being worked on as per your webpage.

 

Just trying to plan in a couple of projects!

 

TIA

 

HF

 

Hiya HF, eventually, yes. Ditto for the 319s. But like any new product line - it often takes an immense amount of research, measuring, specialist graphic design and multiple iterations of testing before anything sees the light of day. At least to get the product looking good on the proper spot printed kit. Often what people see is just the very tip of the iceberg. In this example, the 155s will have different door button configurations, I imagine different styles and layouts of the warning labels, possibly different emergency door release handles, wouldn't surprise me if the typefaces of the side numbers varied from one unit to the next, different size destination blinds (and possibly style), different vehicle data panels, different configuration of bike / wheelchair labels above the doors, so unfortunately it's far from a simple case of re-use the 156 or 150 pack and sub it with 155 numbers, which understandably is what many people may assume is a simple case of doing and therefore a 10 minute job. It will happen, eventually, and will appear on the web site once it does so just keep checking.

 

And to the most recent comment by Ingleborough, I empathise. But the simple reality is - the 6-8 hours required to develop a new Northern 155 pack (or any new design in the pipe) can be spent creating that, or instead spent responding to today's 50-60 new "can you do" emails (on top of Sunday's and so on) and thereby make no new design work / no new product or do my bit to keep the hobby moving forward, replenishing depleted stock lines, or preparing / dispatching the 40+ web orders that have come in today (which has to take priority which I hope people can understand), responding to/acknowledging the FB IMs, FB tags, forum IMs / tags, Instagram IMs/tags, Whatsapp, SMS, phone ringing, or perhaps make time to go to the loo. Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I do respond as much as I can but it's unfortunately a physical impossibility for one guy providing such a hugely specialist product and service to keep on top the colossal volume of incoming chat via multiple channels, as well as maintain product quality and keep 400 new products a year being ploughed into the ecosystem for everybody. All the more so the past few weeks with so many more people at home with modelling time on their hands. A very many number of people seem to love the product, which is both humbling and terrific, but there is a trade-off and it does come at a cost. Anyone who's seen the Railtec stand at Warley on a Saturday will have a pretty good visual representation of the challenges that are faced 365 days a year (and yes I do respond to emails if I can on Christmas Day as it's a perfect excuse to get out of the sprout course).

Edited May 11, 2020 by railtec-models

[Phil Mc]

No sprout course = no need to find time to go to the loo = more product development time.

Just sayin.........

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Guest Half-full]

Hi Steve,

 

Many thanks for taking the time to reply, its much appreciated!

 

I've been a long time user of your transfers, always my first port of call now.  I'll look forward to seeing (and using!) the 155 pack when it becomes available - I didn't realise the detail re the door buttons!

 

Thanks again

 

HF

[Alex Duckworth]

Hello Steve,

 

                      would you be able to print some of your 4mm NCB transfer sheets at 2mm?

 

Alex.

[rob D2]

Quality service from Steve again, for next loco. And a bonus “ transrail “ as I didn’t seal one properly and knocked it off  37116..

 

thanks Steve !

 

 

[delticfan]

Just been checking out the 7mm 3D diesel worksplates, ie. Sulzer, EE, etc. Can you specify individual locos or is that pushing things a bit much?...Thanks.

[Firecracker]

Just a quick few words to praise the superb service from Railtec so far!  Whilst browsing on here I became aware of them, so with an 08 to renumber I decided to give them a go.  So an order went in yesterday at 11:07.  I get an email at 14:57 yesterday from Steve to tell me the order had been despatched.  Then, much to my amazement and pleasure they plop through the letterbox at 10:00 this morning.  Superb, with service like that, you deserve to succeed!  

 

And yes, there will be more orders.  Some custom destination blinds, for a start.

 

Owain

[daz9284]

what's the best way to contact steve, as the e-mail is turned off? i remember reading you could live chat to him but i can't find where this is on the site?

 

cheers

darryl

[Butler Henderson]

Maybe posting a query here might attract attention. One addition that would be useful is a cut down set of transfers of what is missing from the Hornby Captain Tom.

[Happy Hippo]

Sometime back, I asked whether Steve had considered making a set of raised number plates for the Heljan 7mm scale Hymek.  At the time, he was rushed off his feet, so the request came to nothing, although Steve did say he's do it once he had the time.

 

As a stop gap, I decided to order a set of 2D numbers for my Hymek, and was then going to use them as a template for some individual etched letters and numbers.

 

After ordering, Steve got back to me to say he had been working on the Hymek transfers and was happy with the product so would dispatch a set to me.

 

These were duly delivered, and very nice they looked too:  All I needed was the time and courage to fit them!

 

Yesterday I received an email from Stave saying he'd adjusted some settings on his equipment and that he had created an even better set of numbers,  so a new set to replace those he'd already sent me, were in the post.

 

They arrived this morning.

 

What do you say about a small business that takes that much care of it's customers?

 

'Outstanding service' somehow seems inadequate in this case.

 

Thank you Steve.

 

 

 

[daz9284]

Steve is brilliant although he is his worst enemy in a way. He's so good at what he does the poor guy is rushed off his feet due to high demand. He needs to take someone on to help him but I think he has said before he doesn't have the time to teach someone the techniques in railway designs etc. It's a double edged sword for the poor lad.

Edited August 31, 2020 by daz9284

[D6775]

Off the WB last week with Steve's transfers:

 

[rob D2]

1 hour ago, daz9284 said:

Steve is brilliant although he is his worst enemy in a way. He's so good at what he does the poor guy is rushed off his feet due to high demand. He needs to take someone on to help him but I think he has said before he doesn't have the time to teach someone the techniques in railway designs etc. It's a double edged sword for the poor lad.

Very true ,

I wonder if he has someone to post stuff out....the logistics side could be done by unskilled labour 

[heavymetalwagons]

Dont like the phrase "unskilled Labour"!!!! 

[Hal Nail]

On 29/08/2020 at 19:22, Happy Hippo said:

Sometime back, I asked whether Steve had considered making a set of raised number plates for the Heljan 7mm scale Hymek. 

As an aside, someone did produce these when it first came out.

[Happy Hippo]

29 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

As an aside, someone did produce these when it first came out.

Yes, Fox produced individual etched stainless letters and numbers but I had not real wish to start fiddling around with them.

 

I had a 4 mm Heljan Hymek as well, and that got left well alone as at the time, I was having a lot of trouble with my close vision.

[tractor_37260]

Hi Steve

                What's the part No. for your ML 08 938 transfer set can't seem to find it on your site.  An ED 08 938 set still required as and when available.

 

Regards

Ken

 

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by tractor_37260

[rob D2]

On 31/08/2020 at 13:09, heavymetalwagons said:

Dont like the phrase "unskilled Labour"!!!! 

Oh well,

It doesn’t require any skill to post stuff, thus the description to differentiate from the design work, which clearly does require skill

[railtec-models]

On 04/09/2020 at 23:41, tractor_37260 said:

Hi Steve

                What's the part No. for your ML 08 938 transfer set can't seem to find it on your site.  An ED 08 938 set still required as and when available.

 

Regards

Ken

 

 

 

I've just briefly taken it off to revamp it to include both the ED and ML variants on the same 4mm pack, and add the ED version for 7mm too (the 7mm ML version was already available). Here's a sneak preview of what the 4mm now looks like. It'll be available on the web site once it's been scheduled in to a print run. Currently anticipate it being in a few days' time.

 

 

A classic case of what might seem like a simple loco pack to do, turning into a can of worms to get it looking bang on. Those hand painted ED numbers took some pain staking manual recreation of artwork (and one side has slightly different spacing to the other and a couple of the numerals are thicker on one side), and then there were the ED badges and unique stencil solebar detailing to figure out too. Before you know it that's another 3+ hours of your life gone!

Edited September 8, 2020 by railtec-models

[tractor_37260]

Hi Steve

               The above in 4mm will be just the job.  One question, the background square colour behind the ED or ML on the cab sides looks Black ? to me not Blue but happy to be corrected. 

 

EDIT: Having found a better photo, it is in fact Blue backed with a fine Black border edge around it ! 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by tractor_37260
amend text

[Stu from EGDL]

6 hours ago, railtec-models said:

 

 

 

 

Hi Gang,

 

Would love to see this pack reproduced in N gauge...

Along with my standing request for Grand Central Class 90s.
 

Later,

Stu in OMDM

 

[railtec-models]

43 minutes ago, tractor_37260 said:

Hi Steve

               The above in 4mm will be just the job.  One question, the background square colour behind the ED or ML on the cab sides looks Black ? to me not Blue but happy to be corrected. 

 

 

 

I'm reasonably confident it's the white balance in the photos, particularly on the latter inside the shed. In the first photo the background behind ED looks to be distinctly lighter than the black of the cab window surrounds above it. As far as I can gather from the dozen or so photos I have of the loco both in its ED and ML variants, the background was what I could best describe as BR blue. I have a couple of photos in identical positions at Motherwell. In one photo (where I would say the white balance is poor), the badge looks white on black, but in another almost identical photo it's definitely BR blue (or as close as damn it), seen here:

 

 

My guess is that when it moved to Motherwell, they just painted over the box (or perhaps even just painted out the ED) in the same colour and applied their own ML mark.

 

There's perhaps a better photo of it at Eastfield here:

 

The only question mark I would have is whether the blue box had a thin black outline, but I think opinion could easily be divided on that one (and how prominently that would show at 4mm is negligible anyway). If somebody knows 100% categorically then feel free to chime in. Who knows, maybe even the gentleman who applied it could be reading this!

 

EDIT: I think Eddie is cracked it whilst I was responding. I'm going to amend the ED variant to BR blue with a thin black outline. Nice one Eddie. And people sometimes wonder where all the time goes!

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by railtec-models

[tractor_37260]

1 hour ago, Eddie R v2.0 said:

To my eyes, it is Blue with a very thin Black line round the edge. I know that it’s very difficult to tell from the pics on Flickr and don’t envy Steve in all the research he does!  

 

 

Yep - that's what I'm thinking now looking at the above . Possibly Black squares were painted on first - then the Blue added afterwards- as per the photo above in ED's paint shop ? 

[tractor_37260]

5 minutes ago, Eddie R v2.0 said:

That would make sense Ken. Oh to have a time machine and a Digital camera! 

 

Steve is now going to amend the the ED version with a fine Black border - top man Steve !  - will save faffing about painting on Black squares to go under the transfers.

[tractor_37260]

On 08/09/2020 at 18:39, railtec-models said:

 

I'm reasonably confident it's the white balance in the photos, particularly on the latter inside the shed. In the first photo the background behind ED looks to be distinctly lighter than the black of the cab window surrounds above it. As far as I can gather from the dozen or so photos I have of the loco both in its ED and ML variants, the background was what I could best describe as BR blue. I have a couple of photos in identical positions at Motherwell. In one photo (where I would say the white balance is poor), the badge looks white on black, but in another almost identical photo it's definitely BR blue (or as close as damn it), seen here:

 

 

My guess is that when it moved to Motherwell, they just painted over the box (or perhaps even just painted out the ED) in the same colour and applied their own ML mark.

 

There's perhaps a better photo of it at Eastfield here:

 

The only question mark I would have is whether the blue box had a thin black outline, but I think opinion could easily be divided on that one (and how prominently that would show at 4mm is negligible anyway). If somebody knows 100% categorically then feel free to chime in. Who knows, maybe even the gentleman who applied it could be reading this!

 

EDIT: I think Eddie is cracked it whilst I was responding. I'm going to amend the ED variant to BR blue with a thin black outline. Nice one Eddie. And people sometimes wonder where all the time goes!

 

 

Hi Steve

 

              Any update on the revised 4mm ED 08938 transfer set ?  Noticed your e-mail is temporarily unavailable.  I've a couple of other items to order, so will just get them all together.

Regards

Ken

 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by tractor_37260
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