Crowdfunded TRAIN'IN BOX project from LR Presse

[rue_d_etropal]

Just had an email from LR Presse about a crowdfunded project called TRAIN'IN BOX

http://fr.ulule.com/traininbox/

 

 

interesting the English sounding title, but if it gets off the ground then a novel way to get something new into the hobby.

[Pacific231G]

Just had an email from LR Presse about a crowdfunded project called TRAIN'IN BOX

http://fr.ulule.com/traininbox/

 

 

interesting the English sounding title, but if it gets off the ground then a novel way to get something new into the hobby.

 

Hi Simon

I had the same email and took a close look at it along with some early discussion on the LR Presse Forum - roughly the French equivalent to RM Web .

Their aim is to provide a bridge between the "train set" and the real craft hobby of railway modelling

They're aiming at a price around €330 and for that you'd get a loco and two wagons, a circuit of track with a passing loop and siding, the necessary electricals, various buildings, scenic materials and,perhaps most interesting, a card based integral baseboard incorporating the main scenic elements and the trackbed. The box would therefore include everything needed to build a complete small layout 1m x 1.1m. 

(I don't think LocoRevue will mind their publicity photo being shown) 

 

The buildings, at least those they've used for this proof of concept prototype, appear to be from their Regions et Compagnies line which are high quality laser cut card and thin ply kits and they're looking for the future to offer versions for different French regions, something that their existing building range would probably make very feasible. LR Presse obviously have expertise in card and paper printing techniques that they'd be calling on for this and card based structures can be very strong. 

 

Following on from about four years of publishing Clés pour le train miniature at less than half the cover price of Loco-Revue it does seem clear that Christian Fournereau (the grandson of LocoRevue's founder) and his colleagues are thinking quite hard about effective ways of getting new people into the real hobby of railway modelling, something I don't think the main manufacturers have paid anything like enough attention to for many years but essential if it is to have a real future beyond collecting.

 

I haven't figured out how the Crowdfunding model they're using actually works though Ulule seems to be a standard one. They are certainly appealing to modellers' commitment to supporting the future of the hobby and contributors/investors get various rewards depending on how much they put in but I'm not sure what other returns they'd get if the project is successful. Train'in box will clearly be attached to the LR business which is a mainly family owned private company (rather like Peco though a lot smaller) but it's not clear whether it'll be run as a division of that or as a separate enterprise.  

[rue_d_etropal]

it does look interesting, and a quick scan(and rough translation in head) came up with roughly what you have posted. M only doubt, but then that is because I am not so keen on card kits, is the use of the laser cut card kits, as I have mentioned on another thread. The similarity between Loco Revue and Peco is well known, and has been discussed on another thread relating to track. Basically the founder of Loco Revue as more interested in what ran on the track, so they focused more on that over the years and Peco's interest was in the track. Maybe they should be working together, possibly on this project.

When I saw the webpage, I knew it was crowdfunding, which is catching on in the hobby. Not sure if what they offer as a 'prize' is that good, but did not look through the details. The English sounding name is interesting, and I also wonder if it has been partly inspired by the partworks produced in both France and UK by Hachette. I just wish I had known about the French version when it started as there were a few interesting items. In fact I wonder if the buildings could be marketed for starters in the hobby. Those card kits look complex.

 

The other thing I noticed was the Electrotren/Jouef/Horny loco, and hopefully those will still be available when they start producing the sets.

I think the crowdfunding is mainly to get a working proposal up and running, then the real backers know what their money will produce. It is possibly a more typical use of crowdfunding, where as in the hobby it has been used to fund a manufacture of a particular loco, which you then get for the money put into the fund. This tran set/layout startup crowdfunding has different options, with different rewards depending on how much you put into it.

[Pacific231G]

it does look interesting, and a quick scan(and rough translation in head) came up with roughly what you have posted. M only doubt, but then that is because I am not so keen on card kits, is the use of the laser cut card kits, as I have mentioned on another thread. The similarity between Loco Revue and Peco is well known, and has been discussed on another thread relating to track. Basically the founder of Loco Revue as more interested in what ran on the track, so they focused more on that over the years and Peco's interest was in the track. Maybe they should be working together, possibly on this project.

When I saw the webpage, I knew it was crowdfunding, which is catching on in the hobby. Not sure if what they offer as a 'prize' is that good, but did not look through the details. The English sounding name is interesting, and I also wonder if it has been partly inspired by the partworks produced in both France and UK by Hachette. I just wish I had known about the French version when it started as there were a few interesting items. In fact I wonder if the buildings could be marketed for starters in the hobby. Those card kits look complex.

 

The other thing I noticed was the Electrotren/Jouef/Horny loco, and hopefully those will still be available when they start producing the sets.

I think the crowdfunding is mainly to get a working proposal up and running, then the real backers know what their money will produce. It is possibly a more typical use of crowdfunding, where as in the hobby it has been used to fund a manufacture of a particular loco, which you then get for the money put into the fund. This tran set/layout startup crowdfunding has different options, with different rewards depending on how much you put into it.

 

Hi Simon

It was me who made the point about the different emphases between L-R and RM in September last year, not for the first time as I have for a long time been interested in the impact of the main model railway magazines on the development of the hobby in different countries.

 

The Hachette partwork and its obvious limitations may have had some infuence on the Train'in Box concept but I'm seeing it more as a further development from LR's publication Clés pour le Train Miniature. The Hachette partwork first appeared in France in January 2012 and the first edition of Clés in May of that year so, given how long it takes to set up a new magazine, I'm sure that wasn't a response to Hachette but a totally independent initiative to provide an introductory route into the hobby.

 

In France in the past the emphasis on learning how to model both in magazines and by the national federation (the FFMF)  has tended to be on dioramas. While that can be effective if you belong to a club it doesn't give the individual modeller much more than something to look at when finished.

 

L-R have often run beginner's layout features- usually spread over several editions- but they've tended to be a bit sophisticated for a real tyro particularly as the baseboards involved fairly serious carpentry. The approach taken in Clés is much more handholding with the whole magazine dedicated to the beginner rather than just being an inside feature in a much larger and possibly intimidating publication. The first layout they featured also seemed particularly well designed to be a satisfying first effort and to introduce every aspect of railway modelling from tracklaying and scenery to operation. I've not actually seen such a well thought out beginner's layout since Mike Bryant's 4ft x 2ft Quart in a Pint Pot TT-3 series in MRC in 1958.

There have been previous attempts to do something like this and ,though I've only seen a small artist's impression, I understand that Joe Works came up with a 500mm x 250mm H0e  microlayout in Japan in the early 1980s. I think that was a step by step booklet rather than a kit but, given how space starved Japanese modellers tend to be, even a round and round microlayout had an obvious appeal.  

[Taigatrommel]

I don't really see that this genuinely brings something new to the hobby, the only difference being that everything comes in one box.  Saying that, I do like the tab and slot baseboard design.  Piko and Auhagen for instance produce moderately priced "station" and "village" building sets, and Noch produce layout landscape boards to suit various budgets and sizes.  Mehano was selling sets back in the late 1990s with a scenery base and various buildings in a mix of card and plastic included.  I also remember the Graham Farish "Magnum" layouts!  It certainly doesn't strike me as something that should need a kickstarter, simply by working alongside existing manufacturers beginners packages could be created without needing large batch runs, and certainly come close to their proposed price.

 

My other worry would be that it actually discourages creativity in beginners, as hundreds(?) end up making identikit layouts!

[Andy Hayter]

I understand the identikit comment, but how many Noch identikit layouts are there?  And by the way have you seen the price of the Noch base board?? (which incidentally need quite some bracing and support).

 

The other point is that while Auhagen and Piko undoubted do make good starter kits for stations, they are very Germanic and while you might well get away with an AL/EL based layout, they offer nothing for the rest of France.  Or put another way, would you use the Faller Bonn station kit for the basis of your Scottish BR layout?? 

[Joseph_Pestell]

I think that it's a good idea, but poorly executed.

 

Good in that it serves as a way to learn all the techniques needed to build a proper layout. But poor in that I can't see anybody of adult age (or teenage for  that matter) wanting to build a scenic train set with an unrealistic train. Some sort of "shunting plank" with modern SNCF stock would, I think, be more likely to succeed.

[Focalplane]

Down in Languedoc "Bag in Box" is very much in vogue these days for boxed wine, replacing the petrol pump type dispensers seen in many cooperatives.  Our local cooperative outlet (on the ground floor of our apartment building!) has an excellent Fitou red which is as good as their Reserve red in (slightly) more expensive bottles.

[Andy Hayter]

Joseph

 

I think the real target audience may be a little younger (8-14yo) than those you identify - even if it will be an adult who is likely going to finance the project.

[rue_d_etropal]

the comments above possibly reflect what many in the hobby feel, but then they are seasoned railway modellers, and don't necessarily understand the process of starting in the hobby these days, when there is so much else to do. I enjoy making things(not really kits as I don't like instructions until something goes wrong), mainly layouts and scenery, I was never a train spotter or interested in that side of the hobby, but suspect a lot of people in the hobby at the moment have come from that background. Nothing wrong in that, but maybe in future railway modelling will be seen as a creative hobby, rather than one where people are trying to recreate their youth.

Many here probably first experienced model railways as a circle of track on the sitting room floor. Fine until it has to be packed away, and these days houses have far less spare room.Manufacturers still seem to offer starter sets which have to be 'played with' like this, and I don't think people these days have space or time for that. Maybe the 'Thomas' stuff does work for the very young, but it is then a big jump to the next step, and many don't make that jump.

One thing I do when I have one of my small layouts at exhibitions is observe reactions from people. I have found that a simple shuttle service, running out of one tunnel and going into another actually appeals to younger visitors,so possibly explains popularity of rabbit warren type designs. A shunting yard does not interest those younger visitors, unless you off a 'drive it yourself' option, but I suspect that is for the slight older ones. I have started suggesting to visitors with small children that all they need is a bookshelf, a length of track, and trains appearing and disappearing on a timed control. This also solves the space, or lack of it, problem, found in man houses these days.

The crowdfunding concept might be a popular way to promote and support the project from less old people intere4sted, not to everyone's taste, but at least a start in the right direction, 21st century style.

I wasn't suggesting this project was inspired by the Hachette partwork, but think it has come from people who have been observing and thinking up neww ways to get people into the hobby. As I said, just wish I had known about the partwork earlier, as some of the buildings are novel, and I did wonder where they got the road vehicles as the UK ones were Oxford Diecast, and if someone is produced similarly priced French HO vehicles, I want to know where to get them.

[Pacific231G]

Train'in Box was launched as a purchasable product at Loco-Revue's Trainsmania exhibition in Lille over the the May weekend (28-30th April) This show, marking 80 years since the magazine was founded, was a tremendous success and a whole area was devoted to the new product with a number of modellers trying to complete the layout from opening the box within the show's three days.  The price is set at €330 without stock or €360 if a fairly basic loco and a couple of wagons are included. The box does seem to include absolutely everything needed to build the complete layout and would I think provide anyone building it with all the basic skills, apart from carpentry, needed to pursue the hobby. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. 

They seem to be aiming the product mainly at families or as a grandparent grandchildren thing but are also suggesting clubs, presumably as a project for their junior members. It was conceived as filling the missing link between the trainset and the "proper" model railway.

 

The crowdfunding was successful enough to enable them to launch with all four regional versions though they've had subscribers to the project "Beta testing" it since about Devember. The buildings seem to be based on those made available as card inserts into their beginnners' magazine "Clés pour le train miniature" rather than the fairly expensive Regions et Compagnies range but they are proper models. the track is Peco Setrack.

 

Though the stated aim of the show itself was to make railway modelling accessible to as many people as possible my impression was that the visitors were mainly people already engaged with the hobby so this particular show may not have generated as much interest in the product as hoped.