If you want "Real Modellers" you need the accessories

[Edwardian]

Surprised you didn't mention PC/Wheeltapper coach kits.  No need for them to disappear, surely?

 

You're right, I should have.  Who's now sitting on that little treasure trove achieving the square root of nothing with it? 

[Poggy1165]

I have a feeling that the O Gauge PC kits are with Mr Waterman. At one point he was offering the etches - but without any castings.

 

Funnily enough I took a complete PC GN coach kit to Telford this year for sale on the b&b, but apparently no one was interested, so perhaps the gold mine isn't that deep.

[coachmann]

PC Models coach kits were designed to be attached to specially made aluminium extrusions. I do know the LMS/LNWR roofs dried up several years ago and its a fair bet the floor & lower side extrusion hasn't been around for donkey's years.....Unless someone knows better. The kits were a good idea for their day but the totally flush finish does not stand up beside today's coaches.

[Guy Rixon]

... there is no central directory, as far as I'm aware that tells me that I can go to X supplier, and he does

1. ... Could RM not set up a directory of validated cottage industry manufacturers, and try and get their product lists published, maybe encourage some of the typewritten product list folk to transfer over? 

 

 

I agree entirely. The simplest web-presence for a small manufacturer is a catalogue in PDF. Most manufacturers already have one a suitable document, it's the one they print out to distribute at shows. It would be rather easy for a site like RMweb to host copies of these, with an index and, importantly, an annotation of when each catalogue was last updated.

 

If RMweb does not want to do this, it's possible to make a minimal web-site out of a PDF catalogue. A blog hosted on a free site would do it. Even a Facebook page would be better than nothing.

[Edwardian]

PC Models coach kits were designed to be attached to specially made aluminium extrusions. I do know the LMS/LNWR roofs dried up several years ago and its a fair bet the floor & lower side extrusion hasn't been around for donkey's years.....Unless someone knows better. The kits were a good idea for their day but the totally flush finish does not stand up beside today's coaches.

 

They were not bad.  True, the LSWR coaches, for instance, are not as convincing as painted Roxeys, and the same is true if you compare a PC GW toplight with a completed Slaters or Blacksmith kit.

 

Yet, I have some ex-LNWR PC sides in fully lined LMS livery.  They are really very good.  They are not totally flush.  The beading is raised.  Not by much, but I wonder if the relief might be closer to scale than moulded relief. Certainly I have no qualms about running an ex-LNWR full brake in this livery.

 

The drawbacks, for me, were the lack of recess - especially for drop-lights, and the printed door and grab handles.   

 

I found the GW toplights less convincing.  I suspect the finish may have changed over time.

 

Of course, the roofs, ends and bogies were assets in themselves, and, to bring us squarely to the topic, just the sort of accessories I now miss!

 

Anyone who could produce tampo-printed lined out panelled coach sides would earn my undying gratitude! 

[coachmann]

Aluminium extrusions have to be bought by the quarter mile or some such figure. Who will invest in such a quantity at this stage of the game when even fewer people build things. I should think the floor extrusion is the key to building PC Models coaches, but there is even less of a market for this extrusion than there is for roofs. I had what I suspect was the final batch of roofs from Wheeltappers. In fact I have the LNWR Cove Roof but who wants that these days when so many LNWR etched coach kits have gone to ground with their owners.

[Phil Parker]

I agree entirely. The simplest web-presence for a small manufacturer is a catalogue in PDF. Most manufacturers already have one a suitable document, it's the one they print out to distribute at shows. It would be rather easy for a site like RMweb to host copies of these, with an index and, importantly, an annotation of when each catalogue was last updated.

 

And impossible to keep up to date. Extracting this sort of info from small suppliers is incredibly difficult. You can promise them free publicity etc. but it's basically a large number of people who would need to be chased constantly - and someone needs to pay for this.

 

The Suppliers list on UK Modelshops is the closest you get, but I know Adrian has to put a lot of work into persuading people to update details every couple of years.

[Jol Wilkinson]

The reasons for products and ranges "disappearing" are many and varied. In theory it should be possible for any item to remain in continued production, albeit under new ownership.

 

But add in the unpredictability of the human personality and things go awry. I know of product ranges that could be passed on but the current owner values it much higher than its realistic commercial value so no one will take it on, new owners who have an inaccurate belief in their own ability to run a business, etc.

 

Product ranges are sometimes bought in good faith only to find that the seller hasn't documented the business properly and while he may have known where to get this or that, what goes into what box, etc. the new owner hasn't got that knowledge. If the original owner has passed on, emigrated or whatever, then that's effectively the end of that. Sometimes the way etched tooling is "arranged" means that you have to buy the whole range or nothing. It  may not be viable for someone to take it all on unless the price is very favourable (especially if combining it with existing products). That's what seems to have happened to one very popular 4mm range of products.

 

Sometimes a product range is bought with a quantity of existing stock. When exhausted it may be too expensive to commission a new batch (this may be what happened to PC coach kits) and so the range disappears.

 

The supply chain can break down. Tooling can get lost (it is usually held by the caster, etcher, etc.) or when a small specialist supplier closes, it often simply disappears (that happened several years ago with one white metal casting specialist).

 

So, while it may seem to the needy customer that there are no obvious reasons why they can't get what they want from a product range that has been available for years, seen form the other side it is a rather more complicated picture.

 

The one thing that shouldn't happen is that suppliers don't keep the customer properly informed. There are too many examples in the pages of RMweb where a business has failed to advise of their general supply (or lack of) situation. I know that updating even a simple website can be difficult or expensive if you pay to have it done professionally, but a simple, updated message on the Home page should't be too difficult.

 

It should also be remembered that many of these products originally became available from "kitchen table" producers, many of whom have grown in size to need a small workshop and have become  "household names" (well, almost) . They had to learn how to design etch artwork, make casting patterns, etc. We are now blessed with more facilities to produce these tools (CAD, 3D printing, laser cutting, etc.) and understand how to use more processes (same again, plus lost wax casting, etc.). So, like those who started their small businesses 20/30/40 years ago, we could also produce our own if we really, really needed to. 

[RThompson]

Thank you for the mention of RT Models, started at the age of 23, now 30 years old.

 

It was started partly out of wanting a business of my own and also that the kits i used to see adverts and articles in magazines was no longer produced, so it felt a good time to produce what i wanted and missed out on.

 

I have also produced bits from a personal point of view as well at the request of others and some completely random stuff with no indication it would even sell!

 

Of course i have also rescued a few other ranges along the way.

 

Despite my age, im very much old fashioned, I hand make my patterns out of brass sheet, piercing saw, solderong and filing.

 

Etches are drawn on CAD though for greater accuracy and to alter any mistakes.

 

The mediums of brass/nickel silver sheet and whitemetal/brass castings i use do have advantages over 3D prints in terms of finesse and weight, especially the small size of the items I produce.