New RTR releases - is your purchase really necessary?

[chriswright03]

Well Google did.

 

Questions to which the answer is no!

[Steamport Southport]

WYSIWYG

 

 

YMMV

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 Never necessary, always fun.

... it would surely be wrong to tick a box in the wishlist poll then fail to stump up if the item does go into production...

Quite so. Does this also apply to items you would have ticked but forgot at the time?

[Anglian]

On the one hand my purchasing is totally ridiculous as I don't currently have a layout on which to run the few models I've bought. However, I have a long term plan and am only buying items that fit within that remit. On the other hand they make perfect sense – all are effectively limited editions even if they weren't sold by the manufacturer as such. I reasoned that it was a case of buying them new while available and having limited funds available prevents going mad and buying randomly.

[Dunsignalling]

 Never necessary, always fun.

Quite so. Does this also apply to items you would have ticked but forgot at the time?

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment................

 

John

[Steamysandy]

At one time I would have bought a lot of Hornby but after a false start with coaches a couple of years ago I stopped except for an r3402 recently.But then I have a collection I bought between 10 and 15 years ago.Ive still got a fair size collection of blue box Athearn bought before that (locos £25 ,freight cars £5!)

Today the emphasis is on scale accuracy.Look at Hornbys recent offerings.Updated Mark 1 coaches and an updated Duchess.I said years ago that all that was missing on an A4 was the contents of the drivers snap box!But human nature is naturally onwards and upwards and I'm no different so what started as a fill-in using a Kato Japanese set has taken over!

The idea was 4 trains- it's now reached 24(!) despite the limited availability.But it's cheap compared to Hornby and Bachmann and n gauge takes up less space to run.Next thought should I sell the earlier stuff?

I've been to the Falkirk swap meet and having seen what's on sale there leads me to believe there's going to be a serious glut in time to come.A sobering thought

[Dunsignalling]

I think there is evidence that the batch order is changing. How it affects the collectors remains to be seen.

 

In recent times, a new model would be released in an initially small range of liveries. So the gotta-have people would settle for the version closest to their heart. Next year it would be released in the livery which everyone really wanted - so everyone invested again. Cue the Hornby H class tank, which has so far only been released in the absolute killer livery (SECR, pretty as a picture, apeing the sellout Bachmann SECR C class) which few can resist, and is selling accordingly, which is very good for Hornby's (and the dealers') cash-flow. How big the take-up will be for BR black etc remains to be seen. 

Personally, the "Showman's Engine" liveries don't do a lot for me and, judging by the fact that it's not in the three 'H' variations initially announced, it seems that Hornby may think the one everybody really wants is the BR early crest livery.

 

It's certainly my preference, but I wonder how many others will have the willpower not to buy at least one other version while they are waiting for it?

 

John

[sandwich station]

New RTR releases - is your purchase really necessary?

The answer to this question is that none of your model railway purchases are necessary, it's because you like and want to own that you buy them.

[Steamport Southport]

New RTR releases - is your purchase really necessary?

 

The answer to this question is that none of your model railway purchases are necessary, it's because you like and want to own that you buy them.

 

I believe some on here make a living out of model railways, so their purchases may very well be necessary.

 

 

 

Jason

[sandwich station]

I believe some on here make a living out of model railways, so their purchases may very well be necessary.

 

 

 

Jason

 

Not the same thing, they are purely buying to sell.

[Steamport Southport]

Not the same thing, they are purely buying to sell.

 

Not always. It's well documented that Dibber (Chris) buys his own models to review for Model Rail as they don't send out review copies anymore.

 

What about all the professional model railway layouts? They need to get their stock from somewhere.

 

 

 

Jason

[sandwich station]

Not always. It's well documented that Dibber (Chris) buys his own models to review for Model Rail as they don't send out review copies anymore.

 

What about all the professional model railway layouts? They need to get their stock from somewhere.

 

 

 

Jason

 

But you are splitting hairs. I believe this thread was aimed at Joe public buying RTR stock that they didn't really need.

[PaulRhB]

Sometimes we need ways to relax so is buying a model to run and enjoy sometimes actually a need rather than a want? Relieving stress is good for health and in my personal experience building a layout I bought rtr stuff for helped me through a very traumatic time.

As with most things you can look at it from different angles at different times and we all have differing reasons for everything we do. Some do it for fun, prestige or to take on a challenge, for others it is an obsession, even a medical condition.

Buying rtr is the whole hobby for a collector, a major part for a trainset, a useful part for a model railway and a small part for others who scratchbuild or model something not covered by rtr models but may use components designed for the rtr models.

I know a few very talented scratchbuilders and none of them turn their noses up at rtr. They know their creations in metal will last longer but as a friend said I bet these outlast me.

I probably have too much as some would see it but I don't change my car every three years or my phone every six months or any number of other latest and fashionable must haves like colleagues at work so I suspect my impact on the environment from manufacturing is significantly less.

It's definitely a affluent society problem

I need food and shelter every day, I need to work to pay for those but sometimes I need to have a bit of fun so I play trains

[LBRJ]

Earlier I said I was not a collector, but sometimes bought some things on a whim for the pleasure of simply having them.

All of those things were and are Wessex Trains related - I always felt that I had some affinity with them and really wanted something to remind me - that could qualify as a need!

 

Maybe sometime soon I shall add them to a small collection of china clay wagons for the period and make a small layout - That seems to be how these things start

Edited November 6, 2017 by LBRJ

[The Black Hat]

I can sympathise with the comments made in this thread. My layout has become a monster, its grown in its size, but its all for the exhibition circuit. While some boards are simple and have just been added to add extra movements, the stock has always grown for the layout too.

 

It doesnt help modelling both preservation and the national network. A freight train running to a warehouse on the layout is served by two companies so that engines can rotate. However, this means I have several engines for several operators, so now an extenstion is proposed that could run as a stand alone layout if needed - featuring (you guessed it) a depot. Thankfully it should mean that engines can sit and be displayed.  

 

There always is the desire to get one more. For me, its adding to the stock what I already own, but in a way that enhances it. That doesnt mean that the RTR model stays as it is. Several have been modified to feature engines that have not yet been produced. This can be from a renumbering job, to a more full repaint, or even parts taken off and remodelled before full repaint. Part of the fun in this is converting a model to one that hasnt been done. As a result I have 37423, 37424, 66748 (in grey) all being worked on, alongside the project of 35018 into its current guise. Others like 45699 Galatea, 63395, 45407, 44871 and 34046 Braunton are done and thats before I start adding ficitious engines like my L4 project, new North Eastern Railway Co. engines 60164 and 60540, as well as P2 60603 Eleventh Earl of Mar. ​​GBRf 20s appear to be the next target.

 

Fact is now though that I am at the point where I feel I do not need much more - this was true before I then embarked on plans for the depot board extension, but really after that I cant see other areas cropping up. I do have more than enough and in ways could slim down the collection. With a garage in my house taken up by this layout and its collection indoors, I now look to travel and enjoy other areas. Yes I have sacrificed some things like holidays and the like to get engines instead, but the result was due to a choice taken and now I have what I need.

 

I am very lucky to have worked hard and had the chance to build up such a collection, a fact which is not lost on me and I am very grateful for this, but now the need for more is tempered by what I have, although you watch new releases that look good and popular will still cause me to reach for the wallet.

[Captain Kernow]

Well Google did.

 

Questions to which the answer is no!

Well I had to look it up as well, but I still don't understand the point Clearwater was making!

[Captain Kernow]

Well, CK, for a man who generally restricts his input on this forum to celebration of the humble sausage

Well, perhaps you haven't known me as long as some folk.

 

A long, long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I used to be a much more serious kind of a fellow, and the men in white coats haven't quite succeeded in beating it out of me yet.

[Steamysandy]

Following from what I said earlier,there was a time when I thought I would never be able to afford to re start building a train collection!

[letterspider]

There seems to be an almost never-ending flow of new RTR releases these days, most of them of high quality, and certainly much, much better than the more limited range of RTR models that were available when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

Like many of us, I've often been tempted by some of these new and recent models and have given in and got my credit card out.

 

Often this has been to buy models that I don't strictly need for my layouts, in that the models are not appropriate for a layout based on the Somerset & Dorset, the Midland in South Gloucestershire or, more recently, the GW in the Welsh borders. But I have perhaps been seduced by the pretty colours of the Edwardian pre-Grouping liveries, or the striking blue of the prototype Deltic, or even the 'Blue Pullman'.

 

Sometimes I've just bought stuff (even if in BR black) because I thought 'that's such a nice model' (like the Kernow 02).

 

But, having recently sold on a whole load of pristine, mint-condition, hardly-been-out-of-their-boxes RTR models, that I bought over quite a few years, but never got around to doing anything with, I've begun to wonder whether I couldn't have just got the pleasure of these models vicariously, from looking at them on the shelves of a model shop, or on-line places like RMWeb, or perhaps at an exhibition.

 

Do I really need to part with my cash and actually own one of them?

 

I speak as someone who doesn't normally have a layout set up at home to play with operate (no suitable space). I also don't really have the room (or the inclination, if I'm honest) for a glass-fronted display cabinet.

 

My layouts are all intended as exhibition layouts, so I wouldn't run any RTR model straight out of it's box anyway, it would need weathering and perhaps one or two details adding or tweaking, at the very least.

 

So what do I do with the new RTR items that I do buy?

 

I get them home, maybe have a look at them through the clear plastic window in their box (if I have the time or the inclination I might even take it out of it's box for a few minutes) and then I put them away in a cupboard or a drawer, waiting for that time when I might get them out again, in order to get them ready to go into 'exhibition stock' (running-in, weathering, detailing, crew being added etc.). And that's assuming that it's a model that is even remotely appropriate for my layouts.

 

And once I've got the model home, or sometimes even before that stage, I begin to wonder to myself - did I really need this model, was it really necessary to part with my cash, once the 'excitement of the purchase' is over?

 

Accepted, there are a few RTR locos that I will do something with and can argue a need for, pannier tanks for a start, and probably the Hornby Peckett, which has been my favourite RTR purchase for a long time.

 

But the rest? Do/did I really need them?

 

The answer is 'probably not', and it was this conclusion that led me to pass a load on for sale in recent times. I don't miss the NRM Prototype Deltic, although it was a really nice model, nor do I miss the BR black Midland Compound, which is really a bit too early for my period. Nor do I miss the Bachmann 'Evening Star', even though I could have justified that on 'Engine Wood', but it was so far down the queue for weathering (and did I really want to weather something 'collectable' like that?), that it was never realistically going to get used on the layout.

 

So why do some of us give in to the urge to buy stuff, when presented with the opportunity in a shop, at a show or on-line? Is it that the actual purchase gives us some kind of mental/psychological thrill, that wears off after a period of time?

 

If that's the case, then I can recommend 'proxy shopping', if you can find a friend who wants something, and who asks you go get it for them. That way, you get to experience the thrill of the purchase, and 'temporary custodianship' of the model, thus potentially 'enjoying it' for a while, before handing it over, shedding any responsibility for it, and getting your money back!

 

So now there's a whole raft of further releases that I have to agonise over. Hattons must know that I'm a sucker for cute little industrials.

 

And no, I really don't need a Hornby 'H' class in BR black, and I'm most definitely not going to get one. No, I'm not. Definitely not. Promise.

 

I am sure the manufacturers are delighted to hear this and it can only be a good thing for younger modellers starting out who can get models second hand at great prices. It is also a good thing that internet and eBay happened. However it is sad that RMweb classifieds ended as I thought it was a great way to sell person to person!

[w124bob]

I blame the internet, pre internet I'd never heard of Alco, CSX, NS, Conrail , The Culm Valley line, Chris Nevard(Catcott) or the Dursley Donkey but I now have 40+US locos, a 14xx and matching Thompson brake 3rd , a recently purchased Johnson 1f suitable renumbered not to mention the post TOPS but still green and a bit of blue collection of 20's 24's and 25's all for scenicless 8ft plank!

[Mike Storey]

As per the government warning..... " Gambol responsibly".

 

Ask my wife. On the other hand, maybe not.

[wollastonblue]

The way I look at this type of situation is how much can I spend on model railways per month. I would love to walk into my local model shop and walk out with a Dapol B4, Dapol GWR Railcar, and a Hornby H class tank locos on OO gauge, but as I don't have a layout to run them on or the finances to do so, I won't be buying. I could get very political but I won't, suffice to say my modelling is down to my budget as well as my likes in the railway world.

 

Admittedly my modelling is strange as I model locations I have never been to, or have any connection with other than I like the look of them or what is available to the modeller, while I do use RTR stock, I like building plastic kits, which american and continental modelling give me, British outline doesn't at the moment. Kato's RhB stock is perfect, as it means I can save for it until it is released, and I don't have a myriad of classes and stock to drool over, this means nothing stays in it's box. 

Edited December 4, 2017 by wollastonblue

[The Johnster]

I'm probably going to buy a Hornby Railroad 14xx next week when my pension comes in.  It is not necessary, and I will have to invoke Rule 1 to provide work for it, and I will have to work it up a bit; removal of top feed and a repaint.  I will also have to buy numberplates for it; I already have the necessary lettering transfers.

 

But I want it...

 

I don't need it.  I need shelter, clothing, food, water, and warmth, and a little lovin' now and then would be nice.  I don't need any more than that, nobody does.  Fortunately I have those things.

Edited November 9, 2017 by The Johnster

[Nearholmer]

The answer to the thread title question seems, by consensus to be: "No, but,yes, but, no, but, yes er ..... can we talk about something else?"

[Steamport Southport]

Is this a rheotorical question?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason