LNER J70 - O Gauge

[PaulRhB]

It’s a shame but if things improve in a couple of years then it might become more viable financially. Not surprisingly no definite price because of current circumstances makes people cagey at present. Understandable on both sides. 

[F-UnitMad]

It's a very niche model, in rather a niche scale, even if the popularity of O gauge has boomed in recent years.

Just my opinion but the price also pushed it from "nice to have" range to "my interest - must have" territory. I think impulse buying is always going to be rarer in O gauge than the smaller scales, locos in particular being a thoughtful, considered purchase, especially in the current economic climate.

[Hal Nail]

5 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

I think impulse buying is always going to be rarer in O gauge than the smaller scales

This is where Dapol have done so well in keeping small tanks affordable - I've had 6 or 7 and never paid more than £150. At that that level a lot of people have impulse bought as we've seen from so many plank threads.

[Gilbert]

Do we need a Dapol/Rapdo collaboation?

I'll get my coat....

[F-UnitMad]

9 minutes ago, Gilbert said:

Do we need a Dapol/Rapdo collaboation?

I'll get my coat....

If you want a Dapol anything, be prepared for a loooooong wait.... 🙄🤦‍♂️

[Gilbert]

19 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

If you want a Dapol anything, be prepared for a loooooong wait.... 🙄🤦‍♂️

noted...

[adanapress]

Will you be doing the US Army liveried version,  big whte star etc?   Derby area stores depot just before D day,   or is this just an Urban legend? 

[RapidoCorbs]

10 hours ago, adanapress said:

Will you be doing the US Army liveried version,  big whte star etc?   Derby area stores depot just before D day,   or is this just an Urban legend? 

 

The O gauge J70 is not happening any time soon due to not enough expressions of interest.

Y6 0-4-0T No. 7134 was loaned to the USATC from 1942-1944, is this the loco you are referring to? If so it is the J70s smaller relative.

USATC livery was usually black or grey with TRANSPORTATION CORPS - US ARMY written on the side. The Allied star was usually for road/air vehicles. 

[Dreadnought05]

It's a shame, I would have liked to have seen Rapido dip their toes into 7mm. I wonder if the 15XX would have garnered more interest/gotten more people to commit?

[ngtrains.com]

Perhaps Rapido should have dropped a pallet load of something O gauge off a forklift or had something O gauge that melted when the power was applied. It might then have got more attention & promotion. 
 

Announcing something into a new scale then sitting back and waiting for people to beat down the door wanting one isn’t going to (didn’t ) work. The J70 got very little promotion compared to what the 00 & N stuff gets in established market sectors. one might think it was a half baked intent in the first place.

[mdvle]

2 hours ago, ngtrains.com said:

Announcing something into a new scale then sitting back and waiting for people to beat down the door wanting one isn’t going to (didn’t ) work. The J70 got very little promotion compared to what the 00 & N stuff gets in established market sectors. one might think it was a half baked intent in the first place.

 

One would also think that the expectations would be based on the amount of promotion done.

 

 

[goldfish]

If Rapido want to break into the 0 Gauge market they should upscale their Stirling Single to 7mm. Bound to sell, particularly if they make it compatible with 3ft curves.

[tractionman]

8 minutes ago, goldfish said:

If Rapido want to break into the 0 Gauge market they should upscale their Stirling Single to 7mm. Bound to sell, particularly if they make it compatible with 3ft curves.

 

I was thinking perhaps something going more in the opposite direction, a small industrial ST... something like a Hunslet 16in 0-6-0ST that would fit the needs of a multitude of 0 gauge 'planks'?

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[Pint of Adnams]

23 hours ago, Dreadnought05 said:

It's a shame, I would have liked to have seen Rapido dip their toes into 7mm. I wonder if the 15XX would have garnered more interest/gotten more people to commit?

Great Eastern yes, Great Western no way - already better provided for by others in the scale.

[mdvle]

On 28/02/2023 at 15:29, Pint of Adnams said:

Great Eastern yes, Great Western no way - already better provided for by others in the scale.

 

Except those others aren't offering the 15xx.

 

It can often be easier to sell into a market that already exists (GWR) than to attempt to have a none-existent market (Great Eastern in 7mm) to yourself.

 

Once your name is established in a given market (this case O/7mm) then you can try being more adventurous.

[Mike Bellamy]

9 hours ago, mdvle said:

It can often be easier to sell into a market that already exists than to attempt to have a none-existent market to yourself.

Once your name is established in a given market (this case O/7mm) then you can try being more adventurous.

 

So what about Ixion who produced the first real RTR 7mm loco - a small company with two partners in Australia and Chris Klein here in the UK who started with an N Gauge Manor, followed by an Australian On30 steam railcar and then the Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0. At that time they produced 1,500 (500 in three different colours and then did a re-run of another 500 in a different shade of green. Then came the GWR Fowler diesel which was a unique engine as I believe that was the first to be built and the slightly later LMS version was different as the starter motor was on the other side. They were adventurous and that created the market.

 

Due to changes in his partners' other interests, Chris then joined with Chris Basten to create Minerva and that company continues to develop and bring out new products despite the sudden unexpected death of Chris Klein.

.

[Pint of Adnams]

9 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

Except those others aren't offering the 15xx.

 

It can often be easier to sell into a market that already exists (GWR) than to attempt to have a none-existent market (Great Eastern in 7mm) to yourself.

 

Once your name is established in a given market (this case O/7mm) then you can try being more adventurous.

So YOU want a 15XX - other folks want other things. And who says a market exists for GWR in O?

 

The point with the J70 is that all of the research for it and the accompanying tram carriages has been done for the 4mm models and there was/is very clearly a market and demand for them, same with the Dapol Sentinel in both scales. And Mike Bellamy is correct in pointing out the successes of Ixion and now Minerva with what you might think are odd prototypes but others do not.

[Aire Head]

5 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

And who says a market exists for GWR in O?

 

Judging by what's already available Dapol, Heljian, Minerva, Peco.....

 

GWR stuff is by far the most prevalent 

[PaulRhB]

16 minutes ago, Aire Head said:

 

Judging by what's already available Dapol, Heljian, Minerva, Peco.....

 

GWR stuff is by far the most prevalent 

But they are on a third batch of Terriers so other stuff sells well too and the B4 is imminent 😉

I think it’s a good loco for a single loco layout projects too, great possibilities for shunting planks and small layouts pottering around. 
Shame it doesn’t make sense right now but as we’ve seen with the OO version there’s enough interest on that for a second batch. I was hoping for the O one rather than temptation by another OO one as I have the O scale coach print off shapeways for my Titfield project. 

[Hal Nail]

 

7 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

And who says a market exists for GWR in O?

 

Dapol are about to do a 2nd run of 14xx having pretty much sold out in very little time. 2 or 3 lots of 64/74XX have gone, 2 or 3 batches of 57xx in 3 different varieties, plus the Minerva one which came at exactly the same time. The Lionheart prairies have clearly sold quickly (at a higher price level interestingly) and the Heljan moguls and prairies have come and gone albeit less quickly (big price differential at the time though). Must be on the 5th run of Lionheart/Dapol autocoaches and 2 and 4 coach B sets. (but apart from that, what have they ever done for us!)

 

At the end of the day the people risking the capital probably have a decent handle on what will sell but I think the price was probably a factor here.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by Hal Nail

[mdvle]

7 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

 And who says a market exists for GWR in O?

 

Others have answered this.

 

7 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

The point with the J70 is that all of the research for it and the accompanying tram carriages has been done for the 4mm models

 

Not sure what your point here is.

 

The research has also been done for the 15xx

 

And the accompanying tram carriages weren't being proposed/offered.

 

[mdvle]

8 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

So what about Ixion who produced the first real RTR 7mm loco

 

Not a fair comparison.

 

There is a difference in the financial calculations when the company is a side project and the owner(s) have full time jobs to pay their day to day life costs vs a company that is actually paying salaries to multiple employees plus the other additional costs (rent/insurance/etc).

 

 

[hmrspaul]

9 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

So what about Ixion who produced the first real RTR 7mm loco -

That is an extremely strange, and mis-leading statement. I've been into 7mm for 30 years and soon had RTR locos, and i don't mean super expensive masterpieces. And then, Bachmann, Tower and Heljan were all producing large numbers of different RTR. 

 

1500 - perhaps the only WR* loco I have a soft-spot for, but a rare loco type most of which were restricted to OOC to Paddington most of their lives. I do accept they had a brief period in industrial use and one has survived but ....

 

Paul

* just checked that my memory was correct and they aren't GWR at all. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by hmrspaul

[PaulRhB]

4 minutes ago, hmrspaul said:

That is an extremely strange, and mis-leading statement. I've been into 7mm for 30 years and soon had RTR locos, and i don't mean super expensive masterpieces. And then, Bachmann, Tower and Heljan were all producing large numbers of different RTR. 

I think Mike meant ‘plastic rtr’, the terminology minefield strikes again 😉 Heljan only started their O gauge range in the early 2000’s so it’s around 20 years old but probably considered the first range of plastic bodied rtr for the UK?

Ixion came along in 2012,three years before Dapol’s first O loco, seems like a longer time but that’s the review in RM. 
Bachmann, Tower and San Cheng are generally catergorised under ‘brass’, although admittedly rtr, they were significantly more if painted and lettered than the Ixion starter too.

 

 

[Bucoops]

Didn't Lima produce RTR O gauge in the 70s or 80s? Stretching the limit of my brain cells but I seem to remember a small LMS tender loco and a Type 2 diesel of some kind being part of the range?

 

edit: this says 1975? https://www.hattons.co.uk/87465/lima_l216533_class_4f_0_6_0_4547_in_lms_black/stockdetail

Edited March 2, 2023 by Bucoops