Modeller survey 2023

[Graham108]

At least this survey didn't cover any 'woke' issues - unless DC & DCC are sexual orientations with which I'm not familiar

[McC]

1 hour ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

Jimmy Choo Shoes = at least one sound fitted professionally weathered Accurascale loco

 

How dare you! My last pair of Jimmy Choos were £500 and you can buy an accura sound loco for not much more than half that :p 

Edited January 25, 2023 by McC

[F-UnitMad]

3 minutes ago, McC said:

 

How dare you! My last pair of Jimmy Choos were £500 and you can buy an accura sound loco for not much more than half that :p 

He did add "professionally weathered" to the cost. That would get it closer. 

[TheQ]

I have no problem with model railways compared to the cost of weaving and her art equipment..

Just don't tell her how much my sailing equipment costs.

I've just  bought a new main sail and boom, with other fittings no change out of £1000.

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I've just  bought a new main sail and boom, with other fittings no change out of £1000.

 

"Essential safety equipment"

 

[DenysW]

3 hours ago, Geep7 said:

Personally, i've never understood the "don't tell the wife" thing, beyond it being a little side joke.

Post-retirement SWMBO and I share a mobile number (hers) and an e-mail address (hers). This vastly simplifies the open & honest stuff, and means I confess in advance. Fortunately she likes both trains and Z scale, although timing discussions have been needed on occasion.

[TimberValleyRailway]

Just completed the survey. Will be interested to see the results.

 

Best wishes all

 

[Taigatrommel]

I never felt quite so on the margins of the hobby as when filling this survey out!  I know what I do isn't mainstream in the UK, but seeing Continental Modeller not even listed in the magazines was surprising.  I quite agree that there are too many manufacturers to list, though boxes perhaps for "other- European; other- North American; and other - Rest of World" could be informative.  It's a bit like seeing how pollsters can skew questions to make it more favourable to their clients!  Overall I'd regard this as a survey of British outline railway modelling, and it's no less interesting for being that.

[MikeB]

The comments on this survey show that answers received reflect what is asked, and hence composing a survey is very difficult. That's why the specialist polling firms exist.  Nevertheless, I hope Andy gets some useful information from the survey.

 

I completed it, and as some others had said, my main concern was the parochial British viewpoint.  OK, most RM users model UK prototypes, and Warners has "British" in the name of its model railway magazine and some of its exhibitions, but in the 2014 survey HO was the third most popular after OO and N.  I doubt  many of those were British HO.  The absence of American or mainland European options may skew the results.  For example, I included the rolling stock manufacturers listed that are represented in my fleets, but could not include the one with most examples - Bemo. 

 

 

[melmoth]

I've completed the survey with no great surprises to myself, and without getting tangled in knots about scale/gauge/supplier omissions , but looking at some of the responses where ratios of locomotives to rolling stock, or stock to layout size are mentioned, I do wonder if the  lines between collector and modeller are rather more blurred than many of us might appreciate or recognise.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Some of the suggestions being made could provide fertile ground for a “Quirky Poll” type survey to be run in alternate years.

 

My favourite would be: “How long has the oldest kit in your stash been sitting there?”  Older modellers might have an advantage (from memory, my longest was only 20 years - and I did then build it), but there’s a follow up question that could stump many of us: “And what is it?”

 

Enjoy the evening, and here’s hoping the software upgrade runs smoothly, or we’ll need to have a whip round for Mrs York’s new pair of Jimmy Choos.  Keith.

[MrWolf]

5 hours ago, McC said:

 

How dare you! My last pair of Jimmy Choos were £500 and you can buy an accura sound loco for not much more than half that :p 

 

My other half likes shoes and boots and all of the usual stuff. Fortunately her mother still works in PR for one of the fashion houses so there are perks.

That sounds good, but it meant that because the memsahib fell in love with my other hobby, she went out and bought a 1951 Triumph motorcycle, despite not having a license at the time and still being a student.

Fortunately she gained both degree and license before the lockdown.

That's an awful lot of trains I can get away with!

[wairoa]

Answered as well as I could. Interesting survey.

[Pmorgancym]

Having to accept that 'g scale' covers sm32/16mm

 

Wars have been fought over less :)

missing Roundhouse and Accucraft from the manufacturers ;)

[BMacdermott]

13 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

My favourite would be: “How long has the oldest kit in your stash been sitting there?”  Older modellers might have an advantage (from memory, my longest was only 20 years - and I did then build it), but there’s a follow up question that could stump many of us: “And what is it?”

 

Hello Keith

 

As some of you know, I ran a fair few surveys on the erstwhile MREmag . I ran one concerning kits in 2014; the results are as below.

 

Do you have between 1 and 9 kits? 40 Respondents

 

7 - Probably won't build any

18 - Probably will build some

15 - Probably will build all

 

Do you have 10+ kits? 64 Respondents

 

2 - Probably won't build any

32 - Probably will build some

30 - Probably will build all

 

Brian

[Edwardian]

I would like to add my voice to the well-deserved thanks to Brian and the team. The wishlist poll has been, and contibues to be, a valuable and interesting exercise.

 

There is, perhaps, a poling gap, but not one that it is necessarily the task of this Wishlist poll to address. Nevertheless, as a 'top pollster' I'd be interested in Brian's take on it.

 

The Wishlist poll does not concern itself with period. That is merely an observation, not a criticism, and I don't say that it should. However, I do wonder if some poll should now do so?

 

In the past the mass market was largely concerned with the overwhelmingly predominent mono-period of BR steam, whereas reference to D&E items necessarily implied a period. Thus, a reference, say, to a steam locomotive, was to a stteam locomotive in BR/late Grouping condition because that was the unspoken expectation. If certain models could be credibly cosmetically back-dated further, earlier periods might get a look in, but I think the implied assumption was that a vote for loco X was a vote for late condition loco X.

 

Now the market is a little more fractured. While I am continually assured. and have no reason to doubt, that BR steam remains the single most important period for manufacturers, clearly there has been growth in earlier periods. In the last few years, in-service pre-Grouping version has become standard for new releases of locos. Narrow Gauge has pioneered earlier periods and the releases around the Liverpool and Manchseter see the RTR market start to tackle the earliest days.

 

In some cases the choice of locomotives on the Wishlist poll implies an interest in an earlier period, e.g. the GWR 517, a consistently moderately well-scoring loco that failed to survive to either Nationalisation or preservation. In other cases, however, it is unclear these days wheter a vote for a given loco is for its original/early or late condition. 

[BMacdermott]

Hello Edwardian

 

Andy's survey here covers 'eras'.

 

Brian

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, BMacdermott said:

 

Hello Keith

 

As some of you know, I ran a fair few surveys on the erstwhile MREmag . I ran one concerning kits in 2014; the results are as below.

 

Do you have between 1 and 9 kits? 40 Respondents

 

7 - Probably won't build any

18 - Probably will build some

15 - Probably will build all

 

Do you have 10+ kits? 64 Respondents

 

2 - Probably won't build any

32 - Probably will build some

30 - Probably will build all

 

Brian

Thanks Brian - if only it were possible to revisit this a decade on and find out who has built their kits, who still expects to build their kits, and who has maybe built a few but has mostly added more to the pile?
 

(I can reply with a fairly clear conscience as I did actually do some kit building yesterday afternoon 🙂)

 

 Nice to know my thought wasn’t that daft.  Have a good day, Keith.

[AY Mod]

I'll be closing the survey off shortly as we are approaching sufficient numbers and the trends aren't changing much now.

[DougN]

I have to say my response is for me only. I have the collection of a mates who died 2 years ago... which would have placed the rolling stock questions into the top end for each question! And that would be just 1 box of locos, coaches, and wagons... and there are multiple of each. 

 

I will ve interested to see the results when Andy has had time to collate them all!

[Ravenser]

16 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Some of the suggestions being made could provide fertile ground for a “Quirky Poll” type survey to be run in alternate years.

 

My favourite would be: “How long has the oldest kit in your stash been sitting there?”  Older modellers might have an advantage (from memory, my longest was only 20 years - and I did then build it), but there’s a follow up question that could stump many of us: “And what is it?”

 

Enjoy the evening, and here’s hoping the software upgrade runs smoothly, or we’ll need to have a whip round for Mrs York’s new pair of Jimmy Choos.  Keith.

 

In my case , a 1/48 scale plastic kit for a San Francisco cable car , acquired as a kid in 1981...

 

I think the equivalent for Jimmy Choos is a 7mm brass loco...

[AyJay]

On 25/01/2023 at 10:44, Barclay said:

Well I don't consider myself a particularly easy subject for the questionnaire as I model in EM, industrial and LMS mainly, and never buy RTR, except secondhand US stuff for my side project. Despite this I had no problem filling the form in, so please give the guy a break!

 

'Don't tell the wife!' is very much a thing - I've bought stuff for a friend before, or kept it safe until there's the opportunity to smuggle it in, and get remunerated in used notes - untraceable you see!

Barclay.  I think that counts as Money Laundering!  🤣  But then I am guilty of smuggling. 

[eastglosmog]

Having completed the questionnaire I realise I have already failed my new years resolution to spend more time modelling and less time on RMWeb!

[AY Mod]

With 1,000 respondents the survey is now closed. I'll post some of the results over the next few days.

  

On 24/01/2023 at 23:31, Clearwater said:

Are you going to provide the raw data so those of us who like data can play around with it?

 

I'll take you up on that as I'm a bit short on time over the next few days! I'll be in touch, thank you.

[AY Mod]

Well here we go - there's some interesting stuff here with just the results charts - not had chance to tabulate anything yet. It's obviously a self-selecting RMweb-centric view.

 

 

 

The above won't add up to 1,000 as 2 respondents populated the 'other' box before I removed it*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to digest some of mag related questions a little more (plus comments) before publication.

 

 

 

Some 'other' answers have been left out from the above.