Obvious RTR models missing from peoples collections/wish lists

[D9020 Nimbus]

On 25/12/2023 at 16:38, Dunsignalling said:

I reckon the recent forays into narrow gauge r-t-r were long overdue. Mind you, Lionheart's L&B beauties need at least 24" radii, so won't save much space compared with branch line modelling in OO.

 

However, there's no chance of OO losing its dominance in any realistic timescale. It's just too entrenched and too well-supplied.

Not surprising — as was pointed out when the Heljan 009 L&B locos were introduced, they're actually longer than a standard gauge "Terrier" in real life. I do wish that someone would tackle the W&L though…

[Dunsignalling]

6 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Not surprising — as was pointed out when the Heljan 009 L&B locos were introduced, they're actually longer than a standard gauge "Terrier" in real life. I do wish that someone would tackle the W&L though…

 

Given that O-16.5 falls betwixt and between correct scale for 2' and 2' 6" gauges, your time should surely come...

 

[Darren2003]

I might be the only one but I'd love Bachmann to produce a centre car to enable a 4-EPB or a 3-H.

 

I'd also like them to do a model of the 1127-1133 batch (known as the Berkshire units) with the necessary detail changes.

[The Stationmaster]

18 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

I omitted to mention the late John Ahern's wonderful OOn3 Madder Valley layout, located at Pendon Museum. Probably a major influence behind most quality NG layouts that have been constructed since. 

 

Due to its age and delicate condition, it seldom gets operated these days, but running days are announced on their website, for those who want to see it in action.

 

John

The Madder Valley is NOT 00n3.  If anything , and being very pedantic, it is 00n4.5 as it is built to 4mm scale employing the standard 00 track gauge of 16.5mm.  Don't forget JA never descrobed it as a narrow gauge railway but as a light railway although he used the outline of various n.g. prototypes for his engines.  That last time I saw it operated - a few years back some ordinary 00 rptpr locos were being used no doubt due to the poor state of the origins a;s.

 

Going back a (very) long while to the days when I was one of the regular operators at Pendon we used to run it, or try to run, on Bamk Holiday weekends using some of the original engines and stock but various parts of the layout could not be reliably used even then

[Dunsignalling]

1 minute ago, The Stationmaster said:

The Madder Valley is NOT 00n3.  If anything , and being very pedantic, it is 00n4.5 as it is built to 4mm scale employing the standard 00 track gauge of 16.5mm.  Don't forget JA never descrobed it as a narrow gauge railway but as a light railway although he used the outline of various n.g. prototypes for his engines.  That last time I saw it operated - a few years back some ordinary 00 rptpr locos were being used no doubt due to the poor state of the origins a;s.

 

Going back a (very) long while to the days when I was one of the regular operators at Pendon we used to run it, or try to run, on Bamk Holiday weekends using some of the original engines and stock but various parts of the layout could not be reliably used even then

 

Thanks Mike, some of the chosen prototypes clearly hoodwinked me....

 

It's still a lovely thing to look at, even with nothing moving.

 

John

[whart57]

18 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

I do wish that someone would tackle the W&L though…

 

Something I have said to Rapido a number of times on their surveys, pointing out that Earl and Countess were long-lived, both survive in preservation, could be done in pre-Swindon (OK, Oswestry) and post-Swindon versions with liveries varying from Cambrian, through GWR to BR and Preservation liveries. (I think I'm right in saying that the Cambrian livery has been applied to at least one loco without unrebuilding the loco by the Preservation Society). Done in 0n16.5 with an accompanying coal wagon and brakevan  - again feasible in many liveries - they could make a decent collectors set as well as giving proper modellers (😁) something.

[Pacific231G]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

The Madder Valley is NOT 00n3.  If anything , and being very pedantic, it is 00n4.5 as it is built to 4mm scale employing the standard 00 track gauge of 16.5mm.  Don't forget JA never descrobed it as a narrow gauge railway but as a light railway although he used the outline of various n.g. prototypes for his engines.  That last time I saw it operated - a few years back some ordinary 00 rptpr locos were being used no doubt due to the poor state of the origins a;s.

 

Going back a (very) long while to the days when I was one of the regular operators at Pendon we used to run it, or try to run, on Bamk Holiday weekends using some of the original engines and stock but various parts of the layout could not be reliably used even then

We do use RTR locos on operating days (usually four each year) to augment John Ahern's locos (most of which still run incredibly well given their age) but hide them when the MVR is presented as a static  display . The other rolling stock was all built by John Ahern so just about everything you see was his work.

Thanks to considerable efforts by other members of the team I joined a couple of year ago, every inch of track on the layout is now usable and we test it all during maintenance sessions  though it does require very regular TLC.

 

Though it has inspired several 00n3 layouts, the MVR is indeed a standard gauge layout (albeit 00) though it does include a number of narrow gauge locos (60 cm to 3ft gauge)  built to various scales that simply looked right. I like to imagine that thay are standard gauge versions of the narrow gauge locos they were based on built by the same manufacturers and, given John Ahern's ability to create a convincing world, they just seem to fit.  If you didn't know they were based on narrow gauge rather than SG light railway locos it wouldn't be obvious.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Pacific231G

[Dunsignalling]

1 hour ago, Pacific231G said:

We do use RTR locos on operating days (usually four each year) to augment John Ahern's locos (most of which still run incredibly well given their age) but hide them when the MVR is presented as a static  display . The other rolling stock was all built by John Ahern so just about everything you see was his work.

Thanks to considerable efforts by other members of the team I joined a couple of year ago, every inch of track on the layout is now usable and we test it all during maintenance sessions  though it does require very regular TLC.

 

Though it has inspired several 00n3 layouts, the MVR is indeed a standard gauge layout (albeit 00) though it does include a number of narrow gauge locos (60 cm to 3ft gauge)  built to various scales that simply looked right. I like to imagine that thay are standard gauge versions of the narrow gauge locos they were based on built by the same manufacturers and, given John Ahern's ability to create a convincing world, they just seem to fit.  If you didn't know they were based on narrow gauge rather than SG light railway locos it wouldn't be obvious.

Convincing is the key word, isn't it.

 

DLT's Bridport Town and Charmouth layouts in O-16.5 represent fictitious stations inserted into real towns, served by his conjectural Marshwood Vale Light Railway. The vale is real, and in roughly the right place, with reasonably manageable topography for a NG railway. Dave's trademark MVLR Hunslet 2-4-0T locos were designed for the Lynton & Barnstaple, but never built, and the stock is drawn from a number of real lines, selected to fit in with the overall look, and liveried accordingly. 

 

Modern materials and techniques that weren't available when the Madder Valley was created are naturally exploited, but the first time I saw Bridport Town, I immediately thought it to be just the kind of thing that John Ahern would be making were he still around today.  

 

Attached are two versions of an atmospheric photo I took at SWAG, last year.

 

John

 

 

 

And converted to sepia with a bit of period vignetting

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[Michael Hodgson]

On 25/12/2023 at 07:14, rob D2 said:

True , but probably only within a few %. I wonder if Hornby get their act together will TT overtake N ?

 

Personally I very much doubt it,  but only time will tell.

[whart57]

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

DLT's Bridport Town and Charmouth layouts in O-16.5 represent fictitious stations inserted into real towns, served by his conjectural Marshwood Vale Light Railway.

 

 

The alternative is to create fictional towns served by real railways.

[Dunsignalling]

52 minutes ago, whart57 said:

 

The alternative is to create fictional towns served by real railways.

Which is the conventional approach for those without the room to model a prototype station.  How well it works will depend on the selection of buildings. If one relies on mixing familiar kits, it can too often just look like a collection of  kits. If it's made up of scratch-built models drawn from various locations, it's more likely to be convincing.

 

Many years ago, Dave Rowe concocted Axford, a delightful townscape blended from where I grew up, where I went to school, and where I've lived since 1983. When I look at old magazine articles on it, my brain just tries to analyse his sources, though anyone less familiar with East Devon would find it very convincing.   

 

The thing with inserting a railway into a single real location is that anyone who knows the place will instantly recognise it, so one has a head start in creating an illusion of reality and perhaps even the thought "I didn't know there used to be a railway in XXXX". 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[whart57]

If you can't do the prototype station then you aren't doing a real railway. There are limits to how far you can shrink a real prototype down without it losing realism.

[Dunsignalling]

1 minute ago, whart57 said:

If you can't do the prototype station then you aren't doing a real railway. There are limits to how far you can shrink a real prototype down without it losing realism.

Quite. Most rural main line stations and quite a few branch termini would occupy around thirty feet if modelled in OO and lose a lot of character if reduced by more than about 30%.  

[exmoordave]

A Hawksworth ex-GWR County class 4-6-0 loco?????

[RogerTE]

How about the Maunsell SECR N class or K class?

 

From this the Metropolitan K class (LNER L2) tanks could be derived.

 

<btw> none of these would be on my wishlist as they are wrong period and region.

[mvrnut]

Sometimes I wonder what purpose these  seemingly endless wish lists serve, other than to let each and every one of us put in our two pennoth worth of what we would like to see.

    I am not sure if the manufacturers actually read through these wish lists and take a tally of all the items suggested and then come to the conclusion that well you can't please everyone so we'll make something completely different.

    So here are my suggestions for 00 RTR :

          LSWR Adams T3

          LSWR Drummond T14

          LSWR Drummond's Bug

 

Cheers, and happy modelling,

Chris

[TrainsRule88]

Hello Bachmann! 
 

Firstly I wish you all a very happy new year. 

In 2024, my suggestion for a model is for a 3 car version of your fantastic class 158 in GWR livery. As I understand it, GWR have only 1 genuine 3 coach class 158 which is numbered 158798 and it regularly operates on my local branch line to Barnstaple. 
 

This is a model I would very much like to see produced. Especially with the destinations on the front saying Barnstaple on one end and Exeter Central on the other. 
 

Have a great new year everyone!

[rob D2]

3 hours ago, TrainsRule88 said:

Hello Bachmann! 
 

Firstly I wish you all a very happy new year. 

In 2024, my suggestion for a model is for a 3 car version of your fantastic class 158 in GWR livery. As I understand it, GWR have only 1 genuine 3 coach class 158 which is numbered 158798 and it regularly operates on my local branch line to Barnstaple. 
 

This is a model I would very much like to see produced. Especially with the destinations on the front saying Barnstaple on one end and Exeter Central on the other. 
 

Have a great new year everyone!

Seems unlikely doesn’t it ? A one off . 

[TrainsRule88]

6 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Seems unlikely doesn’t it ? A one off . 

I don’t think it’s unlikely as they already have the tooling for a 3 car unit and there are other liveries of 3 car units such as northern they could also produce 😀

[whart57]

The late Bernard Holland, a pioneer in 3mm scale, used to say you could sell two of anything, the challenge was to sell more than two. I am of the opinion that most of the suggestions here would fail the "Holland Test", lots of things the poster would like themselves but very few that trigger a metaphorical round of applause and cries of "me too".

 

Another test I would apply if I were Rapido would be whether a suggestion was sufficiently different from something already available. A new paintjob is noticeable and relatively cheap to do, but a later version of a wagon that was a few inches longer and had the rivets differently spaced? Who'd notice?

[Barry O]

6 minutes ago, whart57 said:

The late Bernard Holland, a pioneer in 3mm scale, used to say you could sell two of anything, the challenge was to sell more than two. I am of the opinion that most of the suggestions here would fail the "Holland Test", lots of things the poster would like themselves but very few that trigger a metaphorical round of applause and cries of "me too".

 

Another test I would apply if I were Rapido would be whether a suggestion was sufficiently different from something already available. A new paintjob is noticeable and relatively cheap to do, but a later version of a wagon that was a few inches longer and had the rivets differently spaced? Who'd notice?

Never stopped Trian in their TT range.. Gold "plated" Spam Can?  That'll do nicely.

 

But look at some of existing offerings.. Lion, Plus Falcon, Lion (diesel) etc..DHP1... ( why.. it was a complete mess). So  "Holland Test" no longer applies..you make it..  and generally it will sell.

 

I suggested a B16 from the North Eastetn Railway.. it would sell. A NER V or Z Atlantic or even the Raven Pacific would sell (try buying the DJH kits for these.). Will they appear in RTR 4mmRanges .. no.. why.. well you can't sell North Eastern locos and stock..apparently. 

 

Baz

 

 

[ColinK]

When the Heljan 104 arrives I will have everything I need for my layouts.

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, whart57 said:

The late Bernard Holland, a pioneer in 3mm scale, used to say you could sell two of anything, the challenge was to sell more than two. I am of the opinion that most of the suggestions here would fail the "Holland Test", lots of things the poster would like themselves but very few that trigger a metaphorical round of applause and cries of "me too".

 

Another test I would apply if I were Rapido would be whether a suggestion was sufficiently different from something already available. A new paintjob is noticeable and relatively cheap to do, but a later version of a wagon that was a few inches longer and had the rivets differently spaced? Who'd notice?

 

People said that no one would ever make a model of Fell. It was even a running joke for years until someone actually did make a model of Fell.

 

BTW what is amongst the most produced RTR British outline locomotive? 

 

One that lasted six years in the form modelled and never left Swindon Works. Yet they've sold more of them than many model manufacturers have even made models.

 

 

I think Mr Holland should stick to making pies as he knows nothing about model railway manufacturing.

 

 

 

Jason

[rob D2]

This eternal wishlisting wrapped up as something else gets a bit dull.

Now a thread speculating on what was the biggest cock up or commercial failure in model chuffers - that’d be interesting 

[TrainsRule88]

Most of this wish listing is in regards to actual locomotives and rolling stock. But what about some scenic items, buildings & infrastructure. Bachmann have their scenecraft range. 
 

I think it would be nice to see some more modern image platforms available. For example a platform with modern tactile paving built in and maybe a modern footbridge with lifts. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by TrainsRule88
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