Andy Mac

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Latest votes in.....

Still not got enough for the 24/1, but within touching distance.....

I just fear that by the time we eventually get to 100% funded, the Bachmann 24/1 will be on the horizon....

I’m pretty sure that the zen has a 750ma sustained, 1 amp peak rating.... Heljan loco’s are infamous for their high amp ratings... could quite possibly be that the zen doesn’t have the juice.... I personally don’t put zen’s in my Heljan’s, I use the Lenz standards.....

You don't want 25KV going to a DCC chip, probably best not to touch it either.

Can you imagine your electricity bill? Lol.... just imagine, you put you class 87 on track raise the pantograph to the wire, and all the lights in the surburb dim down.... ghee you’d Black the neighbour hood out if you double headed!

Sorry Charlie,

Think you have the first couple of steps wrong.....

I’d have thought that process should have started like this....

1. Seek suitable finance to manufacture model

2. Persuade significant other, that it’s worth risking future financial well being to make ‘toy trains’....

3. Re-Mortgage house (for the nth time), wife, family dog and anything else not tied down to cover anticipated costs...

4. Have sleepless nights pondering if you have done the right thing

5. Go to 4

Thanks to yourselves and a small band of others, investing your hard earned cash into producing models that you think and hope are not about to be produced by the bigger boys, we have the situation now of having these additional, superb quality models....

Andy

Never mind the lights, the most important omission is a proper usable BW high speed metal sprung pantograph.  Where do you think it gets its power from?  Why concern yourself with nitty gritty details when its description is a '25 Kv Class 87 loco' but it cannot draw any power from the OLE?

 

Lovely model & I would buy one but it does not have a useable pantograph.  I would love to buy one with Executive Livery but I will now have to wait for the Bachmann Class 90.

 

Peter

Must be pretty messy pouring diesel into your models.... live steam I can understand, but where does the coal go?

Seriously though, I just don’t get this power collection from overhead wires arguement.... in the olden day’s, the Hornby overhead cantenary allowed, with a suitably equiped electric loco for power collection via the overhead wire, allowing for two loco’s (the other picking up via the rails) to be on the same bit of track with out the need for isolating sections....

move things on nearly 35 odd years and we have dcc which,to me renders power collection from overhead wires obsolete and a completely unnecessary expense....

Just checked my own confirmation, and it went in at 09.54 am on the first day of ordering. So eagerly awaiting my invoice and model, mainly so I can see what the next 'Limited Edition' is going to be !!

 

 

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Have a watch of Daveclass47’s review of the model on YouTube..... He makes mention of the paperwork for the next model and what it is.....

Perhaps there might be a grace period in place to allow for orders placed before 1 st July to be delivered...

Would be interesting to know who gets the first card from Australia post to go and pay the gst...

Well, it seems to me that if our President can make Mexico pay for a wall built by Americans on American soil as directed by the American President, then collecting 10 percent on purchases from Hattons should be easy right?  (Ducking now so I don't get hit by a flying object). 

 

Who let someone from the North American colonies in here? Lol....

From having a clear run at a class 25 it’s going to get very crowded shortly..... I just hope, if they have been doing a 25 that it’s close to being released..... I wonder if they had announced that the class 25 was being developed/close to release if Helijan would have went for a different model...

This is like waiting for the bus.....

You wait around and nothing happens, then you get potentially 3 brand new models all Turning up at the same time....

Helijan 25/3, Bachmann 25/1&2 and the still possible SLW class 25......

Last time we had such competion, I think was with the 37’s, Bachmann, Hornby and Vi Trains and with the 47’s, again Bachmann, Hornby, vi trains and Helijan.....

I doubt the market is big enough for potentially 3 high end models....

Then for those that wanted to extend their sets with extra carriages etc. Perhaps RT could make extension packs with the articulated trailer cars? Something that Hornby has overlooked for the last 22 years .

Really? A simple google search reveals R4013 Eurostar Coach Packs.....

Hopefully either an uprated Class 86 or a load of BR blue post TOPS Class 27's.

Can it not be both?

 

It would be simpler to require Oz based banks to surcharge all transactions payable outside Oz at 10%, That's auditable within Australia and of no concern to retailers outside Oz.

Emmmm, how does that work with my holiday in the USA next week?

It’s only 10%.... online orders are still far cheaper, even with the gst...

If I place an order with a retailer than doesn’t charge gst at source, and it gets through then that’s a bonus.... however i’d Expect a certain percentage to get held at customs till the fee/duty is paid...

Here we go again.....

How simple would it have been to stand the livery samples beside the 47/7 they bought at Glasgow, and then everyone could easily compare the two models side by side in a single photo....

Then there would be no doubt they matched....

As it stands i’m Moving towards cancelling my order until i’m Reassured by a independent review of the colour matching...

I mean, it’s not rocket science.....

I agree Phil.

It would be a great help to have this pointed out as its a very easy to make a mistake between the two power supplies.

As you saw earlier I linked to the wrong power supply.

 

I suppose it would be no harm to mention it to DCC Concepts as it might help others to avoid making a mistake.

We've all done it 

 

Tony.

Dcc concepts have two different power supplies, a 2amp one for power cab, and a 5amp for the Power house Pro/Power Cab Pro....they recommend the 2amp one as the power supply they use on Power Cabs.... the manual of the 5amp power supply also clearly states that it requires a Dcc system of between 4-5amps....

They must have an American working for them, with that very common error. Americans often can't work out why Australians speak English, instead of German!

They must have an American working for them, with that very common error. Americans often can't work out why Australians speak English, instead of German!

Aussies don’t speak English, they speak (Au)Stralian.....

It’s easy to play “ fantasy train maker “. I’d be more than willing to “ test the water “ with someone else’s £200k.

I’d suggest we leave Rand D to the pros.

Now if rapido wanted to make a sealed beam revised nose end class 45 peak we might be getting somewhere.

I’ll sell you my 45048 Royal Marines for £200k, save you waiting for fantasy train makers ltd...lol

The real issue that hasn't been mentioned is what price would people pay? The Realtrack 156 is £230 and that is a considerably easier and cheaper model to tool. So what would people pay for a 4mm 321?

 

Cheers, Mike

I’m with Roy, £350 for a 3 car class 320...... though I think the 321’s ( which are not for me) being 4 car, you could easily add another £100....

Makes the Rapido APT-e seem like a bargain....

Oh believe me. If I had the £200k to hand. I would without a doubt step up to the plate and get this new TGV model underway. The crowd-funding idea is another viable idea I have put into my notebook as potential business ideas as well as I am going to go the self-employed route once I have decided which one is most sustainable and viable as well.

 

Andy, if I may ask you a question here buddy. Do you not think that the 4 car set would be the easiest option for those that have limited space that would prevent a 2+8 full rake set whilst producing the extra car packs for the veteran modellers and those with large layouts that can run the full 2+8 sets or even the 2x10 double TGV's for exhibitions?

 

I like the crowd-funding idea avenue, just leave it with me for the time being whilst I knock up a business plan. I think we're onto something .

Ash, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think any of your options are viable... I think your personal wish for a TGV model is clouding your judgement..... Your talking about developing a European model, in HO, made for a British Market..... and from what I’ve read above, already exists to a decent standard....

So what research have you carried out with the European market? Are any of the other European manufacturers considering developing upgraded versions of the TGV? What are the discussions going on in the equivalent French versions of RMWeb?

Rapido (as all the others) make beautiful models, but they are a business..... they want to make some money..... I don’t see your idea making anyone any money, just a very large loss for whoever put the money up in the first place...

To me, the way they have set up this tax collection, basically punishes those online retailers for being successful and expanding their sales internationally.... now the big online players have a 10% penalty on their prices, where the smaller players are not required to charge the gst.....

To be honest, I think it will cause absolute chaos if they held every parcel not bought from the likes of hattons, at the point of entry and demanded payment.... it will be interesting to see how many parcels get through without the gst being applied.... lol, I suppose i’ll Find out soon enough when the Oxford Rail blue/greys and Scotrail mk3a’s start arriving

Some interesting points to absorb there. I think that the best method to test the water in the market here would be for RT to just make the four car set like Lima/Trix/Jouef etc has done in the past. Then make the extra coach packs of two or three where the buyers could expand their TGV to make a full set of 10 units (2+8 formation) for those that have the space for a full set. This would offer a choice.

 

I don't know if the language barrier would be an issue as such because the SNCF website is in English as well as Native Francais. Besides this, DTG that develops Train Simulator 2018 that is a British company has a contract with SNCF to produce French trains and routes. With keeping this in mind, negotating a contract and a licence isn't impossible. I would say that the main barrier for this venture to be viable would be the demand for this TGV which I would think could be higher now as no-one currently produces this model at present since Mehano stopped producing the premium models in 2008 and now only make TGV train sets.

 

Trix/Marklin only make the TGV POS, Lyria and the Thalys PBKA sets which was around 2009/2010 and use the Duplex designed power cars that are different to the TGV Reseau/Atlanique/Thalys PBA. That is about 7 years ago as those train packs are getting very hard to find and they sell for silly money on the well known auction site .

 

 

 

That one in the link is not a second/third generation TGV set but it is the first generation TGV-PSE (Paris Sud-Est) that was the original ones that were built in 1978 that wore the Orange/White/Grey livery . In truth, The second/generation TGV sets that are of the TGV Atlantique/Reseau/Thalys PBA were last modelled in the early 2000's by Lima with the exception of the TGV Reseau Duplex as HJ2056 that was released by Hornby/Jouef in 2006/2007.

 

Jouef did make a HO scale TGV Atlantique in the 1990's, but it would be extremely unfair to compare this model to a RT model train as the RT quality and accuracy would make it look very much like a toy.

Ash, if you provided Rapido Trains the £200,000 to develop the model, or arrange for the money to be raised through crowd funding, i’m Sure they would assist and advise as best they can in how you could try and sell them to recoup your financial out lay...

Jason has quite clearly stated his thoughts on this, so i’m Not sure why you think he should test the waters with a 4 car set....

I'd be happy with Realtrack but seeing as they are only on the second batch of liveries with the 156, which has loads of paint jobs yet to be announced, and following that the 142 I suspect they are fully occupied for the next couple of years.

Lol, having spoken with Charlie a few times over the last couple of months re my 156 orders, yes I can confirm that he is fully occupied with all his endeavours! I was tempted to volunteer some time to help him out! Lol...

Let’s be honest, being in Australia, we have been really fortunate over the last number of years.... we have been able to bring our online model purchases into Australia with the 20% vat removed, and in many cases, even with postage added, we end up generally speaking with a model that still costs less than if we bought it in the UK....

Add in the very favourable exchange rates over the last 8/9 years, we have been getting our models at a bargain price....

While nobody likes paying taxes, if we get charged the 10% gst, it’s not the end of the world....

Sorry it seems that the point that the gross amount that any trader sells into Australia has to be in excess of $75,000AUD. 

 

How is the ATO going to figure that out with Freight ETC forwarding through the main capitals... otherwise that is a serious computer programer and scaner... Tallying up the incomming packages... OK so Wizard models sends me a package for 100AUD... it is small and dense... Monk Bar models sends me a medium package for say $200AUD... does the same to all the other modellers and I guess there is about 3000 in Australia How do you tally a gross. Look I have no idea if the retailers actually hit these figures as that is a lot of trains!

 

Hattons may need to see if they actually hit 75KAUD (42000Pound) to actually do this! If Hattons and others have received a letter from the ATO there are already systems in place.

 

The other thing is what as a percentage of turn over of the larger retailers actually exporting to Australia? 

 

I still doubt the ATO has any power to force a overseas company to provide the information or recover the tax in another country as they are suggesting. The retailers do not have a address here in Australia, where as Google, Amazon etc do!

 

Hmmmm....... I think Hattons will sell many times the $75k threshold figure.... i look at my spending habits and get a fright at what I spend and would contribute to the 75K figure, never mind the thousands of others who use Hattons and other online model shops....

If the N gauge version gets the green light, which I don’t think it has yet, i’m Sure we will see in the fullness of time, with or without this poll, a OO version, since the OO market is many times larger than then N, and hence more profitable...