billbedford

Doh, if sales don't justify a production run then there is no point in producing any more products. Contrary to what many modeller seem to believe, manufacturers aren't charities, and while they may not expect to make a fortune at this game, they do expect to at least cover their costs.

But the best criteria is always 'something that you never knew you've alway wanted'.

I don't put the fold-up part of the footboards in my kits. The backboard was usually about an inch and a half square, so a 0.5mm wire soldered alone the back edge of the footboards will come out as scale and be a lot less traumatic to fit.

Nar, they've gone head to head with Peco.

Kits of the MET p&p bogie coaches are also available from London Road Models.

These are not RC controlled, they have infra-red gear, Which is OK, but only line-of-sight. As for manufacturers picking this up, well there is a lot of difference between what a single careful worker can do an and what can be done in mass production. I wouldn't like to think how much a mass produced version of these vehicles would cost, nor how reliable they would be.

C&L sell packs of 1mm pin point axles - code E4CW 503A

Tatlow's Highland locos gives 7'1" over the footplate and 6'9.5" over the inside of the valences.

Have any UK RTR locos been financed by Kickstarter yet?

Mmm, coreless motors. Does this mean these locos will have portescap type drive trains, or will you be driving to a worm gear?

Wouldn

Non braking space in html

I've just has some new etches in for the 306 Shenfield Units. These are etchings for the three bodies only. The are now three versions of this etch available: BCK0165/4 - Original 1500v DC Shenfield units BCK0165a/4 - class 306 6.25/25kv AC units BCK0165b/4 - class 506 1500v DC Glossop units All are priced at £70 plus £4 p&p.

If you follow the link I posted, you will see that G & H supply hands and other clock fittings to the horological trade. So they may her able to supply smaller version of their standard products.

Grainge & Hodder H.S. Walsh G&H may only supply bulk orders.

That is correct. The 10 series motors have stronger neodymium magnets.

5º27'N, 0º58'W put s you somewhere near Accra in Ghana. Try 51º27'50.90"N, 0º51'58.28"W

That's what wholesalers are for. Though there aren't many of them. That is a completely different decision. What I was talking about was market research to find whether the product was viable enough to make the initial decision to product this product. There will be later point where the question of whether the expected volume sales have reached a level that would justify a wholesaler's markup into the pricing structure. For most of us in the cottage industry side, sales volumes don't justify anything other than direct selling. The only exceptions I can think of are those making plastic kits.

Anyone who is thinking of making an investment will want to know what sort of return she is join to get for her capital. This return will be in main proportional to the number of items that can be sold. The price, by and large, will also be dependent on the volume of sale, especially if injection moulding is involved, i.e. the bigger the expected volume the lower the price that can be charged. These particular products, British outline OO gauge pointwork, will be going into a mature market. By that I mean that just producing these points is very unlikely to increase the number of people building OO layouts. As a consequence each set of new points sold would be a substitution for a set of points in an existing range. Some of these may be from the set track ranges, but most are likely to be from Peco's streamline range. So what the investor really needs is to know is the volume sales of Streamline points. From this information of volume sales of the new points can be seen as a proportion of sales of existing products, and a target of say 40 or 50% of streamlined sales could be set for the new points. Of course she could ask Peco but they are likely to see her as competition and not give her an answer. As an alternative she could ask wholesalers, such as Guagemaster or box shifters such as Hattons. If she asked enough of this type traders then she would be able to form a good estimate of the volume sales of these points. Not only that, but traders are likely to give her much more information about the market for points and also tell her whether they were likely to stock the new points. This would give a good indication of what the initial sales are likely to be. However there is a large risk should borne in mind. That is, because sales are being taken from just one company, i.e. Peco, then it is possible that between the time that a commitment has been made to new tooling and the new products on the market, Peco could bring out their own rival range, and so negate any investment made by our investor.

100% of a niche market maybe more valuable to Peco than a much smaller proportion of a more general market, especially if these track types support some of their other products.

But it's still vapourware, and out's going to remain vapourware at least until someone starts talking to people in the trade about what the realistic size of the 4mm pointwork market is and what proportion of that market could be expected to buy into your new products. Until that information is obtained then no one can know whether there's the slightest chance that you could produce a viable product.

Well yes -- but only if you are thinking of putting money into this project without doing the proper groundwork.

While there are about 3000 people who say they model in P4, the Scalefour Society surveys have should that only between a third and a quarter of those are active. This is the problem with all model railway polls and surveys, trying to distinguish between those who who are active and all the wannabes.