Loconuts

Hi Guys, I agree with the statement from Clive, you put in a lot of work in creating a model only to have someone come along and produce a RTR model of the same prototype. I had a discussion with a friend in the retail trade about this rush to produce model locos, it is all down to the collectors, guys that have to be first in the queue and purchase several models at a time only to salt them away for the day they can bring them out and put them on e-bay. This dictates the models produced by the manufacturers, they want to do models they can get mileage from, different names and liveries, whether they are correct for those names and liveries does not matter as long as the collectors are willing to buy. They are not interested in rolling stock, that only appeals to modelers which is a small market. I would suggest that as Oxford Rail is tied up with Oxford Diecast, this is the market they are going for and it is a Adams Radial as this can be produced in several liveries to get as much profit from it to cover the tooling costs. Going back to what Clive said, I can remember the 1960's when letters appeared in the Model Press asking Manufacturers to produce certain prototypes only to be answered with there is no demand. One in particular was a Q1 and one was produced a few years ago, how did it sell seeing there was no demand. Please who ever produced it to answer, it would be interesting to see how the demand really was. Yes there are a lot of pre-grouping models out there which ran well into BR days, Reading Southern shed was a good example of ancient machines before it closed down in the 1950's. I just hope that what ever they produce they get the scale right, but I think they will not as they are aiming at the world market and everyone one else but us British produce models in HO and 1/4 scale. Loconuts

Hi all, This is a hoax, no railway loco but an advert for the new iphone which will go round 18 inch curves with its new bendy case. Be sensible boys, you are acting like little kids at Christmas trying to guess whats under the tree. We have another player in 4mm scale, good a bit more competition for the rest of the trade. Lets hope that the new setup has got some serious and experienced modelers on board (unlike some of the other manufacturers) to check on the pre-production items before the company releases them on the British paying public. But will the British 4mm market stand another RTR manufacturer, I am not sure, we have seen this before with the result of casualties left by the wayside. There are a lot of prototypes out there to produce but Britain's railways were divided into companies or regions unless you are modeling BR. This means the potential sales of any prototype are reduced, so making the UK a very small market with too many manufacturers chasing that market. I hear mentioned duplication of models, this is something I found when I modeled in 4mm scale and 7mm scale from the kit manufacturers. As soon as a model is announced by one manufacture a number of others were climbing on the bandwagon. If I personally looking to get into the RTR market in the UK and wanted a niche market i would look at the 7mm scale narrow gauge market. With smaller houses it is a good size for building layouts to fit and as most narrow gauge layouts are freelance, models from different railways can be mixed together. RTR models would be welcomed by existing modelers and it would attract new modelers from other scales who want to model in 7mm scale but have not got the room. The big plus is there would be no competition from other manufacturers. Bachmann got it right with their 0n30 American range. Loconuts