Hi, just recently joined the forum as I’m after a bit of advice.
Due to life being chaotic as it is with a small child, I don’t anticipate being able to start a new layout for at least 10 years or so.
I have some Talyllyn locos in 7mm scale that we’re built up for me from kit form. This was around 2002-2005 for a layout I was starting to build when I lived at home with my parents, but I soon moved out and the layout was scrapped. The locos were tested and worked ok to some degrees of success I can recall, but have been boxed away the whole time since then.
When I eventually start my new layout one day, I planned on getting them out again to check if they still even work. However, I said to myself that in that time if there were ever any ready to run loco models released either in 7mm or 009 scale for Talyllyn, Vale of Rheidol or Fairbourne railways then I’d go for these and sell my old locos.
So I’ve been checking what’s on the market every now and again, and there’s no way of predicting exactly what will happen over the next 10 years of course but now I’ve been thrown a curveball already by the release of Skarloey and Rheneas by Bachmann in 009.
I’m a total novice in all areas of modelling and wasn’t even sure if it would be possible to repaint them and remove the faces, but I’ve seen that it is and there are some fantastic pieces of work people have done to convert Skarloey to Talyllyn.
So a couple of very daft questions probably.
Firstly, what are people’s take on whether Bachmann will release the full range of locos- Sir Handel, Peter Sam etc.
And secondly if I was to purchase these locos now (Skarloey & Rheneas) and kept them boxed up, would they run as new in years ahead?
The models I have in 7mm were kit built so presumably more prone to breaking down than ready to runs anyway I presume? And they were also exposed to the elements for a while before being boxed.
Just wondering if storing brand new, boxed up, ready to run locos would be a lot better in that regard?
If I went down the 009 Skarloey, Rheneas route then I’d sell my old locos.
Just wondering what people think I should do? Should I hold fire? Do people see the industry expanding over the next decade to include more ready to run kits in 7mm/009 in perhaps the Welsh Narrow Gauge railways I mentioned? My absolute dream would be to build a layout with just the 3 VoR locos, bought ready to run in either scale.
I appreciate this is all hypotheticals, and plenty of people are probably pulling their hair out reading this!
But just any bit of advice would be greatly welcomed, and this is my first post on here!
My instinct was telling me just to hold fire and see what comes up, 10 years is a long time. But as soon as I saw the photos of people’s 009 conversion from Skarloey to Talyllyn, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop! It would be awful if this is the closest we’ll ever get to ready to run locos on the Welsh Narrow Gauge, and I feel as if I don’t want to miss my chance. Thanks..
