Geoff Helliwell's "Near-ReadyToRun" article in Railway Modeller

[whart57]

I have just got around to getting hold of the June 2022 Railway Modeller and reading Geoff Helliwell's "Talking Points" piece. It's an excellent read and unlike many of the pieces that pontificate in that slot, Geoff is writing about a successful project that launches a new methodology for the less established scales. His N-RTR (Near-ReadyToRun) offerings provide the purchaser with a technically sound and good performing mechanism and a 3D printed body in primer grey. I can testify that the mechanisms are very sweet runners - I would expect no less from Geoff - and the bodies, either from Hardy models or from Lenny Seeney, look very decent. There is probably scope for more detailing if the purchaser so desires, but a model to modern RTR standards is achievable with just a rattlecan or two of paint and some transfers.

 

Geoff is a brilliant model engineer but he also gives credit to those who went before, such as Brian Golding and his fold up chassis design and the 3mm Society's self quartering wheels team, without which this project would be less viable. The chassis used though are of Geoff's groundbreaking design utilising the readily available N20 motor and plastic gears available in their billions on eBay. Given that many kits of the last thirty years or so were designed around motors and gears that are no longer available this future proofing is welcome.

 

The big limitation of Geoff's work is that it is again a cottage industry effort. Geoff produces these models in batches and they sell out immediately. In the context of 3mm scale that is not really an issue, 3mm Society members are used to that. I do wonder though if this N-RTR concept could be taken up by actual manufacturers. For an individual like Geoff, turning bushes and similar components for 30 models is a time-consuming chore, but a computer controlled lathe would spit out a couple of thousand in ten minutes. The costs of that lathe and the cost of setting up could only be covered by long production runs but if the machine is already there and busy with other things then it becomes affordable.

 

We used to make kits to fill in the gaps in our model scenes. Very few seem to do so these days, in fact in the same issue of RM as Geoff's piece is a reader's letter reminding people that kits still exist. Perhaps N-RTR fills a gap between true RTR and kits.

[NCB]

Very well written article. Must try one of his models.

 

In a sense Athearn used to do something similar. Diesels in a particular shape eg GP40 in some basic liveries and indeed some undecorated. Other companies produced parts to enable particular variations to be modelled. But these days people expect that detailing off the shelf.