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The frustration of modelling something with no stock available....


rob D2

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Anybody else get this ? I'm not talking some obscure 100 year old , narrow gauge line in Patagonia ....

I've returned to the idea of a chiltern / Oxfordshire layout based in the very early 90s, the stock list is projected something like this...

 

Locos

Cl 37 RFd MOD trains - not available, respray or modification of 37/4

Cl 47 RFd MoD trains - not available in original RFd , respray or maybe vi trains Rex version 2nd hand

Cl 37/0 dutch - not available until sound version next year, original release occasionally on eBay

Cl 47/3 dutch - respray maybe

Cl 56 RFd bin trains, stone trains AVAILAble !

Cl 115 dmu not available even as kit ?

Cl 47 NSE , occasionally available on eBay

 

Stock is not so bad as I can do the stone trains, mod trains and fertiliser trains, and I think the bin train bits can be bought as kits, but the lack of anything else makes it a non starter.

I'm not afraid to do the odd renumber, but the sheer quantity of work required would be too much I think

 

I can't be alone !

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That's what they used to call railway modelling, back in the 60's. Scratch building articles abounded in all the magazines.

 

I remember making a passable LMS passenger parcels van cutting out windows with an Xacto knife from printed cardboard sides. I wish I still had my models from then. Some of the most satisfying items are the ones that took the most work, and the least detail and individual, non RTR finish. 

 

You have far more resources today, to do exactly what you want. Just turn your viewpoint around.

 

Andy

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That's what they used to call railway modelling, back in the 60's.

... and the 1980's!!! When Hornby & Lima etc offered diesels in either Green or Blue ('cos that's pretty much all the liveries there had been up to then ;) ) well repainting, renumbering, superdetailing were par for the course... it was all part of the fun, and you ended up with unique models, instead of exactly the same as everyone else's.

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I knew this would come down to " man up and do some modelling " type thing.

Like I said , that's not an issue, it's the quantity that puts me off....

 

And these were very common locos in the early 90s.....especially RFd 37s/47s.

It would be like saying today you can't get any EWS 66s or a GWR branchline without pannier tanks available.

 

At the end of the day , it's just toy trains, but it's frustrating having your next big idea a non starter

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I knew this would come down to " man up and do some modelling " type thing.

Like I said , that's not an issue, it's the quantity that puts me off...

 

All the base locos are available as decent models, it's just the DMU that's to build. You could operate with 'leased' incorrectly liveried traction as interim cover for whatever has to be found or repainted.

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It isn't a question of whether or not you should "man up". It is simply a matter of deciding whether you choose to model a particular period/location irrespective of what is available off the shelf, or you choose a location/period based upon what is readily available.

 

For some modellers, readily available usually means a kit or the items required to help create a "scratch built" item. So the opportunity to choose time/place is much wider. If you are constrained by time, budget and skills, then you limited to largely what is already available RTR, repainted or second hand, which may force your decision in a different direction. 

 

Or you can create the location and and the period through appropriate infrastructure and scenery, then just "suspend disbelief" a bit more by using the closest available locos and stock. It would probably be a more appropriate depiction of a real railway in miniature than many people achieve.

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I'm not quite sure of the point that the OP is trying to make, is this regarded as a popular period so such liveries should be readily available off the shelf, or is that inadvertently the downfall because customers have been asking for something different....?

 

I can empathise to a point because it seems the only way to guarantee an item is to pre-order or just happen to be in the right model shop at some point during the week between it being delivered and selling out. Then again, I've scratchbuilt extinct stock from just a handful of photos, which should make the current project of repainting a Bachmann 44 tonner seem easy-except the only photo I have shows the position of the nose stripes, but not the sides..

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With the class 115, youd simply need a Lima 117, theyre readily availiable on the second hand market, and Ebay always has one in some shape or form, its just a case of adding the extra car, and modifying the duplicate DMBS that Lima incorrectly moulded.Ive had this problem to an extent as well, where ive had to abandon projects which when I think back were a bit "too advanced" or invovled with my skills, even despite them continuously improving, I guess when its down to it, youve got to ask yourself: "are you prepared to do what you want and need for this layout idea?"

NL

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Difference is that model trains today dont actually need chopping up to look halfway ok, and they aint cheap like what Lima was, so some people may not feel as free to stick sharp things in em.....I know i dont......

Yes I agree the detail level these days is fantastic - I'd say Lima et al didn't seem all that cheap at the time!! - but nice as the detail is, surely that's also partly responsible for people's reluctance these days to do the other bits such as renumbering, that were part & parcel of the whole package back then. I'm as bad as anyone else for not wanting to mess with expensive models - even more so now I'm in O Scale!! But if I really want a model in a particular livery that isn't available off the shelf, I do eventually knuckle down to it.

 

Back to the OP, concerned about the quantity of work to be done - well that's the nature of building a layout isn't it? If we listed all the tasks & all the stock required, & importantly the cost of it all, right at tbe outset, I'm sure we'd all feel a bit daunted!! Take it a bit at a time - there's no rush unless you've a Show deadline to meet, & stock can be built up gradually.

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I knew this would come down to " man up and do some modelling " type thing.

Like I said , that's not an issue, it's the quantity that puts me off....

 

And these were very common locos in the early 90s.....especially RFd 37s/47s.

It would be like saying today you can't get any EWS 66s or a GWR branchline without pannier tanks available.

 

At the end of the day , it's just toy trains, but it's frustrating having your next big idea a non starter

 

Sorry for the late reply, but I wasn't suggesting going back to 1940's hand craftsmanship. It's rather that there are now so many more powerful tools, technologies and services out there, in the digital age, many of which are cheaper  to acquire, or subcontract to, than the handful of sound fitted locomotives that you are wanting would cost.  Home designed CAD to Etch, CAD to 3D printing, CAD to CNC Milling, CAD to Colour Printer, taken toegther, will make almost anything, without any personal craft skill or whatsoever.  And of course, anything made can be exactly replicated in unlimited quantities.

 

Andy

 

 

 

I personally now make everything in do in a manufacturable form, because I too usually need reasonable quantities, either for myself, or for the P:87 SIG and Accu-trak  group members.

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Now I wonder if there is a chicken/egg at work.

A lot of people model the trasition era for a number of reasons, is one of those reasons the availablility of stock? Do people have a willingness to model what I believe to be a pretty starved era but choose not to due to the lack of availability - the Post BR blue/Pre privatisiastion. Lots of colours, lots of variety, small trains, block trains, units and loco hauled... but not a lot availabkle RTR. The models are out there but not nessecarily available or in production?

 

I have just backdated my N gauge collection to the year 1992 and this is what is suitable and built to modern standards -

Class 08 - produced in blue and triple grey. not currently available

Class 20, produced in blue RF Red stripe due next year.

Class 27 - produced in coal sector  and red strip but not currently available

Class 31, old style produced in dutch, regional railways and blue, never produced in triple grey or intercity. not currently available

Class 33, not currently available - Dapol version due Janunever

Class 37, New style produced in Dutch and Coal, not currently available. more versions imminent

HST - produced in intercity swallow, not currently available, due feb next year

Class 47 - produced in parcels livery, not currently available. more versions due late next year

Class 50 - not currently available - Dapol version due end of octember

Class 56 - triple grey various sectors available

Class 58 - triple grey various sectors available

Class 59 - anybodys guess

Class 60 - Triple grey available

 

Coaching stock not available at all, Mk1's Mk2's in IC or RR liveries

 

Class 150 available in RR livery

Class 153 produced in RR livery, not currently available

Class 156 produced in provincial livery, a bit too early for 1992, not currently available

 

Various wagons are available... hit and miss to get a rake together...

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