Model Railways vs Collectors Model

I'm just interested in peoples thoughts. I've had a model railway (or toy tranis) all my life. I still have quite a lot of Triang and H-D from my youth. But I still buy modern models as well, I have specimens from every decade since the 1950's and a couple of recent purchases have made me think.

I'm not a very dextrous modeller, I admit, and my attempts at kit building have generally been unsuccessful, so I rely on ready to run (R-T-R) stuff. But I'm not completely cack-handed either, and I have maintained my old models, some as old as I am, without more than an occasional disaster (usually soldering related!)

My latest purchase I managed to break two bits off just putting it back in the box. A previous recent one lost two pieces and nearly drove me insane just trying to fit the couplings and headcode disks(supplied seperatly). The said latest purchase seems impossible (according to people on RMWeb) to dismantle for maintenance or chip fitting without doing damage. In any case the instructions for doing so seem totally inadequate.

Now, I understand a lot of this is driven by a demand for ever-increasing accuracy, but we are talking OO. This is not a scale that is ever going to be accurate for most users, not only because of the gauge, but because of the liberties we have to take with radii, couplings etc to fit into an average house.

Would it not be better for there to be a clear distinction between models intended for frequent use on normal layouts - which implies consuiderable handling - and models for collectors or for use in dioramas etc? And perhaps for the latter to be made to some more realistic gauge? HO or EM? Or have the manufacturers simply lost their way and the models could be designed better to accomodate both types of use? Can something be described as R-T-R when you have to finish assembly yourself? I thought Hornby might have been going the right way with their Railroad range, but the impetus seems to have gone out of that - maybe I'm only one of a small minority that actually uses the things frequently? I suspect in 20 years time if I'm still here my Triang and H-D will still be running and most of the stuff bought in the 21st century will not be.

 

Well; like the OP I still have a lot of Hornby Dublo, Wrenn and Triang Loco's that I have used for many years as well as modern models which I still buy. Life has changed for me a lot in the last four years because I moved abroad but I still have a working layout (albeit smaller than ever before) and cabinets full of models all around me. I source and buy my new kit from the UK and I have to say that although a lot of the new models are quite fragile I find that the packing used by most suppliers is excellent and I have never received a broken model. However; this doesn't mean that I have not broken off one or two small parts and cracked the odd bit of piping whilst removing Loco's from boxes.

These days I find myself putting the new models in the cabinets for static display and 'playing trains' with the older kit which still runs brilliantly with the minimum of maintenance being required. I still get great pleasure from my heavy Dublo and Wrenn Loco's belting around with the appropriate Rolling Stock and my Triang L1 with a Parcels Train. My last eight new Loco's have just been test run and wall mounted in cabinets where I build diorama's and apply Backscene's which are very effective in cabinets.

In days past I built a lot of Wills Kits to get the Southern fleet built up, as it was the only way you could in those days, and I was still building later makes to produce a lovely 'Z' and 'W' up until just a few years ago. These days I just await the new models and I'm looking forward to getting my Maunsell Push-Pull coach set from Hornby and the 'C' from Bachmann along with Pill Box Brake Vans etc. They will, of course, go right into the cabinets with all the other new models as I'm not going to take the chance of smashing them to bits by colliding with a Wrenn Bulleid. At my age, with a brain slowly turning to Scrambled Egg, there is always the chance that 'controller issues' are likely to occur !

 

Personally I find the more detail the better - I don't deny that I have sometimes utterly demolished something or knocked the odd bit of detail off, but I take that as a given danger with the modern detail. I'd rather have to glue bits back on than buy a detailing kit.

 

34014 - You seem to be in a similar situation to myself.

But my point seems to have been missed. Whats the point in adding more fine detail when the gauge and track are horribly wrong? Unless they are purely static collectors models in which case why bother with motors etc? While I accept there seems to be something of a boom in model railways at the moment there would seem to be little hope for the future if models can't actually be used.

For myself, I keep trying not to buy any more new models, but they keep coming out with things I never thought would be available in model form and I'm only a weak human being with a credit card :-( But my layout (GN/GE) can be run reasonably realistically with my old Triang/Trix/Hornby collection. Sometimes, despite the relative lack of detail on some, they actually have a presence the newer models don't have.

 

Pete

I think it's a case of everyone to their own desires. I understand what you mean about the gauge and track etc but I think there will always be a thirst for newer, more accurate and detailed Loco's and Rolling Stock because the 'Rivet Counters' seem to outnumber the people who just want to play trains. We come from an era when Mum&Dad bought us a train set and we played with it no matter how out of scale it might have been. Most of us were also train spotters and we had the real thing to play with and see all the detail we wanted on a daily basis. I continue to buy new Southern models as they appear for nostalgic reasons more than actually wanting to run them; hence they go into cabinets and not on the tracks.

I think the manufacturers are not quite sure whether they should be producing 'Models' or 'Toys', so they try to fill both Worlds by producing the likes of the Thomas and Railroad ranges whilst knocking out loads of highly detailed kit for the Rivet Counters. I have friends who just collect and display the latest models and have no desire to build a layout or even run Loco's up and down. For these Guys it's just pure nostalgia and a kind of Pension Fund that is more tangible than invisible money in other investments.

One thing is for sure; whilst people continue to gobble up every new model that emerges; Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol etc are not going to worry about the likes of track radii etc and I don't think they will be producing motorless Loco's for display either, as it would mean running two models for every new item alongside each other in the catalogues and shops.

I fully agree with you that the old models have a great presence on the layout and some of that is to do with the sound compared with newer models. I even lay an oval of Dublo 3 rail track down from time to time and run a couple of Loco's with the old tinplate rolling stock. There is just something about them clanging around that is pure magic, and even on my 2 rail layout I still run Dublo Super Detail coaches with the right Loco's. I still believe these coaches to be some of the best ever made despite being 'out of scale'.

Do continue to buy the new models you want and enjoy them in whatever mode you place them. After all; we only live once, as far as we know, so we might as well take our pleasures where we find them without worrying too much about how folks in the future are going to cope with getting highly detailed Loco's around the wrong radii !

 

Would be nice though to compare like for like US, EU and UK locomotives side by side.. , theres always n gauge.

OO Gauge will last as long as theirs a hobby, at this point it's not viable for manufacturers to really invest in HO (or TT for that matter) UK Outline models beyond obvious candidates such as the Eurostar and a Class 66. Though HO does has an S100 (and soon an S160) .

If the industry was to fall below viability and see the exit of Hornby / Bachmann you may find Roco's owners testing the water with the odd HO model.. but thats years away for now.