Springing from something DWB posted on the 'Testing the water' thread:
"Given the small size of this (Marklin Sinus type) motor, it may also become feasible to make models of pre-grouping British steam locos which brings us back to .... the Dunalastair, and my question of whether a small, cute and pretty engine would sell."
This doesn't absolutely need the Sinus type motor, nice though that certainly would be: there are already small conventional can motors which can get inside a 4 foot diameter boiler, so the lack of a suitable motor is not the fundamental obstacle.
Would a small cute and pretty engine sell? Likely so when first introduced, but would it make the volume sales a RTR manufacturer needs to be assured of to risk the investment? That may be something of an obstacle, but there may be a way round this. There were distinct families of 0-6-0's and 4-4-0's on the pre-grouping railways, much of it due to engineers moving from works to works taking designs with them. Pick the right protoypes and from the investment to produce a motorised chassis and some core body parts, it would be possible to produce a number of prototypes. Dugald Drummond is one prime example, with locos to his design, and developed further, in Scotland and Southern England. The Worsdell and Stirling dynasties may offer similar opportunities. This is simply an extension of what Hornby have done very sucessfully with the Gresley pacific group: one chassis mech fits both basic body shells, to which numerous detail variations are than made to cover three classes development.
"Given the small size of this (Marklin Sinus type) motor, it may also become feasible to make models of pre-grouping British steam locos which brings us back to .... the Dunalastair, and my question of whether a small, cute and pretty engine would sell."
This doesn't absolutely need the Sinus type motor, nice though that certainly would be: there are already small conventional can motors which can get inside a 4 foot diameter boiler, so the lack of a suitable motor is not the fundamental obstacle.
Would a small cute and pretty engine sell? Likely so when first introduced, but would it make the volume sales a RTR manufacturer needs to be assured of to risk the investment? That may be something of an obstacle, but there may be a way round this. There were distinct families of 0-6-0's and 4-4-0's on the pre-grouping railways, much of it due to engineers moving from works to works taking designs with them. Pick the right protoypes and from the investment to produce a motorised chassis and some core body parts, it would be possible to produce a number of prototypes. Dugald Drummond is one prime example, with locos to his design, and developed further, in Scotland and Southern England. The Worsdell and Stirling dynasties may offer similar opportunities. This is simply an extension of what Hornby have done very sucessfully with the Gresley pacific group: one chassis mech fits both basic body shells, to which numerous detail variations are than made to cover three classes development.
