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QUOTE (SRman @ 27 Jul 2008, 02:57) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Times and interests change so, in mitigation, maybe the time is right now, or maybe it'll be sometime in the future, for British HO to emerge as a viable market but, notwithstanding all claims to the contrary, there is not a huge amount of support for British HO modelling.

The most recent missed opportunity was the opening of the channel tunnel, combined with the advent of privatisation, both of which have seen quantities of new equipment fairly rapidly displacing legacy stock built by BR. And all of this was diesel or electric, so none of the problems with outside valve gear and splashers that made the OO compromise necessary. If all the RTR models based on prototypes entering service post channel tunnel opening had been made HO, a decent contemporary HO RTR based layout would be a real possibility now.

But for the steam railway, and the immediate BR follow on, 4mm OO it is, and will remain.

 

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I remember being surprised to see a model of an A4 on a US modeller's PRR layout. It looked pretty diminutive next to typical US superpower, and the owner had not realised that it was actually overscale. He was also not aware that the PRR K4 pacific was in large part the inspiration for the Doncaster A1 pacifics from which the A3 derives.

There was an exquisite HO A3 from an Australian firm (PSM?) commissioning Korean brass, at the time of the Oz Flying Scotsman tour. I was too broke at the time to buy one (in year one or two of a hefty mortgage) but really wanted it, as it could then have gone on visits to my mainland European family to run on their HO systems. Sigh...

 

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QUOTE (tolpuddleman @ 30 Jul 2008, 22:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>..I would like to see a real effort .. to manufacture correct track with correct sleeper spacing, and not keep feeding us with an HO/OO dual purpose item.

..Anybody else feel the same way or am I a solitary voice crying in the model wilderness ?

You are not alone, but the received wisdom in the UK railway model trade is that the demand isn't there. The situation is that Peco essentially 'own' the UK market for a better RTR OO track: you can have set track from Hornby, Bachmann or Peco; and for something better there are Peco's code 100 and 75 options. Unless they experience the same impact of competition that led to the development of the code 83 range for the North American market, there is no prospect for change there.

For OO, plain track of significantly more correct appearance is available from SMP and C&L. It's code 75, with the sleeper width and spacing representative of 'typical' UK track, the sleeper length shortened by the 2.3 mm missing from the track gauge. It looks very good. Problem is points, which have to be built from kits, or bought from a specialist track maker like Marcway. There are good kits available, but it is a lot more work than buying a RTR point. I can get a decent appearance once painted and ballasted, out of lightly modified Peco large radius code 75 points, combined with SMP plain track; with a few kit points in the most visible locations. Would I prefer a range of RTR OO points of Peco's build quality to match SMP? Oh yes.

 

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QUOTE (Brian Considine @ 3 Aug 2008, 15:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I wonder what the situation would have turned out like if, when Lima (& others) started to produce models in UK HO they were of vastly superior quality for the same, or less money to the offerings of Triang at the time ?
The Fleischmann HO Warship and coaches were much superior to the Triang Hornby competition, and from a brand with a 'quality' reputation reasonably well known to UK railway modellers. Didn't sell anything like the necessary volume by all accounts, and since Fleischmann have (twenty years on?) yet to expand the range...

 

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The one sensible scenario I can see is on the introduction of a new type of loco or stock which runs in numbers in substantially the same form in mainland Europe and the UK. A manufacturer with both HO and OO ranges might find it rational to use one lot of research to produce models for both scales. But you would still find (as with the ROCO 08 or whatever it actually is) that the HO models would carry mainland European liveries, the OO models UK liveries, because the manufacturer knows full well what will sell in commercially viable numbers in each market.

 

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QUOTE (Brian Considine @ 8 Aug 2008, 13:38) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>How many locomotives (& rolling stock for that matter) are we talking about ? - maybe time to start a list ? we could start off with the 66 - an easy one as they are relatively new & out there in huge numbers in 1 : 1 scale.
What I was thinking about was something completely new, like the GE freight diesel that one of the UK companies proposes to acquire. If that went into service on the continent as well, then it might be sensible for a manufacturer to use the same body form research to issue HO and OO versions.