Thursday, August 16, 2007
Bachmann in Model Rail
In an effort to be greener and get some exercise I took a walk to the newsagents today to get the latest copy of Model Rail. When I got half way there and it started to rain I found a good reason why so many of us are wedded to our cars.
In this issue is a six page interview with Graham Hubbard and Dennis Lovett of Bachmann. One of the quotes which grabbed my attention was this one from Hubbard on the subject of duplication, “The UK market for models is small compared to other world markets and with so many options available to manufacturers then it clearly is stupid to produce two class 08s, rebuilt ‘Royal Scotts’ and ‘N’ gauge Voyagers.”.
So, which company was it that anounced a Class 150 after Dapol had announced theirs? Similarly with the Class 04 (after Dapols class 03), Stanier coaches and Voyager? Bachmann claimed last Christmas that they decided to continue development of the Voyager because it was already well developed by the time of the Dapol models release at last years Warley exhibition, yet the model is not expected to arrive until this Christmas. In other words, Bachmann have wasted twelve months development on a model which we already have (from Dapol) when they could have invested that time and money into something new.
On a brighter note there was a comment which brings me a lot of hope, as a southern region modeller. In response to a readers question about whether the ‘OO’ 4-CEP will ever be produced in ‘N’ gauge, “We will duplicate everything we do in ‘N’ and ‘OO’. This could be ‘N’ led, or ‘OO’, but it won’t all happen overnight. It could be ten years before we see it, but if we’ve got all the research we might as well use it.” That should give me something to look forward to in my retirement then (and I’m only 37!)