Wednesday, August 27, 2008

More of the same

Where to start tonight. More discussions on the NZ120 list. One idea that's been raised is of selling a 'train set' with a loco, a couple of wagons and a circle of track, all for the princely sum of $350. There is a slight technical hitch with this plan. While admirable, it fails to take into account the (standard?) mark up at model shops, which from experience (admittedly a while ago) is getting towards %50. Suddenly the economics of the situation go through the floor, and you seriously need to find someone who is willing to 'grow the hobby' essentially out of his own pocket.
We then rolled onto locomotives, and it was postulated that a scale mechanism could be built sourced from Australia, with correct sized wheels and axle spacings etc. Again the only technical hiccup was that only one bogie would be powered. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but I remember the bad old days of the 80's, where loco mechanisms were a bit of a joke in N scale. Atlas and kato changed all that, with decent powered locos that ran well. Loco's powered on one bogie were/are pretty much useless for pulling anything, and tend to spend all their time on a back track looking pretty. I can't think of anything that would turn people off the hobby faster.
Well, not overly positive in the last couple of days, I'll have to get back to some modeling won't I

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