Giving up on Britain

Steve Jones is giving up on 4mm British outline modelling, and returning to modelling those strangely shaped American things in HO.

So I'm returning to American modelling, where products are both cheaper and vastly superior to the current crop of UK releases. I'm convinced that quality UK products will come, if only because the terminally stupid defeatists bleating on about accepting whatever you're given represent the static, existing market. A manufacturer looking for increased sales will obviously have to look beyond this to the lucrative and more discerning sector that currently throws money at American and European concerns. Unfortunately I've got a layout to build now, not in 5 years time, so American it is.

In some ways he's got a point; if you want to build a large layout with a fleet of dozens of locomotives that are all perfectly superdetailed straight out of the box, then UK outline modelling is not the way to go. And it's very frustrating that a number of high-profile recent releases from UK manufacturers have been released with quite fundamental errors. The Bachmann 37 with cantrail grilles in the wrong place is the worst example; if you're familiar with the prototype it looks completely wrong, and it's virtually impossible to correct.

I've been in the same boat; after 15 year modelling British N, a rash purchase of a Kato/Hobbytrain BLS Ae4/4 led to what was initially going to be a small Swiss layout as a side project. However, the vastly superior quality of Fleischmann, Arnold, Kato and Minitrix models compared with what I'd been used to from Graham Farish, combined with a house move, meant that Swiss modelling took over, and all my British N went into storage.

I haven't abandoned British N completely, and I still plan to build another British layout when it looks like I'm going to be permenantly settled in one place and have space for a decent permenant layout. British outline is still in the blood, and not even the sight of an Re10/10 or a pair of BLS Re4/4s slogging through the Alps on a heavy international freight can quite beat the excitement of a pair of 37s hitting the 1:60 bank out of Par with the 14:55 St Blazey to Exeter Speedlink, or a 50 rushing through at dawn on the down Postal. So I've kept my extensive collection of UK rolling stock, and even add to it from time to time.

Until then I'm planning to build a smallish portable Swiss layout, to exhibition standards, which should keep me busy for a couple of years.

Update: today's entry (Scroll down, no permalinks) clarifies things a bit; he's not abandoning British modelling completely, just changing his big loft layout to US outline, and restricting his British modelling to smaller projects.