N Gauge Wish Lists

The N Gauge Modern mailing list has yet another thread on wish lists. As one well-known member has pointed out, while this might be entertaining for some people, it's of little use unless a sufficient number of people can persuade Dapol, Bachmann or anyone else that there really is a market for specific model.

As is entirely predicable, many people are still fixating on locomotives, despite the fact that most of the remaining gaps are relatively minor classes, either short-lived, limited to a small area, or both. While I would probably buy something like a class 58 if somebody did one, it doesn't strike me as an essential item. Likewise I can't see a Hymek, a favourite locomotive of mine, selling in anything like the quantities to justify a mass-market ready-to-run model.

So here's my list of things that not only would I be prepared to buy, but think there's a big enough potential market.

Class 220 or 221 Virgin Voyager.
This is a distinctive and instantly recognisable prototype with widespread geographical appeal. The real things run from Scotland to Cornwall to Wales to the south coast, so they're applicable to just about any post-2002 layout that's not a freight-only shunting plank. Bachmann already do an 00 version which could be scaled down to 2mm, and a 4-5 car set is a nice length train for N (2' or 2'6" long), which could be accommodated on a very modest-sized layout. Downside is that there's only one livery, and it's only applicable to post-privatisation era layouts. Anecdotal evidence alleges that the OO version has sold poorly, but this may not be a good guide to it's prospects in the smaller scale. N has a higher proportion of main line layouts compared with shunting planks.

Class 121 or 122 "Bubble Car" single car DMU
They're suitable for a very long time period, since the prototype dates from the late 50s, and a couple are still in service today. Even those GWR branch line terminus people might buy one or two; they beat Dr Beeching to those branch termini by a couple of years or so. Over their long lives, they've run in a great many liveries, especially if the model is designed so that both the 121 and 122 can be made from the same tooling. The chassis will also be useful for a lot of other 63' DMUs.

Any Mk1-based 4-car Southern Region EMUs
Either a 4-VEP, 4-CIG or 4-CEP. Like the bubble car they lasted a very long time and ran in a great many liveries. Although they're restricted to a limited geographical area, it's still as large an area (in rail density if not square miles) as that of the classic Great Western branch terminus. I believe the Southern Region has only been overlooked by modellers because the stock isn't available. It's interesting to compare prototype numbers; there were a lot more 4-VEPs than there were 14XXs or 45XXs. Bachmann have proposed a model of the 4-CEP in 00, which could be scaled down to N.