Bodgers and fiddlers

[Chatty]

Just to give an alternate view here there are those of us who have always 'made do' with what is available and would NEVER consider kit-building a loco as even if the skills can be learned the motivation cannot 

Paul

Building stuff yourself has always been at the heart of this hobby, and locos and rolling stock are the bit of any layout that most of us are most interested in (otherwise we'd just build model villages with no trains).  If the quality of modern RTR is really putting people off having a go at building stuff themselves, then I worry that railway modelling may be dying from the roots up.

I have been in this hobby since the 1970's and I can well remember when quality plastic wagon kits came onto the market the scratchbuilders threw their hands up and said the hobby was dying.

Well, all these years later I am still here, most of my modelling friends are here and the hobby hasn't died.

Like all hobbies, it is going through a phase and adjustment.

Take the radio controlled aircraft.  When I was a lad whilst most flyers scratchbuilt their aircraft most had to use fixed lines as radio controlled was very expensive.  Now you can walk into your hobby shop and buy a ready to fly aircraft with radio control for less than $300.  Has that hobby died because no-one is producing their own.  I don't think so.

Kind regards

Geoff

[Karhedron]

Now, as for kit badhing, bodging, fiddling, whatever it's called, are there chassis you can build yourself. Someone below mentioned something. Was that you Karhedron?

Building a chassis myself is not something I have tried my hand at yet. I have always fone for the easy(er) option of putting a new bodyshell on an existing RTR chassis. Pretty easy for multiple units, requires a bit more research for diesels, harder for steam unless it is a company like the GWR who standardised somewhat on wheel arrangements early on.

It is not impossible to kit build a steam loco chassis, or even scratch-build one for that matter. Basically you need some way to make a rigid box with holes for the wheels, motors and gears. It is almost more miniature engineering rather than modelling and whether you can do it depends on practice and aptitiude.

For making steam loco chassis, the wheels are rather vital as they are on display and different engines used very different sizes and styles of wheels.

[DesertHound]

Take the radio controlled aircraft.  When I was a lad whilst most flyers scratchbuilt their aircraft most had to use fixed lines as radio controlled was very expensive.  Now you can walk into your hobby shop and buy a ready to fly aircraft with radio control for less than $300.  Has that hobby died because no-one is producing their own.  I don't think so.

Guys, how can I quote part if a post, and not the whole thing?

Chatty, you are right, hobbies do evolve and we do tend to decry the changes and feel that the heavens are coming down. Most of the time they don't of course. We are humans, we tend not to like change (it's the same in the workplace).

I had to laugh at your comment about radio controlled aircraft though. That's my brother's field if interest so we have that conversation all the time. Problem is, you'd probably have to through away that ready to fly plane if you so much as dropped it on the floor. Take it back to the shop and ask if you can get a spare nose cone or aileron and they'll probably look at you as though you've just landed from Mars! 

Dan

[belstone]

Take the radio controlled aircraft.  When I was a lad whilst most flyers scratchbuilt their aircraft most had to use fixed lines as radio controlled was very expensive.  Now you can walk into your hobby shop and buy a ready to fly aircraft with radio control for less than $300.  Has that hobby died because no-one is producing their own.  I don't think so.

But if you just buy an aeroplane, take it out of the box and fly it, can you really call yourself an aeromodeller? Yes, there's some skill in learning to fly it, but you can achieve most of the same effect by taking your Playstation out into the back garden. Railway modelling is a bit different in that no-one has yet produced a complete ready to run layout, so everyone has to do some construction work at some point. But I start to wonder whether RTR layouts are the next 'big thing' we will see in our hobby. And at that point the same question will arise - is it actually 'modelling' if you just buy a layout, plug it in and run trains on it?

And thirty years from now? Design your layout on your 15th generation smartphone, download locos and rolling stock and project the whole thing into empty space as a 3D hologram  I'll still be fiddling with Plastikard - if I can buy it by then.

[DesertHound]

Good points there belstone! Especially that last one about holograms 

Well, I'm an example of what you describe below. I bought a small shelf layout, since my interest is not so much in modelling (although I'd like to think I could manage it one day - had a half-hearted attempt a few years back). And this is where I DON''T think model railways are different from, say, model aircraft. It is a hobby that allows you to get out of it what you want.

My interest is in dismantling old locos and getting them to run to perfection, logging such things as current draw, parts changed, parts salvaged etc. they spend more time on the rolling road than on the layout. Perhaps a bit anoraky, but it's WHAT I WANT out if the hobby. Just like the model aircraft enthusiast, he might either prefer to build his own and fly them, or he might prefer to buy RTF and customize them or even build his own airfield for them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are no rules in a hobby (it's not like a sport) and we can all get what we want from it. However, the day I cannot buy an n gauge loco that I cannot take apart, or get spares for, well for me that's the end of the hobby (or at least I would have to adapt). Hence my main interest is in Poole stock.

Now you mention it - I'm quite tempted to go and get an RTF! 

Dan

[DesertHound]

Ah belstone, I forgot to add ... Ready to Run layouts are already here ... it's called Kato 

[DesertHound]

I guess hobbies can be a broad church. Yup, someone who buys an RTF isn't really a modeller if he doesn't do anything with that plane other than fly it. However, he's still part of the hobby in a sense. He's still a stakeholder in the hobby, but not in the literal sense a plane modeller. However, he might move on to be one at some point in the future.

I guess then that I'm not technically a railway modeller  That said, I still like to think that I have something to bring to the community. We evolve within a hobby, we change interests within a hobby and I think there should be room for everyone.

Anyway - I'm veering horrendously off topic here - 

[MikeDunn]

Now you mention it - I'm quite tempted to go and get an RTF! 

Well ... I've been tempted to get a RTF, but never got around to it (that & SWMBO hovering in those shops ready to drag me out  :'( ).

But ... I picked up a book quite a few years back on building 'em from scratch (balsa, ply etc) starting with a basic glider, working up to a trainer that has multiple stages (glider / power / radio) and finishing up with building a 1/5 scale Spit ...

I just need time  :'( ...

[belstone]

All good stuff Dan and you are absolutely right.  This hobby means different things to different people and no-one can tell anyone else what they should or shouldn't be doing. And anyone who can dismantle an N gauge loco, put it back together without any parts left over and have something that works at the end is a modeller in my book.  I suppose my personal interest in this issue is that (1) I'd quite like to get into supplying kits and parts on a small scale one day, when I'm too old and creaky for the heavy mechanical stuff I currently do for a living.  So the more people take up bodging and fiddling, the more customers I will have    (2) Even if I don't go down that route, if everyone gives up making stuff themselves and just buys everything off the shelf, the supply of bits and pieces will dry up due to lack of demand, and where will I be then? My wife's Uncle Ronnie built N gauge locos in the 1950s and scratchbuilt everything - even the motors - but then he was a genius. I'm not.

[Oldman]

Have to admit I still have some N gauge etched brass kits to make, but after building my brickworks layout I  decided I needed a change and now model narrow gauge - it does mean if you don't stick to the Welsh  slate railways anything goes and the rolling stock was often rough and ready - some people will super detail stuff but  I prefer to try and capture the atmosphere if I can. 
I have built locos in Whitemetal, etched brass, 3dPrinted, and etched brass scratch aids over plasticard or RTR body shells.
Currently waiting on delivery of a NG etched brass railbus kit that will fit on a Kato 103 chassis.
As others have said we all have our own preferences and I shall still be bodging stuff all the time I can afford / still get it.

[gorebridge2001]

Guys, how can I quote part if a post, and not the whole thing?

Click "Quote" then delete everything you don't want between the "quote" and "/quote"brackets, and then add your own text after the "/quote" bracket.

[port perran]

The thought of etched brass loco kits fills me with dread. I don't think I could ever make one. Let alone know where to start.

[DesertHound]

Thanks gore bridge! Thought there might be a quicker way than that (like highlighting what you want to quote) but that's fine, you confirmed the on,y way I know how to do it.

Cheers

Dan

[Dorsetmike]

To quote anything, not just earlier posts, have the source of the quote in a separate tab, highlight the text that you want to quote, click edit/copy, (or use <ctrl>C)  get back to the NGF tab click the quote icon, and paste the copied text between the [ quote][ /quote ] tags, when you select the quote icon the cursor automatically appears between the [ quote][ /quote ]  tags

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[DesertHound]

Thanks DorsetMike - I'll give that one a go!