Quote from: Dorsetmike on July 12, 2015, 06:10:47 PM
I've only really had that happen to me once, I took a Dapol 14xx chassis and hacked an ABS 0-6-4 highland tank kit to make an M7, and what did Dapol produce a few weeks after I finished??? Mind you mine with the white metal body is a somewhat better puller than the Dapol version!.

You are lucky - I had it with a Western (just before the GraFar model came out), trying to convert Class 29 into a 22 in N with diesels and a Pannier tank; when I'd finished the 22 Dapol announced theirs, the Western struggled with more than 5 coaches and of the Pannier the less said the better!
All were produced r-t-r within a few months anyway - I gave up!

In N nearly all my loco's are straight from the box. When I modelled in OO I used to build all types of kit and scratch build. I don't in N for two reasons,
1, Old age is catching up & my eyesight aint wot it was
2, You can't get the necessary bits to scratch build.

The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own....

I started late in this game. So far I have successfully completed some scenery together with a number of Metcalfe kits, and also disguised some of my Kato track. However, when I bought some Ratio signal kits, I completely botched the painting and then had a frustrating time attempting to glue the bits together. The end result was I threw them back in the drawer for another day so no signals yet. If I can't cope with simple plastic kits what chance have I got to "improve" a new and expensive RTR model never mind scratchbuild something. Hence I voted for the "out of the box" option.

In my Railway career I was always in the Operations Department and the building of the track, signalling, locos and rolling stock was the responsibility of the various qualified Engineers. An Engineer I am not so I am quite happy to take something right of the box, in pristine condition, not weathered, and just operate it. If it looks something like what I remember then I am very happy. Rule 1 applies!

Ron

Quote from: Agrippa on July 12, 2015, 08:25:42 PM
The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own....

I will not be getting political here but even though I buy my locos and passenger stock r-t-r (the quality is many times better than I can manage myself) I AM NOT A TORY!

Seeing some recent comments, me too.  I built Skytrex 264T (mine was actually sub standard) and Crab then Farish produced their own shortly after.  They also produced their original 4F albeit some years after my 2 BHE (formerly D&M) kits.  My Langley B! was in use for longer before Farish produced theirs.  Then there was Karl Peplow's resin Class 27 and a Farish 33 turned into a 26, then Dapol produced theirs.  More recently I found the required chassis so bought a Parkwood's resin Clayton;  now there is a RTR model on the way.  And my D11 converted from a BHE D16 was done shortly before the UM version appeared.

That's life!

Quote from: Agrippa on July 12, 2015, 08:25:42 PM
The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own....

I make a lot of my own stuff, just not rolling stock in N.
but I suppose that makes me an Aspirational Artisan Model Railway Tory - just like reality then

Quote from: D1042 Western Princess on July 12, 2015, 09:07:39 PM
I will not be getting political here but even though I buy my locos and passenger stock r-t-r (the quality is many times better than I can manage myself) I AM NOT A TORY!

Well nobody's perfect....

Skirting close to breaking the CoC here, folks.... even if it is in a lighthearted fashion.

Please stick to the poll. 

Quote from: Bealman on July 13, 2015, 07:33:46 AM
Skirting close to breaking the CoC here, folks.... even if it is in a lighthearted fashion.

Please stick to the poll. 

Spot the Labour man !!!   

How'd ya guess. 

Let's stick to the poll, though. 

I don't see a category in the poll for "fiddles about with RTR locos in misguided attempt to improve them, ends up with box full of mangled mechanisms which will never run again".

 

Can I send all mine to you?

Quote from: belstone on July 13, 2015, 10:07:06 AM
I don't see a category in the poll for "fiddles about with RTR locos in misguided attempt to improve them, ends up with box full of mangled mechanisms which will never run again".

  I think most of us have done that at  one time or another, usually following an article on improving r-t-r locos sandwiched between 'How I built a full scale model of the Tamar Bridge in a weekend using just a sheet of old cardboard from a cornflake box and a bent toothpick'    and the 'Railway of the Month', a 4 platform O gauge terminus layout on a single 2'x6' sheet of plywood'    in the latest edition of the Railway Modeller's Monthly or some such!
I long ago decided that what comes out of the box stays that way on my layout (kits excepted, naturally! 

Quote from: Bealman on July 13, 2015, 10:36:20 AM


Can I send all mine to you?

The way things are going, my next layout will be Barry Scrapyard, circa 1975.