Dave
Western Thunderer
Thanks Richard... a voice of balanced reason concerning R-T-R at last....
I think what really gets me riled is this notion that anyone relying on R-T-R to any extent whatsoever is somehow in the "Toy Train Brigade"...
...I get the impression (maybe wrongly) that there would be a preference by some if others did indeed do "Nothing" in this scale because if they do "Something", using R-T-R, it is somehow "dumbing down" the scale as a whole.
I don't think it's like that, Jordan. Not as far as I'm concerned anyway. I've got one RTR loco (Ixion Manning Wardle) and two RTR wagons (Lionheart 16-T minerals). As far as I can tell, having looked at various photos, the Manning Wardle is spot on. I can't comment on the absolute accuracy of the minerals but they have no glaring errors that I'm aware of and stand to be corrected if they do have.
RTR is perfectly fine - there's no "dumbing down" providing it's well-made and accurate to the prototype being modelled. But these Dapol wagons are not only poorly made (brake gear not lining up with the wheels went out when Adam were a lad) but they don't, in fact, portray what they are supposed to. We're not talking about an individual modeller scratching something out of whatever he has to hand - we're talking about a major producer of railway models that has far more resources and plenty of skilful people to hand yet can't be bothered to produce something that's accurate and, most likely, doesn't care so long as they shift boxes, which can't be good for the scale. If people like Adrian go out of business who do we then turn to when we want something that isn't going to sell in its thousands and the likes of Dapol aren't going to ever make?
So it's the likes of Dapol who are dumbing the scale down and not the people who buy it and use it.