Pictures of your collection.

Lots to take in there Barry - I'll make myself a cuppa and have a look …………….

One of my locos on the layout - CR Pickersgill 72 - which ran all over Scotland till the early sixties. A Nu Cast white metal kit on a Hornby T9 chassis, which gives the best of both worlds in achieving location specific engines and the benefits of excellent RTR chassis running. 

Great picture as usual Ben.

Another great shot Richard.  I wish I had your skills to mix and match bodies and chassis.  Alas, I'm stuck with what the RTR boys offer although given their current pricing policy, I'm pleased I have sufficient stock to keep me going for a year or so.

If things continue, I can see the kit manufacturers  making a comeback having had a rough time when RTR offerings seemed reasonably priced against them.

Cheers. I doubt if actual kit building has much of a commercial future, given the apparent lack of construction skills  going by many posts on FB groups and forums and the absence of teaching technical subjects in schools nowadays but I am sure the development of 3D printing will more than augment this although it will still require painting - a relatively simple task for my chosen era  but a nightmare if modelling pre group and their decorated liveries.

Nearly missed that. Very nice looking loco.

Sadly Richard, 3D prints leave me slightly cool.  The quality of the likes of Shapeways was excellent but it seems they couldn't make it work financially and their prices ended up being quite high.  'Home printing' it seems still has a long way to go before the finished article is anything more that a 'bread and butter' print where, in some cases, it's almost impossible to sand off the strata.

I agree that the last few years of high quality RTR offerings has rather put paid to having to learn the skills required for kit building and I suppose youngsters today have neither the interest nor the patience to learn them.  Having said that, I'm a great believer in 'what goes around comes around' - that's why I still have my bell-bottom trousers waiting for the second coming of Abba ……………… 

Petermac said

Sadly Richard, 3D prints leave me slightly cool.  The quality of the likes of Shapeways was excellent but it seems they couldn't make it work financially and their prices ended up being quite high.  'Home printing' it seems still has a long way to go before the finished article is anything more that a 'bread and butter' print where, in some cases, it's almost impossible to sand off the strata.

I agree that the last few years of high quality RTR offerings has rather put paid to having to learn the skills required for kit building and I suppose youngsters today have neither the interest nor the patience to learn them.  Having said that, I'm a great believer in 'what goes around comes around' - that's why I still have my bell-bottom trousers waiting for the second coming of Abba ……………… 

From “Post #292,589”, 30th September 2025, 7:17 pm

The waist of my old flares would go round one leg nowadays.

You can still see your legs !!!!?    Wow.