Just a thought, has any manufacturer brought out a RTR loco or stock which  did not make it into BR livery? Having that one less livery option seems  to kill any chance.  I'm mainly thinking of locos/stock from classes scrapped before 1948; I can't recall any. except maybe a few kits, (e.g. Ultima/Etched Pixels coaches & vans) I model SR 1930s and would love an Adams 4-4-0 or A12 0-4-2.

From reading this and other railway forums  it would seem that the vast majority of layouts and posts in general  feature BR period and later and steam is becoming a minority.

Looking  at the Farish 2018 list tends to reinforce this view. I know the NGS  ask for members modelling info, has this ever been published as  percentages of modellers per era?

Do you feel a survey coming on Mike?

I rather fancy you're correct regarding eras. Notwithstanding a generational gap in my railway modelling, the last mainstream manufactured loco I recall never making it into BR livery was the old faithful Dean Single, 'Lord of the Isles', by Triang Hornby. Possibly a blue Caledonian as well?

However, the builders of pre-grouping and 'big four' locos seem to have done such a good engineering job with them, that most lasted into post nationalisation.

I guess 19th century and early pre-grouping modelling never caught on with the early large scale manufacturers, well Hornby, since it was smarter marketing to produce the then current railways in miniature for all us little boys.

Steam though, like rock'n roll, will never die. Well at least never on the older chaps' railways!

Bill

Hi Mike,

Interesting, makes sense. From the GWR stable:

Airfix/Hornby Dean Single
Hornby County 4-4-0

Nigel

I was looking at a survey on RMWeb yesterday.  It was done in 2013 I think.

You can see it here:

Hornby 2018 - the full announcements - Page 23 - Hornby - RMweb

The period of nationalisation seems to be most heavily modelled (31%), followed by BR (22%) and Grouping (18%).

Pre grouping gets 6%.

These numbers give an indication of where manufacturers will invest.  If they do pre grouping or grouping at all, it makes sense for them to produce stock that lasted into the nationalisation era.

I recall another tidbit which was that the most popular period seems to be about 40 years ago from present.  Probably because those who are getting into modelling are in their 40s and nostalgic for their youth.

That said, I was intrigued that Hornby are doing a J36 in NBR livery.  The blurb says era 7 so possibly thjis is a model of a preserved example.

For myself, I prefer LMS in the 1930s but when I switched to 0 gauge, the RTR offerings seemed to focus on the nationalisation period so that's where I am.

John

The J36, is North British Railways 673 Maude ( LNER 5243, BR 65423) as preserved at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo'ness. http://www.srps.org.uk/



Named after a WW1 general https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Stanley_Maude


As I said on a thread elsewhere,

GWR City class ie City of Truro

Hi Q,

I didn't include City of Truro in the "GWR only" group as it ran on BR(WR) from 1957-1961 in regular service, albeit in 1904 livery. It was back again in 1983-1984 running specials for the GWR 150th. on regular track (not heritage track). The era it shouldn't be seen in is 1931-1957 when it was kept in the museum.

Nigel