Garden Railway Forum

90733:57187 wrote:

James-Buzz:57183 wrote:

TonyW:57086 wrote:Some interesting comments.....

So, does the team think that Katie, for example, is over-priced too? And what about the limited-edition batch of 100 Jacks which sold out and had the same kind of price?

Tony,

i was informed by a retailer that the uptake on the last 25 or so special edition Jacks was "very very slow"

However, from what I know the most of them sold very quickly.

Now this is an interesting one, mine was a last batch one from GRC and it was a strugle to find one and that was 8 months before it was built. However I walked into GRS just after the second to last batch had been built and there was 2 on the shelf.

DVT Dweller:57274 wrote:

90733:57187 wrote:

James-Buzz:57183 wrote:

TonyW:57086 wrote:Some interesting comments.....

So, does the team think that Katie, for example, is over-priced too? And what about the limited-edition batch of 100 Jacks which sold out and had the same kind of price?

Tony,

i was informed by a retailer that the uptake on the last 25 or so special edition Jacks was "very very slow"

However, from what I know the most of them sold very quickly.

Now this is an interesting one, mine was a last batch one from GRC and it was a strugle to find one and that was 8 months before it was built. However I walked into GRS just after the second to last batch had been built and there was 2 on the shelf.

I got mine way after the last batch but struggled to find one!

I like the new engines! WHen I built my "Billy" with a tender I was pretty much going for the "george" look. I also think they will appeal to people who like the look of the Accucraft "generic" locomotives. I've always liked the bodywork on those but preferred the look of the Roundhouse valve gear. I think the new engines are excellent.

As for the price, I built my locomotive from a kit but it was still pretty expensive. When I saw the quality of the parts and the work that went into them I was very impressed. I had up till that point never seen a "16mm" model steam engine before so I didn't know what to expect. If you look at the price of some American "FN3" models with electric motors and plastic bodies, and then consider that in the same price range you can get a real steam engine, it's pretty surprising.

Some things are just very nice to have and correspondingly expensive. If you can afford one you will probably be suitably impressed with it. I don't imagine there is a great deal of "buyers' remorse" with RH engines. If you can't afford one well I guess you won't have one, until you save some more money. At that point you may find you have changed your mind about whether it's worth it or not. Guitars are also expensive but if you want to play a good one, you've got to pay for it.

I like them, I think "George" would lend itself particularly well to coal firing.

I bet if they made "George" available as a kit, people would build them. I've noticed more and more kit "Billy"s are showing up on youtube with tenders (like mine). There is obviously a market out there for an 0-4-0 with a tender. There is something appealingly quaint about a little 0-4-0 with a tender, it suggests a railway that suddenly got bigger due to an increase in business and had to press some of its tank engines into service on the longer routes by putting tenders on them. Or something. I like them.

Why not buy one of these for half the price...

Because they're made in China, are rather overscale, and (I understand) have had various quality control issues?

Not that I have anything against Accucraft personally, just suggesting possible reasons why people might opt for Roundhouse...

I've never heard of any problems with them.They're designed in England
by Mr Pearse,and don't rust or have cheese head screws sticking out of the buffer beams.......

Its horses for courses really, i had a caradoc which was fine although the burner had a rather healthy roar and seemed unstable compared to a Roundhouse burner. Many folks had problems with the WD Baldwin, but i believe the problems were sorted, and a friend had a Garratt from the 1st batch which had various problems which again were sorted eventually.
I have not heard of Roundhouse engines giving problems but i suppose there must be the occasional rogue engine.
I guess Roundhouse have this reputation for out of the box reliability that Accucraft have yet to acquire but on the other side of the coin some of the Accucraft engines do have somewhat better detailing.
So you pay yer money and take yer choice.
Of course the answer would be the purchase of a TME engine, scale, reliable with wonderful engineering and quality back-up provided, Oi mate, lend me a fiver? cheers Rob

My mate bought a new RoundHouse Jack,picked it up from RoundHouse and when he got it home it wouldn't go,the superheater had come adrift and that's a limited edition!They all have their faults and good points.

As i said, there must be a few rogue Roundhouse engines out there, it would be interesting to know the percentage of warranty work done by the various manufacturers, but i guess that would be sensitive information, cheers Rob

I suppose it all boils down to what you want.I don't believe one is better than the other.I would prefer Accucraft to be built in England but of course that would increase the price

it certainly would result in a price increase, but as i said, you pay yer money and take yer choice. cheers Rob

Admittedly I had a few problems with my Russell when it first arrived - but it eventually transpired that the fault was with the radio transmitter rather than the locomotive. At any rate, it was all very efficiently dealt with under the warranty.

I was hoping for a freelance 'deseasel' to be released

Cheers,

Tom
RWLR

Any one else ordered one of these?
Ordered my George with R/C from Trackshack the other day, coming in January hopefully!

I was going to order one, but I've been spending a bit to much recently at Uni.

Never mind. My dad says that there's a company in Cumbria who will be offering plenty of well paid part time jobs come summer. Hopefully should raise enough money. If that fails, I'll just have to cut my weekly budget.