Ellis Clark Trains 7mm Seacow, Sealion & Shark

[11B]

That's really a shame, I would have thought that in terms of the shark there would have been quite a good market given that Heljan did a vast range of Catfish and Dogfish.

 

That said, I haven't received anything from Ellis Clark regarding my order 

 

Ian

[Hal Nail]

1 hour ago, 11B said:

I would have thought that in terms of the shark there would have been quite a good market given that Heljan did a vast range of Catfish and Dogfish.

 

Minerva said previously they didn't think a Toad would cover its costs (whether the market has changed for Dapol to do one now I dont know). I'm not entirely surprised if EC felt a Shark was too niche.

 

They (edit: Mineva) said wagons in particular are costly to produce for the level of return.

 

I don't think O gauge is a bottomless pit and Dapol have been very sensible in farming the obvious prototypes that lend themselves to variation, eg the RCH and BR 10' chassis toolings are being reused under numerous bodies.

 

Apart from a steel high goods body, I'm struggling to think of many wagons that cover a broad range of eras and regions and can morph into more than one thing, that haven't already been done.

 

So each new release now is getting that bit riskier.

Edited June 12 by Hal Nail

[Mol_PMB]

11 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

 

Minerva said previously they didn't think a Toad would cover its costs (whether the market has changed for Dapol to do one now I dont know). I'm not entirely surprised if EC felt a Shark was too niche.

 

They said wagons in particular are costly to produce for the level of return.

 

I don't think O gauge is a bottomless pit and Dapol have been very sensible in farming the obvious prototypes that lend themselves to variation, eg th10rch and BR 10' chassis toolings are being reused under numerous bodies.

 

Apart from a steel high goods body, I'm struggling to think of many wagons that cover a broad range of eras and regions and can morph into more than one thing, that haven't already been done.

 

So each new release now is getting that bit riskier.

Dapol have also replicated some of their O gauge models in other scales, thereby getting better value out of the research and design work. 

Other 'missing' RTR O gauge wagons that cover a broad range of eras and regions are the 21t coal hopper and BR 21t mineral, though both types are of course available from kits and Minerva do a GWR 21-ton mineral in RTR.

[Hal Nail]

9 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Other 'missing' RTR O gauge wagons that cover a broad range of eras and regions are the 21t coal hopper and BR 21t mineral

Yes I've suggested the 21t mineral on one of the what would you suggest in O threads - especially if they could use the chassis for a 24t plus hoppers, plate, bolster, grampus etc?

 

Not sure if its quite that simple! It does mean duplicating kits but I fear that ship has long since sailed and I doubt we will get any new injection kits now.

Edited June 12 by Hal Nail

[Mol_PMB]

3 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

Yes I've suggested the 21t mineral on one of thebwha wpuld youmliek on O threads - especially if they could use the chassis for a 24t plus hoppers, plate, bolster, grampus etc?

 

Not sure if its quite that simple! It does mean duplicating kits but I fear that ship has long since sailed and I doubt we will get any new injection kits now.

Indeed. Even the Peco/Parkside 13t hopper wagon kit which was apparently well advanced has taken an age to appear in OO and seems to have dropped off the radar completely in O.

Accurascale have of course done the 24.5t coal hopper RTR and many variants of that have sold out on their website so they must have been popular enough for their business model despite being a less common prototype.

 

I bought a set of Ellis Clark Presflos and they are superb, but I couldn't justify the ballast wagons.

 

 

[37114]

Shame, I was interested in a shark but c'est la vie. I guess the Presflos were good for them as you could sell multiple units to a customer (I have 8) but a shark will only be 1 maybe the odd 2 per customer 

[hmrspaul]

3 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

Yes I've suggested the 21t mineral on one of the what would you suggest in O threads - especially if they could use the chassis for a 24t plus hoppers, plate, bolster, grampus etc?

 

Not sure if its quite that simple! It does mean duplicating kits but I fear that ship has long since sailed and I doubt we will get any new injection kits now.

Plates and bolsters were on the longer 15ft wheel base frame.

 

A problem for 0 gauge is that Parkside - now Peco and Slaters have a considerable range of useful common wagons on 9ft, 10ft, 12ft and 15ft wheelbases . The mention of the LNER/BR steel open merchandise being a suitable example- already some are done, and not an easy prototype as there are at least  four five distinctive body styles - wood or steel door, dimples or not, extra frame to door and lower body side, Soda Ash ....

 

What we still don't have is the steel bodied 13ton mineral wagon. 

 

Paul