Tower 55, etc.!

[BigBuff]

If you're keeping your eyes open and read Model Railroader or Railroad Model Craftsman regularly, you'll see loads of new locos coming into the market. Something that really caught my eye recently is that Overland models (who import and sell a huge inventory of brass models based on US prototype trains) have launched a plastic model division called Tower 55!

They appear to be catching onto what's being done by other manufacturers and trying to drive the quality and features of plastic locomotive (and to a degree freight and passenger rollingstock) right up to match as close as possible that of brass models.

It started with Broadway Limited's steam loco models and now we have many manufacturers (including Eureka Models here in Australia!) riding the 'like-brass' wave! It's got to be a good thing since it's driving DCC more into the mainstream and generating more interest in things like integrated sound decoders, etc.

[Mark_NyB]

I think the tower 55 stuff is very good, but don't think that every American is proud to see Overland producing a model of a locomotive which promotes George Bush - he makes me want to puke with his pig-headed 'we will save the world from terrorism' crap approach. But that's a completely different issue (maybe for the 'anything goes' forum that I saw in the general section)...

I'm glad overland have branched into plastic models because with all the other manufacturers pushing the envelope with plastic locos it was kind of inevitable that Overland would jump on that bandwagon and capitalise on their already established market base for brass models. I think too that this might have something to do with brass models starting to become too expensive for the average joe.

I think brass is great but overland's operated on the philosophy that they can saturate the US model railroad market with brass to keep the end-user costs down. However with Asian economies growing the cost of slave labour in those countries really has an effect on the overall costs of brass models so I think that especially with China really honking along (which I'm so glad to see!), in 10 years brass models will be completely out of reach for average modellers and they'll just be for the rich and famous, and end up in 'estate collections' instead of being the average modeller's pride and joy.

Bye,

Mark.

[craigd]

I think the tower 55 stuff is very good, but don't think that every American is proud to see Overland producing a model of a locomotive which promotes George Bush - he makes me want to puke with his pig-headed 'we will save the world from terrorism' crap approach. But that's a completely different issue (maybe for the 'anything goes' forum that I saw in the general section)...

Lol well I know that like here in Australia, a large part of the general US population has been totally opposed to the illegal invasion of Iraq, etc. since the incursion started in 2003.

I'm glad overland have branched into plastic models because with all the other manufacturers pushing the envelope with plastic locos it was kind of inevitable that Overland would jump on that bandwagon and capitalise on their already established market base for brass models. I think too that this might have something to do with brass models starting to become too expensive for the average joe.

That's already the case with plastic models - the Broadway Ltd models are expensive and we have already one example of that here in Australia with Eureka's (AD)60 model. Not that I am knocking the models in any way. They're superb products and the investment put into producing them is massive so the producers certainly deserve a good return.

I think brass is great but overland's operated on the philosophy that they can saturate the US model railroad market with brass to keep the end-user costs down. However with Asian economies growing the cost of slave labour in those countries really has an effect on the overall costs of brass models so I think that especially with China really honking along (which I'm so glad to see!), in 10 years brass models will be completely out of reach for average modellers and they'll just be for the rich and famous, and end up in 'estate collections' instead of being the average modeller's pride and joy.

I am personally a bit annoyed at how much brass Overland is coming out with - surely they must realise that the side-effect is that production costs will rise since the Asian businesses which produce the models would certainly understand the way supply and demand works. If demand goes up, you can increase your costs because supply of brass models is always limited (even with the constant stream of new releases from Overland and maybe one or two other outlets out of many brass model producers).

The increasing labour costs will have a significant effect as you've already indicated. We might be insulated a bit here in Australia as our close proximity to Asia keeps freight costs lower, but for the USA it could be very bad news.

Good to see someone is happy to talk about the philosophy of high-end modelling as it's just as important as other aspects of the hobby.

Craig.