N West Country

[Paul-H]

I see in the Dapol shop that stocks of steam models are now down to only 3 types, by the time the BOB classes get he it might be the only N-Gauge steam model they do, would it not be a better use of funds to produce models that have already been paid for, as far as development costs are concerned, we need more Britannias, A3's, A4's, 9F's etc. letting the range dwindle to zero stock of anything else will not do the Dapol brand any good as far as new customers are concerned, who keep being told by dealers, sorry we cant get that one nor that one or anything in that section of the catalogue.

I know the new model is going to be nice and if done right the new mechanism will be miles better than the old one but not producing anything for some time does not look good.

[Joel Dapol]

Thanks for the comments Paul-H. We are working on some N Gauge steam releases from the old ranges, Terriers, Schools, A3, A4, Panniers as well as the updated M7 some of which should be with us soon. We will also re-look at the 9F and Britannia's again, the last time we did, the currency exchange was at around £1 to US$1.23 and we felt at the prices we would have to charge to make the run viable, models would be prohibitively expensive. Now the £1: dollar rate is above £1.30 this may give us an opportunity.

[Paul-H]

I am sure you will not regret it if you did do a re release, N-gauge is far more popular now than it used to be because of the small houses that are built nowadays so demand should be higher than it used to be and as long as you can keep your prices competitive with the other makers you would be onto a winner.

9F's are selling on eBay for nearly £200 now, so there is a market for them

Remember new modelers don't want a particular model, they just want to be able to buy something to get them started and empty N-gauge shelves in the dealers is of no use to anyone.

[southernrails]

As someone who models Southern, I have to say that although I am looking forward to seeing the new Bullied spam cans and their rebuilt versions. I have to make a plea for something different in Southern Locomotive stock. In a recent article in N Gauge Now, two Southern Locomotives were mentioned the "Lord Nelson" Class 4-6-0s and the USA 0-6-0 tank locomotive. Whilst either of these would be nice to have models my personal preference would be for the Maunsell/Urie 4-6-0s. There is quite a variety of these the H15 26 engines built; N15 20 built by Urie and 54 by Maunsell; S15 essentially a freight version of the N15 having smaller driving wheels 20 built by Urie and a further 25 by Maunsell. Most of these types are now available in OO gauge so it would I think be nice to see them in N scale not having been produced before whereas the Bullied has been produced all be it by another manufacturer.

[newportnobby]

No one knows what's happening with the Bulleid pacifics and, as far as I'm aware, no mention has been made of rebuilt versions anyway. I see from Dapol's website only the DCC sound versions are shown under 'Pre Order' but, at this rate, I'll be dust on the breeze before I see the DC 'Spitfire' I still have on pre order with Rails