New range of simple to assemble 00/EM gauge pointwork kits

[Michael BoltonParticipant]

I wonder if anyone else has seen the new track building system for OO and EM being introduced by Wayne Kinney whose British Finescale brand which has an extensive range fortune scale n gauge?

It seems like a positive step and the product looks good, and even easier to construct as is the n gauge version.

[John CutlerParticipant]

Details would be useful.
There is nothing about this on the website:
https://www.britishfinescale.com/

Thanks

[Michael BoltonParticipant]

There

@John Cutler said:
Details would be useful.
There is nothing about this on the website:
https://www.britishfinescale.com/

Thanks  

There is a discussion on RMweb

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/160234-new-range-of-simple-to-assemble-00em-gauge-pointwork-kits/

Michael

[John CutlerParticipant]

Thanks Michael

See:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/160234-new-range-of-simple-to-assemble-00em-gauge-pointwork-kits/page/5/

This seems to be a serious venture by an existing 2mm scale track producer. Of interest is that Martin Wynne approves of what he has seen so far (of course he has not gone so far as to endorse the product). The turnouts will be in kit form comprising nickel silver bullhead rail, requiring no soldering and with a choice of thick or thin plastic sleepering. It is suggested that the rails may be slightly longer than required to allow some flexing (curving) of the turnouts. The common crossing will be cast. The initial offering will be of a B7 priced at £22.99.

The only criticisms I can make are that:
1. the rail will be from SMP, which is slightly narrow compared to the prototype; will it be noticeable?
2. yet again the sleepers are coloured very dark making painting difficult and a requirement for most; why not a light grey? It is much easier to successfully overpaint a light colour and I suggest a light grey can easily just be weathered not completely overpainted.

Design seems to be at the prototype sample stage.

I hope the EMGS has recovered most of its tooling costs on the ready-to-lay B6s. Maybe it will not be worthwhile expanding on its own range with the advent of this competitor. Maybe our leaders should comment?

I hope this helps readers.

[John CutlerParticipant]

I have just realised that this new product range will drastically reduce the cost of hand building any EM turnouts, including curved, Y and asymmetrical formations. A pair of switch blades from C&L costs £14.21 and a crossing vee £14.40. So a complete kit of parts from Finetrax at £22.99 will save £5.62+.
(It will actually save me £12.72+ per turnout as I have a 50% failure rate assembling crossings from Vs so I currently buy complete common crossings from C&L).
A possible complication is that the SMP rail Finetrax uses is 0.1 mm narrower than C&L but I suspect that 90% of my requirements would use the kit bases which will apparently flex ( not sure how much!) or can be cut to suit. If you use Finetrax rail in C&L chairs they will rattle around; if you use C&L rail in Finetrax bases it will be narrow to gauge -a disaster for turnouts (how do I know?!).

I am still a bit worried about the viability of the new EMGS ready-to-lay turnouts . But I now think the bigger impact will be on C&L’s sales. For ordinary EM gaugers this new competition is probably good news on balance.

[Trade OfficerKeymaster]

I have been in contact with British Fine Scale over the last few weeks and I know one of our members is building an EM prototype version

One of the topics I have discussed is the difference between SMP rail and our own rail.
I am also talking to them about stocking these kits for sale to members.
My own view is that it is a welcome addition to the EM scale and will hopefully encourage other modellers to move to
EM with a potential number of them joining the society. How it will impact sale of our RTR offerings is open to question but rather than ignore this we should embrace it. I believe there will still be a market for RTR points it just a matter how big. Only time will tell.

3D printing is already changing some aspects of our hobby and I guess this is the next step.

John

[John CutlerParticipant]

Interesting that Finetrax now say they will be using EMGS code 75 rail in their turnout kits and not SMP!
That saves possible complications with rail widths and chairs for most of us.

Hopefully EMGs make a profit on this?

[Paul WillisParticipant]

@John Cutler said:
Interesting that Finetrax now say they will be using EMGS code 75 rail in their turnout kits and not SMP!
That saves possible complications with rail widths and chairs for most of us.

Hopefully EMGs make a profit on this?  

Is it necessary for the EMGS to make a profit on the rail that it supplies?

An alternative way of looking at this interesting development is that it is good marketing for EM gauge as a concept. As such, making a few pennies on a metre length of rail would look like being a false economy.

Cheers
Paul

[Michael BoltonParticipant]

@Stores Manager said:
I have been in contact with British Fine Scale over the last few weeks and I know one of our members is building an EM prototype version

One of the topics I have discussed is the difference between SMP rail and our own rail.
I am also talking to them about stocking these kits for sale to members.
My own view is that it is a welcome addition to the EM scale and will hopefully encourage other modellers to move to
EM with a potential number of them joining the society. How it will impact sale of our RTR offerings is open to question but rather than ignore this we should embrace it. I believe there will still be a market for RTR points it just a matter how big. Only time will tell.

3D printing is already changing some aspects of our hobby and I guess this is the next step.

John  

This is good news that the society may be stocking the new kits and especially if they will be using EMGS rail, it does look like an exciting development all round.

[David NegusParticipant]

Well count me in with the members keen on seeing this come to fruition. I am about to have to embark on the construction of a crossover on a curved double track mainline so anything that improves my chances of getting it to work is welcome news!

[Michael BoltonParticipant]

Just seen a comment from Wayne Kinney that he is making up a delivery of kits for the EMGS which will be sold to members at a discount, so expect more mews imminently at least before the end of the month.

[Michael BoltonParticipant]

Just seen a comment from Wayne Kinney that he is building an order of his B7 point kits for the EMGS store to stock to be sold to members at a discount, by the end of the month?

[Trade OfficerKeymaster]

That’s right. Hopefully by the end of the month I will have the first batch. It won’t be a large number as Wayne Kinney is still working through production and packaging to get a stock of them for faster turnaround. But hopefully going forward I will be able to maintain stocks

John

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