Hi CJ, Steve and Simon! - many thanks for your replies.
From the position of an outsider observer, there were many points in your original post and subsequent ones, that struck a chord with me - not the least of which was this feeling of conservative elitism that seemed to pervade the world of gauge one. I certainly don't mean that in any critical sense of the folks involved - but I guess it just is a natural consequence of being in a higher socio-economic group neccessary to be able to afford the bigger costs involved.
In recent years I have noticed that the price of entry into gauge one has been falling due to the efforts of the various oriental suppliers like Bowande and home suppliers like the G1MC who have made it possible for people like me to aquire some rolling stock. (I just hope that supplies of those excellent G1MC MkI coaches last until I've saved up enough to buy some
) However, I see that many of the far eastern model train companies are experiencing production difficulties due to the increasing demands of an exploding middle class of skilled workers and I wonder if this will lead back to greater reliance on more expensive home grown products.
I've had recent first hand experience of this with some W and L Pickering coaches that I bought, which - although still an excellent product - arrived with numerous defects which I chose to fix myself rather than risk further problems with the postal system. My understanding is that they were made in a region of China with particularly bad labour problems and the rolling stock production has since been moved to the locomotive factory in a different part of the country and that has consequently delayed those deliveries.
It's interesting that you mention running G1 on G scale track - I'm currently involved in upgrading our club SM45 track to be more G1 friendly - we have 11ft radius curves, but they need smoothing out more than is required for 16mm running and the point turnouts are too tight.