Look, this is all well and good, but I can't help but think that the track and wheel relationship is all being made to sound much more difficult and complicated than it really is.
Fair enough, Simon. I've learned what I wanted to know. Wrap up time.
We've seen in this thread that the Relationship is challenging for John's 'Social Inclusivity', where many people with many trains actively want to share many tracks. I think we've done that to death now, and can leave it to G1MRA's Hearties.
We've also seen that it's tricky for a manufacturer wanting to assess a new market. If Richard settles on following established makes, that means his Light Pacifics won't run on your railway - and vice versa.
But on the other hand, you've hit the nail on the head with:
Dick Moger's swing nose point . . . really misses the point at so many levels. Why? Because we are interested in making as far as we can, a believable model of the whole railway and whilst there will always be compromises, this HAS to include the track.
This is the nub of it - if you build your own stock for your own line, wheels and rails aren't complicated: just pick any
coherent standard (as opposed to G1MRA's incoherent one) and stick to it. Sorted.
. . . Lovely photo, which makes your case crystal clear.
However, in addition to running your railway and producing excellent videos, you are also making frequent and public remarks (like 'pigging awful' ) that imply you'd like G1MRA to, um, up its game, and preferably before they turn your hair grey. I also see that, while G1MRA expands its pigging empire, 1/32 Finescale seems to be struggling to the point of invisibility - no new tracks, few takers for super-detailed engines, new manufacturers forced to make hard decisions, and nowhere to chat but here, in a corner of someone else's forum.
All that prompts obnoxiously motherly souls like myself to imagine that there's a Problem to be Solved, or at the very least a Bridge to be Built. To fantasise that, one day, ScaleOne32 might become the Main Line, with today's dominant 'Pig Standard" consigned to the Nostalgia corner, along with Tinplate.
At the moment, it looks as though Gauge One (like most scales at one time or another) is a right old a mess, and the talented people who know how to put it right are either too bruised or too inward looking to bother. If that's the fact of the matter, I can understand. But I don't think it has to be like that for ever.
So
if y'all would like bridges building, I'm happy to help.
While there's no clear solution to the Standards conundrum, opportunities include (amongst other things) bringing stunning 1/32
vehicle models to any public event where Gauge One has a toe-hold. Regardless of which Standard has centre stage, Dick's turnout (admittedly too hideous for a true 'model of a whole railway') would enable
other people to see how your models look and perform - with G1MRA, ALSRM, Model Engineering Societies and Host Model Railway Clubs footing the bills, rather than yourselves.
. . . It's a thought, anyway.
I can equally see that my relentless sheep-dogging could be an irritating irrelevance, in which case I'll cheerfully butt out.
But unless
somebody does
something, G1MRA will carry on with Pig Standard, because it knows none else. People like Pete Waterman will carry on defecting to Gauge 0 where Finescale has elbowed itself a place at the table. Expensive 1/32 kits and rtr models will continue to be distorted around pizza-cutter flanges and steamroller treads. (A Light Pacific can stand that kind of treatment, but a little shunting engine can't.)
. . . And if you aren't really all that bothered - it is only a hobby - why the grumbling?
I know many people - particularly you Simon - have tried and tried and tried, and that the Canute analogy is an apt one. But if you'd like to take advantage of the existing infrastructure, healthy bank balance, colour journal, liability insurance, meetings, regional groups and sheer global reach of scruffy old G1MRA to advance your demonstrably superior Case for Scale - with the prospect of making things better for your individual selves - then the offer is there.
. . . Thing is, you can take advantage of all that (for what it's worth), while simply ignoring the Posturing and Politics - after all, thousands of the members do just that.
And, if you'd rather Differentiate your Brand, raise your own subs, organise your own admin, build your own realistic layouts and run your own stands and events, that's fine too - arguably better if you can drum up sufficient resources. I'll stump up a subscription and keep my gob shut
I am getting fed up with endless pontificating from people who appear long on theory and short on experience - show us your trains!
I like that challenge because, if I might put this
ever so gently, that is exactly what I hear from the uninformed proverbial Average Enthusiast about 'Finescale' . . .
So I'll start the ball rolling, Simon!
Here are two contrasting trains of mine, one being neither more nor less than an Evocative Toy - with challenging wheel standards:
while the other (same gauge) is Live Steam, to dead-scale, including a believable model of the whole railway, including its landscape, structures, weather, distinctive scents and and birdsong:
So, Guys, now I've shown you a glimpse of mine - what have y'all got to show me, please?
. . . and may I reproduce photos elsewhere online, attributed and crediting 1/32, ScaleOne32 as you wish?
Thanks in anticipation, David