Resting Easier

My perception of T Gauge, as expressed in my previous post, has been based on what I see—or don't see. When I don't see new products emerging, or updates to a neglected, stagnant company website, my imagination tends to make the worst of it. Couple this with uncertain economic times, not to mention a noticeable dip in forum participation, and things may look positively gloomy, to use an oxymoron.

Well, the time for dire speculation is ended, at least for the present. Darren Hodges, proprietor of Hobbies Plus in Stratford, Australia, was kind enough to forward to me a fresh-off-the-wire dealer pricelist, which should not only quell any concerns about the current state of T, but should also bring joy to those who have been patiently awaiting the arrival of new trainsets, track switches, and other long-promised goodies.



So, Doubting Thomases and Chicken Littles can rest easier for the time being, and can return to work on their T scale empires, confident that they should find new T scale toys under the Christmas Tree this year. My apologies for allowing my skepticism to get the better of me, and for the chills that may have been sent down any loyalists' spines by my blog.

Can T Survive?

Back before T Gauge even made it to foreign shores, I cautiously predicted that it might be a fad. Subsequently I was pleasantly surprised to see such a rich product line offered so soon after the initial release, which included many accessories that other scale waited years to see. It seemed Eishindo had devised a workable strategy: initially offer up a "cute toy" in order to finance a fully-realized scale model line.

To be sure, once T hit the streets, new products came fast and furious. Buildings, people, trees, just about everything. Granted, there were a few "holes" that took some time to fill, such as automobiles. (Backstory here: Eishindo refused to sell "generic" vehicles; they wanted to make scale replicas of real cars. But the 1:1 car manufacturers wanted outrageous licensing fees, which placed a significant damper on Eishindo's plans.) Still, it was even more encouraging to see new train sets on the way, even as they were delayed for improvements—itself a promising sign.

But then little things started happening that hinted at a troubled future. The first noticeable sign was a significant drop-off in traffic at Talking T Gauge, to date the only successful discussion board dealing with T. At first I thought this was due to summer slump—a perfectly normal, hobby-wide annual cycle. But the slump never went away; indeed, it seems to be getting progressively worse.

This coincides with an unfortunate drop-off in new product announcements from Eishindo. In this business, no news is bad news. They had a lot of items on their drawing board, and we were seeing encouraging progress reports—even delay announcements were welcome. But now... crickets.

Recently I was exchanging emails with a T Gauge modeler who alerted me to the fact that a major retailer announced that spare parts would no longer be available from Eishindo. It may be nothing, but couple this with a "reorganization" announcement on Eishindo's website, and I can't escape the feeling that this portends potential problems.

So, has T Gauge run its course? Or about to? Is the fad winding down? I confess that I've not been motivated to do much at 1:450 lately. Is the thrill wearing off for others as well? I'd still like to build a substantial layout, but I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself.

There are so many limitations imposed by the scale that our modeling options are few—not to mention the long list of performance issues, some of which will likely never go away simply due to the physics involved. Even if I donned my "extreme scratchbuilder" hat and made everything myself, including mechanisms, there are things I simply couldn't do.

For instance, a freight train is pretty much out of the question; even if I modeled cab-style diesels to accommodate the mechanisms, I'd still have to power many of the freight cars in order to provide enough pulling power to move anything more than about three or four cars. (Bear in mind that the extreme light weight of a T scale locomotive reduces its tractive effort to the point that it can barely move itself, which is why the wheels are magnetic—and magnetic wheels add tremendous drag; this vicious cycle severely limits the number of free-rolling cars that can be pulled.) Based on my experience in the scale so far, a functional freight train would be a virtual impossibility—at least for me, as I lack the skills and equipment to produce an ultra-precise micro-mechanism, much less a dozen of them. There are precious few Arthur Sherwoods in the world!

So as a matter of practicality, our modeling options in T are pretty much limited to passenger trains, in particular urban mass transit—exactly what's available now. There aren't many serious (or even quasi-serious) modelers who would be happy being permanently restricted to these options.



Regardless of the future of T Gauge, Eishindo is to be commended. They made a valiant attempt to introduce a "real" scale, in the sense that their products are well and truly models—as much as they can be given the limitations—as opposed to merely making toys, such as Bandai's ZZ scale. My sincere hope is that T can somehow survive—but, to be perfectly honest, I have doubts.

Limbo

There's no question: my T Scale modeling has approached nil for the last couple of months. I've not lost interest in the scale, by any means; I've simply lost focus. I don't know if I want to continue work on my "starter layout," as it seems to have pretty much served its purpose. At the same time, I haven't a clue what any larger, more permanent work might constitute.

To be sure, I've been waffling about an approach: Prototypical? Semi-proto? Totally freelanced? Then, how big do I go? Although I'm pressed for space, a new layout can grow well beyond the limits of the starter layout. And once I embark on a new layout, do I stick with commercial track? Lay my own? Or mix the two, as I have with my Z scale layout?

Speaking of that Z scale layout, it's been the focus of my work for some time now, mostly because it's well enough along that I don't have any fundamental stumbling blocks, such as a choice of prototype, track plan, layout size, etcetera. This probably won't change for the foreseeable future, either, since I'm really on a Z roll, and like it.

So, at some point I'll come back to T in a big way, don't worry. Meanwhile, I'll continue to "tinker" as I have all along, such as making working crossing flashers and suchlike. These projects will in all likelihood become incorporated into whatever Grand T Scale Opus I may finally begin to compose.