OK, so in the latest issue of MR there is another two page spread from these people Hattons. Their ad contains this statement:
“We frequently stock a wide selection of pre-owned USA and Canadian outline models.”
Honestly, I was unimpressed with the way they “introduced” themselves to the North American market by asking to buy “collections” and telling us we need an “era” system.
Maybe they need an American to write their ad copy here so that us dumb hillbillies will understand what they are talking about? No definition of “outline” in my Websters seems to fit the sentence?
Disclaimer - I confess, I don’t know much of anything about trains in the UK or Europe - prototype or model. I’m still busy learning about the ones here I actually want to model.
But then again, I’m not their target audience, I plan to die owning all these trains, and buying trains that others have played with represents a very small percentage of my lifetime purchases.
Happy with my little trains with no brains and my 12 mpg pickup truck…
Please, feel free to share, inquiring minds want to know.
Understand, I have nothing against any of our friends in the UK or elsewhere, and I realize some of you will think my education may be lacking, and in some ways you may be correct.
It has been said that the UK and the USA are two countries seperated by a common language…
This not so world traveling colonist would just like to know?
Sheldon
PS - feel free to private meassage me Henry, good, bad or otherwise.
Sheldon, there’s an older thread HERE on European model railroading vs US model railroading, and if you scroll down far enough, there’s a post with photos of three very nicely-done European locomotives, and a reference in the accompanying text which suggests to me, at least, that an “outline model” is one that’s well-done and very prototypical-looking.
You had several posts in that thread, but I saw no other explanations from anyone else, of what constituted an “outline model”, nor could I find reference to that term in several other on-line searches.
I have a professional background in Canuckian English, so that may disqualify me, or at least limit, me for the purposes of shedding light on this term. However, like you, Sheldon, I have never seen it used the way it appears, so it must be a colloguial or cultural reference to something. I’d almost believe it’s a typo and they meant ‘outlier’, as in so extreme, deep into the tails of a standard normal distribution, that it’s ‘off the charts’.
To me, an outline is a caricature or a perimetric representation of the silhouette of an item, or it’s the basic framework for a more comprehensive effort still to come, such as the outline one offers his Grade 5 teacher before she gives one permission to proceed with an essay.
As used in Hatton’s ad and in the British magazines, “outline” means the physical characteristics of an item, what it looks like. “EMD F unit outline”, “Pennsyvania Railroad, Pacific steam locomotive outline” etc, etc,. When our British cousins use the term “outline”, think “what it looks like”.
Lived there in the beautiful and historic part of East Anglia known as Suffolk for three years. Made friends with some railway fans and would love to have a Rapido-quality Class 37 someday.
Gidday Sheldon, in the Bears Big Dickshoneary of Kiwi English, the meaning of “Outline” as used by Hattons, would be “prototype”, so they are offering 2nd hand US and Canadian prototype models, though to be fair, there could be, as in any LHS, a proportion of “foobies”.
[:-^]The trouble is you’re using a useless dictionary, the spelling is all wrong for a kick off; color, colour; program, programme, just as two examples; it puts you crook right from the word go!! [:-^]
The Concise Oxford Dictionary is the only way to go!![tup][tup]
Before the pandemic I made regular visits to the USA to research and photograph trains and locations. Have to do research now through internet photoraphs and Youtube.
Google searches will often bring up images of trains from across the world.
I can usually tell which country the train is from with visual clues and characteristics; red wheels on German steam locomotive and streamlining on Japanese high speed trains being two obvious examples.
Hattons have a staff of about 70 in their mail order department sell a wide range of models representing trains on different continents to a world wide customer base.
When they use the phrase “British Outline” they are referring to models of prototypes that would have operated or are still operating in the British Isles.
when they use the phrase “North American Outline” they are referring to models of prototypes from any era that operated or are still operating in the USA, Canada or the Central American counties.
In mainland Europe, manufacturers sell their models with descriptions that include an era, a time period description so that modellers can pair a loco with carriages from the same time period. Think of providing an inexperienced modeller in the USA with a description on the box so that a cab forward steam loco is not purchased to haul the new Brightline coaches in Southern Florida.
Thank you, the nice people at Hattons have confirmed this AM your information.
And they asked me what term is commonly used here. So I advised them that the word “prototype” is the common descriptor over here.
Trevor - As a side note, I get the desire for the era thing, but North American railroads seem to have a much more diverse history making the broad categories Hattons has proposed still full of possible bad matchups like you describe. If manufactures are going to any trouble at on this topic, why can’t they just identify the range of years for that specific item? Why do we need a “system”?
I have four locomotives that a mix of ‘whatever’, sold for the U.K. market, but never seen in real life. They do not have a British outline nor British prototype. Good fun though. [:)]
But the divisions proposed by Hattons for North America are too broad, maybe because of the private industry nature of North American railroading and the diverse geographic differences of various regions.
The beginning of some of their “eras” bear no resemblance to the ends of those eras.
Again, if you can do the research to put a piece of equipment in a “cubby” for an era, than you can just put the correct range of years on the item.
Or is that too much reading and thinking for some people?
I model 1954, I don’t want stuff from 1958 because someone decided it was the same “era”.