Is the hobby dead? No there’s plenty of people still modelling. However I do think in the current economic environment we are going to see more companies go to the wall. Who’s at risk? everyone is modelers are a strange bunch me included, we want more detail but want it more robust. We want better quality of running but want it cheaper. We want that class but not in that livery. We want big ticket items, but need them to work on toy curves. We want it now and don’t want to wait because of research tooling etc needs to be carried out. most of the well known one offs, have or are being produced, yes the are still a few but the numbers are getting smaller. there are plenty of work horses left but they don’t carry the wow factor or have such a large demographic appeal. cost is becoming a factor for the modeller is £160- 200+ really worth it for a up to date model especially if you already have one. Case in point the Accurascale 37. Lovely model I have one and have two more on order but at 3 ft on the layout the Bachmann (older tooling) is just has good. so we have producing model railways locomotives Accaurscale, Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan, cavalex, SLW, KRModels, Dapol, rapido and revolution. any of these could go under, SLW dose some beautiful models but how many class 24 & 25 does anyone need? The market for other diesel is pretty sown up. Accurascale do brilliant models, but still a young company and production of large batches works for the customers but if they don’t sell for what ever reason it could send the company to the wall. arguments can be made for any of these companies. Hopefully they will survive but don’t be shocked a few do shut up shop over the next few years. Coming out of an economic downturn can be more dangerous for companies.