Latest tooling?

[centenary]

Is there any way to find out the 'age' of current tooling for various manufacturers models, especially locos?

I dont know about others but, it's generally ok to see what this is for new releases but for other, older models, it's not so easy. Im mean who produces say the latest tooled Class 20 or 45?

[Mike Parkes]

Both the 20 and 45 have been retooled by Bachmann in the last year. Theres also a 45 coming from Heljan. Of course a new tooling does not mean its correct, it notably took Bachmann three attempts to get a 37 sort of right and now that is expected to knocked into the shade by the one Accurscale are going to release.

[Bigmet]

And then there are alterations, not announced. Bachmann's first class 20, the initial version is mechanically superior to the subsequently modified version to allow space for a sound decoder and speaker; so with some models it depends what exactly you might be looking for.

[centenary]

Think the point's being missed.

When you are looking at buying a car, you have an idea how 'old' the model is by the registration. You then can make a decision to purchase based on your requirements and other factors.

There's a plethora of model locos out there, some classes made by more than one manufacturer. Unless you buy the new release with its 'new tooling' description, you dont know, to my knowledge anyway, whether the tooling is 2001, 2010 or 2021.

It would help many casual modellers to make an informed decision which manufacturer's loco to buy if they had an idea of the tooling's age, in my view.

[Bigmet]

Unless someone knows of accurately compiled listings, it's a matter of 'you just have to know'.

There was up to 2012 a listing of Bachmann's OO output by catalogue number, which would to some extent serve your purpose; no idea if that is still available online. Bachmann's cataloguing system made it simple to see the sequence of releases of a given product, as they generally numbered an item sequentially in 'blocks': so a new tooling might begin and continue XY-000, XY-001, XY-002, etc.. (Not necessarily starting from '000' BTW.)

But due to continued use of some older body toolings given new design mechanisms, you might be mlsled. For example Bachmann's A4 on the current mechanism looks like a newer introduction than Hornby's current A4: but the Bachmann is based on 'worked on' Trix body toolings from fifty odd years ago; while Hornby's A4's were tooled up in the early 2000's and are more accurate, and more sophisticated in offering significant variations in the class.

Unless there is a resource 'out there' I am unaware of, no simple answer.

[muggins]

@centenary Is modelraildatabase.com no use to you for year of manufacture? It's what I tend to go by ...

[Bigmet]

... who produces say the latest tooled Class 20 or 45?

Thinking some more about this, is the focus D+E traction? That would be a little more manageable as a DIY project, because there are well under a hundred classes to consider, and the first good RTR OO model was the Bachmann 25 released in 2000.

[dubdee1000]

As muggins says, type a brief description of the loco into google and look for the modelraildatabase result. It tells you the year.

[centenary]

@muggins Thanks for the tip. That's exactly the type of thing I was on about.

@bigmet and others, the 20 and 45 were just examples to use but thanks for the replies.

[Bigmet]

Next question: does it work reliably? Will be increasingly valuable if it does, as there is now likely to be roughly 20 years of duplication of all the most popular traction classes.

[Bigmet]

And Bachmann's listing of past products has reappeared, haven't been for a look through it, but it may prove useful.
https://www.bachmann.co.uk/page/past-products