Yesterday's P.S.

What's it Worth : What's It Cost?

This is the second half of yesterday's blog; slightly amended from the incomplete original.

Our lives seem to be ruled by money, value and shortage of cash. TV is full of antiques programmes ...

... where people try to make huge profits (and usually don't); but, occasionally, we can be astounded ...

... when a cheaply bought item makes a huge profit much to everybody's jaw dropping amazement.

On the other hand, governments wail about "value for money" and rush around cancelling projects or "pausing" projects until the nation's finances are stable. 

They never are.   

Short term decisions are very rarely the best decisions because, sooner or later, circumstances will oblige the politicians to reinvent the project by which time it will be even more expensive. 

Just see High Speed 2 and Crossrail 2 for examples. They are needed and they will be needed more and more.

See electrification north from Market Harborough to Sheffield on the Midland Main Line. This has been cancelled, reinstated, paused, reinstated, paused and possibly cancelled!

Basic economics says this:-

If you want something you will have to pay for it.

You can borrow money but you will still have to pay

You can have government funding but you still have to pay

OR you can print more and more money ... but ...

... you will have to pay in the end!

Hyper inflation struck Germany between 1921 and 1923 by which date one american dollar could be exchanged for over 4 million German Marks.

The 5 million Mark coin was probably worth about ten shillings (50p).

Again, the answer is very clear. If we want a better NHS, better social services and even better public transport, we, the people, have to pay - one way or another.

Who would be Chancellor or the Exchequer, Eh?

End of Economics lesson!

What's it Worth : What's It Cost?

Above is fbb's latest acquisition for his OO gauge tank wagon collection. The demounable tank (right) runs on OO gauge track and is to a scale of 4mm to the foot, just like its far bigger grey pal. Both real wagons were designed to run on Britain's rail network, one in the late 1940s and one in the late 1970s.

Both are beautiful models full of meticulous detail, from a simple pipe and filler cap ...

... to a highly detailed wheelbase.

Look at the minuscule printing on the solebar, and the fully modelled brake gear ...

... which you will never see when the wagon is on the track! And what about those exquisite chains which prevent the tank from demounting itself!

Even the turnbuckle is accurately modelled.

[It's use for tightening the chains] 

But, you would have to admit, it is a very specialist model, 

How small is it in comparison with it's bigger neighbour?

The way to check would be to immerse each one in turn in a measuring jug containing a fixed volume of water and see how much was displaced. fbb is not brave enough to do that with either or his precious purchases (although it would probably not cause any lomg-term harm!).

fbb guesses that the total volume of small red tank tank plus chassis is about one fifth of the large grey tanker.

So it ought to be one fifth of the price, eh?

The two models cost about the same, give or take a quid or two, with the demountable being slightly more expensive.

So poor value then?

It would be very poor value if you were conveying oil from a real refinery to a distribution depot, which is why modern tank wagons are massively huger than the grey one!

And, yes, el chubbo does have a model of the above in his collection.

But the same harsh economic truth applies to model railways as with the NHS, Social Services and the railways.

If you want something you will have to pay for it.

You can borrow money but you will still have to pay

A chum suggested that fbb's collection would be worth a lot of money in the future.

You can buy a second-hand 1950s OO tank wagon for £10, so age has nothing to do with it.

And just in case you were anxious about fbb's sanity - have no fear. He is as potty as he has always been, but enjoys all forms of Public Transport, so a collection of tank wagons, daft though it may seem to many, presents a microcosmic history of the full size railways and thus a very absorbing record of that lengthy heritage.

Here, again, is the very first OO tank wagon (branded Esso) sold by Trix in 1938.

Back then, it cost about five shillings which would be about £8 in today's inflated world. [Actually it was nominally a German Railways tank to HO scale, in a livery appropriate for Britain's network].

Try getting any new model tank wagon for £8 today.

If you want something you will have to pay for it

You can borrow money but you will still have to pay

That's economics!

 Next rail electrification blog : Weds 10 Sept