How are you getting on with...?

Despite a catalog which is probably the fastest growing of any in the model railway world, there are an unprecedented number of requests to produce custom work for topics which aren't yet covered. And this is great. It does however come at a cost, and the aim of this page is to help modellers understand why there can be delays (lengthy in some cases) in producing something which may - to some - seem quite simple. But, there are many reasons why people are happy to wait, listed here.

Custom items already on the web site
Perhaps obvious, but these are exempt. The "loco number(s) of your choice" and other similar offerings on the web site normally get dispatched within a day or two. That's because templates for these items already exist and most of the research and design has already been done - the only thing needed is to research photos of the actual loco (to get the number spacing correct), drop those into the template and then schedule for print.

So why do some things take so long?
In most cases, 95% of the work is the research and design of the artwork itself. Printing is often the easy part. People are more than welcome to provide vector artwork that is ready to print - even though certain tweaks may still need to be made, though the cost of approaching a good graphic design artist who happens to have an intimate knowledge of railway insignia could be expensive. (At Railtec you get both of these specialities combined with the additional 3rd specialist skill of how to manipulate commercial printers in a way to produce quality transfers).

Unless someone has very specific requirements, e.g. specific loco numbers or "8 x My Station Name in Arial typeface, black, max 20mm long", then chances are a request probably isn't straightforward and will need a lot of R&D before it gets anywhere near the printers. Also, some requests logically get grouped together so a chronological approach doesn't always follow. That's why no money or deposit is taken up-front for anything which isn't ready to ship within a few days.

Can you possibly make transfers for...?
Would love to, but...

• How many different markings are on the vehicle(s) and what - very specifically - are they?
• What are all their dimensions?
• What colours are they?
• What images are available, as in, detailed images which show specific markings? (Links to a Google Images page generally don't hit the mark).
• Did all vehicles of this type look the same?
• What different liveries and other variations were carried over the years?

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Once the above research has been done - which itself can take many hours (days in some cases) scouring the web and books - the next challenges are:

• Making the vector design of all the markings at the required size and colour.
  This is tremendously time consuming. Railtec packs (where applicable) don't make every vehicle look the same. Pain-staking attention is given to subtle variations in data panels and other markings to make your stock look realistic.
• Testing each element.
  This may be small scale model railways but this requires the same amount of work regardless of whether the items are being manufactured at 2mm or 1:1 scale. In fact the smaller the scale the more challenging and time consuming the task, as the artwork often has to be reverse engineered to get the elements looking right to the naked eye.
• Figuring out what a suitable pack would look like (one that pleases everybody all the time).

The above is just for one small sub-topic. Multiply that by a continued deluge of requests for new work literally 24/7/365, and you hopefully begin to get the picture. Somewhere amongst this constant slog to research and develop new product, resource also has to be dedicated to:

• Preparing and dispatching the increasing number of web orders for stock items.
• Keeping up with new liveries. These tend to be popular but only for a limited short time.
• Largely dropping most things when TOCs/FOCs/govt organisations (who are kind enough to grant licences to reproduce their trademarks) get in touch to ask for bespoke product within a relatively short time frame.
• Researching and developing new techniques, c.f. 3d waterslide and tampo printing unique numbers.
• Responding to large bulk orders from well known names in the industry.
• Preparing for and attending shows.
• Keeping the web site and other processes compliant with law, new software, etc.
• Trying to have a life!

I understand, but still, just wondered how you're getting on with...?
Please understand it's not always possible to respond to these types of requests, else the simple risk is that much of the resource is spent in doing so instead of cracking on with the actual work.