Service Update, Thu 02 Apr 2026
Greetings from Railtec HQ in sunny Derbyshire!
The past several months have seen a continued but disproportionate upturn in volume of orders, which of course is great because it means the hobby is continuing to thrive despite the sensationalising to the contrary by the ever infallable good old British press. What this means is:
1. Fear not - orders for stock items, i.e. those which are showing as in stock and already printed are being dispatched as normal, so usually within 1-2 days.
2. There are a number of offerings on the web site which need to be custom-made, such as complete loco packs which come with your choice of number, or ready-made loco numbers etc. In some instances (not all), these are taking longer than the advertised 14 days. BUT, I am bashing through them and I do have a cunning plan which has already begun. Many of these offerings which require a small custom add-on are now being developed into new off-the-shelf items, meaning that going forward they will already be printed and ready to ship, thereby deflecting what would otherwise have been custom work and therefore freeing up more resource to tackle other projects. For example:
4mm-1833M: Complete loco: BR blue (TOPS) class 33 33201 - 33212
...as opposed to 4mm-C3304: Complete loco: BR blue (TOPS) class 33 w/ your number
4mm-1610D: Complete loco: Transrail class 56 pack D: 56119 - 56133
...as opposed to 4mm-C5615: Complete loco: BR Transrail class 56 w/ your number
4mm-5285: Class 456 EMU: Network SouthEast
...as opposed to 4mm-9091: Custom TOPS EMU and 4mm-9985: Custom destination blinds.
The only short-term downside of the above is that it pushes outstanding custom work further back slightly, but I'm already seeing some gains as people are already buying these new stock items which is beginning to free up resource.
3. Emails. Well, at the best of times trying to keep on top of the constant deluge is the biggest challenge I face. I do what I can but I'm one guy, the volume is chronic, and to respond meaningfully to each one needs more than just an "admin". It needs specialist subject knowledge and a judgement call on how feasible it may be. I hold my hand up in that there are many that I still haven't had the chance to respond to. I take that one on the chin, but it's equally important to understand that if a timely reply isn't forthcoming as we all might hope, it's absolutely not through apathy (although some of my outgoing responses do bounce back due to full inboxes amongst other reasons). I do get to them eventually - some quicker than others. I know in an ideal world there would be banks of highly skilled Amazon-esque support agents, but this is the physical reality of providing such a niche product and service which started on a dining room table many years ago. I wish things were different in this respect but hopefully having something is better than having nothing. THAT SAID, I am trialling voice recognition software (speech to text) to explore if I can respond to emails verbally as I get on with other things, although apparently multi-tasking is dangerous and it also runs the risk of Mrs Railtec offering me a cup of tea part-way through, only to find its way into said email and you left wondering if I've now branched out into the catering business.
So there we have it. I genuinely appreciate the patience, understanding and continued support. Lead times for custom work will begin to minimise once more (even though some of you are still getting next day service for some custom items), and hopefully the above highlights the greater benefits that are to come.
Happy modelling,
Steve
1. Fear not - orders for stock items, i.e. those which are showing as in stock and already printed are being dispatched as normal, so usually within 1-2 days.2. There are a number of offerings on the web site which need to be custom-made, such as complete loco packs which come with your choice of number, or ready-made loco numbers etc. In some instances (not all), these are taking longer than the advertised 14 days. BUT, I am bashing through them and I do have a cunning plan which has already begun. Many of these offerings which require a small custom add-on are now being developed into new off-the-shelf items, meaning that going forward they will already be printed and ready to ship, thereby deflecting what would otherwise have been custom work and therefore freeing up more resource to tackle other projects. For example:
4mm-1833M: Complete loco: BR blue (TOPS) class 33 33201 - 33212
...as opposed to 4mm-C3304: Complete loco: BR blue (TOPS) class 33 w/ your number
4mm-1610D: Complete loco: Transrail class 56 pack D: 56119 - 56133
...as opposed to 4mm-C5615: Complete loco: BR Transrail class 56 w/ your number
4mm-5285: Class 456 EMU: Network SouthEast
...as opposed to 4mm-9091: Custom TOPS EMU and 4mm-9985: Custom destination blinds.
The only short-term downside of the above is that it pushes outstanding custom work further back slightly, but I'm already seeing some gains as people are already buying these new stock items which is beginning to free up resource.
3. Emails. Well, at the best of times trying to keep on top of the constant deluge is the biggest challenge I face. I do what I can but I'm one guy, the volume is chronic, and to respond meaningfully to each one needs more than just an "admin". It needs specialist subject knowledge and a judgement call on how feasible it may be. I hold my hand up in that there are many that I still haven't had the chance to respond to. I take that one on the chin, but it's equally important to understand that if a timely reply isn't forthcoming as we all might hope, it's absolutely not through apathy (although some of my outgoing responses do bounce back due to full inboxes amongst other reasons). I do get to them eventually - some quicker than others. I know in an ideal world there would be banks of highly skilled Amazon-esque support agents, but this is the physical reality of providing such a niche product and service which started on a dining room table many years ago. I wish things were different in this respect but hopefully having something is better than having nothing. THAT SAID, I am trialling voice recognition software (speech to text) to explore if I can respond to emails verbally as I get on with other things, although apparently multi-tasking is dangerous and it also runs the risk of Mrs Railtec offering me a cup of tea part-way through, only to find its way into said email and you left wondering if I've now branched out into the catering business.
So there we have it. I genuinely appreciate the patience, understanding and continued support. Lead times for custom work will begin to minimise once more (even though some of you are still getting next day service for some custom items), and hopefully the above highlights the greater benefits that are to come.
Happy modelling,
Steve