Engineers: Is ERTL out of business? Is something other than the flat, the gon and the box car in the future? Question on their double sheathed box car. Is the roof supposed to be wood with batten strips? Curious…I like their cars a lot. happy jose
They abandoned the model RR business and returned to just diecast cars. Whatever is out there is all that there is.
The roof is sheet metal over a wood subroof, the seams are covered with a batten wrapped in sheet metal.
Dave H.
ERTL is still in bussiness but the don’t make RR models anymore. The are probably best known for die cast farm machinery.
There was a thread some time ago about their excursion into model railroading.
I’m not much into RTR, but those ERTL cars aren’t bad. I bought a few at the Timonium train show a couple years ago for about $3.00 each. The guy had ten or fifteen for sale, but since I never had one before, I was afraid they’d turn out to be crap, so I bouth three to try. I wish I’d bought all he had. I only seen one for sale since (I bought it).
One thing I noticed with my 40’ gondola, is that it sits too high. Plus the couplers aren’t “easy” to replace as there’s no screw to undo. So I have to figure out how to get at least the coupler down (almost an entire coupler head) and get that coupler replaced with a Kadee.
Otherwise, it’s a nice looking model. Rides smoothly.
Kevin
Thank you Engineers…happy jose
Man, those Ertl boxcars were a deal. Nice detail and fine casting and mold work with scale grabs. I bought them at $10.00 RTR and am still kicking myself for not buying more. I did score about 6 of the flats fo $3.00 each on Ebay quite a while ago.
It appears that people have figured it out now because the ones I see on Ebay close for higher prices.
When ERTL first released their HO freight cars they were incredibly over-priced and most likely they didn’t fly off the shelves as they had hoped for. . .ERTL had also been manufacturing and marketing the AMT (mostly 1/25th scale) model car kit line (AMT / ERTL) - and the general attitude of the model car hobby has been one of frustration with the apparent lack of understanding of ERTL’s management with the serious model car hobbiest’s expectations, for most of their products were rehashed releases of ancient kits that may have been acceptable 30 yrs ago, but very ‘long in the tooth’ these days.
It’s a shame that their HO freight cars were withdrawn from the market, for they are quite well done, but just too pricey. They also need to have some weight added to bring them up to NMRA weight specs. . .That they were already weathered may have detered some modelers from purchasing them also. ERTL also offered some freight car loads, plus remarketed some decent injection molded structure kits manufactured by Railway Design Associates. Detail is a bit soft but easily dealt with. . .
I remember seeing them when they first came out , I even won a boxcar in a model contest. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the dealer sticker on the box - $30 or so here in Canada. Everything is more expensive here, but this was before the current crop of RTR models that are around the same price, but are much better models. The car was supposed to be pre-weathered - there was just a spray of light brown paint evenly along the bottom of the car.
Do you recall that Ertl also brought out a line of pre-weathered RTR buildings too? Same overpricing there too.
The only thing nice about their line of freight cars was the loads on the flat cars - small diesels, a stream donkey engine, some cable reels, and a few others that didn’t interest me. I recall a small ad in MR some time after Ertl got out of the train business, from a person who appeared to have bought up their remaining stock of flat car loads. I intended to order some, but never did get around to it. In the past while Life-Like brought the same loads out , so I assume they are the former Ertl models.
Bob Boudreau
Engineers; Some time ago I bought ten assorted cars for $6.00 each. The shop dealt mainly in car models powered racers and some copters. I removed some of the more elaborate decals or the western roads I donot need. I used Testors thinner without harming the car sides at all. Great!!! Istopped the car wobble by sanding the tube that takes the truck screw. Now the screw tightens down against the truck itself. A little CA down in the screw hole prevents the screw from backing out . Works fine. I prefer the eastern roads…NYC,D&H,Rutland andB&M. A little weathering and they look fine. Have a good one. happy jose.
As others have noted, their HO stuff was reasonably good - some of the painted / weatehred buildings were particularly nice, I personally think the freight cars were just “OK” in today’s environment - but how could anybody at ERTL have ever thought that their pricing was competitive???