First let me apologize for my tardiness on getting these results to you. Second there was literally hundreds of requests given so for practical reasons I will try to hit the hightlights.
My first requirement was that there had to be at least 3 requests for a specific engine or I could not add it into the results. Remember the goal hear is to best represent the wants of the majority rather than the few.
Also Road specific requests ( ie Pennsy K1 or K4, Hudson J class) are lumped into wheel configurations rather than specific engines.
Steam and Diesel are in there own catigories.
Without a dout, the single most requested engines you asked for steam or diesel aside where as follows.
2-8-2,s. In essence the steam work horses of the every day railroad.
Not only was it the most requested, but many of you went so far as to say you were tired of seeing so much of the big steam being offered by the manufacture. The reasons are few railroads ran this equipment, but mostly you just can’t run it on your railroads at home, for ovious reasons.
Two popular requests were Harriman steam, and my personal favorite Camelbacks.
Finally a few of you are still looking to see better offerings of both Shay’s & Climax’s.
Now for you diesel fans. It was more road specific with you guys than with the steam guys. So working with that and assuming that most diesels come with a undecorated version, i’ll ju
I certainly agree with the “painted but unlettered” statement. I am to new at this to think about trying to remove lettering from a new loco I’ve just spent several hundred dollars on. I am sure this fear will dissipate as I get more comfortable in that area. I would have three or four steam loco’s on the layout right now if I could have gotten a painted but unlettered one. They seem to be the ones that always sellout first.
I guess I would consider 4-6-4 & 2-8-4 engines as late ‘Big’ steam. At in HO, we have some pretty nice 4-4-0/4-6-0/2-8-0 models from Spectrum. USRA 2-8-2 have been produced by BLI(in both light & heavy versions). Painted/unlettered steam would be nice, but with the RTR crowd, who is going to decal the engines?
Diesels - The SD40-2 has been produced by at least 3 manufactuers in plastic. Athearn has been producing road specific variations of the SD40-2 over the past two years. The Alco Centuries like the C430 & C636(both very small production totals) would be nice(a cheap Tyco C430 was produced years ago). GP7/GP9’s have been produced by P2K & Atlas in many paint schemes.
The truth is that we have more wonderful great models that ever.
I for one would LOVE to decal steamies (I’ve got my Microscale NH decal sheets just waiting) or passenger cars that come in painted, undecorated configuration.
I know my limits, and getting a decent looking paint job on a loco or passenger car would take more time than I’m willing to invest… but decals I can slap on with the best of them!
As a former manufacturer employee, I will tell you unlettered stuff you are requesting just does not sell. We even had dealers send them back as defectives. Some buyers asked why the decals were not in the box. Some buyers reported they were unbable to do a decent decal job and wanted to know if they could trade them in so we could reletter them.
I went back and read your original posting from 17 March instant; there was nothing in that posting to indicate that you were taking any kind of a poll nor that you were intending on doing tabulations from the tendered responses. To do a proper polling you are suppose to offer some sort of a viable selection process such as “large steam”, “small steam”, “articulateds”, “six-axle diesels”, etc. etc .
You were perhaps not around a year or year and a half ago when we had a “poll” on what Pacific we would like one of the manufacturers to produce. This particular forum member was a Southern Railway fan and, as one would expect, he was PS4a oriented. He gave four choices, three of which were for relatively obscure models. After about five votes were in he enthusiastically announced that the PS4a had kicked everyone elses butt with twice the votes to all the others, he was closing the poll, and was going to send a message to Bachmann announcing that the PS4a had achieved a two to one majority in the voting and Bachmann ought to get off their penguin butt and produce this thing because it was sure to be a good seller. Someone subsequently introduced “None of the above” to the poll and it ran away with the voting hands down.
You categorize 2-6-0s as “mid size steam”; certainly Espee’s M-21 which rivaled Pacifics in size could be so categorized but I would question whether an M-4 could be. Although there were some healthy 2-8-0s, 4-6-0s, and 4-4-0s most I would categorized as “small size steam.” The very early Pacifics–those from the late 1890s and early 1900s–tended to be somewhat smaller than those made in the WWI era and into the 1920s; categorize, if you will, a turn of the 20th Century Pacific.
And so those that CAN letter/decal their own get to buy one already decalled/lettered–undo all that and THEN do their own?
Great choice there for those guys----YAY[sigh]
Let’s see. The mfg process would take unlettered lokies out of the line BEFORE the lettering process—hmmm–could probs cost a little less as that is not involved. Another thing. They do not sell? There seems to be a demand but then again. No one wants to put them out—best excuse for not putting them out? they don’t sell.
HUH??? You mean there are people out there so ignorant that they don’t realize that painted and unlettered means just that and you don’t get decals? I mean why put in decals when it’s easier just to letter the thing at the factory? On a unit cost basis, it’s also probably cheaper than sticking a pack of decals in the box.
As for the people who can’t decal, why do they buy an unlettered locomotive in the first place? It’s like buying a car with a stick shift and then changing your mind because you can’t drive a stick and don’t want to learn. Here’s a clue: stick with the automatic transmission in the car and the fully decorated locos from the hobby shop.
Where do these people come from? And why are they allowed to roam freely without adult supervision?
Beczuse they probably assumed that the cars are like the Walthers set where you add the name to the bottom, where the decals ARE provided. You know, so you don’t end up with three 280s lettered 345 , when you need 345 346 and 347. I’d really like to see Proto do the GPs like that. I need a GP7 in NKP for 426, not made.
And you know what, I’d love tosee some paintd undecs. I’d prbably buy more steamers if that were an option.
I’d like to see the actual polling numbers. As in any vote. Especially the steam. There are plenty of Spectrum 4-4-0’s, 2-8-0’s and 4-6-0’s on the market. But a quality 2-6-0 or 4-4-2 is pretty hard for the average modeler to get his/her hands on. I’d also like to think that a 2-6-0 would get at least twice the votes of another 2-8-0. So please post the numbers that you are basing your conclusions on. Jay