Been in HO modeling the PRR since I was 17. I am now 79 hoping I finish a basement layout before I assume toom temperature. I am mystified how any young person let alone adults can afford the cost of quality engines and cars today. I remember Athearn blue box cars for $3.00 per car. Don’t give me the inflation arguement. I still have blue box engines that were $20.00 that run ok. Want a string of 20 hoppers and a dcc engine and you are looking at close to $1500.00. Ouch. Does anyone really see those scale stirrup steps when moving before they get broken off? Is it all more accurate and run better? no question. But maybe there is a place for a more reasonable line of products higher in fidelity then Tyco but more reasonably priced and less detailed then the top of the line standard that is prevalent today. Just a thought from someone who would not enter the hobby today due to the costs who is very glad to have 98% of what he will require bought and paid for.
There is a huge mark-up of products sold in this hobby. Huge!
Back in 2003 when I started my layout, I did a lot of shopping around and the huge markups were immediately evident. Example: a hobby shop at a large train show was selling an N Scale Bachmann steam locomotive for $49.95. I bought two. The list price was near $200.00. Thereafter, i discovered they were selling at street prices averaging $139.00 to $159.00!
I could go on but you know what I’m talking about. Also, the electronics side of the hobby is troubling based on the prices re: DCC, sound, etc.
Remember when personal computers were selling for $1,800 to $2,000 with chips that were slightly more powerful than a Barbie Doll’s?
Over the years, the cost of computers went down, drastically, and their power and capability soared!
I agree with you. So what should we call ourselves? Last Century: LC Modelers? Before China: BC Modelers? Blue Box: BB Modelers? Any other ideas?
I do most of my rolling stock (boxcars, reefers, tank cars) shopping at train shows and my target price is $5-$8. I look for free wheeling wheeling and KD style couplers. As far as locomotives, I have been in acquisition mode for the last 22 years. Focusing on Union Pacific and 1957 prevents most impulse buying.
Edit to add: What has killed me most over the last couple of years has been putting together two full California Zephyr passenger trains (one D&RG and one Western Pacific). Those BLI CZ passenger cars are like buying gold.
There are semi-reasonably-priced options out there. Don’t want to pay $700 list for a BLI Steamer with DCC and sound? Look at some of the Bachmann alternatives. They’re not so finely detailed, but they have a reasonable selection at a much lower price (some still eye-popping though, like their Consolidation with DCC & sound for $400 list).
There’s more options for lower-priced diesels - Bachmann again, and Walthers Mainline. Probably others as well.
For decently-priced rolling stock, Accurail kits are a few steps above the old Athearn Blue Box in terms of detailing. They cost more than the blue box kits did, but that brings in the inflation discussion the OP doesn’t want to have. In any case the Accurail kits are significantly less than any of the higher-quality RTR cars.
In the 1950’s you could buy a smaller steam loco kit for under $10, and car kits were often under a buck. I suppose people in the 1970’s could have made the same complaint about the hobby cost then as we do now.
Sigh. Another tiresome cost thread.
I noticed on ebay that selling prices now run high on used, i.e. “Like New”, “Pre-owned”, trains and associated products. In some cases, they equal or exceed their old selling prices. Example: An MRC DC control I paid $58.00 20 years ago is now selling on ebay for $98.00 used.
ill be honest i turned my layout into a working candle making facility and i have the candles go to ebay or flea market i dont have any listed at the moment but production has been under way i think this batch is gonna go to flea market but yeah my HO scale is a workhorse train carrying wax chips and bulk peices then wax flakes and aluminum wick holders and completed candles
right now my ho scale can pump out 3 candles per pouring session about 5 candles per train im hoping to get about 5$ a candle at flea market
i also make custom loads for model railroads out of bi products from the candle making i make the steel coils that are banded out of reclaimed metal from tealight candles and then i use the flat round peice to go ahead and make roofing shingles for buildings i make on my set until i have a full metal roof. i dont sell those though because my custom loads use real metal that could get the user cut poked etc and i dont want the headache of dealing with lawers so those loads stay locked in my personal sets. they can sue me after i passed away and someone else gets my collection lol jk
Maybe CAOGs? (cheap ass old guys)
Ran an inflation calculation on a $3.00 car in 1963. Came out at $31 and change in 2025. As was posted earlier, I also built my car fleet from train shows. ended up with about 7-8 bucks for 55 ton hoppers with steel wheels and kaydees. agree DCC locos are through the roof.
As others noted, I swear by purchasing cars from train shows. They are a great place but have to know the market. It’s very easy to fall in the trap of spending 30+/freight car. Speaking of, I just found N&W DCC-ready locos for $210 on the website Tony’s trains. These are brand new and well-below the price the OP mentioned.
I have an N layout, and I just began in the hobby about six years ago.
It seems to me that N locomotives with DCC factory installed have not gone up in price over the past years, and in many cases, the price has come down. I buy Kato locomotives, so I can’t talk about other brands.
As others have noted, todays prices are not out of line when adjusted for inflation, and considering the improvements in detail and running qualities.
I buy $30 freight cars, and I still have all the $3 ones, and $8 ones I bought decades ago.
But this will floor some of you, nearly all my freight cars, get there trucks replaced with Kadee sprung trucks that have been refitted with Intermountain wheelsets. And all rolling stock gets refitted with genuine Kadee couplers.
So yes, even a $2, 40 year old Athearn blue box kit, gets about $16 worth of trucks and couplers.
Why? Because I pull long trains and equalized metal trucks work better, and only Kadee couplers will do.
Now, honestly, I have been doing this for a long time, so $16 is the current price of this upgrade. It was $6-$7 when I first started doing it about 28 years ago.
So if I dollar cost average the whole 1000 car freight car fleet, it is likely less than $20 a car, even with some newer higher end pieces.
And I can be a bargain shopper, and I collect and use stuff like old Athearn and Varney metal cars. With just a little work, the look really good, even if they are not “rivet counter” models.
Yes, newer locos are expensive. But I don’t run DCC or sound, and I have most of what I need/want in the way of locomotives.
Sheldon
I also put Kadee sprung trucks and couplers on all my freight cars. I only change out the wheels on cars where the wheel treads are easily seen (tank cars, for example), when I install Kadee .088 wheels for a closer-to-prototype appearance.
Most of my cars are kits, mostly bought new 20 or so years ago. I’m sure glad I bought them back then - you can’t get most of them anymore (Accurail being the exception), and spending $40+ for a new RTR car isn’t something I generally want to do.
The strategy to saving money is to be great at fixing/upgrading, and to buy everything secondhand. It’s not always the easier route, just cheaper.
I think both things are true- inflation is a thing, and stuff that cost $3 40 years ago wasn’t the same as $3 today, because 40 years ago your $3 was worth more than it is now.
That said, if inflation goes up by x percent, but average living wage only goes up by y percent, and the cost of living increases, by however much, you do end up with a situation where it is harder for someone to afford something now, even if the price of an item hasn’t really increased when accounting for inflation.
At the end of the day, today’s modeler has to way their options, and do a cost-benefit analysis on new versus used, considering what is available to them. Just as modelers have always had to do. What is available to today’s modeler isn’t all the same as what was available 40 years ago, but people must make do with what they can access.
My niche is with ‘toy trains’ rather than scale models, so for me it is relatively easy to get on with poor realism. I specialize in damaged and imperfect items, and performing repairs. For me, the tradeoff of imperfect items is worth the cost savings. I end up investing a lot of time upfront into my trains, instead of a lot of money. Where I’m currently at, my time is the more available resource.
-El
your like me bro toy has trouble it never goes in the waste bin just gets parked next to my tow truck that has all my tools and when i get free time i grab some tools off it and get to work doing what i have to to keep my stuff on the road/rails
I install the Intermountain wheel sets because it dramatically improves the free rolling qualities of the trucks. Did this research over 20 years ago, and even had several conversations with Sam at Kadee.
He told me I was correct and that the smaller diameter axle tip and the metal axle was the ticket to a very free rolling truck. I pull long trains, and this setup greatly improves loco pulling ability and tracking/reliability. I put a drop of light oil in the journals, it soaks into the cast metal and they stay lubed for years with no issues.
I always put operation above appearance, no code 88 wheels or semi scale couplers.
He told me then that the developement of the newer equalized HGC trucks was done to improve rolling quality with their existing wheel set, satisfy modelers who did not like the unrealustic look of the open springs and still have an equalized truck.
Sheldon
can we all just please ban togeather as a modleing community and tell Proto that we need them to scale down an air compressor system and make a scale size air horn upgrade for our engines in all scales except Z sorry guys i cant imagine how u would make a z scale air compressor