Has anyone found a good source for modern equipment? Atlas and Walthers seem to be out of stock more often than not.
Are you looking for HO?
Have you looked at Scaletrains?
ExactRail?
Cheers, Ed
Walthers and Atlas aren’t the only dealers out there. I just Googled “list of online HO scale train dealers”, and they all showed up, from Blueridge Hobbies to Trainz, and everything in between, such as MB Klien, Hobbylink, etc., etc.
Ed listed a couple of great sources, as I have bought from both.
Also keep in mind, the days of dealers having big inventories are long gone, and “Preorders” are the business method used in today’s world, from Athearn to Walthers, and don’t rule out sellers on Shapeways.
I still use Ebay alot, and I rebuild and detail much of my rolling stock to represent modern equipment.
Mike.
Do you mean for “equipment” rolling stock, buildings, locos, etc? I model the eaerly 1980s and found MB Klein works. They also have discounts on certain types of items from joining their mailing list.
Anther option is the HO swap site.
I would consider modern to be approximately the last 25 years but mileage may vary. That being the case, it sure seems like there is a goodly amount. ScaleTrains, Athearn and Intermountain have been offering a lot of diesels from the mid-1990’s to recent.
ScaleTrains has “modern” tank cars and covered hoppers and has announced a coil car.
ExactRail has Gunderson 6269 box cars and Johnstown America Autoflood coal hoppers and has some box cars later day repaints for 1990’s and onward.
Atlas has their center partition cars and other modern freight cars.
As for sources, if you can’t find them direct from those manufacturers, try modeltrainstuff.com or Lombardhobbies.
Modern depends on how old you are.
GP40-2s are modern.
ROAR
Hmm, I realize it’s all relative, but I am now reminded of a quote posted on this very forum:
The '90s are not as recent as they used to be…
My rebuttal to that is:
I think it would be fair to say the 90’s was the beginning of the era of todays wide cab diesels and series of new freight cars such as the new TTX box cars, tank cars with end-shields, center partition cars, new generation covered hoppers and of course, ugly graffiti.
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No kidding.
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Devil Without A Cause by Kid Rock is over twenty years old now!
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Shocking. I still consider that Modern Music.
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-Kevin
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I think part of the issue is what would you call the “era” after the transition era but before the present. What distinct words would you use to chop up that time from into easily recognizable eras.
Phase II Diesel era?
Merger era?
Cabooseless era?
The term modern seems to span a time frame that’s too long and not distinguishable into recognizable pieces. And gets worse as time moves on.
Agreed. I was thinking of adding “wide-cab era” to the list above.
Perhaps we should adapt the Marklin Era/Epoche German railway period dating system to North American railroads.
If I were to define era’s for the US/North America following a similar method I bet they would be something like this:
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Pioneering Era: Early 1800’s to 1870’s, America’s first railroads begin with expirimental tech, growing more vital to the nation during the Civil War and ultimately culminating in the First Transcontinental Railroad. Lots of 4-4-0’s, bright colors, link and pin coupler.
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Steam Era: 1870’s to 1910’s, with the ground broken by the previous era, the national railroad system grows as more transcontinental routes are built and finished; and shortlines pop up across the nation to link small towns to the growing rail network. Black begins to become the predominate steam locomotive color, modern couplers and braking begin to appear and engines begin to grow larger (4-6-0’s, 2-8-0’s, 2-8-2’s). USRA standards begin appearing during WWI with their locomotives remaining in use for the remainder of the steam eras.
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The Golden Age 1920’s to 1940’s, As steam technology peaks with record setting engines in terms of power and speed, diesels begin to make an apperance. Streamlining is the popular symbol of the era as bulldog nosed diesels and cowled steam engines capture the public imagination. The WWII effort at the end of
I still consider the 90s modern. I like modeling railroads pre 1995 like Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Conrail, Burlington Northern.
I wish I have Amtrak Superliners II’s in N Scale including the new P40.
[quote user=“xboxtravis7992”]
chutton01
Doughless
The term modern seems to span a time frame that’s too long and not distinguishable into recognizable pieces. And gets worse as time moves on.Perhaps we should adapt the Marklin Era/Epoche German railway period dating system to North American railroads.
If I were to define era’s for the US/North America following a similar method I bet they would be something like this:
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Pioneering Era: Early 1800’s to 1870’s, America’s first railroads begin with expirimental tech, growing more vital to the nation during the Civil War and ultimately culminating in the First Transcontinental Railroad. Lots of 4-4-0’s, bright colors, link and pin coupler.
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Steam Era: 1870’s to 1910’s, with the ground broken by the previous era, the national railroad system grows as more transcontinental routes are built and finished; and shortlines pop up across the nation to link small towns to the growing rail network. Black begins to become the predominate steam locomotive color, modern couplers and braking begin to appear and engines begin to grow larger (4-6-0’s, 2-8-0’s, 2-8-2’s). USRA standards begin appearing during WWI with their locomotives remaining in use for the remainder of the steam eras.
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The Golden Age 1920’s to 1940’s, As steam technology peaks with record setti
If they were to call me up and demand me to split eras up, I wouldn’t pick times so much as regulatory periods and technologies. Pre-transition era, I’d use milestones like the shift to automatic couplers and the tipping point when all steel cars supplanted wooden cars.
Modern would get broken up into:
1955-1975 “Diesel era.” Pretty self explanatory here.
1975 to 1995 “Post-Staggers.” No roofwalks, short ladders, COTS panels, Conrail, Amtrak, and the first modern generation of large mergers. Early wide cabs.
1995 to 2015 “Wide Cab.” Ditch lights, mega-mergers, reflective tape, Darth Vader signals.
2015 and beyond “PTC.” So far, PTC antennas, the operational tells from PSR, no more COTS panels, reporting marks moved higher above the “graffiti band.”
I like this. I think of eras in terms of what the railroad equipment looked like. You’ve provided at least 3 distinct groups.
I’d think of Post Staggers as simply Deregulation. It resulted in more shared power due to affiliations.
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What in the world is a Darth Vader Signal?
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-Kevin
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I always figured they were these signals with the pronounced hood to block sunlight. The black paint and the sharp angles look somewhat like the Lord Vader’s helmet:
Modern color-light (not searchlight) LED signals. Like these ones:
http://www.lindsay.com/common/getimage.php?id=2153&width=0&height=0
The protective hood over the entire set of lights gives the signal style it’s nickname, looking somewhat (if you have a little imagination) like Vader’s helmet.