how about the novelty of having those common 1960s and 70s open auto racks, 2 or 3 levels, at about 87 scale feet. Would be a neat way to showcase your cars! The Atlas closed racks are nice but you can’t see in! Every year I scratch my head, wondering why no one makes these
on a personal note, live steam and R/C are my ideas for fun; but I realize it’s not for everyone and I’m in a distinct minority on this
O Scale Intermodal Containers need one-piece adapters so that Weaver, MTH, K-Line intermodal containers can be used together in a single well car.
Andrew F.
Atlas already makes Post-1965 89’-4" Flats for Trailers.
Those are the Flat Cars which can be turned into Auto Racks immediately.
They are almost 2 feet long and require O 72 Curves to accomodate them.
How about producing the 1950’s open-frame auto racks in true 1/64th scale proportions, make them out of stainless steel, and mount them upon a pair of Die-Cast O Gauge trucks. That way more people can operate them on tighter curves and they will be more durable than the plastic cars.
Andrew F.
There is something that must be tested in full O Scale proportions.
Operating Grain Elevators and operating Pullman-Standard 4750 Cu. Ft. 3-Bay Grain Hoppers. “Grains” will pour out of the loading chute into the covered hoppers at the Country Grain Elevator. At the City Grain Elevator the Discharge Gates are opened releasing the “Grains” through grates to the auger chute. Then the “Grains” are augered to the top of the silo with a window on one side.
That would be a change of pace from running the trains in circles and it could get messy is someone makes a mistake.
Andrew Falconer
The Open-Frame Auto Racks need to be loaded and unloaded using matching ramps and properly scaled automobile models.
Andrew F.
It would be great to have an ACF CENTERFLOW PRESSURE AIDE Covered Hopper that can be loaded and unloaded like an actual Pressure Aide Covered Hopper.
It will be 1:48th Scale and made out of Stainless Steel.
The Flow Lines and Loading Tanks will be made out of clear plastic, to allow the loading and unloading process to be visible.
Andrew F.
Non-Powered Diesel-Electric Locomotives with these features:
Fully Detailed Cabin Interior
Operating Lights
Fans powered by miniature-motors that periodically spin
Side access doors that open to reveal a model of the diesel engine
TMCC or DCS operating couplers
Andrew F.
How about a box car, tank car, hopper car, flat car series without any road names installed at the factory. Put all the detail stickers on the car but leave the road name blank. Then put in a decal sheet (dry transfer?) with several road names. You could also sell extra decals in really obscure road names.
Perhaps you could do the same with car numbers so they would be easier to vary.
Perhaps instead of using decals one could provide paint masks. The customer could supply the paint.
Dealers would be more willing to stock cars that are flexible for the customer to use. I wish I had a $1 for every time I saw a neat car but it was in the wrong road name.
Jim H
Jim " how about a rubber stamp, maybe, that hobby shops could sell, or something ?
Thanks,
stud rail with sliders placed over the rollers would be a promising idea; possible conflict with Marklin patent?
Ditto on the Chicago “L” cars!! I’d buy a couple sets of those, especially if they were the older green cars. That would totally remind me of my childhood!!
Bob Blomberg
Ditto on the Chicago “L” cars!! I’d buy a couple sets of those, especially if they were the older green cars. That would totally remind me of my childhood!!
Bob Blomberg
Ditto on the Chicago “L” cars!! I’d buy a couple sets of those, especially if they were the older green cars. That would totally remind me of my childhood!!
Bob Blomberg
There is a grade crossing signal that has to be produced very soon.
It is the Griswold Signal Company’s Rotating Stop Sign Signal with Flashing Lights.
The Rotating Stop Sign Signal was actually called the Rotating Banner Signal, but the “Banner” was really a Stop Sign.
The Griswold Signal was common in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Anyone modeling those states in the 1950’s to 1980’s needs two pairs of those signals.
Andrew F.
When a railroad or leasing company has built a freight car or locomotive in a number series of 500 or greater, that item must be produced with all the roadnumbers ever used.
When that first run of the item is sold in stores then the manufacturer should start a second run.
This way is will be highly unlikely that duplicate roadnumbers will be purchased by the operator or collector.
Examples:
The Soo Line Aluminum Covered Hoppers built by Magor Car Co. and Transco in the 1960’s.
Chicago & North Western’s Trinity 3-Bay, Open-Top Hoppers in the 870 000 series.
Chicago & North Western Thrall Car 5250 Cu. Ft. 4-Bay Covered Hoppers in the 490 000 series.
Union Pacific SD70Ms
Andrew F.
Reading over many of these ideas reminds me of the “wish” lists on some of the “other” train forums. Ideas tend to be very specific, prototypical “high-end” sorts of ideas that limit sales while involving all new tooling costs.
With the demise of the independent K-Line, some of the competitive edge has now gone. K-Line certainly did their part to raise the detail level bar, while doing it at a more competitive price point that say Lionel has. But it’s also obvious that K-Line tried to do too much while maintaining their competitive price point.
I would seriously imagine that whatever new ideas are now being considered from the train companies are going to have to be more practical, with more potential for “across the board” success like the Lionel Docksider. Or they are going to have a price point like the Acela that puts the product out of reach of many buyers.
Unpainted cars are a neat idea. Industrial Rail did this, as well as changing prototypical numbers on rolling stock with successive runs of product. I can’t imagine them including decals. HO guys have been buying decals for decades and still Champ and Herald King have both gone under. Microscale makes the best quality decals in my opinion, but even Microscale has to consider sales figures when producing decals. For guys who want oddball road names, the best route is to have them custom made by someone or make them yourself utilizing a computer and good quality color printer.
The idea of a dummy loco with opening doors and loco detail inside is a neat one, but I truly suspect cost prohibitive. The companies use the same shell dies to produce the cabs on dummy units. Pull the shell of one of the powered units with all the electronic extras and you see there isn’t much room. So doing a dummy with this kind of detail would involve a totally separate set of tools and dies. Not practical unless it had an extended production run in many roads. And then would come the complaints, "Why just a GP-9? When can we ex
What I was saying is why did the common 4600 ACF Center Flow Hopper never appear in an O Gauge/S Scale Size Format like so many other cars. It could have been durable and reasonably priced. Sure MTH RailKing has a Canadian Cylindrical Hopper, but that was not a typical U.S.A. freight car until CN and CP merged GTW and SOO into their operating plans after 1992.
I am going to scratchbuild my own Coal Silo and Scale Size Conveyor Belt, because Lionel is never going to build that to accompany the Rotary Coal Tipple.
The Lionel O Gauge Open-Frame Auto Carriers are very fragile. Handle with care, or make new ones out of steel.
Andrew F.
There is an idea that somehow never materialized despite the connection between Lionel and General Mills in the 1970’s. The Pullman-Standard 4750 Cu. Ft. Hopper in the typical O gauge/S Scale proportions and detail of the post-war Lionel Boxcars. That is still a new idea, because it was never done.
General Mills had grain transported in PS-2-CD 4750 3-Bay Covered Hoppers to their Cereal Plants. Lionel made models of freight cars in O Gauge. The connection was extremely easy to make. Instead they produced some weird stuff in the 1970’s that never was made again.
Andrew F.
What would be neat is a software that comes with a usb or someting to connect your pc. The software would let you control your whole layout right on a screen. or at least to make things so much easier to program your trains and routes. That would be neat. But it would must likely only apply to people with large layouts.
But think about how much easeir it would be to control bassically the whole layout!
Just my 2 cents
More roads for RDC’S.