I found something useful on Ebay and bid on it. LOL. Hey, an actual KIT that you have to put together yourself - it’s like a collector’s item these days!
–Randy
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…a whole—get this—a whole fleet of undecorated cylindrical hoppers and 40’ boxcars to go with my 6 undec engines. Happy camper I’d be…[:-^]
Used to be there…Maybe it still is, but perhaps we’ll never know!
Unless it’s offered!
Hi!
Having been in the hobby since the '50s, I’ve sure been amazed at all the developments and trends in the last 10-15 years. One the kind of disturbed me was the movement from kits to ready to run cars. I started out on the Athearn blue box kits with sprung trucks, and while they were relatively simple to build, they laid the base for building the more complicated / realistic kits of today. To me, building car and structure kits is almost as big a part of the hobby as laying track and running trains.
I understand some of the issues behind the trend, like being more profitable to sell a completed model than a kit (I know that for a fact!), and that many of today’s young folks just don’t have the time or inclination to build it themselves, and many folks have no problem spending the bucks on a ready made car or structure.
PLEASE NOTE: I am not knocking the “ready to run” buyers (I’ve bought about 10 of them myself), although I do think they are missing a sense of accomplishment (and pride) by not trying to build a kit or two. Ha, maybe I’m strange, but I really get a kick out of looking at a car or structure that I built from a kit or kitbashed or scratchbuilt. But hey, we are all in this hobby together, and I appreciate any and everyone that loves trains!
Regarding the undecorated models, I certainly agree that having one available - and a good decal sheet -would probably be a good seller. Some of the more popular cars/roads have come out with multiple road numbers which is a help, but not everybody models the ATSF, UP, or NYC.
Hey, for what its worth… ENJOY !!!
Mobilman44
Well, Randy, so few people today even know what a kit is, you’re sure to win it. Congratulations!
why complain? if you buy enough rtr (ready to repair) items you will have the fulfillment and pleasure of running a prototype style car department. it seems like half the rtr stuff i have bought needs help, especially in the coupler and running gear department. who’s putting these things together? mental patients? chinese prisoners? some of it looks like the stuff i cobbled together when i was about ten years old. well at least you get twice the play value. you get to tear it apart and put it back together.
grizlump
—and I thought I was referring to kit forms—OOOPPS—I forgot[:I]
And just to add to it more scratchbuilding mat’l to finish approx 14 more elevators we need up here—do you think—maybe—?
Try looking for the Athearn Genesis undecorated kits on Ebay. Evey once in awhile I see them listed for around 14 bucks. I’ve built about 10 of them now and have about 20 more waiting to be built. When ever I see them at shows I usually pick them up as well. You can’t beat them for the price.
I’ve bought probably 500 pcs of RTR cars and except for swapping the couplers for Kadees and adjusting the odd truck they all are great. Most of my cars are Athearn, Athearn Genesis, Atlas, P2K and Intermountain. If around half of the cars you purchase need help then you really should try buying better QUALITY cars and stay away from the crap your buying.
Building kits and structures is a part of the hobby only if you choose it to be. Some people get a lot of satisfaction out of building things themselves while others just want an item to put on their layout. I fall into the latter camp but I do buy kits for economical reasons, not for the satisfaction of building it myself. I have both RTR and kit builts on my layout. If I could afford it and there was enough selection, it would all be ready built.
We all have parts of the hobby we enjoy and parts that are just a means to an end. I find scenery building to be very enjoyable because I can get very creative and it isn’t so exacting whereas a car kit or structure must be built with a high degree of precision to look and operate properly. Besides, shake the box kits are for the most part a repetitive task. It might be fun the first time you do it, but after that I find it somewhat tedious.
I am a freelancer as well so prototype accuracy is not a big thing with me. I really don’t care if a piece of rolling stock is faithful to a particular prototype. As long as it looks good and runs well, that’s all that really matters to me.
I love building the old wooden kits like the Ambroid series or Northeastern, I also like the Tichy kits, Next best thing to wood only a little better detail. I recently completed a GN plwood caboose from Northeastern. Had to bend all the handrails,and do the piping. Loads of fun but it took me three weeks of spare time. It’d be slow building a roster at that rate but its a long time hobby anyway. I just sold a few Craftsman kits at a train show ,didn’t get what I thought they were worth, but I had them for ten years or so and did’nt see myself getting any motivation any time soon anyway. I think some of the craftsman structure kits are highly overated (and overpriced) anyway.
I’d have to agree on the overpriced part. When you open up a craftsman kit box, it’s amazing how much empty space there is. There are a few flat sheets of laser-cut pieces, and a sheet or two of instructions. Yes, the laser-cut stuff is well-done and very precise, and I assume it’s the low volume that drives the prices up. However, I like to look at the “play value” of a kit. I think the Weimer’s Mill kit from Branchline was the most enjoyable, satisfying and rewarding kit I’ve ever done, and one of the top MR experiences, besides.
I’d like to see one of the craftsman kit companies put out a true “introductory” kit. They would need to be mass-produced so they could be sold for around $5-6, packaged in envelopes instead of fancy boxes. Just something like a small house, but enough that the average non-kit-builder will give it a try and decide whether to get more craftsman kits.
An assortment of scratchbuilding bits and pieces—thick metal foils—sheets upon sheets of ----well, you get the picture. I would love it if I could buy even ONE Ambroid kit. Can’t find the dang things up here----grumble gripe—never mind multi dollar craftman’s kits—mumble snark[|(][:-^]
Oh well, outbid, the total with shipping is now more than what the kits cost at the LHS back whent he LHS actually had something called a ‘kit’ on the shelves. Nice Branchline Blueprint car, too.
–Randy
Hello All. [:)]
I have looked at the Athearn white and blue boxed rolling stock but it looks to me like they need wheels, trucks, and weights. Doesn’t this bring the price up quite a bit? I have forgotten, don’t they also need decals?
Thanks
Lee
…aaahh—but that would be the fun of it—get 15 of those kits and the decals to go with them and you can have a numbered set that you don’t have 3 numbers the same of like you sometimes find on RTR… and you can pretty much do what you have for couplers etc without tearing out trucks and such eveytime you buy something—aah me and my kit pieces[:-^]
Dorothy Parker–who picked fights with just about everyone of significance in the 1930s and 1940s–once quipped about a particular Hollywood actress’ morals: “She speaks five languages but doesn’t seem to be able to say ‘no’ in any of them!”
Do you know what I do when I don’t like the price of something? I don’t buy it!
I know that Accurail offers a great many of their freight car kits without lettering, only reporting marks. That’s how I was able to letter some of their wood refrigerator cars for Rio Grande (and yes, Rio Grande DID have a few standard-gauge reefers). And I have picked up a few of the Branchline Yardmaster box car kits that were totally undecorated. So they are out there, though you have to kinda/sorta hunt for them.
As to available wood car kits that border on ‘craftsman’ style–Ye Olde Huff n’Puff still distributes the classic Silver Streak freight car kits in a wide variety of styles and road-names. They are often a good basis for super-detailing to bring them up to today’s standards.
Now if some kind soul would re-release some of those terrific Ambroid ‘1 in 5000’ kits that were so much fun to build way back when–[:-^]
Tom [:)]
I do miss the kits to build. 95% of my cars BB Athearns kits. It about convence now not the benafit of building a kit to how you want it to look to you. Again not knocking RTR people I have such a thrill building things