With all of the beautiful railroad car models being produced I am surprised that there is such a paucity of 1900-1910 models being produced. With the exception of Westerfield and one or two others there is practically nothing for this era. Roundhouse is painting up some of their old models but these are based on 30-40 year old molds. Thank you, Bachmann for making the 4-6-0 and the 4-4-0. Those are nice models. I can’t believe that there are so few of us period modelers that we can be completely ignored. A nice state- of-the-art 1910 Santa Fe box car would have to sell well, wouldn’t you think? - Nevin
Unfortunately for you, model manufacturers are in business to make a profit. The era you model is one of the least popular among modelers and thus the potential business is simply not there. Sorry.
Ray
Not to me. It will be 25 years too new for my layout.
I feel your pain though. Here’s a support group I formed. You’re welcome to join and contribute.
I’m probably going out on a limb here with my answer… but no, it wouldn’t make much sense for companies at the present time.
Based on my (altogether non-scientific) observations on this forum, it seems that the majority of HO and N scale modellers focus on a timeframe between 1935(ish) and 2007(ish) - a seeming majority of whom are modellers of the late steam/transition eras. I think of the HO/N scale modellers, only Spacemouse, Bob Grech, and maybe a few others (lets say there’s 20 total, including you) model the turn of the century. Assuming that there is about 2500 ACTIVE members between the “General Discussion” and “Layouts & Layout Building” threads, thats 0.8% of the total membership of those trw threads.
Granted everything is an assumption, but if one was to apply the (assumed) 0.8% figure from these forums to the rest of the MRR population, there is still a huge gap between number of modellers total, and number of turn-of-the-century modellers. Maybe MTH will come out with some old-time things [swg].
Again, this is all assumed and non-scientific data used to make a point. As I said at the outset I could be totally off base in the regards of this example.
Too add something to the discussion, if you are going to be serious about modeling that era, you are going to have to become a scratch builder and kitbasher which, despite the proliferation of RTR models, is not a bad thing at all. As a result, you may have fewer locomotives and pieces of rolling stock, but they will be all yours and a point of pride for you on your railroad.
Ray
Just a quick thought
The Old Dog would point out that “turn of the century” RR cars were mostly wood, and hence easy to scratch build. That will solve the problem and also keep costs down.
Have fun
While the 1900-1910 period has a lot of advantages for the modeler, it is difficult for us to relate to. Without cars and trucks, trains were the only form of transportation beyond horses and wagons. Going 10 miles meant using the train or taking hours for the trip. As a result passenger trains ran frequently even on branch/short lines. Shipping goods across the city by train was common. But all of this is outside our understanding. For all of us cars and trucks have always been a part of the transportation structure.
Plus the period predated the large engines. Consolidations, ten wheelers, and Atlantics were the norm with some Americans and Moguls. Pacifics and Mikados were developing during this period, but larger locomotives were in the future.
Enjoy
Paul
No you’re not NeO6874 you are right on target. If you start with the 1934 issue of MR and move forward you will find the lament concerning 19th and early 20th century model availability to be one that pops up from time to time. What is interesting is that even the editors of MR joined the chorus at one time. In the early 1950’s Model Railroader devoted an entire issue to the era. The issue had articles and drawings, it made the point of the charm of the period, it pointed out the fact that short trains were prototypical, that sharp radius curves were to be expected, and on and on and the net reaction then (as now) was a great big yawn.
In O scale the period offers even more given the issues of space requirements and yet when someone does offer equipment from the period the takers are few. The best source for information of which I’m aware is the Yahoo group earlyrails. As for modeling - scratchbuilding is pretty much the order of the day.
Based on my 50 odd years in the hobby I would say it never made sense for a company to try to offer products for the period, however, as a modeler of that time frame I’m grateful to those that did.
I disagree with some of your conclusions about the small numbers of period modelers. I have been modeling in minority gauges for about 35 years. I have modeled in Sn3, On3 and HOn3. So I am very familiar with scratch building and kitbashing. I am also very familiar with scrounging and hunting for suitable kits and stuff, especially when I was in Sn3. I used to model the SP narrow gauge when I was in Sn3, try that one for a minority scale and prototype.
I have to believe that the pool of HO period modelers is as big or bigger than the number of modelers in Sn3. Check out the YAHOO forums for period modelers compared to Sn3 or On30. Yet even Sn3 has plastic state-of-the-art kits available (checkout PBL). Same thing with S scale and they have plastic kits. In the model railroad club that I belonged to in Morgantown, there were at least two others that were turn of the century modelers besides myself.
I think that companies would make profit from a good HO period scale box car kit, especially of lettered for Santa Fe, or some other popular RR company. - Nevin
I too would like to see more of these offer for this time period. But not hold my breath for one!
One of the reasons why you don’t see many people admitting to being interested in 19th century or early 20th century HO scale model trains is the lack of available quality motive power.
Bingo, especially if you toss the “RTR” phrase in there. For quality motive power you have to willing to bash/build/remotor/regear kits and poor quality RTR, especially for the 19th century. Harold Minkwitz (http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/) has some great examples of doing just this. The Bachmann Spectrum releases (4-4-0 and 4-6-0) are both post-1900. The Roundhouse locomotives are indeed generic - I belive they share the same boiler. Nevertheless, they are a good starting point for some bashes.
There are a lot of suitable car kits out there, depending on your era and prototype. They are just not mass-produced plastic car kits commonly stocked in hobby shops. The thread Chip referenced had a list of car kit resources. The Early Rail Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyRail/) is currently coordinating small scale production of an MKT gondola as a trial self-help effort, and production of a St Charles boxcar was just announced. Associated with the latter is a database of very similar boxcars used on various railroads.
The more you look, the more the necessary resources appear. The situation is really much better than I thought when I picked my era. It’s just that the models are not RTR on the LHS shelves, and that’s OK with me. Since my space is limited, having to build kits/kit bashing helps keep me from overdoing the locomotive and rolling stock rosters.
looking at a glass half full
Fred W
…modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it’s always 1900…
Bingo !!!
Roundhouse/MDC covered a lot of that market, and when they got gobbled up by Athearn/Horizon, it left a void.
It remains to be seen how much of a comback they will make.
They are, however, releasing a 2-8-0, with DCC and sound, due out in january of 2008. The 4-4-0 and 2-6-0 have come and gone, but can still be found with a little searching. The older non sound models can be found at Jay’s trains in FLA, from time to time.
The MDC truss rod cars can still be found at shows and larger Hobby shops, but are going fast. Stock up on decals, your roadname may not be available.
Kemtron/Precision Scale still makes a lot of detail for the period, get your hands on a catalog as soon as possible.
You may have to hunt some, but it’s not a lost cause.
The Roundhouse site shows that many of the 36’ box cars and reefers are still available.
Also note that Atlas is doing 36’ reefers.
Have fun
True for N scale also. More early stuff. There is some, but I NEED more.
Bull feathers.
How do you explain the ConCor Aero train?
How do you explain the Erie Triplex?
There hasn’t been a new wood truss rod car made by a major manufacturer in 30 YEARS. So you are telling me that wih all the cars made over the last thirty years that a manufacturer couldn’t make a profit on even ONE car?
Baloney.
Explain On30 then. Virtually the same design cars, the same level of detail, the same gauge and they virtually didn’t exist 10 years. And now several manufacturers are making those cars. There are ZERO accurate 1900 era boxcars made by major manufacturers in plastic. surely in HO gauge there would be enough market for ONE accurate car. We have dozens of variations of 40 foot steel boxcars. We have dozens of variations of a steel twin hopper. There isn’t ONE accurate plastic model of a wooden coal car.
Model railroad manufacturers think railroads were invented sometime in the 1920’s.
Dave H.
The Roundhouse cars are the closest to the 1900’s being 1915-1920 era cars. they are definitely post 1910 because they have the grabiron arrangement of post Safety Appliance Act cars. They also have various hardware on them (the brace across the door) that is typical of WW1 era cars.
They are 1920 or 1930 era built cars with steel underframes. Running them on a 1900 era layout would be like running double stacks on a 1950’s era layout.
Dave H.
Maybe that’s because so few wooden hopper cars existed in the period you’re modelling?
And in all honesty, only a few of the steel twin hopper models available in HO are accurate models.
Cheers,
Mark.
Turn of the century rolling stock can, indeed, present a real problem if one desires to model an era where that type equipment would still be in large supply. Motive power for that era was not quite as difficult to come by. Had I have assembled a few MDC/Roundhouse locomotive kits instead of Cary/Mantuas and Bowser K11s and USRA Mountains I would probably still be in HO Scale modeling a shortline clinging to life by the skin of its teeth in the 1950s.