Has anyone gotten anything from them? If you have, has the expirience been good?
I’m really interested in how they do especially since they actually got a Tank Car under $30.00.
I am optimistic about them since they have a good pedigree and seem to have gotten off to a good start. They have a few things out or coming but the ones appropriate for my modeling era duplicate models I already have so I haven’t picked any up yet. I am interested in one or two of the Evans box car but when I’ve seen them at train shows, they are sold out of the road name I want. I look forward to future offerings from ST.
I’m looking forward to the day when they announce offerings in earlier eras. Shane and his crew seem to be doing a great job. I was almost ready to get a UP Turbine, they sure look like excellent models, then thought I’d hold off to see what’s next.
Here’s a quick intro to ST
They are supposed to announce a new release this Friday. I hope they get into passenger equipment some time in the future.
Regards, Ed
Responsive company, seem to be very honest and genuine. They all have industry experience and seem to want to build their company the right way from the get go.
When you have modelers coming to your support like when they had a partially smashed shipment, that says volumes to me.
I rarely use Facebook(social media nice I am not), but I asked about the turbines then and I got an actual reply from them.
I bought all 3 of the UP 50ft cars and enjoyed building them with my older son and they look and run great to boot.
I did succumb to orrdering a Big Blow as well, since the next best alternative is about $2500 in brass. If the UP water cars are any indication, the Big Blow will be epic.
They have also held the line on prices for the mainstream stuff and their upcoming engines. Quailty decoders, multiple versions and PARTS AVAILABLITY so you can upgrade what you want to.
I just hope that they will keep up the high quality stuff!
Charles
Have four of the rivet counter tank cars and one operator and they are great.
Have a few of the Kit Classics mostly the Evans 5100RBL double 8 Plug Door boxcar in Tropicana paint scheme… Love them so far also great price too i got them from the local hobbie store at 20 Dollars Canadian each…
I have the UP water bottle tenders. They look exactly like the real ones. They are the most detailed plastic models in Ho that I have ever seen. Just incredible.
I have also ordered the new UP SD40-2 and I expect the same attention to detail and it should run and sound great. Looking forward to it.
Well, they have not announced anything yet that I would even be remotely interested in.
If and when they do, I will give it a look.
Sheldon
Like Ed - I’ll look forward to when they produce some offerings appropriate to my modeling era (early 40s). It would be even better if they came out with something unusual or not already widely-produced. I have a couple of the Tangent 6K gal 3-compartment tank cars and they are very nice.
Tom
I’ve been watching this company with interest, hoping they’ll produce something that fits my era and geographical interests, which are primarily focused on the 1940’s and 1950’s in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So far, no luck.
They seem to have a pro-UP orientation, which is fine. Maybe they could serve their UP interests by producing a Fairbanks Morse H20-44 diesel, which was used on both UP’s Sherman Hill and Cajon Pass operations. This diesel has never been available in HO except as a brass import that is hard to find today. Besides UP, other owners included NYC, IHB, AC&Y and P&WV (N&W), PRR, and Southwest Portland Cement. At one time, they served as the primary branch and local power on PRR’s very busy Pittsburgh Division. Fortunately, three examples exist in preservation (two early UP and one late AC&Y/SW Portland), so detail info should be available.
Something like that might broaden the appeal and the market for this promising new Company.
Tom
It’s funny you should mention the FM H20-44, Tom. I was investigatig that particular prototype last night and learned that the NYC purchased those between Jul '48 and May '49 - BEFORE the H12- & H16-44s. While I specifically model the NYC in the early 40s, I do have a couple Proto 2000 H10-44s; in the event that I want to “temporarily” bump my era up a few years for some variety.
Anyhow, I would welcome a H20-44 to the market. The only one that I’m aware of in HO is the brass version released by ALCO years ago.
Tom
Tom —
One virtue of the H20-44 is that it was only produced for a relatively short time, so there were only 2 Phases, which means a Phase I unit is appropriate for all the railroads that operated them (AC&Y, P&WV/N&W and SW Portland had both Phase I and II units, but there weren’t very many Phase II’s). This would simplify design and production of the model. Of course there were some very minor road-specific detail variations such as horns, Mars lights, etc., but these are easily handled by those who care about that level of detail.
As far as I know, that brass Alco Models H20-44 is the only one ever produced in HO. The detail level isn’t up to modern standards, and many of the models had gearbox problems. (NWSL had the cure). There were also O scale models of the engines produced in the late 1940’s-early 1950’s, but they seem to be pretty hard to find.
The H20-44 is one of the very few early diesels that is very poorly represented.
Tom (the other one)
I’ve been watching them, and since I’m looking build up my tank car fleet, I’ll probably aquire a few of them this fall/winter, when I’m back railroading.
Mike
I guess you could accuse Athearn of having a pro UP orientation also, since they brought us the U50’s, DDA40x,4-8-4,4-6-6-4 (2 versions), 4-8-8-4, slab side and Veranda turbines etc. Gee, I wonder why companies load up on UP?
Could it be because it sells? Don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Hergy, yes UP sells. UP isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and with the sheer variety of private RR’s that have existed in the past 50+ years, it’s a tall order to try to please everyone. And ScaleTrains won’t be able to please everyone, but hopefully they will offer enough variety to cover most of the popular era’s. Being a new company they will need to focus on models which have high sales potential. From polls I’ve seen, 1940’s seems anymore to be an outlyer. Of course it will take some time to get a good catelog of variety going. IRRC, they only announced their presence about a year ago and product hitting the market within the last 6 months. Early days yet.
Yes, UP sells, and that’s great. There are a lot of UP-only items that won’t appeal to modelers of other railroads, but the manufacturers will do very well anyway. I don’t begrudge the UP modelers their favorites.
However, there are a lot of potential items that can appeal to modelers of other roads as well. Obviously, freight cars that were interchanged all over the country fit this description, as well as diesels and passenger cars that have operated in pool service. The diesel I mentioned was not extremely numerous, but it was used by UP in some of its most famous locations. The fact that this diesel was used by several other railroads, both large and small, provides just one more point in favor of offering it.
As I said, I wish them success as I wait for an offering that I can use.
Tom