I don’t know about you, but I think the O gauge market is saturated with PRR. Now I see the first BEEFS from RMT are PRR.
Gee whiz, how about us folks out west?
Fred,
The only reason I can guess at is that the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest railroad in the United States with New York Central right behind during the first half of the 20th century. I would like to see some other railroads featured as well.
Lee Fritz
The Pennsylvania Railroad, probably due to it’s proximity to hilly (mountainous) geography and proximity to rust belt industry - coal and steel - gives modelers an opportunity to do interesting scenery, which may play a part in the number of people who set their layouts in PRR country.
The O Gauge and O Scale Model Railroad Manufacturers are located in mostly Eastern States and the people who contact them the most are Pennsylvania and New York Central collectors and operators. That is why the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central are among the most produced roadnames.
Chicago and North Western, Soo Line, Rock Island, and Grand Trunk Western Locomotives, Freight Cars, and Passenger Cars have been produced more in the past 10 years than in last 100 years because most of the “bigger” roads have been repeated until nearly perfect.
Andrew F.
The manufacturers need to know that even the South has railroads. The South even had one of the first railroads in the nation.
Just further demonstrates that the base of this hobby is still oldsters, by and large, who remember those large eastern railroads, along with a few major western roads such as the Santa Fe and UP, and who buy products representing those lines. And since the majority of participants in the hobby were traditionally concentrated in the east and near midwest (and may still be in terms of their total number), the various manufacturers produce items that they feel will appeal to that audience and, hence, sell well.
I don’t necessarily think that is the best or most insightful approach to follow these days, but I guess they find it prudent to stick with what are still considered the “safe sell” railroads.
The next time you buy a Lionel Product take a peek at the warranty repair locations listed. Besides that I think we need to be thankful to all the unique locomotives that the Pennsy made and ran. GG-1, T-1, K-4, E-6 and the great looking cabooses. The PRR’s 10,000 plus miles served 13 states. It seems to me that we wouldn’t have much of a hobby today if it weren’t for the PRR.
Numerous surveys show that the highest number of model railroaders live in the NE, and many of them want PRR, B&O, NYC, etc engines and passenger cars. Simply put, it sells. The Santa Fe “Warbonnet” would be an exception to this. I think only one maker of toy trains used “local” stuff…Gilbert AF with New Haven RR. Joe
Notice too that York and the center of gravity for toy trains is in Pennsylvannia. There is a great nostalgia for the past in that area and in the rust belt area once served by PRR. Steamtown, East Broad Top, Strausberg, Train Barn, Toy Train Museum (forgot the name), and so many other toy train and excursion stuff is there.
I have fond memories of the PRR and the NYC, having ridden both extensively throughout the 1960s. I’ve always thought that the trains look drab and austere (tho dignified), so I don’t share the excitement that others do, including a guy who works in the Pentagon and collects/runs nothing but Lionel PRR (he’s smart, being focused like that!).
I will say that the smoothest, most enjoyable rides I’ve ever had were aboard the tuscan heavyweight passenger cars pulled by GG-1s from NY to Harrisburg, departing from the old Penn Station that no longer exists.
It sells. That would be my view of it. They will produce what they believe sells best. PRR and NYC must be big markets for them. They will produce more of what sells the most simple as that.
David, I resemble that remark. [;)]
I was born and raised in Altoona and my Dad worked for the PRR out of the Altoona Yards for many years. Lionel and the PRR work for me, and I just love all the guady PRR color schemes. [:D]
See —
And I just received Lionel’s two newest JLC Gs and the Congressional is on order.
I am hunting Lionel PRR engines on Ebay for some time and noticed that PRR engines in general tend to sell for more than similar engines of other railroads. I do not know if this is always a trend, but that is my current perception. So, that is agreement with what others have said: there is simply a larger market for PRR. And besides that, Tuscan brown with golden stripes is a simple and beautiful colour combination.
RWT hit the nail on the head!
From a manufacturer’s viewpoint that is. There are two things in all model railroad scales that sell- anything with a warbonnet paint job and just about anything with a keystone on it. I think it has to do with the recognition factor but I also think it has to do with a subliminal urge to get those elusive high end locos that we never got in the postwar years!
It’s not for nothing that the PRR was called the “Standard of the World”. Many steam designs can trace their origins back to their draftboards.
Polls indicate that Pennsy is still the most popular railroad among rail fans. Size of the road, the demographics of the areas it served, the variety of its motive power, and the number of passengers hauled all factor in. My own state of Maryland was well served by the PRR over a number of diffeerent routes. Morning Sun Books continues to issue a flood of Pennsy titles. There are six volumes of Pennsy Diesel Power, three volumes of Pennsy Electric Years, three volumes of Pennsy Steam Power, three volumes in the PRR freight and passenger color scheme series. Al Stauffer’s Pennsy Power series now is into volume three. The PRR Technical and Historical Society publishes a great quarterly, The Keystone. And so it goes almost forty years after the disastrous PRR-NYC merger.
“And so it goes almost forty years after the disastrous PRR-NYC merger.”
Yeah, don’t remind us; we’re in model RR suspended animation
I think that even the model train folks are highly concentrated in the North East, Bob can give numbers, but I think that a high percentage of subscriptions for CTT are in NJ, NY and PA.
Dennis
Yeah, like where most of the population is, old folks that is. The young ones all moved west, the goobers are down south of the Mason Dixon. Come on down ya’ all[#welcome][#welcome]
As others say, O gaugers are concentrated in the Northeast so Pennsy and NYC are most popular as drab as the colors may seem.
This isn’t so with the smaller scales such as HO and N. Western roads such as SP, DGRW, UP, and ATSF seem to dominate the market. You don’t see a lot of NYC and Pennsy in the smaller scales.
An editorial in a 1985 issue of Model Railroader claims scale model railroading was pioneered in Milwaukee, WI (and I get my train money from the tooth fairy…LMAO). MTH’s choice of a Pennsy K4 was a poor one in HO. They need to get away from the O gauge thinking.