CraigZ Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Glad they're doing it - we know it will be done correctly. https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/prr-x58-box-car/ And do you hear that noise? That's the sound of dozens of Rail Yard Models X58 kits having their Ebay value plummet....the ones with PRR decals were trading hands minimum of $100... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethashenden Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 HO? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 HO? Yes. ESM has done them in N. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Oh Goody. Another US $45 each box car. That makes a 100 car train cost US $ 4,500.00. Or 3 months working at MacDonalds. I think I'm getting old. . . . . Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Henriksen Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Oh Goody. Another US $45 each box car. That makes a 100 car train cost US $ 4,500.00. Or 3 months working at MacDonalds. While not saying I like the price increases, how many really have the space for 100 car trains? It sort of falls into the category of if you can afford a layout big enough for a 58' long HO scale train, you can afford to buy the cars for that train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 And would you really want a 100 car unit train of the same boxcar. Not especially prototypical... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
298 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 And would you really want a 100 car unit train of the same boxcar. Not especially prototypical... ...especially if you haven't got round to renumbering the other 99... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 There's 6 numbers of some schemes, you'd only have to re number 94. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor quinn Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 ...especially if you haven't got round to renumbering the other 99... or your layout isn't 58 feet long. Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 There are a heck of lot of club layouts in the USA. Most with multiple hundreds of feet long main lines. So the challenge of running 100 car trains is tried quite frequently. But IIRC generally the members have to bring their own cars. I have a 4 track 70 ft oval for demo purposes, so could run 4, but wouldn't wish to do it except for maybe a P:87 publicity video. But even so, my 100 plus Train Miniature 40 ft box cars only cost me about $4.00 each with their original HO wheels, back in "the good old days" of the early 80's. Phew!!! So now I leave bringing any expensive (and fragile) plastic items to my friends and associates. Andy This is only 36 hoppers, but it doesn't feel overly long Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
highpeak Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 I seem to remember Joe Fugate writing an editorial in MRH somewhat along the lines of Andy's comment. I think the general point Joe was making was that from the perspective of the builder of a fairly large, operations-oriented layout the super-detailed freight car was a problem in that it drove up the cost of building a fleet of cars and a lot of the detail was wasted if the car was simply passing through the scene. He noted (in a different column) that what was needed was a fleet car, in quantity, for this kind of layout. For a long time costs (and standards) stood pretty still thanks to Athearn's inexpensive blue box models. This had an effect of putting a pretty low ceiling on what a manufacturer could consider selling products for which had quite an influence on the market. After Irv Athearn passed on, there seemed to be a trend towards finer detail and higher cost. Joe calculated that the $25 freight car was, in inflation-adjusted terms, not much different from the $3 blue box kit of the past, though psychologically perhaps it might seem that the top end models have raised the stakes a bit. Meanwhile, I'm off to the Amherst show tomorrow in search of some Funaro twofers to add to my unbuilt kit mountain. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
298 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 When I used to play MSTS TrainSim, I once made a consist of about a hundred Reefers behind a UP Gas Turbine. Apart from the fact that the PC's processor and graphics card couldn't handle that many objects, watching that many cars go by was boring and the point about long trains was made by the 30th car, so in modelling terms it's only really of use to say you run scale length trains or to give kids something to count. Anyway, going back on topic- there is obviously a market for cars of that detail and price, else manufacturers wouldn't be making them.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I have a 4 track 70 ft oval for demo purposes, so could run 4, but wouldn't wish to do it except for maybe a P:87 publicity video. But even so, my 100 plus Train Miniature 40 ft box cars only cost me about $4.00 each with their original HO wheels, back in "the good old days" of the early 80's. Phew!!! I'd still expound the thought that, whatever your train length, thanks to the variety of tooling that the modern hobby offers we can now build a train that looks like a real one might - IE that we're not stuck with 100+ somewhat identical looking trains miniature boxcars, but that we can try and replicate the variety of the real thing. And generally we can do that to whatever detail level/price point we are comfortable with... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I can't subscribe to the "always mixed" philosophy. Currently there is a full train of solely identical empty autoracks parked in the Grover Beach siding outside "the Stores". This is a very common occurrence, as are the many other same car type full train examples that often stay over here, such as the empty container unit flats, the empty wind farm rotor flats and of course the loaded unit all oil cans that generally just pass through. https://www.google.com/maps/search/grover+beach+train+station/@35.1217352,-120.627505,886m/data=!3m1!1e3 I haven't driven along the road to check the length, but the siding runs from Atlantic City ave north down to almost Calvin Ct in the south. Parked trains are split at the Grover Station grade crossing to allow road traffic through. I don't know if the map app can show the distance. Andy Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Oh Goody. Another US $45 each box car. That makes a 100 car train cost US $ 4,500.00. Or 3 months working at MacDonalds. I think I'm getting old. . . . . Andy Too old to be working at Maccy Ds anyway Seriously tho, it's just the rail car equivalent of your trackwork stuff, fully detailed for those that want accuracy and detail. There's plenty of 'filler' blue box second hand if your thing is quantity over quality. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Too old to be working at Maccy Ds anyway Seriously tho, it's just the rail car equivalent of your trackwork stuff, fully detailed for those that want accuracy and detail. There's plenty of 'filler' blue box second hand if your thing is quantity over quality. Yes, but track prices haven't rocketed over the same period. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 If you add the time taken to build the track over opening a packet of Peco it's probably equal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I can't subscribe to the "always mixed" philosophy. Currently there is a full train of solely identical empty autoracks parked in the Grover Beach siding outside "the Stores". This is a very common occurrence, as are the many other same car type full train examples that often stay over here, such as the empty container unit flats, the empty wind farm rotor flats and of course the loaded unit all oil cans that generally just pass through. https://www.google.com/maps/search/grover+beach+train+station/@35.1217352,-120.627505,886m/data=!3m1!1e3 I haven't driven along the road to check the length, but the siding runs from Atlantic City ave north down to almost Calvin Ct in the south. Parked trains are split at the Grover Station grade crossing to allow road traffic through. I don't know if the map app can show the distance. This is a boxcar we're talking about though. Do you see unit trains of identical boxcars like the one being discussed? I suspect you don't. That goes double with it being a boxcar from the 1960s! And if you think those container wells visible on the Google Maps image you linked to are identical, can I humbly suggest looking closer at the real thing - i'd also strongly suspect (provided they aren't the Gunderson articulateds) those autoracks won't be identical to each other either, I was only watching a rake this morning and musing at the variety, and how the 3 models available in HO (2 different ones from Walthers, and one from Intermountain) aren't that representative of the real thing as it stands today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Sorry, I thought the google maps link shows a completely empty siding. I just linked it show the length. Here's the current autoracks only train looking North to Grover Station. A rough drive by count gave 22 north of the break and 43 south for a total or approx 65 cars. The South end of an all windmill flats train that I snapped in passing a few weeks back, looking South. Another of the many autorack trains moving north - this picture shot many years back. BTW, I'm not suggesting that the individual vehicles in many of the long trains passing here are absolutely identical, but a heck of a lot consist of only the same type of cars. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 BTW, I'm not suggesting that the individual vehicles in many of the long trains passing here are absolutely identical, but a heck of a lot consist of only the same type of cars. Sorry, that point isn't relevant. I've not suggested that unit trains of identical (or even similar) cars don't exist, just that nobody is likely to be buying unit trains of one specific type of 1960s boxcar... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigZ Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Sorry, that point isn't relevant. I've not suggested that unit trains of identical (or even similar) cars don't exist, just that nobody is likely to be buying unit trains of one specific type of 1960s boxcar... 100% agreed; the only 1960s boxcar 'unit trains' I've ever seen were brand new cars being delivered and those weren't solid trains of new cars but rather long cuts of new cars in a 'regular' train. The absolute closest thing one was likely to see of modern 'box' cars would be the Juice Train and they were a) reefers and B) apart from the paint livery not all identical. And the identical livery part didn't last all that long either. These three photos are of the same train in January 1987 (27 years ago...I'm getting old) ...note mismatched FGE cars mixed in with the Tropicana cars...which are both smoothside and exterior post cars. The real 'unit train wallet emptying' comes in the form of the modern coal hoppers and covered hoppers. That's where financial things get really ugly.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 The real 'unit train wallet emptying' comes in the form of the modern coal hoppers and covered hoppers. That's where financial things get really ugly.... Absolutely! Though (provided you aren't modelling some specific time and place and "must" have a solid set of very specific highly detailed/high end car variants to represent some signature train or other) you do at least have a reasonable amount of choice in those fields, with "budget" tooling (some nearly new) available, plus decades worth of kit and RTR back catalogue available secondhand. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Absolutely! Though (provided you aren't modelling some specific time and place and "must" have a solid set of very specific highly detailed/high end car variants to represent some signature train or other) you do at least have a reasonable amount of choice in those fields, with "budget" tooling (some nearly new) available, plus decades worth of kit and RTR back catalogue available secondhand. I was heartened when watching some videos of NS coal trains to see that NS basically puts anything that can carry coal in a train. There were pre-merger hoppers, new build hoppers, rapid discharge hoppers, various types of bathtub gons, and Southern Silversides gons in the same train. Yes, you could get solid trains of the same sort of car, but you could also get a random mix. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I did a similar "junk" coal train project for RS Tower a couple of years back, similarly with a real mixture of gons, some got repaints/reworks/weathering to match real cars (like a trio of ex UP Thralls which were very cool, albeit the real ones aren't currently moving coal I suspect!) - a few that didn't fit the scenario (CSX/Predecessors/Leasers) very well got "inspired by" patch jobs aimed at making them more credible - the majority of cars were s/h purchases from Ebay or other contacts but I think about half were bought new from traders - I think it came in at about £10-£12 per car (including metal wheels and couplers) on average for the 30 or so cars I did which I didn't think was bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clark33 Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 A few X58s: BTW, here at 7 a.m. PHT, have one eye on CNNi for that wicked NE US snowstorm. Phil Clark, Catarman, Philippines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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