What about a regular car that most find appealing and a set of Trainboard decals that the buyer can 'tag' his car with if he chooses to or not?
Decals might be a consideration. However, the return on such sales would be very small dollars, when compared to what we must raise to keep moving this site ahead.
I've never and wouldn't spend money on anything with a graffiti tag on it, it's just something I don't believe should be condoned in any way, shape or form.
Model Railroading is FUN! That said, even tho' my era is the 20's, I will still pick up at least one of these. If it fits my era, well.....then there may be a larger quantity! Depending on the roadname and car type, of course! My only suggestion is to look WAY back at the old boxcars of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Paid adverting was painted on a lot of the cars with the RR's name and reporting marks. Ok, maybe it wasn't paid advertising, but it was there! Remember the MDC billboard boxcars and reefers? So, a 'Trainboard' ad billboard.
Based on the popularity of the idea, we should put together a Trainboard tagging crew and they'll come over and tag your house! Weapons, vicious dogs and barbed wire are no problem! Plenty of Trainboard orange will be used -- promise! Then you donate whatever you like to Trainboard. Whenever Trainboard needs more Benjies, we come back and throw up more pieces. Now if you hate graf, then donate whatever you like to Trainboard first and they'll decide whether or not to tag your crib with Trainboard designs. Win-win!! (Offer not valid where local gangs control the tagging franchise.)
Hi, Charlie, is it too late for input on the idea of a second N scale special run? I'd go for a prototype or even "proto-lance" (like Brian's Selkirk Division or John's Cascade & Western) but something other than a boxcar would be nice; seems most special runs are done on them. Regards from Bob
Way back when this was presented I suggested the plain Jane tankcar that MT has done before. I even bellied up to the bar to express that I would order more than just 1 or 2. One because there does seem to be a lack of said cars out there and two it is not something that they already don't have the molds for and the basic lettering. Era wise the basic WWII/Korean war trains of black tankers. A lot of those cars saw a 2nd life in company service on up into the 1970s and some beyond hauling waste oil and lubes for railroad use. Even a few saw life as a scale test car. Almost every M of W. outfit had a few of those cars as water cars in the consist. So one can cover the steam to diesel era in different uses. As far as goes Trainboard markings that could be the only change on the car reporting marks being something like a TBX instead of UTX or whatever. You want them to stand out do them in silver with red numbering and reporting marks.
A little off subject.... but the way I see it, he's still got a lot of money tied up in the 67 cars in stock. That's still over 20% in inventory. Does anyone have any marketing idea to turn those into cash flow?