Does anyone have all the details on this set? From what I see it is a single steam loco & tender with 6 passenger cars for $300. + two extra cars for about $35 a piece. Do these passenger cars have high quality LED lighting in them? and side marker lights on the cars, Observation & Steamer? are the cars loaded with "people"? does it come with a DCC decoder? sound? Just trying to figure out if I'm missing something why this set is so expensive. is it made in China, Japan, Taiwan or USA? Thank you
$300 street actually doesn't seem all that bad for a 6 car set with locomotive. MSRP is $399. I would imagine most of the cost is the new tooling required, and a limited run. Here's the website describing the set: Fox Valley Models: HO Passenger Cars DCC ready, but not included.
AFAIK, it's made in China. There are many Milwaukee Road followers out there, me included and I don't think it's expensive, considering it is the first 1935-Hiawatha set including loco that's a true replica of the original. The next step would be a brass Olympian (if you can get one) for way over US$ 2000 for the complete set (or was it more like 4.000, I don't remember) - nothing else available and therefore a no-brainer (if there is any of it left in me...) All in all there are 4 completely new bodies (The loco, the coach, parlor and observation) and the loco is DCC ready. Even though the train never ran west of the Twin Cities it is highly popular and was a work of art in it's time.(And so is the model, I might add) Michael
I don't recall which decoder but it should be plug and play like the FVM Gevos. These had airhorns, so that might be a tough find.
I'm with you on this...but remember...people demanded more detail (I hope they get it!) and it sounds like most of them have deep pockets and dont mind spending lots of $$$. In my own twisted mind...I hope they dont sell all that well...maybe the manufactures will realize higher prices overall are gonna kill em ! :tb-mad: JMO...thnxs * $35.00 a car? Someone is smokin crack !!! :tb-shocked::tb-wacky:
Yes, $35/car does seem like a lot. Right now, to get anything close to that I'd probably be ordering a GHQ kit, which is around $13/car, and then I'd have to back-date it to 1935 from 1942, which would probably be about a couple hours per car of fiddling with window placements and so on. I'd need to match it up with the corresponding American Limited car core kit, something around $14-15, and then I'd need to put some couplers on it, so another $3 or so, and order decals, which I'd likely have to have made custom, and so that $35 starts looking pretty reasonable considering the alternative. Passenger cars with a reasonable level of detail are going to cost some money. It seems that people want $20 min. per car for the old, inaccurate Rivarossi cars and so on, and that's for a basket case needing, at minimum, new couplers and probably new trucks. So, am I excited about $35-40 passenger cars? No, but then I am also not excited about price increases on nearly everything else, but I don't need passenger cars in N scale to survive so I don't get too worked up about it.
While I don't model the Milw the loco is what catches my attention. There are not any Atlantics out there to my knowledge unless in brass. So if the mechanism is worth a tink the hope is that this spawns some possible basic configured Atlantics at some point.
Nah...dont have to 'get used to it". There is gonna be more backlash from more modelers in time..watch and see :tb-wink: .
Prices are never, ever coming down. All your 'backlash' will do is cause less items to get made. I hope prices go so high that people are forced to go back to kits. I'd really like to see it happen before $50 freight cars are the norm, but n scalers are not only lazy, they are very stubborn about thier laziness, so we'll see. Jason
You could always buy the latest release from Con-Cor. They are in the $20.00 range, or you can buy the Intermountain/Centralia or Rapido cars for $30-40. You get what you pay for. Look at the guys modeling in Europe. For them $40.00 per passenger car is a bargain. Then again, they demand a very high quality car.
If less product gets made...its because manufactures have their heads so far up their butts they cant see whats happening. I only hope more and more modelers start screaming bloody murder about prices !! I see it already. The storm is just picking up speed. Kits are fine...but 'affordable' RTR is better! Model Railroading is expensive...but doesnt have to be. Average Modelers will only take the shaft so long before they revolt !!! Yes...we will see:tb-wink: .
I definetly believe that Fox should discount these sets some as we have been faithful in our very long wait for these. I think it has been almost a year and I have tried very hard to keep the money availalbe for when they arrive. That money could have been very useful for a few things in the mean time. FOX should discount these a little bit for us who have PRE ORDERED. LONG WAIT ! LOOOOOOOONG ! fatalxsunrider43
I think there have been "Hiawatha" releases from Con-Cor, no? Seems like the solution if you want a lower cost, less-detailed option. A variation on an old saying: "You can have low-price, high-quality, and loaded with features.....pick any two." Those of you that want the latest and greatest, well pony up.
The trend in all scales is higher fidelity models, which is what modelers wanted out of the box, instead of doing it themselves. That equals more cost to all of us. There is no backlash, this is what the market dictated ten years ago, it's not going to slide backwards. If manufacturers had their heads up their butts, we'd still be getting cars with Rapido couplers, foobie paint jobs on everything, and chrome silver warbonnets. They listen, and make what the majority of the modeling public wants. It's called supply and demand, as is the basis of capitalism. So you want it discounted because it took FVM longer to get to market because Matt wanted to make sure it was worthy of putting his company's name on it? You'd rather have a product that a manufacturer pushed out the door to make it's proposed release date? Some of you make absolutely no sense.
Hmmm. The heavy steam Tsunami has an air horn because the SP GS4's had one, and you set up the function buttons to use both the whistle and air horn. I suspect the chuffs in the heavy steam version would have a bit too much "crack" to them (the chuff sounds in the three decoders really are different, as are the whistles; most everything else sounds pretty much alike to me - e.g., steam release, Johnson bar, bell, dynamo, air pumps, etc.). Have to cogitate on this one for a bit. John C.
Things in N scale are definetly getting better, ALOT better. We havent reached the HO plateau, but we are close. I cannot imagine trying to fullfill ones wants and needs in Z scale. So, I do not think that manufacturers have their heads up the old rusty giggy, but they do have some cleaning up of the loose ends to do. Lets look at the N scale glass 1/2 full, not 1/2 empty. I think proof of N scale manufacturers getting it right are the upcoming GP-60's by Fox, that event showed that the N scale public can get what they want if they just diplomatically push for wanted items. fatalxsunrider43
Talk about not making any sense.:tb-wacky: You are soooo wrong on all accounts...lol . The only ones demanding more and to hell with cost are those with DEEP pockets...and I am sorry to break the news...but those are NOT your MAJORITY of modelers by any stretch. The MAJORITY of modelers are those average modelers out there...lurking...reading forums like this one...shaking their heads and fists at the high cost. Average modelers to timid to get in there and fight for THEIR rights. Come you lurkers...get in here...sign up...sign in...let your voices be heard. Its the only way the manufactures and the illinformed will know what the real score is !!! :thumbs_up:
That was my thought. I know a gentleman that found an airhorn for his HO version, not sure where though. He probably downloaded it. So it is out there! :thumbs_up: Just looking back to N scale ten years ago, the amount of high quality rolling stock and locomotives and the selection is soooooo much better now. We've made leaps and bounds in just ten years. Remember that GP60's were a new release for Life Like ten years ago, they could have helped themselves out by doing the M version, but as a manufacturer that typically had it's head up it's hind quarters, they didn't. Perhaps as a lone wolf modeler you see it that way. Myself, a member of a couple of clubs, and round robin operating groups, almost everyone in these groups wants high fidelity, quality models out of the box now. Quite honestly fifteen years ago, I'd pay $50 for a Athearn Blue Box Loco, and end up paying another $50 in detail parts, and then once DCC rolled around another $50. That's $150 in 1990's money. It all costs the same. So yes, I make sense.
