Is articulated and unit train purchasing. I'm trying to put together a pig train and a Container train. Currently, for containers, I have Walthers Atlas and Athearn single well cars that are as much as 15 years old or as new as a year old, but I have no articulated sets. The cheapest I've seen any articulateds on "the bay" is ~50 which is a good price, but it's also well beyond my monthly new car spending budget. Similarly, on the Pig Train, I have some old Athearn impack cars and a set of the Front range cars that I need to assemble, but modern spines and 89' flats run $25 or more. That makes building that train rather painful. If I were modeling transition, new product would still be expensive, but at least I could buy a car at a time and the average price for a 40' car would be lower. Plus, there's a much larger used market. Sigh... I've gotten good deals at swap meets on new product, so I probably just need to keep looking, but it's still depressing.
At least you have units available for your era....I need EARLY double stack container cars. I have a single stack container flat that looks like crap that was made in 1983....
One thing to consider with articulated cars. Essentially, 1 5-unit car is equal to 5 single-bay cars. So if you spend $12 a car on 5 cars that's $60. So what's the problem with getting a single, 5-unit car for $50? It's the same thing. The only difference is that you have to shell out the money all at once instead of over time. So save your freight car budget for a couple of months and buy that articulated car - and don't feel so depressed about it. You just need to wrap your mind around the fact you are actually buying 5 cars at once.
Yeah, I know that logically it all makes sense, but there's a certain rush with being able to get something new, even if it's just 1 car, every month. Also, I like hunting for deals at swap meets and that's hard to do, because as was pointed out, there wasn't much early intermodal out prior to quite recently, so there isn't a lot of stock in the used market. Looks like I'll be spending some money online this week. Reminder: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=106711
As an example, lets look at this Ebay auction. Accurail 89' Intermodal Flatcar TTX TTCX #975131 Car 4 - eBay (item 270640045332 end time Dec-23-10 22:00:20 PST) now, $12.95 is a good price for an assembled car with metal wheels and a slightly custom paint job and Kadee couplers no doubt...but the shipping price is $6.95 So really the price is $19.90 or about $20. That's an ok price, but not great. Obviously, if I combined orders my shipping would go down, but that would require the seller to have more that I wanted and me to be willing to spend more. Having said that, I could probably find a few things of interest in his store. Enought to get the shipping to something reasonable anyway, but still...
For me the hardest part about modern-era modeling is keeping up with all the mergers, new paint schemes, renumberings, etc. But then again, that's also the most fun part.
Since each 5 well unit is the equivalent to 5 regular cars, but only takes a single pair of couplers, you're saving 80% on couplers. You can equip your "5 cars" with Kadees for $1.75, instead of $1.75/car, or $8.75...
I have a source for Kadees that is even cheaper than that, so... So, not to completely change the subject, but the Front Range TOFC cars I have are in Union Pacific paint. The instructions indicate that the UP never had this car, but had a similar one, so it's a fantasyish scheme. My question is, does UP even have mineral brown spine cars in their own reporting marks right now? I've never seen one, though to be honest, I've never seen a UP pig train up close. My gut tells me I'm going to have to repaint these to TTX or some other, but that just adds time to the project. Anyone know would the UP reporting marks be reasonable in the year 2010, or within the last 5-10 at least?
http://www.alpineamusements.com/used/pig-train.jpg Oh wait, no, that's not it. Pig Train is slang for Trailer on Flat Car aka Piggy Back train. On such as this: http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/8/5/2/5852.1093315920.jpg I believe this sign is still standing in LA http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3325/3329237122_d36de47273.jpg
While this may not be a popular view, I have given this thread some thought for a couple days. I find that the hardest part of modeling modern railroading is not the lack of locos or rolling stock or whatever. I have trouble with what I perceive as the lack of "romance", for lack of a better term, in today's post steam world. I see ugly, graffitti laced rolling stock. I see so many different diesels that don't impress me from one to the next. I see uber efficiency in these items as well as modern railroad operations in particular. I realize with increased speeds and weights of consists that this is a necessary 'evil'. I hold no negative opinions toward anyone who is interested in the differences between Thrall cars from one year to the next. There is room in the hobby for all, grognards and troglidites as well. I even own a diesel. Albeit an RS-1. I remember as a little boy sitting high on a bank a few blocks from home and watching those steamers roll into Spokane. I couldn't wait to see these babies chugging by. Then one day, about Fall of '51 a new sight came down the track. Gone was the noise, and rumble, and long clouds pouring out from the stack, and an occasional wave from the cab. Instead a squarish box with a sound that just didn't seem right to a 6 year-old. Disappointed, this 6 year-old never looked back at that day with anything but sadness and regret. Gone was an emotion never felt again. Jim
I find the hardest part of modern model railroading is finding modern buildings. there is alot of stuff out there for the 30's 40's 50's and 60's but after that it becomes scarce to find much, there is one company but they only have a dozen or so buildings
Modern buildings can be tough, though Walthers makes some. As for the lack of romance. I see it the other way. Every time I see a transition consist, I think that the only place that belongs is under a tree. Well, not really, but old rolling stock just holds little appeal to me. I'm not opposed to Steam or old Diesels, but old rollingstock just doesn't seem real to me. It could be as simple as being too young, though I know plenty of people my age that love transition era stuff. Of course, you don't really have a problem with modern era modelling, because you don't have the inclination to do any of it. So, no problem.
you hit the nail on the head...that is one reason (graffitti) I am looking at 1985...besides, the SP still had some U-Boats in the 80's, and I can stretch the truth and say that they traded their U30C's in 1986....I really have a hard time going later than 1985 since I love cabooses.
I'm doing only modern era, meaning "right now--what I see" rolling past my home station (coastal Puget Sound) ... and my problems are (1) sorting the rolling stock that I see from all the slightly older era stuff available, especially box cars, and (2) upgrading PHIV Superliners to their current paint scheme, and (3) getting a good, cheap solution for "FREDs ... I think I protest too much, though.
Oh yeah, the lack of current phase superliners really makes me angry, you would think that that would be a no brainer. I also I'm not pleased by the lack of Amtrak California cars. I can buy the used superliners in Amtrak Cali paint, but not the rest of the fleet. FREDs are another big problem, though I could tolerate unlighted ones. I personally am modelling a modern proto-lance railroad which allows me a little flexibility. Also, for my rollingstock, I've got a 25-30 year window for rollingstock. Basically, I want it to be reasonably modern and I want it to meet the 2 foot rule. And really it works out ok. Those old Fuel Foilers were out of service around 2000, with modifications, but that's recent enough that I've got no problems running them. Plenty of current rollingstock was built in the 70s and is just about at it's end of life, so I can use it for at least the near term and be happy. Honestly, I could set my railroad in 1992-94 and be happy, but I like the new road units and ECOs and gensets, so I proto-lance. I wonder though if there will come a time when I'll just fix the time period of the railroad. I'm a member of a club and that gives me the opportunity to run things that are out of era, so at some point, I may have the luxury of fixing the year at home and still buying new stuff.
Wolfgang, The way I look at it is Steam Era 1820-1940, Transition 1940-1960, and Modern 1960-present. Just my take, but what do I know! Jim
I could agree with that, though I think you could make the case to split 1960-1980 and post Staggers modern. You could also subdivide between pre and post 1995 and all the mega mergers. It is kind of like "Classic Rock." 20 years ago Classic Rock was the Who, Led Zepplin, now Classic Rock is still those things, but it's also Bon Jovi and Van Halen. Yet some stations sub-divide that into Maintstream Rock. You can do the same with model railroad eras. Modern might generally be 1960-current, but certainly you can at least divide between pre-Staggers and Post-Staggers and pre-BNSF and Post BNSF. (BNSF being the first of the last round)
