I would love to see and buy several SP type bay window cabooses. Also heavy weight passenger cars. All in "N" of course. Doc
count me in for: Heavyweights Old time freight cars - flatcars, mainly Serious money will flow to: 89' TOFC runner packs Tank train runner packs For the latter two suggestions: Why be content to sell one car when ten will do? Go where the money is - runner packs!!
I too would like to see heavyweight cars and not just the 85 ft. cars but the "shorty" 60 ft. ones as well; and make them WITH vestibule steps. I know, I know, it limits the operating radii of the cars, but heavyweight cars W/O vestibule steps (e.g., Rivarossi) look ridiculous.o2pz: Yep! That's pretty much it. And as has been previously suggested, some "open" type autoracks lettered for WP,GN, even SP (did NP have any??:unsure8ao: ) You "opened a door" Joe; wonder if some other manfacturer(s) might consider the same tack as you've taken. Thanks for asking .. :shade:
Whew! Eleven pages! I'm definately a proponent of the following: Heavyweight passenger cars. Bay window cabeese. Tank Train runner packs. Also... something that baffles me... The 35000 series livestock car is the only really good livestock car made. I would have thought Micro-trains would have followed-up with a 50' or larger livestock car. Is there a reason that Micro-trains never followed-up with a larger livestock car? Are the 40' livestock cars poor sellers? The only 50' livestock car currently in production is by Atlas... but... they do not have sliding doors on their version and the detail is not as fine as Micro-trains 40' car. The only other livestock car made in the past few years was a 36' old-time livestock car done by MDC/Athearn. I remember seeing livestock cars up to the 1970's... although... I'm not sure if they are currently still in use.
I agree! This is a great place to ask what is wanted Joe, and I know sales will reflect that, no matter what model you decide to make. Keep up the great work at Micro Trains!
With the announcement of PS cars for Zscalers, consider if the same car will scale up into N. Some heavyweights can be scaled into HoN3. Perhaps some of the freight cars could be made into tourist cars like D&S, C&TS, etc. I don't mind if you made up a narrow gague skunk train.
Joe, you asked for suggestions of prototypes that haven't been made by other manufacturers for at least ten years. I understand not wanting to duplicate efforts (competition). I also feel that other manufacturers will look at a car type and decline because MT already has tooling. Micro Trains January price listing shows 98 freight car body styles. Of these; 11 are not available, 51 available only as undecs (production over-runs). Essentially 2/3rds of your present tooling is underutilized. Adding a bunch of additional body styles will not improve the availability of rolling stock for the modelers, as they skim the cream off the demand and then go dormant. Meaning nobody else will probably bother trying to make them available in reasonable quantities. IMHO, the market, (and MT's bottom line) would be better served by larger, more frequent runs, and multiple #s (runner packs on something other than 40' boxcars). Not as sexy, but bringing back the original 33" lopro wheelsets (not the current mini-pizza cutters) and offering bulk packs of a revised Z body mount coupler without slinky (the 901/902 might be a good starting point, just make a stubby mounting box). Oh, yeah, if you do make a 36" wheelset, also make it conform to the Recommended Practice, too. Bob in IDaho
Releases Bob, I hear you! We probably only use 25% of the body styles we have tooling for on a regular basis. This is something we're trying to address now, even if it's using those cars for Runner's Packs or for some of the Sets like the upcomming Navy subjects. Some of the stuff just doesn't sell and we can look back at our records and see body styles that just don't exicte anyone. Some of that is because of markings available or limited prototypes. One of the former R&D guys had a thing for Pennsy and we ended up with a few cars that only had two roads...both of them in or near that state! Not much we can do with those. The thing I struggle with is making sure our catalog offers enough range and variety to keep folks coming back. As a modeler I like unit trains and multiple units, and up until now, MTL has not been a good resource for that. We are moving to correct that now and have met with great success. As for asking for cars that haven't been done, I was just throwing that out as a parameter to work from...I always look for that unique prototype that will draw interest...more sales...etc. I'm not above doing improved cars like our 40' Hycube and others, but I want to be sure we are not leaving something important out either. I'd like to make more cars, but we need to sell more! Kinda funny how that works out...But we are making progress. Also, I am not limiting the runner's packs to 40' Boxcars...I did those first as a market test before we start throwing around the big guns. Our second release is built around hoppers, third some wood side box cars and in the near future hopefully TOFC's, Tank Cars...some of the good stuff. Stay tuned! Thanks again for the input, need as much of it as I can get!!! Joe MTL
Livestock Cars Actually I've been looking at Cattle Cars for some time now. I'm having difficulty finding a prototype that fits the Matrix we try and follow here, but I am getting close. I would love to see bigger cars...heck some of the SP Pig Parlors...think they were 80' long?...would be my first choice, but I'm an SP Guy..so go figure. Thanks for the pic's I'll look at those as well. Cheers Joe MTL
New names for existing car types. One of my perennial gripes with Micro-trains has been the names offered on the 10,000 gallon tank cars. So many have been done as Company Service cars for railroads, which rarely if ever left home rails, while these cars rolled nationwide in the ten of thousands in oil company names. I have paid premium prices to obtain Mobilgas, Gulf, and Sunray DX versions of your cars done as "special runs" for others. I'd dearly love to have some cars for Shamrock and Magnolia, to name just two old oil company names with large car fleets. The sad part is that many of these were at one time available as HO decals from Walthers and Champ, and lettering diagrams were included in their "Plan Books", but have never been offered in N scale. Please give this some consideration, as I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting these. :cat:
Tank Cars Morning, I forwarded this to our creative services department for review and comment. When I get something backI'll let you know. I'm not sure if there is some sort of fee required to use their art...no idea right now. Joe MTL
Joe, I would be surprised if you had to pay to use their art since it clearly (or perhaps not so clearly?) came from a prototype. With respect to the 35er series Despatch Stock Cars, they (as well as a couple of other N Scale models) are based on a relatively obscure New York Central prototype. As such, every other release in any other road gets "the caveat" in the UMTRR. Have to agree, though, that you'd be hard pressed to find a better widely available model.
Joe, The runner packs were a good idea and I hope they turn a profit for you. So far nothing to tempt me. I wonder though at the statements about limited model interest, etc. It seems that Atlas in particular seems to be able to produces many times the number of road names in a shorter time period than Micro-Trains and I will assume they don't do so for no profit. Let me give an example: 33 foot twin bay rib-sided hoppers for the CNJ. I believe with their newly announced run they will have produced this hopper in at least three CNJ paint schemes and six or more car numbers. M-T has one scheme and two numbers if I recall correctly plus one offset side version in one number produced back in 1985! Atlas makes a decent product but all too often they are the only choice for a person who is not a collector but a runner. Other examples abound. So it is hard to believe there are not buyers out there. It might take some positioning away from the historic way M-T has been run, but there are buyers out there for the very product you make. They just can't buy from you. I really do hope that can change.
Heavies, bay windows, airslides, MOW cranes My 2 cents. Heavy weights, just one car... If you did a coach/baggage combine, it would be a good source for kitbashers to make both coaches and baggage cars from. That's assuming you only did the one. Of course, after you sell out on those people will be screaming for coaches, and then, well you get the idea. If you released the heavies painted green with a decal set it'd be even cooler. People could pick the line they want it to represent. Oddball idea to sell undecaled models, but it could widen the appeal of the model. Perhaps other people can chime in about this idea. Cabooses A MT bay window cab sounds like a great idea. Airslides I'm not sure if you guys have done a two bay airslide or not. I could use a couple of those. Cranes!!! As a kid my favorite train cars were MOW cars. All the cranes available for N scale, are big heavy cranes. We need a lighter crane. How about a smaller shorter wheel base crane for those of us running branchlines. Something with a spindly lattice boom. Make mine 70's or earlier era please. Some of these cranes are self powered. I've seen them puttering along the tracks pushing a flatcar or gon. It could be fun to see people try to put power units into them.
When I started in N Scale about 10 years ago I bought lots of M/T cars. My main purchases were covered hoppers but now I don't buy any M/T ones. Reason? Covered Hoppers became available with etched metal roofwalks and I was hooked. After that I sold off all CovHops with moulded metal roofwalks. I would like to buy the Evans 100T 3 bay but it has moulded plastic roofwalks. Maybe unfairly, but I have come to regard M/T largely as a manufacturer of an excellent coupling system and of novelty items such as Smokey Bear/Themed releases etc etc which hold no interest for me at all. I used to look forward to the monthly announcement but now give it a passing look with the expectation that there won't be anything of interest for me. I am rarely disappointed, unfortunately. Hopefully this will change after your feedback request. However, of current releases I do regularly buy :- - Autoracks but you have lost out here to RC because of the slow and uncertain release rate. I've got a full train (for me) of about 22 RC cars against about 6 M/T ones. - tank cars - open autoracks - occasional SP/DRGW/UP/CB&Q boxcars such as the recent SP 40' Hi-Cube. What would I buy:- -Heavyweights, particularly Head End Cars. But I am only interested in accurate cars for SP,UP and maybe ATSF. Are there not enough potential purchasers who model those roads to make road specific runs profitable given that people would need upwards of 2 cars per release ? - Bay window caboose. SP preferably - 89' Flats with 3 hitches (so I can justify more Athearn 28' Trailers) - CovHops of any type with etched metal walkways. eg PS2/Airslides - 86' Autoboxes - SP Tri Level Open Silver Autorack (suitable vehicles now available) - SP Trailer-Flatcar Service Silver Caboose (maybe these two as a set?) - more PFE reefers c early 1950's (Challenger Fodder?!) - runner packs of small ballast type hoppers appropriate to the early 1950's - SP types! - a runner pack of the UP yellow/silver cattle car etc. - ditto above but for DRGW - runner pack of earlier released CB&Q 40’ boxcars in Chinese Red - better availabilty of undec models. I've been trying to get a Wood Sheathed Cupola Caboose and Fixed End Gondola since Adam was a lad! And thanks for asking. Paul
I know not everybody likes the fantasy schemes. Heck, I'm not interested in most of them and others just leave me plain perplexed. The one I DO like and am actually running is the Smokey Bear equipment. The artwork on the boxcars are stunning, but I'd like to see some more of the newer boxes without the roofwalks. What I would like to see produced would be a greater variety of rolling stock. How about some flat cars with heavy equipment and trucks? There could be a lot of options with flats. The troop sleepers/kitchen/hospital cars in the forest service green scheme would be great as well. Useful for fire fighting base camps as well as transporting personnel to and from hot spots.
Not a new car, a rerun, but nice Last night on eBay, there was a Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. 40 foot wood reefer at auction with a starting bid of $49.00. A nice car, I'd love to have one, but I am not a collector and would not pay $49. for a car to which I'd have to add end reporting marks and black hardware! The seller said it was run in 1986. That's 21 years ago. How about a rerun, updated with end lettering and black hardware? :shade:
