Okay you were warned. This is a PRR steam rant so hit the 'back button' now if you don't wish to read the rest. For those who are left I want to advise you that our friends at PCM, aka BLI, have announced that PRR K-4's will be available in October 2012. In addition the M1's will be here in August, 2012. These will be followed in 2013 by the I1's in February and the H10's in April. T1's are here already. All of this was gleaned from BLI's web site. Of course these are all HO scale and are re-runs so they can't really be considered vapor ware. So the question that has to be asked is why does PRR sell in all scales but N? I have stopped my purchases of N scale items because the message I am getting is that HO is the place to be if you want to model the PRR. End of rant (for now).
I didn't know that ! That's very curious. If it were diesels we were talking about it would be a simple paint and decal process but with steam...well they are so unique that you must build them to be a specific design; a design unique to that railroad. No generics in steam..well not many. For that reason, it must be expensive to manufacture steam.
I began modelling on HO scale in Sydney, Nova Scotia. At that time it and some O scale was all that was available. I guess that availability is still present in Model Railroading, even in this high tech day and age.
Could it be that there are more people that buy HO stuff? What have you done to eliminate the four HO modelers that will outlay the cash faster than you will? Only when the HO menace is eliminated will N be recognized as the premiere scale. Also eliminating O, S, Z, OO, TT, G, T and all the others will help the cause.
I don't think anything with a Belpaire has been made in a while and what was made in plastic was all done overseas. The largest steamers being the MiniTrix 4-6-2 and 2-10-0. Might be some brass stuff around but probably limited there too. All which makes being a GN modeler also frustrating. Does seem to be quite a bit available in that other scale though.
Try finding a nice running plain jane 4-8-4. I'm not a PRR modeler so I could care less about the PRR but there's not alot of N scale steam to choose from period. I don't have a problem bashing what I need or even using something "close enough" but a distinctive PRR engine wouldn't do a thing for me unless the mechanism could be made into something more suitable. Randy
You could replace the 'PRR' in the thread's title with any roadname and it would still be true, it doesn't matter what road you model in N scale, if you want steam other than Big Boys you're up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
Sounds like the 3d-printing guys could use an email. There's a lot of potential there, if you're willing to do some work to get what you want. I'm sure you're not alone on the PRR "want" list! Wait till you see what us NP guys have coming..... heh....
To me this is one of the most frustrating things with N. I have one steam locomotive, Kato GS4, thats it. I sometimes look at HO with steam envy. All my steam is in O.
I've made the suggestion for PRR steam to mmyers05 who is doing work in 3D printing. You can see some of his work posted on the "Printing a steam locomotive!" thread on here. He has some stuff available on Shapeways. Scott
In N scale, roads east of the Mississippi are largely neglected. Not sure exactly why that is. I'm sure western roads sell, but if brass Allegheny's sell for $1000+ (usually 1500+) EVERY time they hit ebay, there is a large untapped market. Of course it's like that in many scales. No market, yet the number of people scratch building because they HAVE to is quite extensive. And as for PRR, I have no idea why there isn't more. I'd love to see a T-1, even though I mainly run C&O. I have money to spend, but manufacturers just aren't making many products I am looking for.
Yes you can but what other railroad has the fan base of the PRR? None. The PRR historical society is the largest of all the railroads based on published figures. It is over twice the size of the N&W and the B&O. The UP historical society doesn't even publish their membership figures. That is significant especially when you consider that's a lot of people willing to spend money to belong to an organization memorializing a RR that has not been around for over forty years. It is also a lot of people that N scale has effectively pushed to the larger scales. Now imagine if those PRR guys were in N scale. They would buy not only PRR stuff but other roads too. The N scale market grows and that benefits everyone. But until we stop the practice of cutting off our nose to spite our face N scale will never increase its share of the model RR market.
Western roads sell because western roads are produced. If no western roads were produced how many do you think would be sold? PRR does not sell because PRR is not produced. But even that is not totally correct. Of the diesel engines that are produced the ones painted PRR usually sell out. PRR will sell if PRR is produced.
I won't disagree for road specific steam models but there has been quite a few wheel arangements that have been released in the past. Problem is that a lot of the supply has dried up so to speak. About the only activity over the last few years has been with Model Power and Bachmann. Model Power with several versions of the Pacific and the American but try to find the Mikado. Bachmann has churned out the 2-8-0, the 4-6-0, the 4-8-2 in light and heavy versions, the 2-10-2, and last the 2-6-6-2. Right now it is hard to find a 2-8-2 by anybody. Atlas is yet to come out with anymore Shays and the only thing on the horizon is a 4-4-0. And of course there are the reruns of the Challengers and Big Boys. But good old work a day 2-10-0s, 2-8-0s, and 2-8-2 aren't there unless you want to pay for brass. And along with the seeming dry up of steam is the slow drying up of detail parts to turn some of those locos in more road specific examples. But as big as the Pennsy was with its variety of steam and as popular with modelers, I haven't seen any N scale plastic versions of Belpaire boiler power, nor in Great Northern, another popular modeled road. Seems to me the secret to getting a model of Pennsy power is to have one come back in excursion service.
UP: Big Boy and Challenger SP: GS4 and AC12 ATSF: crummy old Bachmann 4-8-4 Still not an awful lot and nowhere near enough to model any of the roads in the steam era, but I guess more than others.
I've got most of the above on the roster of my fictional Westfalen & Gulf but my steam era Santa Fe roster that I'd like to have is nil, like the OP's PRR fleet.
And other than the Kato produced Concor S-2 Northern and the one Rivarossi Mikado that was conventional boilered that GN rostered thats it for GN steam that I purchased off the shelf. Everything else has involved a cut and bash to get anything that even looks close. The Trix Pacific can pass for one class of GN Pacific if you close one eye and squint through the other. Thats the reason I model the SP&S. It was a mix of the parent NP and GN steam, otherwise I would be a 100% GN steam era modeler.
