Got that flyer/mini catologue in the mail a few days ago from that major supplier that sends them out regularly. And the first thing that caught my eye was the M of W cars that have not been seen before. Especially that nice 42 foot side door caboose, along with a bunk car, kitchen car, engineering car, etc etc. Of course in horribly oversized scale. Then for the 2nd issue running I see the nice self propelled crane car again in horribly oversized scale. And absolutely no mention of any of that coming in N scale. And then when I look at the selection of steam, and diesel all not in N scale I sometimes wonder why I didn't stay in that horribly oversized scale years ago. By now I would have had my A-3 Northern without having to think about cobbling one together. Okay this is my rant for the new year, now that I have it outta my system its back to the workbench.
John,Those camp cars has been around since '61s they was first made by True Scale then Train Miniature.
Please don't be frustrated that one scale has something another does not. Truly good ideas will filter to the majority of market, right? The sheer magnitude of cost and risk to put Anything new, reworked, or re-run to market, especially a hobby / discretionary market, has me happy to get a flyer with news of releases. Maybe we're seeing a circling of the wagons so to speak? There's nothing wrong with seeing items in HO. If it's brilliant and a seller, we'll see it other scales.
And since then the N scale modeling population has increased manyfold and continues to increase. So why relabel something that I may have even had a few of back in the 60s in my HO days and re-release it when there is another big market out there for these few cars. I'm certainly not talking about tooling up and releasing the entire line and they can leave out the boom tender since thats been out there. But a considerable market exists for the other cars leaving out the freight. And to use an oft critisized CC as an example they took the risk and came up with a Galloping Goose and a few other examples not seen in N and have done right well with them. When Tichy bought Dimitrains they re-released the Rotary and the excellent little drop bottom gon. However I still await the re-release of the tenders that used to be offered. They had two excellent ones a Vandy and a conventional. Excellent products and in a cheaper kit form. I've been hoping for awhile now to see these come out again with the addition of electrical pickup. Another niche that could be filled. Without a lot of investment.
N scale had GEVOs long before they were available in HO. N had turbines decades before HO. N had FM diesel switchers long before HO.
Terry,Not exactly..There was a FM switcher in HO in the 50s..Barr-Nixon made a H10-44 in the 50s and Penn-Line had FM H16-44 in the early 60s.. The first Alco switchers in HO was a Walthers HH660..
Seems to me like we're reaching a point that no matter what is released in N Scale, it gets gobbled up. I just dont know if that's a good thing or bad thing. :tb-wacky:
John, I don't think you will ever see that great Vanderbilt tender, as it was the Rivarossi tender complete with wipers and insulated wheels for tender pickup, and the powered drawbar connection with the little wire, which makes it fit either existing Rivarossi locos, (hvy and lt Pacific and Mikado, 0-8-0 switcher, and with a little ingenity, their Berk. But, Rivarossi went outa business and Hornby/Rapido acquired its assets and I doubt it will be some time, but often hopeful, that this great tender will ever be issued in kit form again. Nuts......... I did manage to pick up a few kits back in the 80's, and yes, they still had the Rivarossi engraved label on the bottom, but if I ever see a kit or a tender at a swap meet, it will be scooped up very fast.......by yours truly. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
I realized that after I posted it. Too many people had seen it by then to change it, so I'll just take the heat for having a senior moment...
It's the same deal for the Z guys only much worse. I can see some things that have a chance of being made in N. So it's a good reason for me to procrastinate and not to immediately scratch/bash what I want (and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) But I see things in Z that we would consider pretty important and chances are, they'll never be mass-produced. There's just not enough Z scalers around. We are fortunate that there are outfits like FVM, deluxe, Bluford, WoT, et al that find it profitable to be in N. We've always been and will always be the stepchidren of the big manufacturers. When something new comes out in H0, I can't get excited about a N scale version possibly being released, even when it's announced by the mfgr. without an actual ordering date. And even then . . . As to N scale growing, what is the size of the tribe and its spending power in this day and age (2011)? I'll bet its spending power is even less than 2007 when the Galloping Goose was released. Mark Watson, nowadays most everything's made to the amount pre-ordered plus perhaps a small amount extra. You're never again going to see those huge blowouts of excess locos that mfgrs are stuck with, nor a lot of stock hanging around in stores.
