You know what is curious? N scale vehicles went poof. They dissapeared about two years ago and I just can't figure out where they went. All those cool Japanese vehicles? Poof, only on set has been anounced for alter this year. They usially have over a dozen from different manufacturers. I was really looking forward to more construction sets too. Euro cars went poof. Wiking has been producing a bit less lately, and Herpa has introduced a few models, but not on the same clip they used to. Busch and Rietze? MIA. American cars went POOF! Nothing from Atlas. Not even re-runs. Athearns R and B cabs were caneled due to China being China. Deluxe has cooled its heels on trailers. CMW blew outs its overstock and anounced nothing new. About a year ago I had such a hard time finding the stuff I want that I had explored producing vehicles myself. I have some masters created, but need a mill to complete the casting work. When I started looking around at mills, I realized I need a dedicated work room, and not a small office to produce this stuff. This is one of the reasons why I am refinishing the basement for my model trains. Once I have the basement done, I will have a shop area where I can start production of high quality resin vehicle. Most will feature open cabs and etched parts. I am looking into vacuforming windshields as well. Eventually as capital builds, I hope to produce a line of cast pewter vehicles and offer some as factory finished models. This will take a hell of a lot of time. Possibly 5 years or more to roll out. I could use the help of those who are good at producing models for shapeways. If anyone is interested in seeing quality models, made in America at a reasonable price, let me know. Here is some vaporware I have been working on: Mack CF cab Mack CF/Swab rescue
My biggest problem with N scale vehicles is not getting the cars or trucks, it's the work vehicles and common vehicles that one would see everyday in my slice of 1976 New Hampshire. The area in which I model is rural and as it is now, many people drove Suburban's, Jeep Utility Wagons and later Wagoneers, Buick and Oldsmobile station wagons, GMC, Chevy, Ford and Dodge full size vans and Remember when International Harvester made trucks? The B&M used the IH trucks for maintenance. In my "dream" world, my layout would include the following: Grumman panel trucks for UPS, Postal. International Harvester heavy duty trucks AMC later AM General DJ-5's. Anybody over 30 remembers these as 2 and 4 wheel drive metal cab Jeeps that brought the mail before the USPS went to the cheese wedge trucks in 1986-87. Buick / Oldsmobile Vista-cruiser station wagon A decent AMC Jeep CJ-5, 6 or 7. Yeah I'm biased, but if you lived in NH in the 1970's, you'll realize my love for the do anything 4X4. Mercury Capri (pre-Ford) Anybody remember these? Great car imported from Germany and they were everywhere in NH during the 1970's. Late 1960's to early 1980's Ford, Chevy, GMC or Dodge van. Used by railroads, telephone companies, food companies, postal etc. And yeah it's just that, a dream list. Not sure what I'm gonna do with my vehicle fleet for the layout when it is ready for vehicles. It's a catch 22 cause most people don't like the cars from the 1970's and 1980's. Sure a 1962 Corvette from the transition era is always gonna win over a 1976 Vista Cruiser cause it's not cool. Unfortunately however, not everyone in rural 1970's New England drove a Corvette, 57' Chevy or 54' Ford pick.
My information had come from someone in another industry that also licensed model vehicles (larger diecast cars). I was told that if more than one company wanted an official license to a particular make, model and year of car (in the same general market, small-scale diecast for instance) that the auto companies would often license that particular car only to the company or companies who could pay the higher competitive value for the license. Sometimes more than one company would pay the higher cost, sometimes not. For instance sometimes cars that weren't particularly popular could be licensed for a great deal less then a vintage Mustang or Vette because there was no competitive interest in that branding. This is where is seemed to me that it might be less expensive to license a 1955 semi-truck than a similar popular sedan or sports car from the same period or later. Perhaps licensing practices in that type of market work differently than in the model train business or perhaps he was just talking out of his rear end. I don't work in the small model industry so I took his word for it. After all it does seem like the competitive market forces he described would hold true for most markets and industries. When I said "That is a fact of economics..." I was referring to general free market economics in relation to what I had been told.
Then there is Ford who actively pursues companies to get their brand name out there. I know of one instance where a brand manager for Ford showed up in a booth of a slot car company at a trade show and handed them a folder full of documents with the expressed intention that, "We would like you to make this model, here is everything you need." This may only be the case for newer model cars that they are trying to get brand recognition on but they do seem to understand that any publicity is good publicity. Maybe the fact that our products are no longer marketed to children is hurting more than helping. We no longer have the advantage of the starting brand recognition when they are young mentality.
Thats a good point and even CMW vehicles aren't durable enough for regular "use" by most children. Again, I don't work in this particular industry, but I've spent a number of years working in the hobby industry (side job) and I think marketing anything to children that isn't a "toy" if difficult. Most model railroaders do not build their layouts for hands-on interaction with children and the common refrain is "Don't touch that!". Why would a kid be interested? I personally try to get my children involved in all things railroad as much as possible and the layout I am currently working on is specifically for use by and with them. For a company like CMW (or any other company making small non-toy vehicles) it is important for us, as the consumer, to share in marketing their products to children by allowing them to interact with our hobby. This goes for just about anything in the hobby industry but especially for N scale.
Jim, Yes, I remember the “Mercury” Capri from the 1970s. I almost bought a real one in 1972, but I could not make an offer the dealer would accept, and someone else wound up with it. However, about the same time I was able to purchase Wiking’s N 13 set, which included an N scale Capri. From left to right: Ford "Mercury" Capri, Porsche 911, Audi 100 and VW 411 Wiking’s most recent release of this set as item 913 05 was in June of 2008. Some hobby shops might still have one sitting on the shelf, or you could try the train shows. Carter
The biggest issue is that GM will not allow any small models to be made because of the choking issue, so a huge chunk of vehicles are simply not available. I'm holding onto my older Road Apples resin Chevy kits like gold. Peter
From the looks of things the cottage industry of making resin vehicles to fit the market is going to be the only really viable way to fill our layouts with a variety of vehicles. The good thing is that there are several 'small time' operators selling resin kits... but... they are only going to be around as long as they have an interest in supplying the market... and make 'some' profit. I hope the dynamics of the N scale vehicle market changes enough to support long term production of new models.
CMW cars... Just bumping this up for further discussion. I came to this thread because I was frustrated that so few transition-era cars had shown up in CMW lately. I guess that's old news. So I was reading through the thread and noticed several major issues. Putting China and licensing and the economy and so forth aside, I wanted to address one of them in my possibly naive way and maybe re-open the discussion. CMW says N-scalers just don't buy enough of their cars. My layout is filled with them, but I know it's true that there just aren't anywhere near as many N-scalers as there are HO-scalers. But I question whether that is actually the reason we're not buying enough of CMW's cars. This is my experience with CMW: They made a bunch of crazy wonderful cars and trucks. They got me hooked. Then they started chugging out cars from the late 60's and 70's--which I couldn't use--so I waited. They put out a few more trucks, which I bought. Then they started chugging out a massive variety of tractor-trailers. Excited and happy, I bought three packs of 2, then stopped: 1) how many of these can I fit on a little layout, 2) they're all the same model and year of tractor, and 3) how many of these different tractor-trailers could I even find in my region in 1962? So I waited. Next came a whole series of utility-type trucks for different railroads--and fuel trucks. My little region wouldn't even have had those RR trucks. I bought one pack of 2 Mobil fuel trucks, which were the only ones I would have seen here, and I was happy. Then I waited, hoping to finally see some new transition-era passenger cars or pickups. Next came a whole slew of delivery vans. I didn't see even one of them that would really have fit in my layout. You know, producing a Sealtest van and expecting the whole country to buy it is like expecting the whole country to buy a Darigold van. And I was WAITING for a new car to come along. Waiting. This week I searched on CMW and what to my wondering eyes, in March they had suddenly produced a 1950 Plymouth and a 1950 DeSoto! Neat! But guess what? In May, they were already all gone, according to buy-hobbies.com that CMW refers us to, and CMW wouldn't be making any more. "CMW has Sold-Out of the 1950 DeSotos and 1950 Plymouths! We have very few left in inventory, once they are gone... that's it!" Well, now, that was fast, wasn't it? Wham, bam, thank you ma'am! I hadn't even seen advertisements for these anywhere and I hadn't seen them where I shopped. But I did find some elsewhere after I saw this announcement. I bought some DeSotos but not the Plymouths--because frankly I couldn't tell them apart from my by-now large fleet of Dodge Meadowbrooks. And I bought a pack of transit buses. They had also produced more delivery trucks, none of which (again) would have worked in my region or time. I'm happy with my new cars and buses, but I do have the eeriest feeling that most of the cars I have bought from CMW in the past few years--from the Dodge to the DeSoto to the Plymouth--look alike. So I was perplexed to hear that CMW is basically giving up on us because we're not buying enough--but from my perspective, that's their own doing. Maybe they should rethink their product line? It's great that they've begun packaging two colors in each pack. That really helps me out. But I'm wondering if it's really so productive to churn out all these items that would only fit a special time or a special region, rather than cars or trucks that one could find all over America over a long period of time. Because most N-scalers aren't "collectors" who want one of everything ever made. They have layouts that are set in particular times and places. How about a Pontiac Chieftan or Star Chief? A Studebaker? A '49 Nash Airflyte? A '48 Plymouth 4-door sedan or '47 Special De Luxe? Thoughts?
I should add: lest anyone think that I'm complaining, I'm not. CMW has provided me with a whole slew of truly amazing and beautiful cars, trucks, and commercial vehicles. I'm very grateful for CMW's spectacular work over the years. I'm just thinking there may be a way for them to provide N-scalers with more cars of different designs and years.
There is a new N scale announcment coming from them due in the next week or so. No clue what it will be, I wish it was the Chevy trucks that HO got but that will never happen because GM won't let it happen. Buy-Hobbies.com is the last place to go looking for CMW stuff. That is CMW's outlet for old stock. It doesn't arrive there till it has made it to distributors. Distributors soaked up almost all of the production batch so Buy got the leftovers. Distributors are even setting up specific release deals; Walthers commissioned an HO bus that was at first only sold through them, Horizon was the only distributor to have the first batch of HO Senicruiser busses and they sold out in weeks. The second batch has gone out to other distributors now and I think it is sold out also. I would love to see some late 30's through pre-war 40's cars but I will take anything I can get, just for variety. Sign up for the CMW news letter and you would have known about the Plymouth and Desoto. They look the same as the Dodge because they are. The Plymouth, Dodge and Desoto were all various trim levels of the same car. Right now Dodge and Ford are the only companies that will license N scale cars in RTR form so that is what we get. They are just trying to optimize tooling and doing a good job of it. The Police car and Taxi were both needed releases. The tank trucks sell well so they are doing something right.
Tony answered most of your questions, but here is some additional information. CMW has changed their business model! Preorders will determine the size of the production run. Sure there will be some "extra" stock, but nothing like what was available in the "old" days. Bill Giacci of CMW told me that the DeSotos and Plymouths sold out at CMW within a couple of weeks of delivery. The lastest release of the IH R-190s was nearly sold out by mid April. This should lead to more frequent releases on new models, but do not expect any of the previously released models to be re-run in the same paint schemes. If you don't preorder, you might want to join the N Scale Vehicle Association's Yahoo Group. Bill Giacci is a member of that group, and will answer questions when they are appropriate. Here is the link to the group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NScaleVehicleAssociation Another site to follow and keep up with what is happening with N scale vehicles is the N Scale Vehicle Association's web site. http://nscalevehicles.org/ Both of these are shameless plugs for an organization I am deeply involved with, but there is no monetary interest, just my desire to to see more N scale vehicle models. Finally, Chrysler has imposed a new upfront fee for new licenses. This is in addition to the regular fees collected once the production run is complete. This upfront fees exceeds any expected profits for N scale vehicle models. So with that twist, only Ford or IH models are likely in the foreseeable future, although I am still clinging to a small sliver of hope that the Scenicruiser might make it to N scale. It should pass GM's choke tube test, so only the licensing fees would hold it up from GM's end. Carter
Carter, I'm assuming the Chrysler fee applies to all of their "heritage" brands also? If that's true, we've seen our last DeSotos, Studebakers, etc.
I'm confused about the rules. Why were they able to do the Dodge, DeSoto and Plymouth? Those are all owned by Chrysler. If they could do the DeSoto and Plymouth, could they do a Nash? And finally, if they can do Plymouth, Dodge, Ford, and so on, that's a pretty big field. Right there, that is enough to keep people happy for a long time. Why are they sticking with a single car body from one year? Thanks for the tip about the CMW newsletter.
Thanks for those links, Carter. Great sites. The information about their new business model is welcome, too; now I know I need to stay on my toes and buy right away, instead of waiting until my budget can afford it or asking for it for my birthday. What is a choke tube test?
The change in licensing is recent. When these cars were tooled, they had a license for Chrysler products so they maximized their existing tooling. I didn't know that till Carter mentioned it. The expense in these models is in the initial tooling. This is the reason for the same body style in different branding. If you have a tool that can be used to make multiple cars without cutting a new mold, you are smart to take advantage of it. Once the tooling is done, actual production costs are minimal. Sure they could make all types of cars but each car takes time and money to create. If you are ready to pay $15-25 per car, then I'm sure CMW is ready to start cranking out all the bodies you need. The problem is, most people are not pepared to pay that much for scenery, although, I am seeing more and more guys in HO not bat an eye at those kind of prices and even higher from the likes of Busch and Rikko. I just don't think the N scalers will pony up for that type of out lay for a single car.
Ughhhhh! Lets boycott GM and Chrysler 1:1 vehicles because they don't cooperate with companies to allow 1:160 scale products to be manufactured at a reasonable cost.
