Affordable modern vehicles???

[gcrebel60]

I cant figure out why at least one of these manufacturers can't make any affordable modern vehicles. All I can find are cars from the 50s and it doesn't look right when I have a GE Dash 9 CSX rolling by a bunch of cars from the 50s. I need vehicles from the 1980s to present day. I would like to have all the makes like Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas and not have to pay $15 for one vehicle. I know one manufacturer makes modern vehicles but they only make Fords and they are way too expensive. I would like to pay less than $5 also. Hot Wheels can make a car for less than $2 so why can't anyone make a 1:87 scale car that has the same detail as Hot Wheels for the same price?:

 

[Burlington Bob]

I wondered about the same thing when I started to look at buying some vehicles for my upcoming layout. I guess that if it's a model of a vehicle instead of a caricature, such as Hot Wheels, they figure that the payments should be scale too!

Well, for most of my vehicles, a super high level of detail is just not needed. We are talking N scale in my case. Many will be the same level of focus as background trees. I can't see paying $10 or more for a vehicle unless it is a primary feature of a scene. After all, the car that is supposedly driving down the highway looks more like something out of a Twilight Zone show, everything is frozen in time!

 

[Burlington Bob]

Oh, welcome to the forums, by the way.

 

[Larry]

On Ebay in Buy It Now someone had about 15 Fresh Cherries for $45.00. I think it was on page 8 or 10 or wherever you can find them.

 

[gcrebel60]

Thanks for the welcome Bob. Larry thats a very good deal. I know those cars sell for over $5 a piece usually but thats only $3 a car and fresh cherries are very well detailed. I bought 12 together for about that same price on ebay a few months ago. I just wish I had the time and resources to start my own model railroading supply company cause I know I could put all these greedy companies like Walthers and that company that bought out Athearn out of business. I think they're the reason model railroading has been dying lately. The average Joe and the kid trying to build a layout can't afford these sky high prices. All you gotta do is make similar items and set a reasonable price on them. And also stop putting out a good product that sells well and then end production after a few months causing the product to sell for double what it originally sold for. Walthers is bad about this.

 

[railfan]

Model Train Stuff....AKA....M.B. Klein has some reasonable priced classic mini-metals cars and trucks sometimes. I can't believe the prices for stuff in the Walthers N & Z scale catalog. Especially the europeon made vehicles are more than my dad used to pay for actual full size daily driver transportation back in the day.


Mike

 

[Rico]

I'd love some cars and trucks from the 80's!
(how many times have you heard me say that?)
Sadly, nothing note worthy came out of that era.

 

[Espeefan]

I would like to pay less than $5 also. Hot Wheels can make a car for less than $2 so why can't anyone make a 1:87 scale car that has the same detail as Hot Wheels for the same price?:

It's all about market my man! There are millions of little kids who play with Hot Wheels. There are not millions who want scale model HO vehicles, so smaller quantities, which equals higher unit prices

Cruise the swaps, look for estate sales, check the discount bins ay your LHS. You'll pick them up one or two at a time. That's how I did mine. Usually for under ten bucks, though for anything nice you won't get much below ten bucks, maybe 8 or 9. Trucks and buses are worse!

PS. Go here: http://www.hobbylinc.com/ho_scale_model_railroad_vehicles

Huge selection all eras, prices look OK.

 

[montanan]

It's a shame that DECENT HO scale vehicles are so expensive. Trucks and cars are a very easy way to set the era of yourrailroad. I chose 1957 and I am lucky that manufacturers such as Classic Metal Works and Athearn among others have produced some very accurate vehicles, but the prices are rediculous. I have been lucky enough to received some Amazon gift cars and have been using them to buy vehicles, but the price, WOW. Here is my Chevy dealership from 1957. I have seen many newer vehicles that are good looking and accurate for a more modern time but again, the expense.

 

[Cjcrescent]

While vehicle prices was a very minor reason why I chose the era that I did. Mainly its because I prefer steam over diesels. I wanted to use my hometown as the basis of my layout, and I set the "cutoff" date, 1950, such that I don't need very many "new" cars for that era, as even in the 50's and 60's, being primarily a farming/rural economy, there were still a lot of cars from the 30's, & 40's running in town. (My cousin owned a Ford Model A as late as 1960. He had the car since 1949.) There were also still quite a few horse drawn wagons in town as well.

Some of these wagons were unusual in that instead of the wooden spoke wheels that many associated with a wagon, many were made using automobile axles to make the wagons out of, and used old tires and rims as the wheels.

 

[HF1]

I can understand that there are a lot of HO modelrailroaders out there that are perfectly okay with using Hot Wheels Cars on their layouts - mainly because they're cheap - and because a lot of guys in this hobby do not appreciate the level of detail that goes into a scale replica of that small proportion....especially when they go to pay for it- ouch!
The vehicles that are available now, are far more in variety, detail and accuracy, than what was around when I was building my layout(s) back in the 60's and 70's.

Some guys are okay with discriminating detail about locomotives and structures, then ruin a scene with a piece of crap Di-Cast car that not only looks like a toy but is essentially a toy.

I don't relate to that at all - but then I'm not asking anyone to.

I personally, would rather pay a little more and have 5-6 scale and detailed replicas on my layout than a whole parking lot full of Hot Wheels...that's just me.

Call me crazy but I kinda like having the 'whole scene' in scale as much as possible.

There are a lot of very good 1/87th scale modern vehicles available and you may have to pay more for them but I wouldn't call that ridiculous. I'd call that staying true to your modeling.

A previous poster suggested that he could do a better job of producing scale vehicles than Walthers or Horizion does/has.
It's a nice thought but in reality, I would guess that once exposed to the reality of actually seeing a product from the drawing board, through pre-production and actually developing a marketable product, that he'd rather leave the task and headaches that go with planning a simple product like a scale HO automobile - to the experts.

I'm thankful for the vast variety that we currently enjoy - and I think one of the main reasons we don't see more modern day vehicles in scale (and more are becoming available each month), is that a majority of HO scalers still model a transition-era - not quite as many model strictly a modern era railroad - but that's changing too, with the intermodal industry sparking a lot more interest in our changing hobby.

I want to thank all the manufacturers out there who are listening and who are willing to consider new and distinctive scale vehicles for the HO market.

The phrase "way too expensive" for a scale replica vehicle, is all relative to how you perceive the finished scene.

Cheap Hot Wheels Cars are just that, and look, well...er, cheap.
Spending a little more on just one or two detailed vehicle(s), I make the difference in how an entire scene on my layout will appear - to you - and to others viewing it.
The test for me has been to make every ounce of every inch look as convicing and as realistic as possible - if I take a photo and it looks convincingly like the real thing, then I've accomplished my goal(s). If my scene looks like a miniature scene with toy stuff, then I probably will not be satisfied with my results.
That's just my take...everyone's entitled to their own enturpretations.

 

[montanan]

I, personally am in agreement with HF1. If I am going throught the trouble of modeling a certain era, and have my locomotives, freight car, building and so on as accurate as I can, I want all of my scenery to reflect the time I am modeling. As I mentioned, vehicles are one way to do this. I started years ago with Alloy Form vehicles because they were one of the few manufacturers that were modeling vehicles that were accurate and detailed for my time period, which is in 1957. In recent years, other manufacturers, such as Classic Metal Works and Athearn have done a great job bringing more vehicles into production. It is my preference to pay the extra and have accurate vehicles for the era I model.

 

[kbkchooch]

Cruise the swaps, look for estate sales, check the discount bins ay your LHS. You'll pick them up one or two at a time. That's how I did mine. Usually for under ten bucks, though for anything nice you won't get much below ten bucks, maybe 8 or 9. Trucks and buses are worse!

Actually, look everywhere!!

The VW's were 2 bucks , on clearance at Wally world a while back, I bought all the had, found this,

at a True value hardware store on a keyring!!.
I've found 1:87 trucks at the grocery store, repainted them and used them on the layout!

Just gotta keep your eyes open, and maybe do a little customization to get what you want!

 

[DirtyD79]

I cant figure out why at least one of these manufacturers can't make any affordable modern vehicles. All I can find are cars from the 50s and it doesn't look right when I have a GE Dash 9 CSX rolling by a bunch of cars from the 50s. I need vehicles from the 1980s to present day. I would like to have all the makes like Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas and not have to pay $15 for one vehicle. I know one manufacturer makes modern vehicles but they only make Fords and they are way too expensive. I would like to pay less than $5 also. Hot Wheels can make a car for less than $2 so why can't anyone make a 1:87 scale car that has the same detail as Hot Wheels for the same price?:

One of the lines you might want to consider are the Fresh Cherries vehicles from Walthers. They're under 5 bucks (minus shipping and handling unless you're buying them at train shows and such), have very decent detail, and what's more they're economy cars like Honda Accords and Ford Tempos so they're a lot more typical of stuff you would see on the road or in parking lots.

 

[ThoroughBreed]

I remember a few years ago Wallyworld had a bunch of 1/87 vehicles in singles and 5/6 packs for like $5-6 along with petes, kw's, IH's, even modern freightliners. Those things disappeared fast. I got lucky and grabbed quite a few, even have duplicates, but got them while they had them.
I believe the company that made them realized the potential and changed to the fresh cherries brand or got bought out by them or something like that as the offerings from them are identical to these.

 

[montanan]

The prices are getting a little rediculous for decent vehicles, but if you stand back and look at the cost of most everything, it's all going up to some extent. The cost of some freight cars are in the $30 dollar range, or higher in some cases. Cabooses at almost $40 for some, and some passenger cars at almost $60 retail. Many locomotives are now only being offered ith DCC is also running costs up. I consider myself lucky in the fact that I probably have all of the rolling stock and locomotives I need for the near future. I bought most of my locomotives almost 20 years ago, and I was whining at having to pay $60 to $75 for them. If you can find a locomotive without DCC, I have seen switchers selling at over $150, I am talking about the better quality items. Less expensive, to some degree items can be found for less, but I learned a long time ago that you get what you pay for. The prices seem to be going up a lot faster than many peoples income. It is nice to have a lot of the new items coming on the market, but the cost - WOW !!!

 

[montanan]

Here are a few trucks I cobbled on. The last one is a straight Urlich kit I got about 20 years ago, but by the time I got the doors lettered, one by one, it was time for a shot of Jack Daniels.

 

[montanan]

Here are a few trucks I cobbled on. The last one is a straight Urlich kit I got about 20 years ago, but by the time I got the doors lettered, one by one, it was time for a shot of Jack Daniels.

 

[Midnught Special]

I just collect cars when ever I find them, some I find in local craft stores, other toy stores, and some at the local hobby shops...so I just pick them up when possible, granted some arn't as detailed as some of the others but oh well....

most ive spent was maybe $10 so far and I got a small collection of cars!!

 

[stang_crazy]

For the your regular HO scale cars and trucks I can see $5-10 and $10+ for say construction equipment, semi trucks etc..

But when a 2011 F250 is $15-20.00 Its rediculous Its not like the thing is complete diecast either. Ive been wanting to get a fleet of newer trucks to do in UP paint to put along the tracks etc for areas of repair stuff like that but with the costs ive not bought a single newer truck/car.

I know the market for Ho stuff is not as big as it is for say 1/64th up scales. But still come on a company can produce a complete diecast 1/64th scale vehicle thats pretty damn detailed for $5.00 and there lots of them that are limited to 5000, 10000 & 20000 pieces to.

How in the heck can this not be done for ho scale vehicles? Especially when they are mostly plastic?