The High Cost of Model Railroading


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

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Hello Forum Members:

Is it me or are prices increasing every year for model railroad locos and freight cars? I know the value of a dollar is lower than in previous years, but $27.00 plus for a RTR freight cars seems expensive and maybe pricing younger modelers or those on limited budgets out of the hobby.

I was at a local train show in June and purchased 10 freight cars, Blue Boxes, that had KD couplers, metal wheels, nicely weathered for $75.00. Granted not highly detailed models, but still look nice in a freight train or parked in a yard on my layout. Worth the cost of the wheel sets and couplers alone!

I have a fleet of KD freight cars that are great detailed models, but at a price.

Is it time to bring back the Athearn Blue Box kits and lower the cost of model railroading?

My 2 cents worth.

Greg
 
The market is flooded with low-cost model railroading supplies. I built my entire set up for the first year on nothing but. Still do actually. You have to search Ebay, train shows and your local hobby shop for bargins. I picked up a brass 0-6-0T that didn't work for $20.00. It took me four hours of rewiring to get the DCC crap out of it, but it's probably the nicest engine I have going right now.

It's all about patience and time.
 
There are some low price items available, if you want to hunt for them. I will agree that the prices are going up and up, but I am comparing todays prices to items available 20 to 25 years ago. Years back I bought a brass Northern Pacific Z-5 Yellowstone (unpainted, but I did custom paint it) for less than what I see Athearn Challengers selling for now. Todays rolling stock is priced higher than they were years ago, but the details are a lot better too. The biggest majority of my rolling stock is old AthearnBlue Box that I acquired many years ago, and have all been weathers, as a well as many of them custom painted for my freelanced railroad.

A majority of the better locomotives (HO scale) are now available either with DCC, DCC & sound, or DCC ready. This is a bummer for me as I still operate with DC, and I am not willing to pay for DCC features when I can't use them. Also, the running quality of the modern locomotives are for the most part far superior to what was available years ago. This is one of the major reasons I changed from N scale to HO scale. N scale back in the 70's were what I would call garbage for the most part, not like the great running locomotives that are on todays market. With improvement, up gp pthe prices.
 
Forum:

One last comment. I purchased at a local hobby shop a custom painted Athearn Blue Box DMIR caboose that had perfect lettering, safety strips on the rear end, metal wheel sets, even the hand rails had safety markings and KD couplers for $17.00. Whom ever did this work provided me with a top quality model for little modeled road. Now, I will add marker lights and the model will be complete.

Greg
 
Motley said:
This discussion about expense of the hobby is getting old. At least once a month. Geeez
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Not just here, but on every model r ail road forum I belong to.
That, and of course, t he hobby is dying.
Oh, and all the new Chinese stuff is crap.
I'm sure I left a few out, but these seem to be the ones that float to the surface most often.
 
Yes, the hobby darned well IS getting more and more expensive. Just like everything else in niche markets. So, like responsible adults, we should spend less, spend more prudently, withhold our purchase dollars until prices come down (you don't even need to hold your breath for more than about six months, either), choose our purchases carefully, even if by pre-ordering to assure ourselves of having the items we want [notice I didn't insult anyone by using the term 'need'...it's a hobby after all!], and so on.

As they say in Readers' Digest...life's like that.
 
Greg@mnrr said:
I purchased at a local hobby shop a custom painted Athearn Blue Box DMIR caboose that had perfect lettering, safety strips on the rear end, metal wheel sets, even the hand rails had safety markings and KD couplers for $17.00.
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Yup and 20 years ago that would have been an outrageous price.
 
Rant alert!

I've been saying this for years, that if you want to cut your expenses, stop buying RTR. The most I've ever paid for a car is $37.00, which was an Intermountain hopper. I bought it to compare with some kit builts I had, and it turned out the Intermountain was an assembled Tichy kit. In fact it was the same kit that I paid $35.00 for 5 of the same kit at a train show.

There are still many, many manufacturers of car kits out their at very reasonable prices. I see hundreds of Athearn BB at shows, for $7-8 each. Accurail and Bowser kits are still there as well at very reasonable prices. All of these were just the "shake the box" kits. You want more of a challenge, Red Caboose is still out there, along with the old Branchline kits now available through Atlas. You can also still find many Intermountain, and their predecessor IMWX. KD has even offered their highly detail cars as undec kits for almost half of their assembled cars. Want more challenge or just a change try the old wooden kits from Ye Olde Huff & Puff.

These kits are all from the older wood craftsman type kits from Silver Streak, Mainline Models, some Ambroid and Northeastern as well. These kits can all be had for under $15-20 new and even cheaper at shows, E-bay etc. The ultimate in kits are now the resin based kits. These can range in price from $20-65. Generally on these cars, they're models of specific cars on specific RR's that aren't available any other way. These cars are all highly detailed, and some manufacturers even offer 2 in 1 kits. That is 2 kits in one box. These kits are the type that there is no additional detail to add, because its already there. Many kits even allow you to build similar cars from other lines. The decals to do are in the kit as well. These manufacturers include such companies as Funaro & Camerlengo, Westerfield, Yankee Clipper, Wright Track and Sunshine.

You can keep buying those high price RTR cars, or you can go back to building kits, cutting your expenses by more than half. If enough people go back to kit building, I bet the prices of RTR will come down, and MAYBE, just MAYBE more kits will appear on the markets at reasonable prices.

Oh and BTW, I own about 10, or 12 RTR. These were all gifts except for the IM car, that was a preassembled Tichy.

Rant off!
If I have offended anyone I apologize. Everything I've said in this post was my own opinion.
 
dmirguy:

Here's a photo of DMIR caboose. I didn't use the camera that I normally used. The model needs a coat of DullCote to reduce the fresh from the shops look. Thye 26' ore car still needs a "wash" to reduce the overall effects. Will send a private email to your message site on this forum.

Thanks.

Greg

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My problem is I can't buy all the amazing deals found on ebay everyday.......but I do get my fair share at least anyway.
 
I was working for one of the San Francisco Hobby Shops and could see the prices of the Brass trains climbing up and up with every new order. When I saw the Kato models and said to myself "This is the death knell for brass" I was somewhat right, but now am wondering if this steady price increase will kill the hobby overall?
 
I think the products are evolving with the market. Consider this. The pace of life has increased 10 fold? since model trains became a pastime. Scratchbuilding and/or kit building requires a fair amount of spare time and most today don't have that anymore, so the attraction of highly detailed models that give instant gratification are a blessing to a lot of modern hobbyists (including me, and if I ever thought I'd have lots of spare time in retirement, boy, was I ever wrong). Manufacturers have just responded to that demand and in the process have probably created more hobbyists and model rail fans by doing so. If they had stuck with the old ways of "blue box" etc, I think commercial manufacturing (including kits) would be long dead and buried.
 
Toot, you are exactly right! I've been saying this myself every time this discussion comes up. The manufacturers are following the market. For those who want Blue Box, there is tons of it out there, "new" old stock, swap meets, train shows, estate sales, and the list goes on. It's easy to find. As for me, I'm relieved that I don't have to build every freight or passenger car. It gives me time to build structures, scenery, and so on. What many don't realize is that once all that old BB stuff on hand when Athearn was bought was sold, even if it was decided to keep it, it would have been more expensive. Look at the old "shorty" trailers. Used to be $6.95 for 6 or so in a box. Now $14.95 or so for two on a card. Same model!

In any hobby, the rule is: "If you wanna play, you gotta pay!" The uptick in quality is well worth the extra bucks, especially if you index for inflation.
 
I will have to agree with Espeefan. I have seen tons of blue box equipment on ebay and I am sure it can be found at swap meets if you are in an area where they have them. A lot of the newer equipment on the market is to me, way too expensive, but I built up my rolling stock and locomotives years ago at a fraction of what it would cost me if I were to have to do it today. I haven't seen the inside of a model railroad hobby shop for years so I couldn't make any statements on what's happening for inventory, but I ma sure that there are still lower priced equipment avaiable. I still have a number of Tichy freight cars I haven't even built yet, and I don't know if I will even need them.

The only thing that I am in need of is possibly a couple of 2-8-2's and that could be pricey as I haven't seen anything from the likes of Athearn or Bachmann. I have seen some more expensive offerings from BLI and such, but can't see paying for the DCC features because I am still running DC.
 
yes, and you could get a good car for under 10k, gas was under a buck and a newly nminted mechanical engineer was paid about 13k a year. That was 1977. You think all those costs to make those kits haven't gone up too? Has no one who makes model trains received a raise in 35 years? Have you?
 
kenw said:
Has no one who makes model trains received a raise in 35 years? Have you?
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I'd have to say I've only been hurt financially over the past 5-7 years after 30 years in IT. But I contribute most of that to a former president that opened the flood gates to foreigners and depressed wages in the field. That's what we get for electing an attorney to office though lol. All I can do now is laugh, hope, and push forward.
 
Maybe N scale is different but when I started to buy my train gear in january 2012 I was fortunate to find a one man dealer in used N only just when his inventory had exactly what I needed. Lots of railcars of all types for $3 each. Turnouts for $4. Atlas engines for $30. I quickly made online friends who offered me other great stuff for the price of shipping (much appreciated! ;)).

By now I'm up to speed on prices and where to get new retail equipment. I do notice price increases on atlas and others........yet I see so many low cost options......the hobby seems assured to stay affordable for the fore-see-able future.
 
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