I chose 1990 to be the era for my Chicago industrial layout, (EJ&E) namely it's the last year I can see that Santa Fe still had the headlights on the top of the cab and not on the nose, I really don't feel like modifing them all, but it was also the year I got into model railroading as a hobby. I see a lot of modern (late 90's to today) and 50's era stuff but not much 80's stuff. Of course I can have cars older than 1990 as not eveyone drives a brand new car.
Any help would be apreciated.
Mentioning the scale you're looking for would probably help get you more useful answers.
Walthers or any Walthers dealer ought to be able to get you the following:
Fresh Cherries has a 1981 Ford Escort, a 1984 Ford Tempo and a 1982 Honda Accord, all three available in at least 2 colors. Like you mentioned, you can also use some of the 1970s Fresh Cherries.
Atlas released the 1978 Ford Fairmonts in both the sedan and wagon models in several colors. While I'm not a Fairmont expert, if memory serves, you could easily use these as '80s models.
Atlas also makes the 1984 Ford tractor for your tractor-trailer needs.
Busch also makes a Ford Escort. Top up and top down.
Herpa offers an '80s ZR1 Corvette, Buick Grand National and a 1985 Camaro. Page 741 of the 2008 Walthers reference book. They also have an '89 Ford Thunderbird.
Ricko released a 1986 Ford RS2000.
Trident has '80s era Chevy pick-ups and vans in various styles.
I'm sure there's more, but there is a start for you.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I see a lot of modern (late 90's to today) and 50's era stuff but not much 80's stuff.
That's because we're trying to forget the kind of garbage auto makers prduced back then.
Well... Drat!
I was going to mention that I, too, am having difficulty finding 80's and 90's vehicles-- particularly scale donkey's and mules to pull the street trolley's, but not only am I N-scale, but apparently had the wrong Century.
Crews
loathar wrote:I see a lot of modern (late 90's to today) and 50's era stuff but not much 80's stuff.That's because we're trying to forget the kind of garbage auto makers prduced back then.
Thanks guys, that's a good start. And hey the GP50 was somthing good that came out of the 80s, on my layout, it's just 5 years old.
Here's an 'engineer's view' video tour of my layout so far
http://www.youtube.com/jamesmiltoncox
It's a bit hard to see in spots, cell phone video has it's limits.
I was also going to suggest Wal-Mart for vehicles. The have the Fresh Cherrie, Malibu Intl. and Reel Rides to name a few. They also had some vans, but those seem to be hard to find now. The Malibu cars at a few WM's are at $1.00 each and I think $5-$7 for 5 packs and cars with trailers.
I have spent a small fortune on those cars, and I only have a 2'x16' set of modules with 1 road lol. No place to put them all.