Ertl HO gauge trains

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any information on or opinions of ERTL HO gauge trains. I understand they were manufactured in 1997-98 and included a boxcar, a flatcar and a gondola, as well as "loads" for these. Were there plans for other cars? How do these stack up with other "detailed" brands of ready-to-run cars?
Thanks- Richard

[Anonymous]

I have never herad of them in my 13 years in the hobby

[pbjwilson]

I saw the Ertl products at my local hobby shop several years ago. I remember them being marked down for clearence. They appeared to be nice models with weathered trucks, loads on flat cars and well detailed. That was the only time I saw them and the only place I saw them. Ertl also came out with some buildings of the built-up variety. Never saw one in person but I can remember the ads in MR. Can't tell you what happened to the Ertl line. Maybe it just did't sell.

Paul the Painter

[nfmisso]

We have a few of the Ertl cars and a building or two.

They are nice looking, but leave a great deal to be desired as far as running qualities and prototype fidelity. They are grossly underweight, with plastic wheels. None of the them were modeled after any specific real prototype.

They were grossly over priced, but when cleared out for less than $5- it was another matter.

[Anonymous]

I talked to my hobby dealer about these cars, from him I was told that this was a one time run made in China. He can not get these anymore, they were sold for $6 a piece. All he has left are loads. Unless he drops the price on those he will have them a while. I've looked for more of these cars on the net and they are not to be found (perhaps on E-bay?).
I have a few of these cars (box, flat and gondola), and I will echo what Nigel said about them being grossly underweight. You really don't want to pull them anywhere except at the end of the line. The Box car's weight can be easily fixed if you want it to look empty by adding lead weights per the NMRA. The Gon and Flat however are more difficult to hide the weight. It's best to split the added weight over each of the truck. The Gon and Flat I had to add weight all over the place on the underside if I still wanted to keep them hidden. If you are planning loads however, the light weight is an asset if your loads are heavy. The wheels are plastic (as well as junk, IMHO), take them out and use them for a static display and replace them with steel wheels. While your at it, lube the axle pit before putting your new wheels in and they will run quite nicely.
As to if they are modeled after any specific prototype, Nigel perhaps spoke the truth. In all honesty, I don't know if any are like any specific prototype. I bought the cars because 1) I liked the way they looked, 2) I was trying to capture the feeling of a few old timers still serving time before being scrapped 3) They were cheap!

[Anonymous]

In addition to the freight cars, ERTL also made several vehicles in HO scale, much of it was modern equipment. They produced a 1948 Peterbilt semi, a Kenworth T600(?) semi, Dodge pickups, a John Deere Backhoe, John Deere Combine, John Deere 4020 tractor, a John Deere 8300? tractor, two different IH Case Maxxum tractors, and an International 1256 tractor.

They were all great models, its a shame ertl quit making them. They were last made in the late 90's. If you look around at hobby shops and train shows, youre bound to run into them

Here are pictures of some of these items:
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/photo23/dodge_dually.php
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/post.asp?method=Reply&TOPIC_ID=13088&FORUM_ID=88&S_ID=4
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/photo59/jd_310se.php

My favorte models are the backhoe and the combine.

Josh
Spokane, WA

[dknelson]

Ertl also made some interesting HO structures, both kit and built - up. I bought a farm house that is a very solid nice looking model. I got it at close out prices -- Ertl stuff was wildly over priced. Ertl primarily serves the collectible market and of course most HO scale modelers want to weather or modify their stuff reducing the collectible value considerably if not totally.
Another firm that is making HO scale models that are also collectibles is NorScot which makes a wonderful line of authorized Caterpillar equipment. Their prices are more reasonable.
Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

The Ertl cars were a VERY nice idea, but overpriced for their time. The MSRP for the cars were in the $30 range, making them the most expensive RTR cars of their day. They were underappreciated at the time, so sat on the shelves. When Ertl dumped the line and everyone had fire sales on the cars (generally at $9 a pop), I gobbled up all I could.

The best car of the bunch was the USRA double-sheath 40' box. Besides Westerfield resin, these are the most correct USRA box car models ever produced, and the best in plastic. They came with seperate grabs, a removable roof (Hutchins), and McHenry couplers. The grabs were a bit oversized, and the paint schemes were generally wrong, but they're still fantastic cars for $9. I have over 20 of them, and eventually plan to send most of them through the shop to get new grabs and paint. The cars had two problems: low weight and bad rolling properties. The weight is no problem, as the roof isn't glued on. The problem with rolling isn't the trucks, just the wheelsets and axles (some idiot painted them!) Replacing the stock wheelsets with Reboxx short axle wheelsets fixes the problem (the trucks are VERY nice castings, but are wrong for most versions of USRA boxcars. I've replaced most of them with Accurail Andrews trucks, moving the ACF trucks to other cars)

The 40' low-sided gondola is an ACL prototype, but almost matches the Lehigh Valley low-side gons (my father, a sage in all things LV, couldn't tell what was wrong with the cars without taking a blueprint and ruler to them! He says at that point, who cares?) The cars again suffer from bogus paint, low weight and bad wheelsets. On the other hand, they have the same high level of detailing as the boxcars. I've got fewer of these cars, and plan on repainting all of them into LV colors.

The 40' flat is basically a rip off of the Tichy flat, which is an ACL prototype. It's still a nice car, and cheaper than the Tichy model. The paint schemes are horribly wrong. Adding weight is nearly impossible for this tiny car. Adding Kadee trucks would help, but they roll loke sleds. Adding a weighted load is basically the only option to add weight to the cars.

In sum, these are fantastic steam-era prototype cars, and well worth the investment if you can find them for the $10 and under fire sale price. Their main problems were low weight, bad wheelsets, and hokey paint (actually, the weathering was worse than the stock paint schemes!) Too bad they were ahead of their time. If they had come out today, modelers wouldn't flinch at their price, and Ertl might have come out with more of these accurate models.

[Anonymous]

I have seen these at farm toy shows and also at a farm toy closeout store in Dyersville, Iowa which is the home of Ertl. None of the Ertl products are made there anymore, all are now made in Mexico or China. The farm toy store also had some Woodland Scenics products.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your information and opinions! I now know quite a bit more about the Ertl line. And yes, these are available on EBay, generally in the $8-10 price range, but sometimes more.
Cheers- Richard

[Eriediamond]

I've not seen or even heard of Ertl HO rolling stock until on this forum, so can not give any response from experience with that product. This is only an opinion of why Ertl dropped out of the train market. I believe Ertl is in the "diecast" business, producing toys and collectables as their main interest. It appears to me their production is geared towards "limited" run operations. Purhaps Ertl felt it wasn't in their best interest to funnel funds into producing model railroad products that would meet our standards and pocket books. I know if I had a succesful business, I would be very hesitant to branch out into another product line that was already out there unless I had a very superior product to offer at a competitive price. Anyhow this is just an opinion why Ertl isn't in the model railroad business.

[dknelson]

Most Ertl stuff is approximately S scale 1:64.
By the way an old way of adding some weight to a car when adding weight is "impossible" is to wrap lead solder around the axles. Of course these days solder is lighter than it used to be
Dave Nelson