One person noted Athearn - based in sourthern California - leans toward road names based in it's home area. I agree, it does seem Athearn tends to offer more western roads, which is probably why I own so much Athearn stuff.
That said, Atlas, based in NJ seems to focus more on eastern stuff - fair is fair after all!
ExactRail seems to lean slightly west but offer a good mix.
Tangent, eastern but mix it up too.
Intermountain - based in Colorado, leans western. (consequently I have a goodly amount of their products).
Walthers, based in the middle of the country spreads it out evently.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Good ole MDC was the one manufacturer that stands out as having served the steam loco narrow gauge kit market. Not a big deal, but they did it while no one else did. That little consol, alone, dragged a few poor folks, like me into the narrow gauge when I did not have "brass money". For that MDC will always be looked on in a good light by this man.
Their pricing was always right, too. A lot of their stuff got bashed into something better or completely different, but they stood up and supplied a good base to start you off.
They made good stuff provided you also used the NWSL gearing kits to make them perform far better than the original gearing supplied.
This was an interest posting. I never thought about manufacter bias, road wise. I guess this is because I never ran a named road loco on any of my layouts over the years, always labeling the locos and some cars to my personal road's name.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
I think in the early days, manufacturers favored local roads because they were easier to see and measure. Also saved money and time not having to travel somewhere else.
And of course, regardless of the actual prototype most manufacturers will have their engines decorated for PRR and Sante Fe as well as other popular roads like B&O, Southern (It seems like every lcomotive has a green version!), etc. IIRC there were IHC GG1's in SP colors as well as many other roads that never had them.
Enjoy
Paul
never mind
tomikawaTTMost of the manuufacturers who contributed products to my roster concentrated on rolling stock of a single railroad. But then, the Japan National Railways (earlier Imperial Government Railways) were a Government owned monopoly...
Check,
Good one. The two of us came up with two entirely different ways to break the paradigm settling in here.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Well, there is an entire scale/gauge combination that favors one railroad. Some people say anything with n3 after it has a sweet spot for it. Many of them say it happily. Others just growl it out between clenched teeth.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Rio Grande narrowgauge modeling...
Most of the manuufacturers who contributed products to my roster concentrated on rolling stock of a single railroad.
But then, the Japan National Railways (earlier Imperial Government Railways) were a Government owned monopoly...
About the Little Monster - it was a Vulcan, drawings made by Linn Westcott. When he drew it, he whimsically added the herald and name North-West RR (his layout at the time.) Later a RTR version appeared - with the model herald.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
While not limited to one railroad Eastern Seaboard Modeles (ESM) freight cars are almost all east coast prototypes. http://www.esmc.com/InStock.html
Rapido - already mentioned- specializes in Canadian prototypes. http://www.rapidotrains.com/ Although they offer some US prototypes too.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
The general thought is that Mantua favored Reading not just due to geography but because those big fireboxes were good for hiding motors at a time when lots of manufacturers were scratching their heads about how to get 6v or 12v motors into HO and OO scale steam locomotive boilers.
Walthers back in their wood and metal kit era had lots of passenger cars but they also focused on North Shore Line interurban cars, due to the local (MIlwaukee) interest those cars had.
While the colorful and eye catching Santa Fe paint scheme undoubtedly had an influence in Lionel's decision to offer it with their famous and impressive O scale F unit diesel, let's not forget that Santa Fe also helped pay for the tooling (so did NYC and Lionel offered the F unit painted for the Central too -- I seem to recall EMD chipped in too).
Roundhouse/Model Die Casting was another west coast firm that seemed to focus on Southern Pacific and Santa Fe steam locomotive prototypes.
Dave Nelson
The Little Monster was based on a Linn Westcott scale drawing in a very early version of the MR Cyclopedia, and I understand it was based on a Vulcan 0-4-2T. A US Navy engine may have been the prototype. The Athearn 0-4-2T was oversized so they could fit a motor into it. A correctly scaled brass version of the same engine was imported by Gem and others (International?) starting in the late 1950's. The brass one was a real cutie pie! As for the Athearn B&M 4-6-2, I think Al Armitage, a B&M fan, was doing some design work for Athearn around that time, but I can't document that.
I don't claim any of these companies focused on one road to the exclusion of all others, with the possible exception of Penn Line. But the owners' biases weren't hard to see. I'm not criticizing that, BTW.
Tom
While there's no doubt that most of Athearn's offerings were rooted in Southern California, for a brief time they offered a couple of steam locomotives. The Little Monster 0-4-2 tank loco didn't seem to have a specific prototype, but the 4-6-2 Pacific type they made was a Boston and Maine prototype to the best of my knowledge.
Even though PFM made a large chunk of GN locos, they had Santa Fe and a few other roads. In the early 60s, one of their most popular locos was the Maryland and Pennsylvania 2-8-0. It seemed that there wasn't one issue of MR back then that didn't have one in the pictures.
I don't think it really matters if the mfr favors one road over another.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Don't forget it's a business so the manufacturer is going to make what sells. A smaller outfit like Rapido may look at the market and say this railroad and equipment is underserved, let's try serving a niche.
This then gives rise to the pre-order.If the manufacturer doesn't get enough pre-orders, they cancel the production.
Another factor comes into play and that is the licensing of the name. So for example, if you'd like to make some Union Pacific items you have to pay them to use their name and logo. Maybe you're too small an outfit to afford what they want for a license.
And just because a railroad is long out of business doesn't mean that someone doesn't own the rights to that railroad's name
Derek
Generally, every manufacturer favors the railroads that they make models for. That leaves out everything they do NOT make models for.
Of course, it's still possible to make whatever models you want. You can either scratchbuild them or start your own company to build the models you want produced.
In a lot of life, these sorts of popularity contests are really unfair. In model railroading, they're kind of necessary, because you gotta sell enough of whatever to stay in business.
Sure.
Long before BLI, Penn Line (Boyertown, PA at the time) specialized in PRR, with good models of their 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-10-0, 4-4-2, 4-6-2, and 4-4-4-4, plus a somewhat shortened GG1. Bowser (also based in Pa.) eventually bought these, plus others, and added PRR 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 switchers, and a PRR 4-6-0.
Mantua, based in New Jersey, favored Reading, with early brass kits for an 0-4-0 camelback, a 4-6-2, and, later, an I-10 2-8-0. Their diecast B&O Pacific, generic Mikado, and generic switchers came later. The Mantua 4-wheel bobber caboose was based on a Reading prototype.
I've been told the molded-in details on the original Athearn Geep are strictly S.P., reflecting Irv Athearn's Southern California roots. The classic Athearn long caboose and boxcar are supposedly based on Santa Fe prototypes, and I think the Athearn tank car is based on an S.P. or A.T.& S.F. prototype.
If you look at the early P.F.M. catalogs and production lists of P.F.M. imports over the years, you can see that there is a very heavy concentration on Great Northern prototypes. P.F.M. was based in Edmonds, WA.
Balboa, an importer based in California, focused heavily on California railroads, and Hallmark, based in Texas, focused on previously ignored prototypes that operated in and near Texas.
Since many --- probably most --- of these companies were started by people who started out as modelers, it should be no surprise that they produced the items of greatest interest to themselves. That was probably a good thing since those were the prototypes they knew best and could do the best job on. When I see an inaccurate B&O model (and there are many), I wish somebody based in Maryland had gone into importing, big-time.
(edited)
BroadwayLionTypically, makers of toy train sets went with the Santa Fe, nothing sells like a war bonnet. Bright colors, and SF had them.
I resemble that remark!
When I was 8 yrs old and I told my dad I wanted a diesel loco for my lionel set, he urged me to get a C&O GP9 because those were seen all throughout Michigan. But I insisted on the ATSF War Bonnet F3 A-A set.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Pennsylvania was just an outright huge company with an enormous fleet. It's unavoidable that they be the lion's share of almost any makers catalog
Typically, makers of toy train sets went with the Santa Fe, nothing sells like a war bonnet. Bright colors, and SF had them.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
As I wait for BLI to release the long awaited GN S2 steam locomotive I have a question.
In reviewing their catalogues from the last several years it is evident that they have released far more Pennsylvania Railroad engines that any other railroad engines.
They have in the past produced other engine prottypes for the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific as well as a number of URSA models. But it is evident that the Pennsy is their favorite.
Is anyone aware of other model railroad manufacturers who favored one railroad over all others?
Is anyone aware if say Tyco or Mantua favored anyone railroad, or MDC, Roundhouse, Athearn or any other manufacture.