Yea, but sometimes you need to know the answer now, that is the joy or pitfall of e-bay, sometimes things just pop-up due to different wording, like I find a Proto listed as Kadee because of a truck that was changed.
Obviously the producer(s) one purchases from has alot to do with the rolling stock a person wants, previous experience with that builder, etc. Very true that Athearn, Atlas and Intermountain (and others) have different tiers of rolling stock.
Sometimes, peeps who photograph rolling stock on the FF site don't get close enough for BLT dates. That's understandable to avoid trespassing or physical harm. However, asking the manufacter, or other forum members can often yield fairly accurate BLT dates.
kasskabooseAtlas and Athearn are more "kind" in providing BLT dates for their rolling stock. Knowing that is quite important for me also. Could you contact Intermountain and ask? Are you getting better deals for Intermountain through ebay than anywhere else? I found Intermountain ofter more expensive than Atlas or Athearn.
If you know the model of the freight car, you may want to check the fallen flags website as prototype images may shed some light as to the original builders date. http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ Hope this is what you're looking for.. Neal
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/
Hope this is what you're looking for..
Neal
FallenFlags is one of my "go-to" websites to check freight cars against models, although the build date may or may not be visible depending on the photo. However it's a great resource for vetting models. Although FF is not exhaustive, I've found sometimes if a model has a road number that is totally skipped in the list for a RR on FF, it's often because it's a fantasy road number the manufacturer made to offer a model in a paint scheme the real RR never had. But since FF is not comprehensive, a class may be missing from the photo's as well, especially photo's of older freight cars which tend to be harder to find. There are other photo resources out there but FF is one of the great ones.
kasskabooseAtlas and Athearn are more "kind" in providing BLT dates for their rolling stock. Knowing that is quite important for me also.
I also use the build dates but keep in mind they aren't always correct. E.g., Athearn announed a NACC 50' box car recently and it was labeled 5-66 on the artwork but the real car date was 2-67 - not off by much but folks on the Yahoo Groups email list caught the error and Athearn has been notified so hopefully they will correct that on the production model due out next fall. Check prototype photo's if you want to be 100% sure, or at least 99.99%.
I found Intermountain ofter more expensive than Atlas or Athearn.
Discount prices of Intermountains nice freight cars mostly in the $25-30 range at many vendors such as MBK etc. Athearn and Atlas are in a similar range I've found. These days the discount prices of Intermountain, Athearn and Atlas are all very close, depending on the model.
Keep in mind also Atlas and Athearn have some different tiers for example, such as Atlas Master, Atlas Trainman - the former being more basic, usually having molded on details vs. seperately applied finer details, and more expensive.
Somewhat confusingly, Athearn RTR has various ranges within that category that vary on level of detail and price but discount prices are generally close to those of Intermountain - e.g. the Athearn RTR FMC hopper (formerly MDC) is $34.98, discount will be around $25; OTOH, they can be a good deal more expensive too such as the RTR GATC Airslide MRSP is $48.98, probbably the discount will be around $35ish - thats an RTR car, not even Genesis! The discount price of the GATC Airslide is much more expensive than most Intermountain RTR cars.
So Intermountain cars can be cheaper than Athearn or at least in the same price range, that is if you are talking current production models. If you are looking at the secondary market, thats a different animal altogether.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
If you know the model of the freight car, you may want to check the fallen flags website as prototype images may shed some light as to the original builders date.
"BLT"
Are you talking "BLT" dates (to make sure the model fits your era), or build dates, as when the product was first released?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I don't know of that either and it would really come in handy. I was looking for some Intermountain reefers a couple months ago and found a store had some in stock from a past run. To verify, I just put in Intermoutain and the stock number in, and I got hits on Google which gave photo's and info from dealers who had stocked them in the past. Not a list I know, but I was able to verify the information I needed to give me the warm fuzzies and photo's that I could view and sometimes enlarge.
Hello,
Intermountain lists what's not available any more in their product list. Usually states' Contact your dealer' meaning they're not available. Not sure how far you're going back or how far they go back. You can always e-mail them to see if they have a list.
On my e-bay searches I sometime have trouble fiquring what I am bidding for as far as build dates and things (yes I know I can ask but many times no time available). For Atlas they list past productions but Intermountain dose not.