Maybe it's me, I am having a hard time finding HO scale RTR modern autorack rolling stock. I was at a local train show a couple of weeks ago and couldn't find any. E bay had used ones that were high priced which I expected. I asked 2 of the vendors at the show and they said they are scarce but he had some Accurail kits. I also checked Walthers and MB Klein. I hope I'm wrong and didn't look for them at the right place.
About the only one that makes them RTR to My knowledge now is Intermountain:
https://www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/hoautoracks.htm
Walthers did make Autoracks in the 90's, but they were kits.......I have a few.
Walthers did carry the Intermountain autoracks, but they are out of stock, that tells Me that they probably will not carry them anymore. They are great looking highly detailed cars...but be ready to pay out the backside for them......not cheap by any means.
https://www.walthers.com/intermountain-railway-company/scale/ho-scale/page/9
Take Care!
Frank
Atlas has made these:
They've brought them in 5 times, so far. Last time was 2015, so sales must have been dropping.
And Athearn did these:
The last time was in 2007, so they really ought to do them again. Maybe.
I keep noticing the "old" style of rack car, and wondered why they're still around. One reason could be that they really aren't damaged by their loads, unlike many other freight cars. More the other way around. And their loads are really light (very roughly 70,000 pounds), which must also contribute to their durability. And their loads are valuable, which makes THEM valuable, when they're loaded.
Ed
Walthers made HO scale BiLevel kits back in the 1990s but they also had TriLevel cars that were ready to run. These were a little bit nicer than the kits. I'm sure that both are out of production but can still be found on eBay. The original price was $20 for the kits, $25 for the Ready to Run.
BiLevel
TriLevel
Yeah, I've got a bunch of those Walters RTR cars down in the basement. Waiting to come out of their little houses. I got them on a Walthers sale. Apparently they were overstocked, and no one was buying. Hence, the sale.
Willy6,
Welcome to the "new normal" of model railroading. We are currently in the realm of "if you see it and want it, you'd better get it while you see it".
In today's world, manufacturers seem to have found that offering items for a limited time eliminates the need for warehouses to hold enough of their offerings to keep them on the dealer's shelves until the next production run. That reduces their overhead as far as facility footprint, personnel, and equipment to handle stock are concerned. There is much less to inventory and insure if most of the product line is on the dealer's shelf, hence the prevalence of the good ol' hated "Out of stock" sticker on that item you were unable to get in the quantity you wanted or, missed out on entirely.
When or if, another run occurs, count on a hike in price and continued limited run practices. Some manufacturers use the interval between runs to improve the item, many don't. During the years between runs, advancements in the hobby maymake the item much less desirable than it was when the "out of stock" banner was hoisted. Sometimes the wait is measured in decades and that item that was the rave when introduced doesn't generate a shoulder shrug 20 years later. Maybe that is one of the reasons that subsequent runs of some items are cancelled.
This leaves us in a world of pre-orders that get cancelled due to less interest than expected, long waits for reruns that do occur, and mad scrambles to get what we want when they do materialize.
Since we modellers can't do very much about this business model, no matter how much we dislike it, when an item is announced, (no manufacturer dives in without a pre-order announcement), figure out how many you want, how many you can afford, and start your procurement fund. That's the way I avoid the "out of stock" sign on the items I "have" to have. Personally, I hate pre-orders, especially when a deposit is required for something that may NEVER be made or, takes years to finally become available.
I agree with You 100%.......no one warehouse's anymore......not in this hobby anyway.
7j43k I keep noticing the "old" style of rack car, and wondered why they're still around. One reason could be that they really aren't damaged by their loads, unlike many other freight cars. More the other way around. And their loads are really light (very roughly 70,000 pounds), which must also contribute to their durability. And their loads are valuable, which makes THEM valuable, when they're loaded
I keep noticing the "old" style of rack car, and wondered why they're still around. One reason could be that they really aren't damaged by their loads, unlike many other freight cars. More the other way around. And their loads are really light (very roughly 70,000 pounds), which must also contribute to their durability. And their loads are valuable, which makes THEM valuable, when they're loaded
I assume by that you mean the standard single unit 2- or 3- level fully enclosed autorack.
The two-unit articulated cars shown in the post above were never built in huge numbers, and the single unit car is still the industry standard and new ones built by the hundreds and thousands every year.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
There are a number of RTR as well as kits currently on e-bay
search “hi scale auto racks”
I just looked at Ebay, as I did yesterday, and the kits are for the older "open" style racks, and what very few of the 89' enclosed "modern" racks are priced from $70 to $109.
There always used to be pages of them, now there is barely 4 pages, mostly the older kits.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewi I just looked at Ebay, as I did yesterday, and the kits are for the older "open" style racks, and what very few of the 89' enclosed "modern" racks are priced from $70 to $109. There always used to be pages of them, now there is barely 4 pages, mostly the older kits. Mike.
Since I have back dated, I've found most of the fully enclosed HO auto racks are too "modern" for me now, but I have checked to see what is availalbe on Ebay when the subject of lack of autoracks comes up, or the high prices of them.
Yes, I agree with mbinsewi, usually most of the enclosed autoracks on Ebay, including Walthers kits, are priced on the high side. Sure, if you check Ebay several times a week, you may have a shot at one or two Walthers enclosed autoracks in the $20-30 price range but generally most of them are a good deal more expensive.
Since Walthers seems to have stopped producing enclosed autoracks for some time now, what is out there has gotten more expensive. Supply and demand. I have sold a few of mine for around $25 (assembled Walthers kits) but have hung onto a few despite them being a few years past my modeling time frame for now, partly due to the higher cost to replace.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Two more sources for HO scale autoracks. Athearn had an open tri-level built on the F-89F flatcar in their Genesis line and Overland imported some brass ones during the late 1980s, including SP enclosed tri-levels with the wire mesh ends, enclosed tri-levels with the "ski" end closures, as well as generic enclosed cars.
Those articulated cars share the same short-coming of every articulated or semi-permanently coupled piece of rolling stock to ever appear--when there is a problem that causes one unit to go out of service, the ones without problems are out of service along with the defective one.
NHTX
I agree 100% with what you said, Basically if you snooze, you lose. I posted some time ago about the time years ago Athearn came out with the R Mack tow trucks, I snoozed and lost. When I finally found some on E-bay, they were 2-3 times MSRP. The basic law of economics...supply and demand.
NHTX Two more sources for HO scale autoracks. Athearn had an open tri-level built on the F-89F flatcar in their Genesis line
Two more sources for HO scale autoracks. Athearn had an open tri-level built on the F-89F flatcar in their Genesis line
The original poster was looking for "modern" autoracks so assuming by modern he means last 30 years or less, the Genesis open racks are probably too old and out of scope. Except for the Southern bilevel, which came with side panels, the open versions we're probably no longer running open past the mid 1980s or very rare by then, assuming the open is wanting "typical"
There is a yahoo group called something like HO swap. You can easily get a free membership to yahoo and use it for buying/selling. I've used it for buying N&W cars and made some fantastic purchases.
On the site, you can tell folks what you need and provide an email address to contact you further to discuss shipping, prices, availability, etc. You draw interst from starting messages with WTB or WTS (want to buy or want to sell, respectively). Plenty of poeple stratch their "gotta-have" itch and now have surpluses. You also have folks selling to down grade their fretght car herds, change eras, etc.
That's a good idea Kass, they're not in Yahoo any more. They move to Groupsio.
https://groups.io/search?q=HO+swap
cv_acr The two-unit articulated cars shown in the post above were never built in huge numbers...
The two-unit articulated cars shown in the post above were never built in huge numbers...
True.
And yet there are trains like this:
and