My new layout is going to be based on Union Pacific in the mid fifties and it is being designed to be able to run fairly long trains (30-35 car). One of the main focuses of the layout operation is going to be hauling coal. I would like to run about 4 or 5 (long) UP coal trains during operating sessions (and 2 Utah Railway coal trains but that's a story for another day).
I currently only own about 30 UP coal hoppers so I would like to acquire another 120 or more over the next year to 2.
What sort of strategies have you guys used to acquire a large number of a particular rolling stock item? (Preferably without spending $25-$30 per hopper! I could live with $10-$15/per) There's train shows (not many here in Central Florida), e-bay, and ????
Has anyone ever gone to a manufacturer like Bowser and tried to order 150 or 200 of an item?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Modeling an HO gauge freelance version of the Union Pacific Oregon Short Line and the Utah Railway around 1957 in a world where Pirates from the Great Salt Lake founded Ogden, UT.
- Photo album of layout construction -
Bowser will do special runs of cars - so doing UP would not be out of the question.
Walthers has some of the new Rotary Gon coal cars in 5 paks too.
Way back in 2003 - Bowser had 12 pak car kits available and I purchased quite a number to build my Coal Hopper Fleet of 300 plus cars.
Give Bowser a call - you will get a answer real quick one way or the other.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Most Accurail car kits I have include a 'coupon' for extra numbers on matching backgrounds. IIRC, they were $3 each...
Accurail does a lot of work for Historical Groups - I suspect a 120-150 car order will get their attention!
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Some manufacturers have expressed a willingness to quote large production runs, particularly for clubs and special projects. It wouldn't hurt to ask your preferred manufacturer if they would be willing to do a special run, the minimum number of units they would require, scheduling, and how much of a deposit would be needed.
It might also be wise to ask friends if they would be willing to go in on a project like this.
Dan
I also post over on Trainboard. They have arranged for a special run of 300 N-scale cars from Micro Trains. You might take a side trip over there and see if you can get some information. If you look through MR, you will sometimes find small ads for "club specials" which are the same thing - special runs.
Since you're not looking for special artwork, I think a number of the manufacturers would be happy to satisfy your order. I'm not sure about that many car numbers, but if it were me, I'd ask for unnumbered cars and then print a set of my own decals. To do that many cars, you want each decal to be the whole 4 or 5 digit number. Assembling each number digit by digit would be painful.
I would definitely ask the made-in-the-US manufacturers first.
What scale, by the way?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Onewolf My new layout is going to be based on Union Pacific in the mid fifties and it is being designed to be able to run fairly long trains (30-35 car). One of the main focuses of the layout operation is going to be hauling coal. I would like to run about 4 or 5 (long) UP coal trains during operating sessions (and 2 Utah Railway coal trains but that's a story for another day). I currently only own about 30 UP coal hoppers so I would like to acquire another 120 or more over the next year to 2. What sort of strategies have you guys used to acquire a large number of a particular rolling stock item? (Preferably without spending $25-$30 per hopper! I could live with $10-$15/per) There's train shows (not many here in Central Florida), e-bay, and ???? Thanks for any suggestions.
Do you care how accurate the cars are - as that is part of the picture. If you are talking about mid-1950's, thats going to rule out some of the models from the start, such as the rotary gons, some of the Bower gons, the Tangent 4-bay gons (1970's) and so on and so forth.
I'd say for 1950's your looking at the former Stewart gons that Bowser now sells, Accurail, Athearn and a few others.
Since you mentioned Utah Rwy, I too am modeling a Utah Rwy coal train as they shared rails with D&RGW before the trains were went onto the UP. For a 70's Utah coal train, I'm using the Bower 3-bay 100 ton hoppers and some Tangent 4-bay hoppers and a few older hoppers mixed in. BTW, Moloco is going to be offering Utah Rwy 3-bay hoppers soon.
Cheers
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I believe that it was recently established in the Prototype Info section that gondolas would be most appropriate for your era and locale. While both Accurail and Bowser do offer gondolas, none of them are of the drop-door or drop-bottom type.As was mentioned in the other thread, Intermountain or Detail Associates may be your best hope - if it's an option, buying them as kits might save you some money, too.Walthers also offered a USRA composite drop-door gondola, but I can't say if it's currently available.On the other hand, it you're bent on having hoppers, Bowser and Accurail both have several options. You'll have to determine which best suit your needs and budget - both companies offer them as kits, too.
Wayne
If you're hauling coal on many western roads in the steam era, drop-bottom gons could be far more common than hoppers. Utah Railway, UP and D&RGW used them extensively.
Rob Spangler
Red Caboose/Intermountain offers GS gons that may serve. I[m not sure how close they are to UP. They're 2' short of the Rio Grande's length, but who's counting on a black car anyway?
If they do run UP cars, they should be issuing new runs with different numbers periodically. That's what's happened with the Rio Grande, SP, and some others. It took me about 3 years to acquire the 4 dozen or so I have, so this could spread out the cost for you if that's a factor.
Some cars may also be available as kits if preordered, which could save you more money (but also require a lot of kit building, so YMMV.)
If you do get in a situation where you have to order more than you need in order to make a minimum order, keep in mind you could sell the excess via ebay.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
One thing I would add if you decide to go the bulk order route is to make sure all the specs on the cars are up to your standards. Otherwise, both your costs and the time you have to spend preparing your fleet could go up. Things like couplers and wheel sets, how the trucks are attached, how accurate the coupler height is out of the box etc.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I did this for ore cars many years ago when MDC kits retailed for about $4.50 ea. I solicited bids from several shops and wound up getting 100 for about $3.75 ea. These are old prices but it shows the percentage you might get.
My collection of rolling stock ballooned after discovering ebay. You can buy used rolling stock dirt cheap if you buy them in lots, or you can become the bargin hunter and buy individual cars for the opening bid (be careful what you pay for shipping). Personally I have a large fleet of mechanical reefers manufacured by Athearn. Many of them were painted by Bev Bel in various Pacific Fruit Express liveries. Some of them I bought from Longs Drug Store back in the day while many more were bought more recently on ebay. I think either Athearn of Bev Bel still makes runs for clubs. I have an Athearn reefer for Sierra Pacific Railroad I bought at their club. I have bought from other clubs online.
dinwittyWhy drop Gons than standard hoppers? My aquisitions have been ebay/ train shows, here and there, but those gons I have never seen.
Not sure as to why, but drop bottom gons were very common in the west. The UP, Utah Railway and D&RGW used them extensively into at least the 1960s.
I used this photo of the Utah Railway at Spring Canyon, UT on another thread http://donstrack.smugmug.com/UtahRails/UtahRailway/Utah-Railway-Miscellaneous/ . All of the coal hauling cars I can make out in this image are gons.
dinwittyWhy drop Gons than standard hoppers?
I've heard that western roads preferred them to hoppers. My guess is that they were an all-around more useful car, as they could also carry any type of load carried by a regular gondola: lumber, pipe, machinery, etc., etc.
Here's the Red Caboose drop-bottom gondola:
...and the interior:
This is the Intermountain drop-door composite gondola:
....and the interior:
...and the Walthers USRA composite drop-door gondola;
...and its interior:
Note that the Red Caboose car has a full drop bottom, while the other two have only 4 pairs of drop doors.
Accurail will do special runs and they have a form on their web site for it. I believe you need to order in lots of 96. They also have cars available as data only and undecorated. I have used their decals with the painted background and they are a bit thick. There are some internet groups that also sell to members and I have bought from them in the past as well.
Train shows are good places particularly if you find someone selling a large collection. Many times one can negotiate the price down when purchasing a stack of cars, once you get past 100 to 150 dollars they are likely to take a lower price for a lot than for individual cars.
Keep in mind that many of the used cars will not be up to your standards and will need new wheels and couplers and likely new numbers as well. Once you set up to rework a fleet of cars it goes fairly quickly.
here is a video of 160 coal cars aquired from the following methods, retail purchases at a discount retailer, train shows, internet groups that buy and sell, ebay, and internet retailers. I can recomend the accurail cars as fine runners, and nicely detailed from the box.
doctorwaynedoctorwayne wrote the following post 3 hours ago: dinwitty Why drop Gons than standard hoppers? I've heard that western roads preferred them to hoppers. My guess is that they were an all-around more useful car, as they could also carry any type of load carried by a regular gondola: lumber, pipe, machinery, etc., etc.
This is my understanding, also. Keep in mind that distances were usually greater than back east and fuel more scarce. While not directly related to what Wayne mentioned, the versatlity of the GS gon was that it could be readily reused for a really diverse range of commodities after being loaded with coal. Likewise, seasonal variations in fuel demand limited the time during the year when standard hooper cars were useful. The versatile GS gon made its contribution in increasing car utilization rates across a fleet, so looked pretty good at the bottom line.