I'm looking at ideas for a custom-decorated freight car project from the small RR historical society I belong to. We're most likely looking at an HO model (kit or even possibly RTR), the initial production run would be somewhere between 100 and 300 cars.
Any suggestions for companies which do this work, either directly by the manufacturer or by a third party?
So far, we've identified: Accurail:
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Other ideas?
Any comments on the comparative quality of their work?
The majority of club/society cars that I own have been made by Accurail and Athearn. They are specially decorated standard kits, so your first job would be to identify kits for your prototype, or kits that can be good stand-ins, ie "close enough.". The quality of the decoration depends entirely on the quality of the information and art work you supply.
If you want an accurate car, you would have to buy from someone like Westerfield, who make accurate models of a wide range of cars. Problem is, these are resin kits, which are _not_ easy to build, and they cost about 3 times as much as the plastic kits, which would reduce your market. Greenway does special runs of cars and locomotives decorated for roads not offered by the manufacturers. Some of these are exact models of the prototypes, but most of them are of course merely "close enough", just like most commercial offerings.
However, keep in mind that a large segment of your potential market is collectors, not "serious modellers." If your railroad figures in some tourist line, then you may be able to partner with that line. Gift shops need merchandise. FWIW, a local modeller paints and decorates standard issue cars for a local tourist line, and both he and they do a modest but profitable business with them.
"I'm looking at ideas for a custom-decorated freight car project from the small RR historical society I belong to. We're most likely looking at an HO model (kit or even possibly RTR), the initial production run would be somewhere between 100 and 300 cars.
Any suggestions for companies which do this work, either directly by the manufacturer or by a third party?"
There used to be a company called something like "Third Rail Graphics" and I think they were in the greater New York area. I have some old NKP boxcars that they did quite some time ago.
and contact Mark Tomlonson. He is the one who designed and researched the cars. We are on our third club car. They were all from Bowser. We used local companies except for the grain car. That is an industry on the CP&E (club railroad)
Yeah, sorry bout that. The green car is based on the Checker Car Company that was based in Kalamazoo. The Cooper Grains car is an industry on the club railroad and the Kalamazoo Stove company did exist in real life. I don't know about the coal hopper.
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