Shake-the-box meets Intermountain.

Not to people who pay $100 - $400 for a brass HO car ... and the Kadee cars are BETTER in many ways.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Rick J>

And that's the fault of the "elitists"? Or is it that the "good-enoughers" don't open their wallets too often? The overwhelming sense that I get from threads like this is that many of you who complain about the price of modern kits are just cheapskates, nothing more.

Considering the outstanding quality of these models, what would you expect to pay? $20? $10? $5? A handful of cowrie shells?

If you have anything to say, do so via e-mail, or in person. I'm not wasting any more time trading slurs and insults with you on any newsgroup. Likewise, if you want to see my layouts, come and visit me, as I have suggested previously. The ball is in your court.

why do you wish your work to be hidden in personal email? A craftsman of your quality should share his work. Please give us a list of places we can view your artistic endeavors.

I do not wish to become involved in another pointless round of trading insults with Flynn. He has had repeated invitations to come and visit me, and see my layouts in person. I am not about to devote time and effort to creating a website merely to satisfy Flynn's demands that I do so. Nor yours.

Might that be kind of like comparing apples and oranges? I mean, Kadee only produces a 40' and 50' PS-1 boxcar and a PS-2 covered hopper. Are those particular cars even available as HO brass?

PS-2s have been done in brass, but they were never popular, as they cost more than Athearn kits.

You do not need a website, simply log on to either

start a topic and post your pictures.

And your the expert Mark. How's your form, you don't even support your local prototype, buying US instead.

You don't get it, Will. If I choose to publish any of my work, it will be because I decide to do so, not because you or anybody else demands I do so.

OK, Mark, no problem, when you feel your work is up to the level of the others who have posted, then you can post some pics. We should not force you or pick on you because you feel your stuff is not up to par. I am sorry.

I did NOT see this as a discussion of PS-1 and PS-2 cars , but as a value judgment on the relative merits of fine but expensive plastic cars vs. brass cars, or cheap junk for that matter.

A model is good if it offers quality commensurate with or better than it's cost. Thus both a $5 model and $500 model can be 'good'. Everyone has a budget of some kind, and has to do the best they can with what they have available to them. Model railroad cars are like most everything else ... you get what you pay for, maybe less, but rarely more.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Mark Mathu wrote:

No worries. And when you have something more to show than 6 feet of cork roadbed and a badly drawn trackplan, you can do likewise.

I'm quite happy with the standard of my work. Unlike those who apparently feel they have something to prove, or need the approval of others...

Are you chanelling John Eassie? Or did I miss the paragraph in the Australian constitution that states I'm only permitted to model the railways of my home state?

Speaking of which, all those Korean-made brass locos of yours, which part of NSW do they come from? Always the hypocrite, eh, Flynn? What's that old saying about patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel?

Dan, If you keep posting such sane rational thoughts, then this thread might actually die!

;=)

Matt

But I would suggest that the whole hobby is based on "good enough." Otherwise, we would only be satisfied with true scale sized layouts with no selective compression, fast clodks or any of the other model tricks that we use to create our own miniature worlds. There is nothing wrong with any of those things; it's just that it seems to be a part of the hobby that we have accepted and work around.

dlm

I'm not sure why I am making that point; it's just that I'm making it. : ) The starter set you mention is a good case in point... $90, just to get started. And, yes, that sounds like a good "average" place to start.

But as this trend towards higher quality/higher priced equipment goes on, it is raising the cost of entry level by making those long time staples less available.

I recently conducted a "model railroad" day at a library in the area. We were able to get some simple Athearn kits for the kids to assemble. It was a great introduction to the hobby for them. I don't know how many of them will keep that interest, but it was a heck of a lot easier to start with those inexpensive kits than it would have been with more expensive, higher detailed kits.

Oh well, it made sense the first time I wrote it! : )

I hope so but I'm not sure. As the demand for RTR stuff grows, something else gives, and from the posts I've seen here and the limited experienc I've had myself, I suggest that the availability of the inexpensive kit has suffered. There's not as many as there used to be at the shops I frequent.

And let's not forget that one does ntobecome an elitist by buying higher quality kits. But... if the lower end drops out of the market, then by default, a lot of people will have to drop out for economic reasons. This means that the higher income model railroaders will be the only oned capable of continuing in the hobby. That time is a long way off, but we "could" be trending in that direction.

Think of it this way... if an expensive Cadilac were the only car avalable for transportation, how many people would be forced to find other means of transportation due to economic reasons? The availability of varied pricing on different automobiles allows more people to own them.

But a Stradavarius in my hands would be totally useless whereas an accomplished musician could probably make better music from an orange crate with twine stretched across it! : )

dlm