Good point Jim

Vince

My heart is with you Vince. Throughout my life as a model railroader I have often had to limit what I buy due to lack of hobby funds. Since I have retired, I once again have returned to being frugal with my hobby purchases. As I have pointed out numerous times I have set "shake-the-box" kits as my standard for freight cars. I use mostly Accurail cars but have a good number of Bowser cars and even a few old Athearn blue-box cars. They are generally much, make that MUCH, less expensive than RTR freight cars and also less costly than resin models. Cost savings is one reason that I have reduced the size of my layout. I will need fewer freight cars. < grin>

Jim Six

Excellent thoughts Jim. Just

Excellent thoughts Jim. Just so you know we are thinking alike again. I have not decided on an average price as of yet. Instead I looked at it from a quality standpoint and a cost stand point. My goal was to put together a roster of freight cars as cheaply as possible. All cars would have metal wheels, Kadee couplers, and must operate to my standards.

I did some checking and my Accurail cars tend to come in at about 18.50 per car. I scored some really great buys on a bunch of branch line blue print cars that have come in at 8.50 per car. I was really thrilled when I found them new in the box for 6.99. It seems a hobby shop had ordered a mob of them and did not have an accurate inventory system so they continued to reorder them. When they finally discovered the situation they went on line and dumped them. I bought several on line and when traveling through the area I stopped in and bought a bunch more. I have also found big discounts on Proto 2000 kits at train shows and generally buy up all the models in my time period that are reasonably priced.

After thinking about it I might be averaging a fair amount under your 20.00 average even with my resin kit purchases here and there.

Early on I found some real deals on "ready to runs" and bought some of those. I no longer buy any of them any more after spending so much time rebuilding the cars. For me it is easier to start with a kit.

I am also always looking for the unusual or what I will call the good old days kits. I have the occasional blue box kit, but I have found some metal kits for about 8 dollars each, they are Bowser. I also found a couple of wood car kits for 10.00 each or less. Then there are the Tichy kits, many are available in multi packs and Don has a sale with a percentage off from time to time. I believe that on one occasion I was able to average less than 10.00 per kit by taking advantage of his promos. Saving money till these quantity discounts hit is a great way to acquire kits.

Another great way is to go through the decal sets at your local hobby shop and find some on discount. I scored a bunch of tank car decals at really big discounts for example.

I do not believe I will need to buy very many more or much in the way of locomotives now as I believe I have got my rosters purchased if not built, painted, and decaled.

Now for me building these models is a task of great enjoyment that is very close to operating trains on a railroad. I have built and rebuilt several used kits from others and likely have several hundred cars ready to make up trains. My roster when complete will be somewhere in the area of 1000 cars give or take. Since I purchased these on sale over a considerable time period the damage to the family budget was not a big deal.

Even if one figures the cost at 20 dollars a car you are looking at 20,000.00 for cars. Spread that over twelve years or more and it is much more affordable.

In comparison other hobbies can be more expensive like golf, competitive shooting, motorcycles, classic cars etc. The really nice thing about model railroading is many of the products with minor work can be made to last a very long time and the operating costs are small once the fixed costs have been amortized.

Why would I use so many freight cars? I often run 100 car trains. I am working on a design for a home layout that will feature 50 car trains as a standard design length so that would give me 20 trains for the layout. I am also looking at the ability to run some 100 car trains if the mood strikes me.

The other advantage of all those cars, if they come in and out of staging friends will likely not remember specific cars as there is a lot of variety available.

Comparing this to the cost of those 40.00 freight cars sure looks like a win and you get to build them.

@Jim, @Rob

Vince, if you buy the more

Vince, if you buy the more detailed kits one does not need to remove cast on detail!

Rob

Your message is detailed and thoughtful Rob. I agree with you that you and I are thinking alike.

One thing that scares me are dollar totals. a hundred [100] freight cars is not a large number for a layout. In fact, many layouts need way more than a hundred as you point out with your own railroad. The way I see it is that 100 cars at $20 per car totals $2000 spent. That makes me grit my teeth and think about if I need so sell all and get out of the hobby. Then I read your words about spreading it over a long period of time to soften the impact. I think I will stay in the hobby!

What I am looking for now are about ten Proto 2000 8000-gallon tank cars . . . at a low price!

Jim

A friend and I once discussed something like this

the subject was kits vs RTR. Our conclusion was you get more hobby bang for the buck with a kit because of the enjoyment of building the car. I really like the Blue Print series cars, one of mine is hurricane damaged, literally, it fell off a shelf during the triple hit of Frances, Jean and Charlie in 2005. It was a Thanks for Using Coastline boxcar.

Would some of these

Would some of these work?

Click for Larger Images

Scale: HO

 

THIS CAR IS TYPICAL OF THE INDUSTRY STANDARD TANKER USED FOR DECADES TO HAUL CRUDE OIL, OFTEN IN LONG TANKER TRAINS-THE PIPELINE ACROSS AMERICA BEFORE SUPERTANKERS. THIS CAR FOLLOWS THE USRA BASIC DESIGN, VARIATIONS OF THIS CAR WERE MADE BY A NUMBER OF CARBUILDERS. THIS KIT FEATURES THE 54" DOME WITH OPTIONAL MANHOLE COVERS AND MOLDED END HANDRAILS.
ERA 1918 TO 1955.
INJECTION MOLDED IN GRAY STYRENE. INCLUDES TRUCKS.

Click for Larger Images

Scale: HO

I believe both of these fit your era and they are available in six packs at a reduced cost. They are very well done kits.  Six packs come out at 14.16 per kit if memory is correct. You just missed a promo deal for discounts as well I think.

Rob

Yes,  a few of those would work for me. Next time you see a "deal" please let me know.

Jim

@Rob in Texas

What company makes those tank car kits?

@Rob

Bowser Freight Cars

The recent run of PRR-prototype RTR Bowser cars seem to be moving in the $16 range at some hobby stores. Kits are less. I've seen the H21s and GLa hoppers in your photos, but no GS gondolas gondolas which were 1902 vintage. Bowser seems to have kept their prices fairly low, but technology may be a little dated v. Accurail. Hard to beat the hopper cars if you have a PRR interest, though. Always wondered what would happen to the collective bank accounts of PRR modelers if they upgraded the H21 and GLa to be at par with the excellent H30 covered hopper of several years ago.

I also occasionally see the Walthers USRA gons and P2000 Mather box and stock cars at hobby shows in your price range. Both pretty decent models.

Bob

Omaha

Average On car cost

Generally, I am a frugal guy when it comes to cars and kits. The exceptions are those beautiful models that I justify as examples of what I want to strive for with kits or upgrades. Now, On30 or On3 kits aren’t cheap any more but a watchful eye on eBay is worth the wait. Still, that $40-$50 car is rarely less even in bulk. 

I have been filling out the roster with those that will be good enough for now and could be improved with better couplers, air hoses, lift bars, and brake wheels. 

My goal would be to “roll my own” as the basic components are not expensive but trucks ... jeepers! There is no hurry though so I plod along at glacial pace while working on other things like the garden trains (now there is a wildcard for prices!). 

@fecbill

Bill, here is the website for those cars.

https://www.tichytraingroup.com/

It also covers the rest of their high quality kits as well.

King_coal

Here is my Bowser gon. I have only two and need at least three or four more.   

Jim, I will and I also

Jim, I will and I also include the link below as I think you can sign up for notifications from them regarding new products and specials. They also make some nice box cars, gons, hoppers, and other items that you might be interested in.

https://www.tichytraingroup.com/

Nice job on the GS

Looks like you redid the hand holds, added airhoses and maybe a cut-lever. Along with the nicely done weathering.

Not so easy in N scale

Hi jim,

again an excellent topic which reveal a real budget problems when you need a consitant fleet of freigt cars.

I try also try to keep my invest for freight cars to the low range, meaning 20$ seems a good price for an N scale freight car.

But to manage my budget in this range, I have really some difficulties in N scale; first I admit I ask for good quality cars like MT or Atlas new generation cars and they are all between 15 and 25$ for sale.

You must know in N scale,  there are very few kits for freight cars, most are upgrade or convertion kit of existing car and are expensive in the same range of 20$ but most  often without truck or couplers.

Since 2015 I have buy for this reason, a lot of second hand cars on EBay or in other sales site, I look often of group of cars to sale, because you can buy some cars for a very attractive price; I do the same when I go to a train show or in a hobby shop.

This way I'm able to keep my car budget at a reasonable level.

Anyway it's not so easy because I look only for cars of the 1920-1940 period, which reduce the offer, second I buy the most in the Atlas line and MT line.

I buy sometimes new cars because I really want it, but now I prefer to invest on new locomotives.

But I admit N scale freight cars becomes expensive and with the lack of kit it's not easy to keep a budget to a reasonable level, especialy if your layout need many cars, like  33' hopper which I need the most.

These are priced second hand in an good state at around 14$ and new can reach easily 25$ including MT couplers.

Not really the choice

Early rail

Its easy not to impulse buy if you model early rail, very few manufacturers make cars so there isn't anything to buy.  Roundhouse makes maybe 1 or 2 useable cars a year, and mostly in the same 3 car bodies they have made for the last 40-50 years.  I'm sure they would be surprised to find out that there were other cars made prior to 1910 other than 36 ft boxcars, reefers and stock cars.

I think $20 a car is way on the low side.  I see that as the bottom end of the spectrum.  Resin kits, 3D printed shells and craftsman kits run in the $35-$55 range and may require couplers, trucks, decals and some additional details to be added.  That pushes those cars into the $45-$80 a pop range.

Even scratchbuilding or kitbashing doesn't gain you much:

$8.00 trucks

$2.00 couplers

$3.00 brakes

$2.00 grabs, details on the car body

$1.00  details on the underframe

$8.00 decals (normally takes decals from more than 1 sheet)

$2.00 styrene sheet and shapes

$5.00 car carcass for kitbashing

That's $31 for a kitbashed car.  Casting your own sides, etc. isn't much cheaper, it takes about $30-60 worth of RTV that will produce about 25-30 cars and $1-$3 of resin for each car.

I figure the average "permanent" car on my layout cost about  $30-$35 and I have about 150-175 "keeper" cars.

King_coal

Thank you King-coal. You got it right with the upgrades I made to the gon.

Jim

Marc

Your message make me glad that I model in HO-scale and not N.   

Jim

Nice Gon Jim. I think I have

Nice Gon Jim. I think I have the same car some place. Bowser kits do not seem to be as frequent in Texas as some other freight cars. Some others you might look for not positive on era though are the proto 2000 kits. They take more than your hour of time I think you were talking about but they make a really nice car as well.

@Rob in texas

@Marc