A message to the manufacturers. We have had a a lot of new semi trailers come out recently from the 1970/80 eras. but we have very little in the way of tractors to put with them. Athearn had those nice Mack R tractors but have stopped making them. concor/herpa have the same two trucks they have had for the past 30 years. ghq have a couple of nice truck kits. and thats it really. Classic metal works could step in an fill a niche with someting from international. my vote would be for the Transtar http://dayerses.com/international-transtar.html those were all over in the 70's and 80's Atlas could work with ford and bring out the LTL9000 or the CLT9000 http://dayerses.com/ford-clt-9000.html http://dayerses.com/ford-ltl-9000.html or more modern http://dayerses.com/ford-aeromax.html Also would love to see http://dayerses.com/kenworth-k-100-aerodyne.html (actually thinking about buying one of these IRL) http://dayerses.com/kenworth-w-900-l.html and simply cause i currently drive one http://dayerses.com/freightliner-cascadia.html I dunno, am I the only one who feels this way?
As my layout is "today" there is nothing available. Freightliner is the most popular tractor with IHC ( Navistar ) also. I worked for Hino Trucks for 25 years and the COE models are available in 1/150 from several Japanese makers. The conventional is only marked in NA and Canada, the Canadian's made the truck in 1/150 and it is not available at all. It is a real good straight truck, 24' van body. Bob. They are 2005 and newer.
Bob, I agree it would be nice to see some modern Freightliners and Internationals, but the Kato Volvo VNL 780 is certainly suitable for modeling "today's" highway scenes. Carter
International Transtar IIs would be great - the BCR had those. I would also like to see a Canadian tractor or two. Tim
I know Wheels of Time was looking at making a Road Commander. It was hinted at when they anounced their 35' Sealand containers. I wish I knew what CMW was up to. I actually really like their IH R190, though the axles seem to be VERY wide. They could do a great 70's area COE.
I have emailed Kato regarding them releasing the Volvo tractors, in a manner as did Atlas, in two packs or something of the like. In their reply, the only thing they said was "the price point we have is for both tractor and trailer. Thank you for contacting us here at Kato USA", along those lines. It kinda pissed me off as they didn't answer my question/request very well, and only thing I got from it was, tough luck, buy the set and sell the trailer. Also, Atlas just released in O Scale a model of a Freightliner with sleeper, seen it on their Facebook page a little while back. I told them they need to release that tractor in N Scale, to go along with all their Pines Trailer releases.
I agree with all. We really need a good array of 70-80's tractors. Would LOVE to see an IH Transtar II in N-Scale as my dad owned one of these during the early 80's. Mike
I personally would like to see some modern bottom dump type grain trailer's. Then if you have a Walther's grain elevator with railcar loading on one side you can line up a few tractor trailer's on the other side.
