Well,does below $500 mean $499 or something a fair amount less than that? Lets say $300? At $500 I would buy an Allegheny,maybe a C&O 2-10-4. If the price were less I would buy maybe a couple of each. But yes I would buy road specific steam and be willing to pay that price.
a Santa Fe 4-8-4 or 2-10-4 would be a hot seller....I would most likly buy a 3751 if I can con my wife into it. $75 switchers are easier to hide from her
Add me to the "yes" list. I figure that I have roughly $300 invested in each of my LifeLike Berks ($120 for the engine; $120 for the Tsunami sound decoder; $35 for the motor decoder; and miscellaneous parts such as the speaker, wire, etc. - this doesn't count the time involved). And though they run beautifully and sound pretty darn good, I still have issues with tractive effort. Give me a Berk with sound and a shell that looks vaguely like the NKP prototype that will pull 45 cars (like my Key brass Berk, Athearn Challenger or my Kato GS-4) with DCC and sound already installed, and I'll pay $500, and probably buy a half dozen over 2-3 years. John C.
If you can make a DCC ready model in the Kato price range I will be happy. I have been selling much of my stuff as of lately but for the right engine, and the U25C is the right one I will buy 1 or 2. Kevin
Scott, how far along are you into your operation? Do you have HO models out now? I would like to see a website if you have one. I think it is great to see a new company produce N scale equipment. I really like the idea that these do not come from China and are not subject to their toy industry crazyness. You mention the U25C and steamers, but N scalers don't even have staples such as the SW1500 and SD40-2 (Kato makes a few, never releases them and are innacurate for 90% of the roads that ran them). If you are going plastic and die-cast, you are looking at mass production. I can think of no better candidate than the SW1500. Price it between $150-200 with road specific details and that should provide you with enough capital for all sorts of one-off projects. I would like to see a U25C it is one of the many, many missing links in N scale. The entire U series is under represented in N scale and it would be great to see more. As for steam, I love the B&M and MEC. I would get some of B&M's heavy road units if available. I worry that this might just not sell enough to make it viable. I think N scale steam in general is a hard sell.
I'll put in another vote for an RSD15, and Santa Fe steam but don't limit it to the 4-8-4's and 2-10-4's. Santa Fe had a lot more than just those two types and you need them for a realistic steam era roster, the 4-4-2's, 2-6-2's, 2-8-0's, 2-8-2's, 4-6-2's, 4-6-4's and not forgetting Santa Fe's signature engine, the 2-10-2, I'd buy any of those over a 4-8-4 or 2-10-4.
