What are the hardest-to-find/most sought after Z Scale products? Of course, all of the limited edition runs (AZL's brass, the Z Track subscriber cars, etc.) sell out pretty quickly, but what about mass-produced stuff? Maybe an old UP 40' boxcar that was made in 1993 that no one can find anymore? Some of MTL's cabeese? Anything else? What is it that you've been looking for for months or years but have never been able to find?
Tough question to answer because so much of what people want depends on their tastes and their wallets. The thing is, between ebay, and the countless places on the internet you can purchase things, it is usally not a matter of not being able to find it. With a little patience surfing you can find it all. Its more a question of can you afford it or how much are you willing to pay for it.
Yes, tough question. If we are talking steam for the everyman, not cabforward stuff, then I would say the 'MTL Mogul' that was produced in the late 90's. They originally went for $499.99 and I've seen them for sale occasionally for as much as $1200. MTL had a good thing going in those days, but didn't produce enough for all those who would become interested as Z scale grew. Z in NA was just starting to take off and it took them a couple of years to sell out at that price. Today for $600 they could probably sell 1000 units in a week! M2CW Cheers, Jim CCRR
i'd love to find Pennzee 3 bay hoppers, Rio Grande, especially, but undecorated would be good too. otherwise, just some affordable prices on some sets of these hoppers. beyond that, the newer things coming out are what many among us have been missing and looking for. it's not so much what was, what we've needed that hasn't been yet! modern tank cars also fall into this catagory. but Pennzee hoppers is what it would be for me. dave f.
I agree with this. I managed to find 9 of the Rio Grande hoppers last summer, but I haven't been able to find any more. I've seen singles on ebay a few times, but the last couple have gone for $35-40 apiece. I think I have at least one of every Grande piece made in plastic with the exception of those Marklin passenger cars and the NSC Colorado Silver Mines release. I've been hoping to find one of those for awhile now, but it seems that no one is selling. I keep checking ebay regularly hoping one will pop up.
MTL's original RailBox 50' Boxcar with no roofwalk. MTL's Conrail caboose and 50' boxcar (no roofwalk). Rogue GP38's in Conrail and SP. Robert Ray's original covered hopper kits and almost nonexistent 60' mill gon. Just a few that came to mind right away.......
I would just snap up other roads then decal them for the road you want. When I entered Z Scale, I knew it would be a game of, if you want it, make it. One of the best investments I made was picking up an old used Alps printer off ebay, and getting the white ribbons needed to make my own decals. I bought the Alps MD1000 for $200ish used, and it has ran fine for the past 5 years making all kinds of decals. I like all things NP, and NP stuff is even rarer than DRGW stuff. Lots of N Scale decals work for Z Scale too, so that is another source. If I modeled DRGW, and did not have an Alps, I would consider a monochrome laser printer. You can get them for $100 now. Then draw up your artwork and invert the image so white becomes black. Then print on white decal paper. Now what you have is the white decals with a black background that you can cut out and use for most of your DRGW rolling stock. Well lots of it anyways. I am always taking things to the stripper.
To me, its the Freudeich CSX coal porter and bi-level commuter car. I have never seen one of those on ebay. Does anybody have a extra Coalporter?
In general all kind of switchers, apart Lajos SW1. I will never understand why nobody make this, may it be steam or not. Thanks to Märklins old 0-6-0, some things can be homebuild, like the lumberjack from Westmodel. But shame on the big !
yes, kez had picked a some other rare ones. any of the 50' box cars w/o roof walk (of that series) are rare. at a train show in denver i found a railbox in the tray of cars (a couple of years ago). sold to me at 10% off face value. don't you know i took it and ran. with regard to the long railgons -- i wonder if they might not turn up in the near future as an AZL craftsman's kit? i never got one, but i'm sure they were as totally nice as robert's other kits. man i loved making those car kits! that was candy for my soul. dave f.
I have both Pennzee Denver(4) and undecorated (4) hoppers. I would like to sell both sets together at list plus shipping. Please reply offline to Zjrth@aol.com Jim
You know Robert, I did the same thing with the Alps in creating DRGW Decals. I created the font, made a black field and then dropped the font as White on top. Whe you print it out you get the font in clear. Then I painted the area to be decaled the color of the lettering, decaled over it and then blended in the edges with my airbrush. I also measured out the area of the doors so the edges lined up with a scored break...making it easier to blend the colors. The trick is to not be shy about a few clear coats of gloss to help smooth everything out before doing your flat coat. Before I got the Alps I used a regular printer at it's highest DPI and used the Flat Coat Decal Paper from Walthers. Seemed to take the details a bit better without leaching. Cheers Joe
Good question. As Z scale grows, older runs of AZL, Marklin, MTL, FR, Pennzee, Father Nature, Full Throttle and others have become highly sought. It is fun to see these items gain in popularity years after they were initially released. For someone looking for rare US, Z, here is a few top line items to look for. Chicago Rail Company - Bobber caboose and ore car (both very rare). Rouge Locomotive GP38. The rarest one is the Ztrack subscriber SP unit. Ztrack is stamped in the bottom of the loco. Plus a unique number is stamped in the chassis. Only 26 produced. AZL GS3 sets - Challenger (2703) and California (2704) AZL ATSF - Kodachrome F45 AZL UP SD40T-2 AZL CNW & SP C44-9W Note, all AZL brass is highly collectible. There are some true AZL one-of-a-kind AZL releases that are in collectors hands. The one above are more rare or in high demand. Nelson Gray releases Early MTL releases (1985-2000). Take a look at the release databases of MTL locos and cars on the MTL site. This is a great resource. You can find them at: Micro-Trains The Ultimate in N and Z scale model trains The MTL mogul is a must for collectors! Pennzee and Full Throttle releases are gaining in demands, especially the early runs. I would keep an eye our for these, especially the Pennzee hoppers released under the Full Throttle line. Also look for Father Nature reefers. There are not too many out there. FR releases. The early US items are very rare. The Peabody hopper is one example. The bi-level SP and CNW sets are also very rare. More rare on the extra car sets for these. Typical FR release are no more than 33 cars. Ztrack has a history of offering rare subscriber cars. The FR cars go back to 2001. Average runs are 75 cars. We do have a US car planned for this year. But, one rare set is Ztrack's 2001 Pennzee PRR hopper set. A total of 140 sets were released. The 2005 Ztrack Convention car is in very high demand with prices exceeding $125.00 for this car. It was given as a gift to those who attended the convention. One 125 cars were produced. Today, you can still purchase Ztrack special runs of the DT&I and P&LE sets. Only 150 of each set were produced. We are offering a special offer for anyone wanting both sets. You can find these at: Ztrack Center: Special Imprint Cars One thought for those wanting to start collecting Z is to pick up all the available back issues of Ztrack. This is a wealth of Z scale history and releases. We have published nearly every Z scale rolling stock release going back to 1997. I think folks would be surprised by some of the offering and history. You can find the back issue library on our home page. We are also offering good discounts for multi-issue purchases. Ztrack Magazine I am not going to get to far into Marklin. Marklin is hugely collectible and older US releases are in extreme demand. Look for items like the Amtrak passenger cars or even the Amtrak ICE set. There are some VERY rare US boxcars that only were released with sets. These cars alone can fetch pricing in the $100s. Pre 2000 Marklin is a good place to start. Rob
For me, my hardest to find is the MTL Conrail Caboose. I have 16 black undecorated Penzee hoppers, 3 Railbox MTL boxcars without roofwalks, and a MTL Lehigh Valley Caboose. I'd be willing to trade 1 of these (or a couple of the undecorated hoppers) for a MTL Conrail caboose.
John, absolute words of wisdom and truth. You my friend hold the ace card as far as that custom GP40 made by Dave F. goes. It is priceless, priceless. A true collectable. But guess what How many more custom GP40's will you see when the MTL SD40's hit the street? I for one plan on a kitbash and will do a resin cast of that shell.
If you are looking for the Penzee hopper, Hobby and Craft has them in stock. HOBBY CRAFTS N MORE - Catalog - Product Detail
