Yeah that is probably it. I don't really care if every nut and bolt is exactly right. I want to spend my time running my trains not looking at them with a magnifying glass . And when am I going to be looking at the underside of the cars during operation (which is when they need to look realistic) anyway? Now your old KayBee toys Life Like passenger cars are very obvious crap. Only vaguely resembling the real thing, for sake of example. But I think in a lot of cases, and Athearn is a good example, you can get some pretty good looking stuff that doesn't really cost all that much. I will side with you guys on this thou, I will buy tangents products long before I spend hundreds of dollars on brass cars, I don't care HOW nice they look lol. BB Yep. Kinda pricey. But, as always, your mileage may vary. It gets back to what you want to get out of the hobby. Fortunately, it is broad enough in HO that you can choose to be perfectly happy with the new-old Athearn model of the PS4740 at $15 retail, or have fun hunting for the old Bev-Bel EL-decorated model on eBay. (Anyone want mine?) Of course, you have to live with the limited amount of detail, which might be perfectly fine for you. No criticism from me! If you want more detail, then you can get the Athearn model and add the etched metal roofwalk, re-do all the grab irons, add the brake system detail, the correct trucks, then repaint and decal. All that stuff starts to add up in both money and time. Or, you can go "high end" and shell out the $45 for the Tangent model. All the work is done for you, other than weathering. Like Schuyler said, it is as if you pointed your shrink ray at the real thing. Now, go spend your limited time on something else (like inventing a shrink ray). It's the same with the other high-end manufacturers like Kadee. Sure, there are other PS-1 boxcars and PS-2 covered hoppers out there, but none that have that level of detail for you if that is what you want. And you have to admit, the working cushion underframes on the new 50 ft PS-1 boxcars are wicked cool! Now, if we could only convince them to do one in EL!!! And, to some extent it has always been this way in the hobby. Back in the day, you could shell out several hundred bucks for a finely detailed brass model, or you could spend less money but lots of time kitbashing a model of the same thing. Getting back to Tangent, my only gripe is that I can't get their stuff from my local guy. I'm doing my best to support my local shop (Blue Ridge Hobbies...sells most everything 25-40% off retail), but I can't do that if Tangent won't play ball with him. Instead, I have to mail order something from a guy that is only 50 miles away from me in Asheville, NC. (Paul B...maybe we can work something out with a bigger order). -pat moore greenville, SC The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2009 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.