What price too much?

[bbussey]

Bryan, that wasn't aimed at any manufacturer and I recognize the excellent work ESM and the others have done. My comment was aimed at the flat car vacuum still sucking air for transition modelers, despite several well-intentioned offers in that area - none of which were made by ESM or the others. Personally, I'm looking forward to your release of the C&O well-car when that happens, and to Craig's F89s, as they will begin to fill other parts of the hole.

And I agree with your observation that each well-produced offering wets the appetite of modelers for even more; it's been a general belief of mine all along for N scale, build it and they will come.

I should have been more succinct in my response, as I knew you were referring specifically to a potential flatcar and not all N scale models at large.  What I was trying to express was that since there is a precedent for N scale manufacturers pushing the bar higher on other "non-boxcar" equipment, it's only a matter of time before those advances are reflected in new flatcar models.  First we saw advancements in boxcars, followed by tankcars, hoppers, covered hoppers, gons and cabooses.  Flatcars definitely will follow at some point, it's just a matter of which manufacturer will take the plunge and when.

And prices continue to climb, unfortunately.  With detailed accurate freight rolling stock en masse pushing closer and closer to the $30 mark, I don't think a $25 MSRP for a detailed accurate flatcar is a deal-breaker.
 

[Lehmannmws82]

In complete honesty, I would like to see a 60 footer or even an 89 footer in the atlas trainman line, cheap, 10 bucks is about right for street price. I have several projects I want to do with 89' foot flats, but they are too damn expensive.  Plus i need a bunch of flats for my welded rail train. You need at least 20 cars to make it a decent train. Damn you N scale for making it easy to build long trains.

[Nato]

         How about interchangeable decks. The replacement decks could be sold seperately.The basic car would come with a removeacle plastic wood deck that could be replaced by a laser cut wood deck, or a plastic or resin TOFC deck with tie down chains ,bridge plates,etc. BLW briefly offered such a deck to retrofit the Atlas Flat Car,I wish now I had bought more than four.I would like to see a good car that was the leingth of the current Walthers and Athern GSC cars,but with a bit more detail and body mounts. Metal wheels as everyone has pointed out are a modelers choice thing.Maybe also nice plastic, or etched bulkhead ends in several styles could be offered as an add on.                                                            Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.