Offbeat MTL suggestion...

[ljudice]

Wouldn't this be a perfect model for MTL to do?  High collectability, interesting, link to military, etc...

[Philip H]

True . . . and you'd ahve to have an interesting car for all the guards it would need.

That said, I think they need to get away from the one-offs for a while.

[Mark5]

That said, I think they need to get away from the one-offs for a while.

More bread & butter!

[JDouglasFisher]

ok, excuse my ignorance, but what is the load? Something nuclear?

J

[asarge]

Unfortunately it would never pay for it's tooling and development costs.

[tom mann]

They just did a track cleaner!  ;D

[ljudice]

Or a salt and pepper shaker carrier!

Andy, don't you think one off's that everyone would want would do well? 

Would anyone want one - assuming MTL or FVM, etc. level tooling - at a higher than normal price. Say $50.00?

I mean a higher price could re-coup the tooling cost of a smaller run, right?

Re: the car - it carries active and spent nuclear fuel to/from submarine bases.

They run in trains of 1, 2 or 3 cars when loaded, usually with some spacer cars. Surprisingly common sights on CSX, NS and UP for sure.  One came through central NJ this past January.

Lou
 

[Philip H]

at $50 I'd be less inclined to buy it.  For $30, more so.  Its all about price point vs. materials and workmanship.  Do the same thing in Brass, and you can probably get $150 for it.

[asarge]

$50 is too low to recoup the costs of the model. Add a 0 behind the 50 and you would be more accurate.

[wm3798]

There's plenty of room for Smokey on the side panel...

With the slogan "Don't leave your nuclear waste where it can start a forest fire..."

Lee

[ljudice]

$500......   Gulp...

That would be my guess of the cost today in brass....

How about a pewter kit?

[ljudice]

Then again - not sure I agree on the ultra-high cost...

The truck set could be used on a heavy duty flatcar, so you could get two cars out of this - the DODX car and a TTX/KRL/etc. flat.

Minitrix has done extremely limited sets of things like tunnel rescue trains with completely new tooling and I just cannot believe they sell more than this would sell.  Price is $100 or so for a three car set of 2 differently tooled cars - with nothing in common with anything else except trucks.

[inkaneer]

Unfortunately it would never pay for it's tooling and development costs.

But these are the same people who did the scale test car.  How many unit trains of those do you see?

[wm3798]

But just about everyone can use a scale test car, if not for its intended purpose then as a flat car load.
I'm not sure how widely traveled the car pictured above would be...

Lee

[asarge]

Not neccessarily that you would have a $500 pricetag. But triple digits is almost guaranteed. The total cost of producing the car sans trucks is goinna be up there and how many do you think they are gonna sell?

Ink, the scale test car was produced for a bunch of railroads so there are many more potential sales vs. this car.