Value Trains USA?

[Bendtracker1]

That just brings to mind my whole thing with O gauge tinplate stuff: I don't understand why people go through all the work of making this stuff to make something ridiculous instead of something somewhat realistic. I just don't get it.

Well Ed,
I can't say I disagree with you, but if the guy can find niche and a way to make money off it and a living, more power to him.
Maybe this is just a starting point for him and he has bigger plans. 
Looks to me like it's his choice...

[MK]

To us they may be ridiculous and a waste of time, but someone who's not into the hobby, they don't know what's serious or not.  If it sells, why not and there's only one way to find out.

Take a look at Hot Wheels.  How many do you see that are nonsense or even remotely close to a real car?  I bet Mattel sells millions of these world wide each year.

There's a market for everything.  It just depends on how you execute and adapt.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Well Ed,
I can't say I disagree with you, but if the guy can find niche and a way to make money off it and a living, more power to him.
Maybe this is just a starting point for him and he has bigger plans. 
Looks to me like it's his choice...

Oh yeah, if he can make a buck doing it, awesome. I guess my point was just more in general that it's an angle on the hobby that I don't really understand.

[learmoia]

I guess if I want to do a special run car.. I know who to call..

[signalmaintainer]

Yeah, but these aren't even really foobies. They're just... nonsense.

No more nonsense than, say, Kato Unitrack.

[Philip H]

Scrolling through the photos it’s an interesting mix of schemes. Some resemble if not outright copy things that I have seen in the NSE catalogue over the years. Others like the Herbie boxcar take prototype schemes and transfer them to boxes they were never on.

[learmoia]

No more nonsense than, say, Kato Unitrack.

Speaking of...

( Look under the car.... )

[nscaler711]

No more nonsense than, say, Kato Unitrack.

What's wrong with Kato Unitrack?
if you say anything about tie spacing, I'll refer you to where its made, why its made the way its made, but not how it's made, that's a TV show.

Japan's major railway system is narrow gauge (to us) with the exception of the Shinkansens which is Standard gauge. Add to that point again minus the Shinkansens all their N scale trains are actually 1:150, mostly due to the fact that 9mm track gauge was already becoming a standard in N scale they sized the trains to be more proportionate to that gauge. So Kato based their track around their rail network.

Now knowing all this, Japanese homes and even apartments are way different compared to homes on the North American continent. They are quite a bit smaller in most cases, even out in the countryside. So Kato based their track on that fact too, so tighter radius curves obviously, but also the need for the track to be very mobile. I'm not saying that people don't have permanent layouts because that's just not true almost anywhere. But there is a majority that don't have the space or time for a layout. So it also had to be robust enough for continuous tearing apart and being put back together which it does that fairly well, at least in my personal opinion. I have a few sections of track that get broken up and put back together that I leave near my desk for the occasional testing. I have only had to replace three joiners tops. On my semi permanant loop same story, I have bought two bags of the joiners and one bag still has about 10 in it. That was after I raided them to replace the old copper rail joiners from some old track. 

Kato Unitrack has a purpose, and serves that purpose very well. It was never really intended for NA track that's what Atlas and ME are for but if you want simple track that's easy to use and robust, it's here. It is not for everyone, but it is not nonsense. You want nonsense go play with some EZ track from Bachmann or dare I say Power-loc track from Walthers...

[peteski]

What's wrong with Kato Unitrack?
if you say anything about tie spacing, I'll refer you to where its made, why its made the way its made, but not how it's made, that's a TV show.

You have to remember that the Railwire has a good percentage of vocal high-end super-prototypical members who strive for scale fidelity, while the modeling population in general is much less discriminating of things like track appearance.  Good majority of modelers have no problems with Kato Unitrak.

[learmoia]

I've got my gripes about Kato Unitrak... and it's not the tie spacing..

1: the Design of the points on the #4 switch.
2: the Geometry of the #6 switch leading to 44mm track spacing instead of 33mm.
3: A 448 or 514 single track curve pair with the 481..

~Ian