Tangent and N scale

[basementcalling]

Home Shops bombed with their initial N scale release, at least IMO.  If they released N scale like their HO choices ( coil cars, big box cars, ie more modern) I think they'd sell out every time

Sadly, after their first release on those out of date 40 foot boxcars, I doubt we get another N scale release from them any time soon.

[basementcalling]

[drift]
For my money Aurora did with their Plate F box car.  I know they've been hard to come by in the States, but the quality is great* and they've announced three new follow-up models now. 
[/drift]?

*Okay, the trucks were tight and the couplers were dodgy but the trucks were fixed in the second run and y'all know where I stand on couplers.

Gary, you are correct as usual. I forgot about those. I got a decent number of the first run, but the second has been unobtainium thanks to tariffs and their weak distribution network in the US.

[Iain]

Home Shops bombed with their initial N scale release, at least IMO.  If they released N scale like their HO choices ( coil cars, big box cars, ie more modern) I think they'd sell out every time

see, at least their stuff is in my era, but it's not like i need fleets of v&o box cars.

[reinhardtjh]

Home Shops bombed with their initial N scale release, at least IMO.  If they released N scale like their HO choices ( coil cars, big box cars, ie more modern) I think they'd sell out every time

see, at least their stuff is in my era, but it's not like i need fleets of v&o box cars.

I bought one of every number in the schemes that fit my pre-1950 timeline and a couple that didn't (Virginia Midland, Delta Lines) - looking back all but the Cat Mountain.  Doing fantasy scheme may also have hurt them, but maybe not. I bought more than I would have just because I wanted them.  If they had done more modern stuff I wouldn't have looked twice.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Home Shops bombed with their initial N scale release, at least IMO.  If they released N scale like their HO choices ( coil cars, big box cars, ie more modern) I think they'd sell out every time

Yeah. It really was a big mis-read of the N scale market.

They were neat cars. But neat cars for someone like the NSE to do.

But an Ohio Southern (a railroad notably tied to the 70s) 1940s/50s boxcar? That's a tough sell.

[Sokramiketes]

Yeah. It really was a big mis-read of the N scale market.

They were neat cars. But neat cars for someone like the NSE to do.

But an Ohio Southern (a railroad notably tied to the 70s) 1940s/50s boxcar? That's a tough sell.

My issue was more that they weren't, well, plausible.  The freelance railroads that tend to capture us as much as prototypes are the ones that have a sense of time and place, and proto-lanced fleets that make sense in the whole.  I like the Delta Lines too, but a strange "express" boxcar scheme?  Cat Mountain in more modern Santa Fe scheme than the carbody? 

Ohio Southern release was a decade or two earlier than the era the layout was?  Would a 40 USRA rebuild look like it should be in this photo:




The releases just didn't put me in the time and place.  It would be like putting "southern alberta rail" on a 40 foot rebuild boxcar.  I like the 'sar' a lot.  But only what matches the work of the modeler and the history.   

[Doug W]

More tanks the merrier: General American 1957-Design 8000 Gallon Welded General Service Tank Car
https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/general-american-1957-design-8000-gallon-welded-general-service-tank-car

I'm sure there are N scalers wanting some of the more common open hoppers that Tangent has done.

Yes to both of the above.

[Doug W]

Is there an all HO manufacturer out there that has really hit a home run out of the box on their first entry into the N scale market? Seems they all make the same mistake and pick a "safe" option, either one that sold well in HO, or is a great car, but other companies already offered in N scale.

N is not HO, and while we have more equipment offered by multiple companies than previously, we still remain largely a scale where one company can corral the market on a good prototype and make it hard for another company to duplicate their offering.

I totally agree (Aurora aside). There is a significant market in N for new manufactuers to cash in on, but a new entrant needs to fill a gap in the market or produce something that significantly improves on what is already there to be sucessful. The product also needs to have wide appeal, which means lots of potential (real) road names and wide-ranging use. A single railroad prototype - even a popular prototype like UP - is a poor choice, especially if it relates to cars that travel on limited routes like UP open hoppers, as it is a niche of a niche of a niche. A mythical roadname is even more niche.

[nkalanaga]

At least in the Northwest in the 1970s, twenty-year-old boxcars were a common sight.  30 years weren't uncommon.

The 40 foot boxcar era basically ended about 1980.  The Northwest (specifically the ex-GN Mansfield Branch) and parts of Texas were the last major US holdouts.  The Mansfield branch rail was too light for 100-ton cars, and Texas cotton shippers sold their bales by the 40-foot boxcar load.  Changing sizes required rewriting a lot of contracts.  The BN finally convinced the Mansfield Branch wheat shippers to truck their grain to the mainline, as it was cheaper for both the farmer and the railroad.

[Mark5]

The 40 foot boxcar era basically ended about 1980.  The Northwest (specifically the ex-GN Mansfield Branch) and parts of Texas were the last major US holdouts.  The Mansfield branch rail was too light for 100-ton cars, and Texas cotton shippers sold their bales by the 40-foot boxcar load.  Changing sizes required rewriting a lot of contracts.  The BN finally convinced the Mansfield Branch wheat shippers to truck their grain to the mainline, as it was cheaper for both the farmer and the railroad.

I helped unload a 40' box car circa 1980 in Maryland - it was a shipment for a local hardware chain. 

[Iain]

At least in the Northwest in the 1970s, twenty-year-old boxcars were a common sight.  30 years weren't uncommon.

The 40 foot boxcar era basically ended about 1980.  The Northwest (specifically the ex-GN Mansfield Branch) and parts of Texas were the last major US holdouts.  The Mansfield branch rail was too light for 100-ton cars, and Texas cotton shippers sold their bales by the 40-foot boxcar load.  Changing sizes required rewriting a lot of contracts.  The BN finally convinced the Mansfield Branch wheat shippers to truck their grain to the mainline, as it was cheaper for both the farmer and the railroad.

NS tried to bring some 100 ton hoppers down the Bayboro branch in the early 1970s and wound up spreading the rails and dumping corn all over the place.

[Sokramiketes]

At least in the Northwest in the 1970s, twenty-year-old boxcars were a common sight.  30 years weren't uncommon.

The 40 foot boxcar era basically ended about 1980.  The Northwest (specifically the ex-GN Mansfield Branch) and parts of Texas were the last major US holdouts.  The Mansfield branch rail was too light for 100-ton cars, and Texas cotton shippers sold their bales by the 40-foot boxcar load.  Changing sizes required rewriting a lot of contracts.  The BN finally convinced the Mansfield Branch wheat shippers to truck their grain to the mainline, as it was cheaper for both the farmer and the railroad.

Sure, but not USRA rebuilt 40' boxcars, surely.  Those were PS-1's and later. 

[High Hood]

Tangent mentioned N Scale in their Christmas FB post:

“Our holiday-themed message to you is simple. Thank you. It has been a great year!

Tangent Scale Models had 9 HO-scale product releases in 2025. We "saw" you, our customers, in Springfield and St.Louis at shows, and we communicated online and by phone. We appreciate your support, trust, comments, and requests.

We will have more industry-leading freight cars and cabooses arriving in 2026!  Our focus remains to provide unparalleled excellence in HO scale freight cars, cabooses, trucks, and detail parts.  In 2026, we will also have a surprise in N scale!

So - again - our holiday-themed message is not "buy more models" but instead, a simple note of thank you for a great 2025.”

[Mark5]

Tangent mentioned N Scale in their Christmas FB post:

Thanks for posting that - great all around message.

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  You'd be surprised how old some of the boxcars I saw in Pasco in the 1970s were.  War Emergency cars were still common, and, yes, a few rebuilt USRA cars were around.  A properly rebuilt car qualified as "new" for service years, and there were some rebuilt as late as the late 1930s.

Many railroads hadn't bought much new equipment in the 1960s, so a lot of the older cars were running out their time.  Also, the railroads were spending what money they had on new covered hoppers for grain, and bulkhead flats for wrapped finished lumber.  They couldn't replace the old boxcars all at once, and certainly weren't buying new boxcars that wouldn't be needed in a few years.

By the late 70s, the transition was largely finished, and the old cars either aged out, or were no longer needed, and disappeared, seemingly overnight.

We moved to Kentucky in 1978, with no railroad to watch.  Going back to Pasco in 1981, the change was dramatic.  The cars in Pasco yard looked much different.