# Why are all cars ready to run (RTR)?



## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Just curious if anyone has knowledge on this. I'm just wondering why all cars in large scale are ready to run (RTR) and no kits are available? In HO scale you could chose either a kit or RTR. Is this done to save money for the companies, or has the model railroad world just turned to wanting RTR? 

I ask this because I received an AML PS-2 hopper the other day. I enjoy it and like the detail. But I found my self thinking it would be fun to have this as a kit and to assemble it.


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## JohnKK (Jan 15, 2014)

Actually, there are some car kits available, mostly in 1:20.3 however. Hartford Products, now available through Ozark Miniatures, makes some really nice kits. Ozark says they are going to begin offering the full kits soon. They do have the SPNG 28' box car available now, as well as some of their own kits. Phil's Narrow Gauge offers nice kits, mainly for D&RGW. I have rarely (as in one time) spotted a Saxton Car & Foundry WSLCo flat car kit on eBay, which I promptly snagged! Also, just as rarely, you may see a kit from the late Don Winter on eBay. My own rolling stock roster includes nothing but kit built cars or scratch built cars, except a few of my AMS WSLCo log cars.

Hope this helps,
John


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

I agree with what John said. There have been kits available over the years, but the only ones I'm aware of have been in 1:20.3, 1:22.5, and 1:24. In addition to the kit makers he mentioned, I have some cars, from kits by Sheridan products and Northeast Narrow Gauge. The Sheridan cars are similar to Phil's (in detail), but the detail on the NENG cars is minimal. 

Chuck

Note added.

To answer your question, most likely because that's how LGB did it forty or so years ago. They made toy trains, not scale models. At the time they were successful. Others followed that business model and some started making very nice scale RTR models. My thought is that they sold much more product as RTR than they would of as kits. If I had to build all of my cars and engines, I'd have a lot fewer things to run. I like the kits I have built, but they are wood and glue with metal castings. I can't run them in the rain or snow like I can with my plastic rolling stock.

Lastly, LGB is (was) a German company. Over the years, I have been in a lot of toy/model train shops in Europe: Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Great Britain. I don't remember ever seeing kits, in any scale. Everything was RTR.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Why? simple, in the mainstream no one wants kits anymore, they all want RTR and they want it now.

Check HO again, AFAIK there are almost no mass-market kits in HO anymore either other than buildings, even the buildings more and more RTR prebuilt prepainted and preweathered kits are showing up all the time.

Call it laziness, lack of time, or just the "I-want-it-now-daddy" Faruka Salt world we live in, but RTR is what the market wants.

Bachmann used to offer the Big Hauler line as kits, and for a long time they were a great way to save $. But a couple years ago they reissued them again and they flopped, just sat their in store forlorn and unloved, eventually being fire-saled on clearance. Bmann now will probably never again reissue kits once all the NOS stuff is gone.

There still are kits out there but you do have to look. Today they are mostly left for the craftsmen, finescalers, and kitbashers, just like in HO and O.


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Thanks everyone for the replies. I should have clarified 1:29 scale and 1:32 scale is what I was thinking of. 

I agree with some of the replies about RTR, it's our society and wanting the instant gratification. I just miss sitting down and putting a car together. But I have found new joys in the hobby too. I took a USA Trains caboose installed clear sytrene for the windows and added an interior. I've taken an LGB flat car, removed the plastic wood flooring, and detailed it with strip wood. I guess I just have to think of creative ways to "super detail" the rolling stock and engines. 

Thanks again!


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Maybe with the growth of 3D printing, kits will re-emerge. In my thinking, the kit would mainly involve all the "metal" bits (forged, wrought, etc.), fancy laser-cut wood parts, small / PITA hardware, instructions. Perhaps as an option: the rough wood planks, trucks and couplers, sheet materials, etc. --- items that are easy enough to get otherwise, and often in bulk. 

The reason I suggest this is because 3D printing costs are very high for high-volume (as in cubic inch) parts. But, many models could be really cheapened up by the modeler supplying, say, cedar planks from Northwest Precison Lumber, I-beams from Plastruct, sheet "metal" styrene from Evergreen, and so forth. That way, the price of the kit reflects all the more difficult parts, and the research and design effort that went into the model. 

Probably wishful thinking, but I hope things go more that way.

===>Cliffy


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

The Gal Line do 1:29 and 1:32 kits. I haven'd used them as I model 1:20.3

http://www.thegalline.com/

Alan


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Cliffy, I'm with. Wishful thinking here to. 

Alan, thanks! Neat stuff I might have to consider.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

I still have some Bachmann kits for both freight and passenger cars that were never assembled. They were cheaper this way and these were typically raffle prizes. Think I gave several away over time too.

I think most people don't mind the assembly so much as having to deal with painting them.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

My problem is buying new cars...

Just to take 'em apart...
And repaint 'en too!!

Not many undecs anymore either....

Dirk


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Bachmann tried doing large scale kits years ago, and they weren't very successful. They were wildly popular with folks who _wanted_ to build things themselves, but those folks were apparently too few and far between. You can still find them every now and then. 

In fairness to those who would think the "we want it NOW!" crowd is a fairly new development, Lionel and its siblings have always been RTR. N-scale has always been predominantly RTR as well. 

Even in HO, the "craftsman" style kits have a very small market, and if you were to survey modelers who buy them, they've likely still got a large supply of unbuilt kits sitting on their shelves. The "Shake the box" style kits a la Athearn, MDC, etc. are still available in HO, but not near the numbers as the RTR cars are today (at 4 times the price!) 

I tend to see RTR stuff as a good thing for the hobby. Folks who want to build kits (or disassemble RTR stuff and customize it) can do so. But no one _has_ to just to get something going. People seem to be quite happy spending 4 times the price of a kit to have something they don't need to assemble themselves, and good on the manufacturers for being able to sell that way. 

A similar thing has happened in the R/C plane hobby. Used to be you'd buy a kit and spend 6+ months tediously gluing small pieces of wood together, only to fly it the first time and leave with a box of kindling. (No thanks!) Now, you can buy plastic and styrofoam planes ready to go out of the box. It allows you to learn and enjoy the flying aspect of the hobby without having to be a good builder first. If that's something that interests you, you can go that route, but it's not a mandatory path as it used to be.

Later,

K


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