How much can we justify spending?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I use to buy the Athearn BB GP-35 locos all the time. Did I really care that the hood was 6" too wide or that the fans were the wrong diameter, or the lettering was 4" lower than the prototype. No! They ran good, were strong pullers. I couldn't justify the $800 for the brass version, just because they were protypical, and didn't have a chunky casting. Now today, do I really want to drop $200-$300 for a loco just cause it has "prototype specifc" detail and a DCC decoder. I could care less if one railroad uses a firecracker antenna on a GEVO, while another railroad uses a shark fin antenna, and my layout is still DC. Even if I was modeling one of those railroads mentioned, I don't think I would care. Besides, when the train is rolling around the layout, who's gonna see the small "protoypical specific" detail. Kind of like Athearn adding roller bearings to their rolling stock that actually rotate. Yeah its a neat detail, but you're not going too see it when the rolling stock is moving, and the bearings aren't going to be moving while in the car is spotted in a siding. Maybe it's just my personel preference, but as long as it looks good enough, operates good, it works for me. Besides, I'm not letting a rivet counter pick up one of my locos, let alone put his scale ruler to it.

Would I like DCC layout? Yeah. But I started building my layout when DCC was just coming of age. Converting twenty locos, especially all the Athearn BB's, to DCC is just not justifiable right now. My layout operates good, I can run my locos in a consist without having to worry about programming, and I can't justify the cost of dropping $40-$50 for a decoder, or the hundreds of dollars needed to convert the layout to DCC. Maybe on the next layout.

Ok. I'll get off the soap box now.

You're pretty much right.

I have been VERY frustrated by the direction the hobby has gone towards increasingly expensive models for what I perceive as small detail improvements. Its actually kind of refreshing to see I am not the only one of this opinion. When I express it elsewhere, most people disagree with me, almost melting about "How much greater the hobby is now than it was", and telling me If I don't like, don't buy it.


However, what options are left out there? The blue-box kits are drying up. Good starting points for future projects are getting tough to find. Even the most basic models, like those Comet commuter cars that started at $25, now command horrific prices on Ebay.

I might not agree entirely on your stance about details, but then I have always enjoyed super detailing my locomotives, since I like the things that make them unique, and I enjoy learning about whatever it is I'm working on. Still, the lack of good, cheap, base models to work from harms me just the same.

(that said, those roller bearing trucks are painful. Those things are press fit on, and they fly off into oblivion every chance they get)

This RTR craze is probably what has lead to the slow disappearance of detail parts, decals, paints, and other useful upgrade kits.