If a manufacter came out with o gauge locomotive kit would you buy it?

No thanks! Have plenty of other things I need to assemble.

Gunny

I would as long as it was cheeper ...

This would definitely not be for me.

I think it would be a great thing if kits were offered, especially if they were cheaper.


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quote:

Originally posted by Lou:
I think it would be a great thing if kits were offered, especially if they were cheaper.


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I'm one of those guys who likes to build things so I'd like to see a nicely detailed kit in fact several of them .It'd be nice to have a hand built "J" ,Y6B or a challenger running on the layout.

David

I think I would like this. But the loco would have to be something very special and iconic. But it could be fun. BigRail

Yep. Why not. Might be fun. Certainly worth trying once.

I would try it once. Sounds like fun the first time....dunno after that. I think it would depend on what value I felt I got out of it, i.e. was it easy enough or hard enough to be considered fun for me?

Yes ... for sure. Irregardless of the price.

Also, it would be good with the kids. I enjoyed building R/C cars and trucks with my kids.

Jim

I think I'd give it about 2minutes thought and then be ordering it.Poppyscaboose

No.

YES.....been chasing a AHM/Rivarossi 4-4-0 kit for MANY years.....I have the IHB 0-8-0 and ICRR 4-6-0 kits, a number of HO kits built in years past. I'd love a nice O loco kit. But I feel that is a minority opinion. Plus when I was working for a group that was having hobby items made in China said it was cheaper to sell assembled items than a kit would be......

Built kits all the time in HO. I would love it if there was a good selection of kits and I could build and detail using photo's. For an example, I wish I could get a kit for a GP-7/9 and build it following CNJ photo's. I built one and detailed it in HO for a push-pull I built. Even kit bashed the Control Car. Used a lot of Detail Associates and Details West detail parts.

Yes, I love to assemble anything that is a kit.

Thanks guys for your replys.I have put together h.o. boxcars.But because i have aged trying to put together h.o. boxcars.Is a very bad headace in the making.If i tryed any kits it would be o gauge.Hey didn,t a company called intermountain.Have o gauge boxcars in kit.It would bre fun if i could get a sort of genric 4-8-2 or 4-8-4 or f7,gp9.Some locomotives that every rail road had.That way you could get decails.For your favorite railroad.

AH!!!!!!!! NO


Dave

Yes, if it was a Heavy Mikado kit.

Count me in for an O gauge kit locomotive. I would love to put one together.

So would you be willing to complain about your shotty workmanship after it breaks, dies, or what have you? The forum could be very quiet.

NO WAY!!!!!!

Scott

Only if it was something like an USRA engine and decals were available.

It would depend on what locomotive it was. If it was something I want and the price was decent value, I'd probably go for it.

I looked up the David Andrews line of kits. An LMS Duchess (a kit that would interest me) is 359 UK pounds or $556. To that you likely have to add a motor and gear box. Call this another $75 (YMMV), for a total of $633. Another $225 for an ERR kit; now we're up to $858.I suppose you can order it with "coarse" scale wheels to run it on 3-rail layouts. Oops-I forgot-you have to buy wheels separately!
The MTH offering is, what? $1200. You save about $340 over buying the MTH version. Not a good trade for your time, I think.
There are other locos, like the rebuilt Merchant Navy 4-6-2. If I really had to have one, then the kit looks like an interesting project and leaves a bit of money for coaching stock purchase.US-outline kits, like the USRA Heavy 2-8-2, that could be modified for any road (many!) that used them, such a kit could be a viable business, suited for limited production.
Opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by MartyE:
So would you be willing to complain about your shotty workmanship after it breaks, dies, or what have you? The forum could be very quiet.

At least it would be MY shoddy workmanship and not a companys I paid $1500 bucks to and got a piece of junk I had to send back from the get go

David

You could get the 4U.

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/11-6950-0

If the kit cost a great deal less than the fully assembled model.

If it was something like the EMD GP40-2 with many variations in details.

Andrew

Yes, the 700 E kit, in a wooden box just like they did with the Prewar model.

Of course, this is predicated on how good the instructions are.

Come to think of it, I may buy two of them one to build and run and the other to show in it's box.

But, considering how deep my pockets are not at this time I would probably be relegated to drolling at yours.

quote:

Not sure if the ex - All Nation cast zamac 10 Wheeler kit is still available but it surfaces from time to time under a different manufacturer.

BTS bought out that entire line from Babbitt

http://www.btsrr.com/

And there have been other steam kits about - not sure what's currently active, but here's a LWS PRR H-1 kit built engine lettered up for the CVRR #52



and here's a modified AHM Casey Jones 4-6-0



and I have a LWS kit built PRR A4 but no pctures of it either....

As for shoddy workmanship, shoddy is as shoddy does....

I have too many thumbs - not my fault....

No. I like the plug and play value added already in the engine. I like the sounds, command, etc. To have that in a kit would not be economical.

I rather have some kit cars, freight or passenger available.
Kits that take some assembly with a screw driver, like Athearn had in HO.

Sure. I would love to add it to the piles of stuff that I'm intending to get to someday!!

In a serious vein, I agree with the previous two posters. One, I'm not very handy, all thumbs as it were. And two, I love the "instant gratification" of unwrapping a new diesel and watching it run.

- Mike

quote:

Kit-built engines? I don't see the point. First of all, you surely must realize that if a manufacturer ships a box of parts for you to assemble, they're now 'off-the-hook' when it doesn't work well assembled by you? Thats YOUR problem, buck-o

The point is some of us LIKE to use our hands for more than typing on the internet. Nothing to me is more satisfying then to see something I have built with my own hands, even if it's not perfect. ANYBODY can pull a "Store Bought" model out of a box and place it on the tracks.

If it doesn't work, than the builder did something wrong, don't blame the manufacturer, but in case it was the manufacturers fault, they either fix the problem or they go out of business quickly. Nothing wrong with that scenario.


Martin, I wish BTS would make a move on those kits, but from what I read they're having some health issues and need to heal before getting back to adding on to their building. As of last postings, they still have all the kit parts in storage.

With the RC airplanes I enjoy the building almost as much as the flying. I have no reason to think it would be any different with O gauge locomotives, particularly if the kit was like the Bowser HO kits of yore. Instant gratification is well and good, but there's nothing like the satisfaction of seeing something that you've made yourself in operation.

Pete

quote:

I enjoy the building almost as much as the flying

Pete, you mean like this:



1/6 Fokker DVIII I built back in the 70s.



1/6 cockpit of a Fw189 Uhu, the thing is LARGE!



It took almost a year to complete and that's just the center nacelle. I don't have the room to build the wings or tail boom.

quote:

quote:
I enjoy the building almost as much as the flying

Pete, you mean like this:

If that monoplane flies, yeah. Not sure I could do the greenhouse, wow! No axis aircraft in my hangar, though. In fact, egad, of all the dozens of RC airplanes I've built I've never done a scale one. Not since I built some of those Guillow's "Lafayette Escadrile" WWI bipes. I can't believe that young me was able to put up with the crappy wood and die-cutting. Modern laser-cut kits sure have me spoiled. One of these days I've got to get a laser cut O-scale structure kit to build, just for the fun of it.

Pete

So if you assembled the engine, then took it apart again, would it void the warranty?

By and large, I'd have to say no.

There are a couple reasons previous posters made:

mm00047 makes a good point. What kind of kit? How complex? People have been talking about plastic locomotive kits for as long as I've been a forum member (at least). Haven't seen anyone really try it. Heck, we haven't even seen locomotive customization or super-detailing kits really take off, have we? I think they are big in HO, but not here.

rex pointed out that a kit isn't really going to save you any money. By the time you get everything you want or need, there probably isn't any savings. To me, the only two benefits of a functioning locomotive kit are 1) you get a locomotive that is rare or 2) kit form saves you money. The complexity is also a limitation for me.

dkdkrd is right as well. Kits let manufacturers off the hook for function, fit, completeness - too much opportunity to cut corners. Unfortunately, it's not the 1960's anymore, modeling-wise. (BTW, anyone who tells you they can remember the 1960s wasn't really there. ). Replacement parts would be very difficult to get given the realities of manufacturing in China.

To those who wish to try these, my hat's off to you. But I don't think the market is big enough to support the idea.

As for kits for freight cars, I have one from Ye Olde Huff n Puff that I'm going to build and I've scratch-built my own ingot flatcars. I'm not adverse to freight car kits, but a working locomotive? I dunno...

George

The only true advantage to a kit nowadays is if you're going to modify it in some way, then you don't have to take it apart.

Rusty

Pete,
Take a look at this 1:1 DVIII this German fellow has built:

FOKKER DVIII

Now that's some handy work gentlemen!!!

When what you want is not available off-the-shelf in R-T-R form, there's not much else you can do but roll your own or modify an existing model.

Personally I'd like to see kits of all the USRA engines. Basic boiler shells and separate domes, piping, generators, headlights, pumps, and handrails so a model could be built of any RRs prototype. i don't know about the other RRs, but Seaboard seemed to always be moving things around on their engines after they purchased them from the builder or another RR.