Individual Passenger Cars for O-Gauge?

I don't know why they do it, but I wish they wouldn't.  I could afford to buy the cars individually over the space of four or five months, but too often the price of the complete set is outside my budget.

Sunset Models / 3rd Rail sells their E and F units individually in 2 and 3 rail versions.

Some Golden Gate Depot passenger cars are available individually or in pairs.

Check the website 3rdrail.com

I'm with you this. How many observation cars does one need when you have to buy a set just to get one or two cars that you really want? On top of that, the guy who can't afford to pay for an entire set gets left at the station. For whatever reason, unlike the HO folks, we just can't go out and buy a single car. It has been like that in O gauge for years and I too would like to see it change.

I agree on the cost of a set of passenger cars but I prowled train shows and a couple of antique stores and, eventually, found what i wanted plus had fun doing it.

That is one the thing I liked when I thought about moving to smaller scales was to be able to buy individual cars.  I am interested in the SAL, ACL, and SCL and alot of the passenger trains they operated outside of the big New York to Florida ones were just a single E-Unit or sometimes F-Unit and a head end car and maybe a few coaches.

I would be happy if MTH made a individual powered A unit E-6 and maybe a mail car and a few coaches.  That would be much more reasonable Price then buying a full E-6 AA set and 5 car passenger set.  

My guess would be, and it's only a guess, that the O Gauge market is much smaller than the other gauges.  Most factories in the Orient would not build in such small quantities of single passenger cars.  And there probably hasn't been enough of a demand to consider single cars in O gauge.

There was a time when I owned 12-15 Lionel aluminum passenger cars from separate road names. The exact reason why you stated in this thread. It was a way to pull whatever I wanted behind an engine. Probably the most prototypical consist I've owned. Get on the bay and start collecting. 

The following Golden Gate Depot cars were marketed as individual car sales :

- 10 and 6 streamlined sleepers in many road names

- 4-4-2 streamlined sleepers in many road names

- 12 and 1 heavyweight sleepers in many road names

- 8-1-2 heavyweight sleepers in many road names

- PRR 12 and 5 sleepers

Also:

- heavyweight diner and observation sets in many road names

- heavyweight combine, baggage, and postal baggage sets in many road names

Heavyweight coaches were sold in 4 car sets but were sold individually by many dealers.

However, all of these cars were scale length cars of 70 to 85 feet prototype length.

I agree with Brian's analysis, most of the O-Gauge manufacturers start as a base with a 4 car or 5 car set and then offer a one or two pack. It has to come down to economics.

Kevin has given you an excellent suggestion as there are many single cars available in different road names on the big auction site.

When I do look at some of the online dealers, I find their are single passenger cars available but they disappear fast.

Some examples:

MTH 33-6054

MTH 30-67697

MTH 30-67713

MTH 33-6244

Lionel 6-81464

Lionel 6-35239

Lionel 6-35259 (2 cars)

Add-on sets often have only two cars. You may not get every road but there are some available.

Take a look at Atlas too.  Their Trainman heavyweights are sold individually.

Bruce

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will keep my eyes open if I find anything on auction sites. 

Look on the tables and UNDER the tables at train shows, I got several at a decent price that way. Especially if it needs cleaned up a little, might get it cheap. Make it fun, too.

Robert,

Herein lies one of the problems, far too many observation cars sold in a set. I think that I somehow missed out the N&W set, but, it doesn't matter that I wanted the diner because I didn't need the observation car! For whatever reason, people just don't realize that there were many more trains run without observation cars than ran with them.

If you have a separate N&W diner floating around, let me know.

I wish MTH would invest in tooling for a premier streamlined combination car in their 2-car add on sets. It would be nice to run it behind the RPO and the baggage car that comes with the set.  I feel cheated having to buy a second baggage car just to get an additional coach to make a longer consist.

I bought a lot of K- Line cars in onesies and twosies.  In the past, 2- rail scale offered only single cars, never trains.

If you mean heavyweight sets, they did offer diner/ combine 2 car sets. I have one lettered for NYC if interested.

Pete

I am sorry,  I edited my post to specify streamlined.

I have 2 PRR dome cars in the closet gathering dust. Also, most passenger trains did not have a observation car, although the trains I run have them.

I counted 65 individual passenger car offerings just under K-Line this morning on the big auction site. Add to this Lionel, MTH, Weaver, Williams, and 3rd Rail, I bet you will have enough to satisfy your appetite.

M.T.H.did a "City of Miami"set in their premier line with an E unit and 5 cars,I wish they would offer other similar sets.

If the problem is the car has not been made in the road name you want, but has been made in a different road name, contact a model painter and see if the painter can repaint and re-decal the donor car to what you want.  The painter can check for commercially available paints and decals, and mix the paint to match what you have.  There are hobbyists (i.e. capable painters who don't do this for a living) who can do what you want without breaking the bank.  Heck, there are probably folks on this forum who could do it for you or know someone who can.

Carl

I have two trains, nine cars each, that I bought a car at a time on auction sites.  You get used stuff, yes, but you can get cars one at a time and put together exactly the trian you want.  

I have been looking for some individual streamline cars myself to make a 1971 - 74 era AMTRAK train to represent the "rainbow" look. I know the ACL, SCL and later AMTRAK ran B&O and Union Pacific cars on their Florida trains starting around 1965. Having a better selection of separate sale cars would make it easier to create these consists.

Same with the power. AMTRAK ran an interesting mix of ex-SCL, RF&P and bloody nose E-units on their Florida trains, most which would require repaints to get the right look. Not to many A-B-A E-8 lash-ups by the early 70s.