List of O scale craftsmanship kit manufactures - Your favorite kits?

John, at the top of the "Scenery and Structures" subforum check the "Scenery Sourcelist Revised June, 2016" by Dave Gauss

I didn't see these two on the list,     https://www.labellemodels.com/      http://www.yeoldehuffnpuff.com/

Yes, I like the older turn of the century cars.

Also, I didn't see  http://www.stainlessunlimited.com/  for custom bridges on the list.  Eric Siegel has a large one on his layout.

Dan

That caveat, "still being made", is hard to verify.  Many if not most of the ones I have built and have to build, and seek for unique variety, are not being made.  In buildings that would include Yorke, Trains of Texas, and a LOT of others not made.  MAYBE the "Rags-to-Riches" kits are still being made?  A number of structure kit builders seem to just make one run.  There is a long list of freight and passenger car kit builders...LaBelle being, I think, the last of those for passenger cars, since nobody has picked up the post-Walthers All-Nation line.  Of some current kitbuilders, I may have only one of their kits I find appealing.

colorado hirailer posted:

 In buildings that would include Yorke, Trains of Texas, and a LOT of others not made.  

I though that some of the Yorke kits were being re-issued......

MAYBE the "Rags-to-Riches" kits are still being made?  

Apparently gone.....

A number of structure kit builders seem to just make one run.

Reality comes home for a little visit and many folks find out that they are not going to make a living selling kits........and that it's actually real work to put a kit in a box with your name on it.

 There is a long list of freight and passenger car kit builders...LaBelle being, I think, the last of those for passenger cars, since nobody has picked up the post-Walthers All-Nation line.  Of some current kitbuilders, I may have only one of their kits I find appealing.

 

There are a few rolling stock kit makers out there - Glacier Park just did a really good kit for an SP drop-bottom gondola, Southern Car & Foundry has a few resin cars, and yes, La Belle continues on....just about the only source for an O scale trolley body kit.

Yet, if you hit any of the big shows/meets - plenty of kits with prices all over the place.  Reality will eventually visit some of those folks, too.

Someday when I'm really painfully bored I should take inventory of the kits in the queue.....and contemplate their departure.

Mainline Models makes some very good wood kits. Just finished the body for a Ralston-Purina 36' reefer.

With guides published for various brands of three-rail trains (excepting K-Line?),  I would like a current, but historical, guide for O scale rolling stock kits, and brass,  O scale structure kits, and the same for HO.  A monumental and perhaps unreachable task.  Some place like Walthers might, if they'd had computers then, or kept a lot of paper records, and the catalogs for products sold,  be able to approach that.    But, how big is the market for such guides...?  I'll take one of each..but like making kits...?

LaBelle is the only one I know of still producing passenger car kits. Ye Olde Huff-n-Puff/Mainline for freight cars. Intermountain, Athearn, All Nation, Walthers, and Ambroid are all gone, probably with a multitude of others.

I have a metal sided Athearn kit waiting to be built, and like the design of it from what I see in the box. Looks like it can be made into a very respectable scale model with today's products.

LaBelle kit in progress:

The best???  Your own desk!!!! While I have nothing against kit manufactures, in fact I hunt them down. but with less and less kits made....I've been building my own. This Thrall type car was designed in CorelDraw, laser cut three copies and I assembled them. Not every one has a laser....but could have been just as well done with a X-acto and steel rule. 

brr posted:

LaBelle is the only one I know of still producing passenger car kits.

Union Station Products is producing passenger car kits

Ye Olde Huff-n-Puff/Mainline for freight cars.

There are a few others out there still including La Belle, Southern Car & Foundry, Glacier Park, Rails Unlimited, just to name a few. 

The list of those that have fallen by the wayside makes assembling such a list an effort far beyond monumental.  I did a limited run of a kit for a traction flat car a few years back.  The numbers of kit producers that did 1-5 cars and moved on is probably a good sized list all by itself.

How difficult are those labelle kits? I may have to give them a try.

MWB, Thanks for the list, which is what the OP was looking for in the first place. We've wandered a bit. 

J Daddy, the one who started this post, did an amazingly well done write up here on the forum of building the same car I posted pictures of above, a couple years ago. It was titled La Belle Woodworking O scale passenger car kit - A true craftsman kit. I've saved the thread to my favorites. I'm working on my 3rd and 4th LaBelle passenger car kits now, and I still reference that thread. Very informative.

Don't forget about forum sponsors Ameritowne and Korber Models. They have some good building kits.

Tom M posted:

How difficult are those labelle kits? I may have to give them a try.

Depends....on your experience level.  The freight cars are reasonable.  The instructions in some of he passenger car kits can drive crazy since they sometimes mix together several cars in one set of instructions and you have to pull out the lines that pertain to the coach vs. the combine vs. the RPO, etc.  The trolley kits can be similarly specific to several different cars in one set of instructions.