UP Excursion Tenders (3rd Rail?)

At $1000 each I would likely only buy the flag version.  3rd rail made the sloped end ones (the ones Lionel and MTH make) quite a few years ago.

Yes, I would 100% buy both tenders if Scott made these.  I've 3d printed a Jim Adams water tender to fit onto an MTH chassis, but it looks rather crude.  I have the Scale Trains set in N scale and they look great.  Would love to see these modeled correctly in O scale.  Don't even need electrocouplers or sound effects.

Lionel could do something close to the real thing by using the tender from the little challengers.. The water bottles came from FEF-1's which had a similar design to the baby challengers tender.

$1000 for what is essentially a freight car is just too rich for me. Ideally a resin printed kit would be made available. I'm not sure why the Lionel and MTH offerings are so expensive. $400 for an incorrect model?

@Will Ebbert posted:

$1000 for what is essentially a freight car is just too rich for me.

Not really, as there is a TERRIFIC amount of detail on the real auxiliary tenders to be modeled, such as multiple water connections, multiple air connections, and MU electrical jumper receptacles.

Ideally a resin printed kit would be made available. I'm not sure why the Lionel and MTH offerings are so expensive. $400 for an incorrect model?

Both the Lionel and MTH models were correct for the time that they came out. However, much later the UP Steam Crew had both auxiliary tenders completely rebuilt, which included removal of all the internal fuel heating elements, as well as all the external jacketing & insulation. That is why both of those auxiliary tenders look much different today.

FWIW, Ryan Kunkle said the next run of tenders will not be the same as the previous runs but closer to whats being used today. How close? I guess you will have to wait and see.

Pete

@Will Ebbert posted:

$1000 for what is essentially a freight car is just too rich for me. Ideally a resin printed kit would be made available. I'm not sure why the Lionel and MTH offerings are so expensive. $400 for an incorrect model?

Two points:

1. Define precisely what you mean by "incorrect".  In what specific ways are they incorrect?
2. Just what manufacturer would be good one to make a resin printed kit available?

People who buy the present pre-built ones apparently don't have a problem with them, and also apparently feel that they're worth the MSRP.  And folks have indeed bought them so it's not like either Lionel or MTH have sold none at all because of this "problem".

Mike

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Two points:

1. Define precisely what you mean by "incorrect".  In what specific ways are they incorrect?
2. Just what manufacturer would be good one to make a resin printed kit available?

People who buy the present pre-built ones apparently don't have a problem with them, and also apparently feel that they're worth the MSRP.  And folks have indeed bought them so it's not like either Lionel or MTH have sold none at all because of this "problem".

Mike

The versions Lionel and MTH offer reflect how the cars used to look, rather than the modified shape Hot Water described and the photo in the original post shows. If you're modeling a present day excursion train, the shape of existing models is different than what is actually behind 4014 and 844.

To your second point, I wasn't suggesting there was someone who could/ would produce such a kit, just that that would be the ideal option. Clearly a lot of people are comfortable paying several hundred dollars for the existing models even if they don't match present day cars. As OP suggested, there are people who would like more accurate models. I would as well, but not at $1000 each. The two cars needed would cost as much as the Big Boy pulling them and that's just too rich for me.