Saskatchewan Grain Cars

[armchairmodeller]

I have ordered some Canadian Railway Grain Hopper vehicles from Bachmann. One I would really like is the Saskatchewan Grain Car in the 2008 Green and Yellow livery.  A rival company, Pacific Western Rail Systems, do produce this version but their models are about twice the price ($36) of the Bachmann models ($20). By the time postage to England is added this is quite a price.

My questions are:-

Is there a plan for Bachmann to produce the  Saskatchewan Grain Car in the 2008 Green and Yellow livery?
If so when?

Are the  Pacific Western Rail Systems models so superior to the bachmann versions as to justify the cost?

My normal modelling is British Railways of the 1960's so the North American/ Canadian scene is a complete mystery to me.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

Thanks

[ACY]

Is there a plan for Bachmann to produce the  Saskatchewan Grain Car in the 2008 Green and Yellow livery?
If so when?

So far there are no plans to do so. But Bachmann has a number of Canadian cars.

Are the  Pacific Western Rail Systems models so superior to the bachmann versions as to justify the cost?

They are nice models, but whether the cost is justified is based on the individual.

Note that American and Canadian models have different couplers then British and European models.

[metrohobbies]

IIRC The Pacific Western cars are just custom painted Intermountain Railway cars. Those cars are worthy if the price paid in detail alone. The couplers could be a problem unless you are modeling North America and all equipment is equipped with the same style couplers.

[Jim Banner]

If you put them side by side, you will discover why the Pacific Western cars cost more than the Intermountain ones.

The reason neither Bachmann nor any other manufacturer except Pacific Western will be producing these cars is because of muddled thinking in the Saskatchewan Provincial Government.  The fancy paint job was designed to advertise and promote the Province of Saskatchewan.  Fair enough.  But when it came to using the paint scheme on models, some dough head in our government gave the exclusive rights to Pacific Western.  Pacific Western did a fine job of building the cars and painting them but it was a limited run which may never be repeated and at a price that not everyone could afford.  So the opportunity of widespread advertising and promotion of Saskatchewan on model railroads across the continent was thrown away.  As a modeler, I am very happy with my Pacific Western Saskatchewan grain cars.  As a Saskatchewan taxpayers, I am quite unhappy that my provincial government did not get the biggest bang for my buck by giving the paint scheme to ALL model manufactures.  The key to effective use of advertising dollars is to get people to see the advertising.  With these striking cars running on many layouts, millions more people would have seen it.

Jim   

[armchairmodeller]

Many thanks for the responses to my query. Yes it does seem that the Seskatchewan provincial government has given exclusive licence to PWRS to use the livery on models.

I am aware that the coupling mechanisms on North American models are different from U.K. couplers. The U.K. ones are quite ugly hook and bar arrangements that are a legacy of the toy train market from the 1950 and a firm called Tri-ang.
Tri-ang were later bought out by Hornby. The original Hornby trains, known as Hornby Dublo, were made by the Meccano company in Binns Road Liverpool (my home city) and they had couplers that were more discrete and similar in appearance to the U.S. type. The adoption of the "tension lock" hook and bar arrangement seems to have come about simply because of "critical mass". There were more hook and bar type than others and that sadly became the U.K. standard. End of psuedo history lesson. A lot of serious U.K. modellers use Kaydee products or make their own couplers.
I am not in the serious modeller catergory (hence the name Armchair) but I will not be running British railways stock with my "Canadian cameo"   "Cor blimey gov'nor, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

Armchair Modeller

[Jim Banner]

Before Kadee look-alikes, before Kadees, even before X2f couplers, there was Coupler Chaos in North America.  The de facto standard for serious modelers was the Mantua coupler because it worked well.  That Mantua coupler looked an awful lot like the British couplers of today.

Jim