Modern and old locomotives
Bendinggrass
Posts: 1,371
There were many beautiful old steam locomotives. I would love to see some in good detail for sale here. I am thinking of the North American variety in general. There were also sometimes beautiful colour schemes.
Modern diesel locomotives are also interesting. Some years ago Canadian National had a beautiful foresty green paint scheme..... very beautiful.
Do model railroaders overlap here with DAZ people? I don't know, but I sure would buy that kind of item.
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The problem with old locomotives, especially steam powered, is the same problem as military uniforms...What era, what location or even country, what road line? For instance, a 4-8-4 from Union Pacific is different looking than a 4-8-4 from Ney York Central.
Each railroad company had different varieties of a wheel arragement and even a different variety within the same wheel arrangement. For example, look at New York Centrals Hudson class locomotives (4-6-4), a J-1e is slightly different than a J-3 non-streamlined, then you got streamlined locomotives. What about the accessories that usually went on a locomotive, such as feed water heaters
Also, what about the articulated locomotives, like the cab forward types or big-boy/challenger types? I would imagine those are hard to model, as the front road wheel swiveled on a pin under the firebox and the rear road wheels were rigid (unless it's a Pennsylvania Railroad Duplex type locomotive)
Diesels, on the other hand are a lot easier, but again, you got all the road lines and types
The other problem is marketability? In other words, how well would they sell?
I do know there was/is a "parkside freight" series, which includes a couple of engines, some freight cars, but I don't know how popular they were
The standard Baldwin 4-4-0 American type was pretty standard across lines. The Parkside Freight is fantasy, and is not realistic at all.
They would sell extraordinarily well, if done with care. IF done with care. Do not be suprised if an awful job will not sell, it will not.
https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-steam-train-caboose/955265
Actually, they are based off early diesel locomotives from the US.
The Parkside Freight engine is probably based off Alco's RS-11 series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RS-11)
The Parkside Cargo engine is also probably an Alco RS-32 series engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RS-32)
As far as sellability, it does depend on quality, but again, would the cost of putting together a model, especially a steam engine be offset by the sales, especially at DAZ prices?
For me personally, I would like to see more steam enigines, but I would like the detail to be up there (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-8-8-2#/media/File:Southern_Pacific_4294,_a_cab-forward_steam_locomotive.jpg) or (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-8-8-2#/media/File:USRA_2-8-8-2.jpg). I would also like the pilot and trailing trucks to pivot, as well as the wheels to turn; however, the side rods' would have to match the wheels. If there were diesel engines, trucks would have to rotate, doors open/close, some basic interior (control panels, throttles and brakes, etc)
Based on early locomotives, yes, in a Hallmark plastic Christmas tree ornament kind of way. It's off enough that it's not useable.
Apple iTunes clearly showed that you can make money at low prices if you keep quality up and sell a lot. People want to sell one and make a fortune, and that's clearly isn't the way to go.
They still have to make enough to make the effort worthwhile (and worth at least as much as other things they could be doing). Sell low, sell many works only if there are enough potential buyers.
I think that not making railroad models is a terrible mistake. One rail simulator company alone has over 120 employees, cranking out content. The game doesn't cost much, so the numbers of users must be staggering. Far more than users of DAZ3D.
I really like UK steam, and I have bought a lot of Great Western models from another store, but it has to be said that an engine on its own has limited appeal. You really need track and some rolling stock before it becomes practicable to put scenes together, so I suspect any potential PA would need to make several models available before there was enough to really use. Some of the UK locomotives carried several liveries during their working life, so there are options for 'texture packs'. Some engines here are still running on preservation lines more than a century after they were first built, so they fit in a lot of eras. A possible down side to that is the more purist the potential purchaser the more likely they might reject 'incorrect' details on a model, for example Bachmann model of the Great Western 57xx pannier tank has a topfeed very prominently on top of the boiler, but those weren't fitted until around WW2, so for liveries of that engine earlier than WW2 to model is technically 'wrong'.
By your logic, the Daz store should have more tanks for players of World of Tanks than human figures.
I'd love to see more rail-themed content (anything from circa 1870 to 1950), but this is a niche with finite appeal.
There's an ATSF freight train at Renderosity, as well as a Warbonnet Super Chief passenger train.
Tracks at Rendo also, and some British trains and buildings. Not much steam, though.
first one is listed a a digmation item in my files... and it is a beautifully done 3d project except who ever modeled it had a picture of a lionel train and it's a great copy but it was not a real one... its a 2-6-4 not atlantic but adriatic the atlantic was a 4-4-2 like a pacific but with one less set of driving wheels.. the 4-6-2 pacific was a standard engine (start at the front the first number is the leading truck, the second the driving wheels, the third the trailing truck.)
there is no tender with the orginal model but I found one somewhere
the bottom engine is the digimation one with the tender I found.. but it was modeled after a toy so I had to work on it some
the top engine has been modified to at 4-6-4 which is a legidamately found wheel arrangement and the tender was reworked to look more realisic
hmm, where did I find this one... because it's a steam engine with a streamline cowling Deco style the creation was probably a bit simpler.
the deco is a NYCentral Hudson (4-6-4) with streamlined cowling over the piping etc.
Probably found it while googling for 3d train models needs more rivits for close up work but in longer shots it's pretty good.
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there is a farily good model of Hiwautha .. hish speed milweekee road passenber seriice at rendo.
I thought I had some more will go check