Iris Creek Valley Railroad
Thursday July 10, 2008
The Iris Creek Valley Railroad is a rarity, an American prototype TT scale layout. I was recently treated to this virtual tour of the Iris Creek Valley Railroad. This layout is apparently in Germany, as the virtual tour is hosted by the German Siggis Modellbahn Shop (that page is in German). Interestingly (though not necessarily surprisingly) the Siggis Modellbahn Shop sells the American prototype TT scale locomotives and rolling stock depicted in the Iris Creek Valley Railroad photographs. So here is an actual source for rare American prototype TT scale trains. I'd be really excited about this find if I could afford their products. As you can see on their USA TT page (also in German, but at least you can see the products), a GP-9 locomotive sells for €399. At today's exchange rates thats about $628. If I won the lottery I'm sure I'd be placing a large order. But alas, I guess I'll have to stick to European prototypes from Tillig, when their American importer has them in stock.
Comments
Wow, I never knew that these model trains could cost so much! Too bad the exchange rate is down…
http://www.siggis-modellbahn-shop.de/beschreibung.htm
It’s a pity the detail etch is so expensive . . . something like this could kickstart TT as a finescale option but at £12 . . . hmmm, have to wait for the lottery . . . ;-(
The Euro is so high right now, everything in Germany is expensive.
Whenever I think of model trains, I think of the Addams Family.
Let’s try this again:
The Euro is so high right now, everything in Germany is expensive.
Whenever I think of model trains, I think of the Addams Family.
My first comment didn’t come through completely.
We do only small series of 10 to 20 pieces of an loco or wagon an such small series are very expensive. Only a few are available at Siggi’s store. You have to compare the prices with other small series and not with the common modelrailroad products.
Carsten; I understand completely. Your pieces are beautifully done, and they are indeed competitively priced with low-production brass models. Here in the US, the current value of the dollar against the euro makes the cost even higher to us. If I were in a position to afford it, I would definitely buy two of each of your American prototype locomotives.
I have to say Randall that i always enjoy looking fwd to your WW photos. They bring a sense of joy. But it’s truely hard to understand the fascination that comes with plunking down several hundred dollars in order to watch something go round and round nowhere ? i could see useing it for delivering or transpoting goods from one part of the house to another. Might even get kids to pick up their toys
Sukhmandir; Only serious collectors with respectable means spend that kind of money for these low-production products. The average modeler spends less than $100 on a locomotive these days unless it is equipped with a DCC decoder (a computerized controller). Locomotives with decoders that play sounds as well as control the locomotive may go for $300 or more, and those are the big investments for most of us. I only own one, and got it on sale for $200. But, as you can tell by the WW images you mentioned, there are people who take this art form very seriously.
I keep looking for little people walking around. It all looks SO real! Do you have little people?
I appreciate that the etches are only done as a short run item and I certainly am in awe of Carsten and his group’s fine work.
However, if they or something like them were done commercially, they could help get TT going in the US as a scratchbuilding scale.
Just the basic details are all that’s needed - brake wheels, ladders, trucks, brake cylinders, those things that scratchbuilders all need a lot of and that are hard to make.
What annoyed me about the recent thread on Trainboard was how many people were belly-aching about not having ready to run US locos in TT. That’s just pointless; burning up bandwidth asking for something that was never going to happen . . . and surprise, surprise, it didn’t.
I tend to believe 1:120 is the smallest scale for practical scratchbuilding, having tried to do the same thing in N and never really being satisfied with what I could do in that scale- it’s just that little bit too small.
That’s where I see its potential, not only in standard gauge but in narrow gauge modelling, eg TTn3 1/2 and TTn3 and the like.