It's not your problem — it's their. I haven't bought anything but magazines, paint, and other building supplies from my LHS for almost a year. they don't have anything I want.
That's not to say that there aren't things I want! There are eight or ten locomotives I would buy in quantity if they were available, but they aren't. I would buy twenty or thirty sets of GMD steps if they were available, but they aren't. I'd buy a half-dozen full-length handrail sets for SWs, but no one makes them. I'd love to see some more Eastern or CCF or NSC rolling stock, but it's not out there. I'd dearly love to see some decent Canadian cabooses (vans), I need a dozen or more, but they ain't out there. Simply put, the manufacturers aren't scratching my itch, and I'm not going to buy stuff simply for the same of buying.
I may be a special case. I model Canadian railroads, which on the whole are very poorly served by US manufacturers. No surprise. We art the proverbial wart on the elefant's ass. But I can't help thinking that if Kato produced a decent model of a GMD-bullt CN SD40-2(W), which became quite common on US lines, they'd have two components (the GMD steps and the Comfort Cab) that could be incorporated into many other GMD-built GPs and SDs.
So I scratchbuild. I kitbash. I make my own resin parts. I buy from manufacturers who cater to my interests, and I ignore the rest, which is almost everything based on US prototypes. I'd like to give them my business, because it would save me time, but they don't produce the things I want, so we both lose out.
[rant]
Canada is bigger than the USA. Railroads have played a pivotal role in establishing my country, and are still very important to it's continued prosperity. Fairbanks-Morse locomotives were built here by CLC, and differed from their US counterparts. Alcos were built here by MLW, and differed from their US counterparts. EMD locomotives were built here by GMD, and differed from their US counterparts. It galls me to see model manufacturers take a US prototype and dress it up in a Canadian scheme, pretending it is accurate, when it doesn't even come close.
They're all guilty of this — Kato's so-called CP and BCR SD40-2s are UP locomotives in drag. Athearn/Horizon has recently announced a "BCRail" RS-3, based on the old MDC shell, which is accurate for only two of several hindred Canadian RS-3s (and the road numbers are wrong). Hobbycrap Canada took the Atlas RS-10, dressed it up and offered it as an MLW RS-11 and RS-18.
These things go for $200 a pop here, without sound and DCC. Sorry, but if you mnaufacturers are going to advertise it as a Canadian Locomotive, you'd better deliver the goods! And they don't. So I don't buy them anymore, unless I can get them for half price. then I'll buy them, knowing that I have to spend time and money fixing them, adding aftermarket parts, and repainting them.
The CN and the CP are two of the largest railroads on the continent. I am critical of US manufacturers who release so-called "Canadian" models that are nothing more than US models in drag. I am critical of Canadian modellers who settle for second-best. We deserve better, but as long as complacency rules, it will never happen.
There are far too many "train-drivers" in this hobby, and far too few "modellers". Harrumph!
So I don't buy much anymore, because I refuse to use my dollars to endorse mediocrity.
[/rant]
Cheers
Scott Fraser
Calgary, Alberta