The new Athearn fire truck is great--I'll get one, but it begs the question (Boley aside), why is there such a trend towards (when it comes to vehicles--not just fire) 1/87 and railroad layouts in general to represent a 1950's/60's or earlier look?

There are very few modern 1/87 replicas out there--by modern I mean late 90's to current. Even Police cars are 50's Fords or Chevy's.

While the trains are very modern in design it just looks strange to have a modern train running through a Norman Rockwell style diarama.

Am I making any sense? Is there a lack in modern 1/87 vechicles out there.

John...My guess is it's driven by the HO RR crowd. I'm sure they buy far more vehicles than us diehard fire vehicle collectors. I also think a lot of the folks who are into HO model railroading are now reaching retirement age, and are modeling their layouts after the 40 - early 60's era. I grew up in eastern Ohio in the fifties and can remember the days of Pennsy steam. I always enjoy toys/models based on that era, including diecast such as Hubley. Course, then again, I'm probably all wrong!!

Paul: You are right. Even today, most train layouts are done with older buildings and vehicles. A good friend of mine is into trains and has a huge layout. He prefers (loves) okder vehicles...

Location: Md.

As far as the 1/87 police cars go, you can get modern ones made by Busch or Walthers, as far as Crown Vics and Impalas go. And now Model Power offers a 2005 Crown Vic. But as far as modern fire rigs are concerned, Boley has cornered that market. And Athearn, while their Ford C fire line is the tops, and now their soon-to-be released late-60's Ford pumper looks nice, they are catering to the model railroader, and that's what their bread and butter is, not us fire truck model collectors. That's to be expected.

Too bad there's not a company out there run by a firefighter who understands what we want, caters to the collectors instead of the model railroaders, and just cranks 'em out for us. Now that would be the ultimate thing!