Northstar Commuter coaches

Does anyone know of a source of HO Athearn Bombardier commuter coaches in the MNDOT Northstar Corridor scheme? They were produced a few years back, but another run has never materialized. I've got MP36PH-3C's in Northstar livery on order from True Line and want to secure some coaches. I scored a three car set today from a dealer in (of all places) Minnesota (stock he had on hand that someone ordered but never collected or paid for), but that's all I've been able to find. I've called multiple Athearn dealers all over the country without luck. Sadly, Athearn only did the one run with differing road numbers.... a separate control car, a separate coach, a three-pack (two coaches and a control car) and a complete set with a (incorrect) F59PHI dressed up to look like the MPXpress loco (not sure if the road numbers in the set were the same as the ones available separately or in the three-pack). Any info would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Mike

ebay really is your best bet. I've seen all the roads produced on there.

Steve F45 wrote:ebay really is your best bet. I've seen all the roads produced on there.

Thanks for the tip, but actually eBay is totally barren of these cars (and has been since I started looking months ago). You can find pretty much every other road except Northstar in HO. Walthers and other large model RR retailers have been sold out of these since they first appeared. What I've found was that since this was such a small run (and not repeated such as the MetroLink cars), they're most likely going to be found in more obscure hobby shops that bought a few sets that never sold and are gathering dust on some back shelf as opposed to the dealers that usually frequent eBay. The only eBay dealer I've seen that allegedly had them (and they were supposed to be from the new run which has been discontinued by Athearn) was from Hong Kong. I know too many people who bought items from Hong Kong sellers and ended up with second hand reject crap that was spirited out of the dumpsters of the company that manufactured them.

Mission accomplished! I was able, through a prolonged and extensive search of nationwide hobbyshops, to locate sufficient Northstar coaches/control cars for my consist needs, the last 3-car set located at Becker's Model Railroad Supply in Minnesota and the last coach (literally... there was one in stock) being located at Des Plaines Hobbies in Illinois last week. Mr. Vondrak, you may lock when ready!