Some proto groups/societies get more models than us as either a) they have a larger following and/or b) their mbrship is more aggressive/helpful in dealing with mfgs.
That said we have lucked out lately despite being a 46 yr fallen flag with the recent Tangent Baby Hy-Cube CB&Q proto. There exist other HO baby hy-cubes but not anywhere near this detail NOR with unique Q features.
I was lucky as a kid in Dubuque as several of the less common prototypes owned by
any RR (whale belly hoppers, 40' hy-cubes, 50' box with grain insp doors, end door box cars, etc) were owned by the Burlington AND showed up either at the Dubuque freight house or at the IC interchange in East Dubuque (speaking of which the ex-IC depot
with Q as a tenant dating to circa "60 has been torn down - last used by CN as storage)
The VERY strange looking baby hy-cubes would come into Dubuque proper for a local appliance dealer (Admiral products via Galesburg - Tangent offers both Q 'pools'). Only a handlful of RR's owned them - lucky us!
Whalebellies (also unique to just a couple RR's including ours!) came to Flynn Ready Mix, old 50' end doors were part of a Q MoW train parked in East Dubuque at times and the 50' box cars with small white grain insp doors within one of the double
door combo (plug/sliding) came to an IC track south of the Q frt & pass depot area for unloading into barges.
Tangent has done a super job but as a small mfg their production runs are small. I'm also picking up a GATX 3 dome as indeed these showed up in a lot of the thru freights coming up the Lacrosse Div from Chicago chemical mfgs to points west. Seldom
saw them coming back so assume they came a different route with a back load or ? In any case, a double or triple dome was a nice break in train watching in East Dubuque from the common UTLX & GATX single domes. As is pointed out in Tangent's announcement,
the 3 domes were virtually unchanged from the "20's & 30's into the 70's.
We are spoiled as Q modelers BUT will enough of us buy some Tangent hy-cubes TODAY to encourage more Q models, especially of freight cars not available (or not real prototypical)? Yes, I know it's summer but strike whole the iron is hot! (or Tangent's
molds are warm!) Gerald