B-C Models passenger cars

Carey,

That's a lot of questions.  Bill (Walt) Cotton was BC models.  Box Car Ken was the distributor and probably the funding behind Bill's venture.  Bill was a machinist and, I think, a tool & die maker.

Yes, I own the tooling and remaining inventory.  It was left to me by Lou Cross who bought it from Bill's widow.  John Ford helped Lou pick up the tooling and inventory.  Not all of the tooling is present and we're not sure why.  There is a roller (in John's possession right now) that creates the fluting.  There is a punch & die that creates the mounting clips.  The original cutter used to form the lip around the edge of the roof made a cut that was angled in a way to draw the car side into the roof.  Lou's cutters didn't do that so we have to add reinforcing along the top edge of the car side to stiffen it.  This is usually long strips of  brass angle.  The ends are stamped and come with rivet detail for some cars and non riveted for others.  An example of a car with smooth ends would be the Daylight cars with full width diaphragms.  Lou had the tooling for making the full width versions but we never got it and he couldn't remember much about any of it.  I still have some and they look really cool on the cars but to work properly you need really large radius curves and long draw bars mounted well inboard from the ends of the cars.  Ideally mounted at the king pin.  It's a simple matter of geometry.

Lou built cars for years using the technology and parts created by Bill but he took it quite a bit further.  Sheet brass for the body and many more casting (both white metal and lost wax brass).  His primary customer was Dan Pantera.  I have literally thousands of cars side and parts.  Once I get Right-O'-Way sorted out and the portion of Protocraft, Red Cliffs Miniatures, and American Switch & Signal fully absorbed I would like to spend a little time working on the BC Models line.

No, they didn't come with trucks.  Couplers, I'm not so sure of.  I have dozens of the kits, some have couplers and some don't.  Lou may have added them or they may have come that way. Yes, I have some of the old catalogs. 

One of the things that Lou changed were the truck cutouts.  They were way too long.  Bill had to make them that way for the 3 rail trucks to clear.  Another critical thing for Lou was to get the cars as accurate as possible.  When making masters for punching out the sides (windows, loading doors, skirt vents, filler opening, etc.) Lou would use Pullman plans to get everything exactly like the manufacturer built them.  Very tedious stuff.

Much more but I need to get to work.

Jay

Hello Jay 

Thank you for all the information ....  when your boss is not looking ... did you have a time frame in which B-C models began production ?   

Thank you Cheers Carey 

Ken Caswell moved into live steam.  Last time I talked to him he was with Riverside Live Steamers.  Nice guy.  Of course, so was Lou - a real gentleman.

Bill/Walt had trucks cast from Lobaugh - they lost 4%, but you couldn't tell.  I took a Lobaugh Daylight truck (still proportionally the most accurate in O Scale), added brake cylinders, and had Dennis cast some in nickel silver.  Among my best trucks, since I have not the patience to solder eight cylinders per car.  Yuk!

Here is my B-C masterpiece.  Wish I knew the builder's name.

Lousy iPad photo.  Maybe a better shot when the sun is up.

Thank you Bob for posting your lovely Daylight car 

Did B-C sell RTR painted cars ?

cheers Carey

Carey, No, they did not.  As far as the Lobaugh trucks, I've never seen them in a BC kit.  Not saying Bill didn't have them cast up but they were not included in the standard kit.  I have the two sets of Daylight cars that Si built and he used Graceline/Ace trucks.  Those I have a bunch of too.

If you're interested in building more of them just let me know what you're looking for and I'll see if I have it/them in my inventory.

Ken offered a fairly large amount of modeling inventory.  I have some of his catalogs around here somewhere.  I never met the man but I wish I had of.  It is my understanding he only recently passed.

Jay

Hello Jay 

Thank you for the additional history .   I'm more of a collector ( future operator) so more interested in the history and picking up some early examples of B-C cars ..they are lovely ...or can be made to be so ...

Cheers Carey 

Carey,

I understand.

Jay

Bc can be made into very nice cars, interiors and underbodies are up to you.   Sorry  my photos suck, but you get the idea.         

Terry,

You are right, they can be.  By the way, nice model.

Carey,

To answer one of your previous questions.  Going through some of my Boxcar Ken newsletters I found the following; #27, dated August 1963, "BC Models have been on the market for a little over two years".  If we use the simplest form of extrapolation we come up with BC Models was started somewhere are the middle of 1961.  Hope this helps.

Jay

Here is a better photo of mine.  Note the Lobaugh trucks without brake cylinders - that is the way it came to me.  Its history is semi-obscure:  Bud Cantlay (RIP) gave it to me and told the story of the expert builder with access to SP enamel.

The one on the left is a Speer extrusion, cut and painted here.  If I was going to re-do my Daylight, it would be all Speer.  As it is, I think I have five Speer, four Kasiners, and this B-C.  I may re-decal someday, and add LED lights.  Someday.

Hello all 

Jay thank you for checking the newsletters.. and doing the math ....hope the boss did not get mad 

Bob thank you for the additional photo 

Terry ..very nice work on the interior and bottom  of the car ....  lots of patience and time ...

Cheers Carey 

Terry does indeed do excellent work, I'm always impressed with his attention to detail and finish skills.

Carey , I have a survey in ms word format of BCM passenger car models I did about five years ago that includes some catalog shots and various jpgs of examples my brother and I have bought over the years, send me a private message from here or mtj with your email if you're interested and I'll forward.

Pete