Current Contributions to the O Scale Market

MTH makes accurate and affordable (?) O scale engines with scale wheels.  (By affordable, I mean that MTH's engines are usually less expensive than other importer's engines and the quality is excellent in my opinion.)

The diesels usually need to have the pilots fixed in place and Kadee couplers installed.  I have two O scale 2-rail steam engines that I upgraded to PS-3.  They both run well using PS-3's ability to run using DCC.  MTH's DCC compatible PS-3 system is welcomed by those of us who run O scale using DCC.

Bachmann's On30 locomotives and cars are excellent.

NH Joe

Intermountain wheelsets: 

To me the greatest improvement for a Two Rail layout and at a reasonable price and I know many O scalers use them me included.

Scale City Designs:

Marty the owner. This bloke is really trying his hardest to bring new items to the O scale market take his Steel industry items, but they are only one of many new ideas this man has for O scalers.

Roo.

I agree with Roo above about Marty from Scale City Designs. He brings a fresh approach to modeling that has long been missing. The other guy that brings a similar level of energy is the guy from Altoona Model works, I'm sorry I forgot his name.

What I observed from both of these guys is that they have the ability to speak to their customers level of skill, not talking down to beginners, nor, not afraid of getting into detailed discussions with seasoned modelers that demand a bit more attention to detail.

Hopefully these guys will be around for a long time.

Charlie

Yep.  I have had great service from Marty at Scale City Designs - and Pat from P&D as well.

Most everyone in the support part of the business is good.  I think it's mainly the bigger suppliers where the question marks are.  Economy of scale can also mean economy of quality.

Having said that, I must say that I have had great service from Atlas customer service.

I love the detail on their locos as well.       Not so keen on the drives, though.    

P&D should be included as an O Scale mfg.    The original dies for the F units now done by Atlas were made for P&D.   Pat sold the kits for years and then sold the tooling to Atlas.   He still has a stock of the kits.    These F-unit kits are among the best detailed plastic shells available and are available in any configuration from early F3 thru F9.   P&D also has scads of detail parts for the F-units and various other first generation diesels including Alcos.

Stevenson Preservation Models has rescued some of the classic steam kit lines and brought back to the market some of the full kits and hundreds of the detail parts.

Another supplier that is more a custom builder than mfg is Crescent Locomotive works.    I have had Ashpit Hoist and it is a very nice model for the price.    They are not super detailed, but plenty detailed enough for the  typical layout in my opinion.

On a separate note, the horizontal single motor drive with reduction gearing to the trucks is not new to O scale.   It was the common standard drive style used by All Nation, Central Locomotive Works, Kemtron, Max Grey, US Hobbies, Sunset, NJCB, Overland Models, The Carworks, and the original Weaver Units.    The "china" drive is a relative new idea based on the Lionel 50s era toy trains.   

We'll have to put KEY, KOHs and OMI in that lineup.

KEY has always been a supplier of quality models and after Dave Davita took over the company, many years back, the quality just got better and better. His new SP AC's has raised the bar for steam locos similar to what MMW is doing in diesels. Ground breaking model for sure.

George Koh has to be responsible for the advent of the correctly super detailed, factory produced, O scale steam locomotives starting some 20 years ago.  I'm sure he had to pull the builders along with him to reach his level of expected detail as he was always on the leading edge of this market. I'm sure some of this fanaticism for detail came from time spent working with Fine Art Models, owned by his brother Gary Koh.

OMI.  What can we say. Tom Marsh was the king daddy of the Korean importers back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. His models were incredibly detailed in both HO and O, although some were fragile in the beginning and not the best runners. He pushed the brass train building industry in Korea from infancy to the level we see today. And, IMO, he was the most prolific importer of Korean brass model trains ever. I'm just glad he was a Union Pacific nut, because we'd never have seen the myriad of UP models in both HO and O scale from anyone else.

BH

You know, there are so many unsung heroes in our hobby that we seldom take the time to think about them or much less to say "Thank You".  I know I'm guilty of this.

I'm sure there are others I could mention, but one who comes to mind and deserves some serious kudos is Jay Criswell of Right-O-Way Rail Products.  Although ROW has been in existence since the early 60's, Jay has worked his butt off bringing this wonderful company into the 21st Century.  He has a website now, he's added new products, including those that used to be carried by Protocraft, he's building up his stock of items that haven't been unavailable for years and I know there is much more to come. His knowledge of product and O scale in general is incredible and he's always willing to share.  

He took on a tremendous undertaking with ROW and the speed at which he has accomplished all these updates and improvements is mind boggling. His passion for the hobby is inspiring and his willingness to help and teach is monumental.  Jays' one from the old school way of thinking.....and that, in my book, is a good thing.  It's not about the money, it was about preserving the hobby and building on Lou's legacy. 

For those who may not know, Jay does some pretty incredible drive conversions too. 

Thanks Jay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BH

While not necessarily a "current" contributor, the ground breaking pattern making work of Joel Berling of Precision Scale often goes unnoticed (Thanks to Gene Deimling for mentioning this in the past, since it IS significant).

Though I don't know who did the patterns for the San Juan Car Company Fowler box cars, the AB brake gear is some of the finest I've ever seen.   The double W emblem and "Westinghouse Air Brake Wilmerding PA"  are clearly readable.  Phenomenal.

up148 posted:

I'm sure there are others I could mention, but one who comes to mind and deserves some serious kudos is Jay Criswell of Right-O-Way Rail Products.  Although ROW has been in existence since the early 60's, Jay has worked his butt off bringing this wonderful company into the 21st Century.  He has a website now, he's added new products, including those that used to be carried by Protocraft, he's building up his stock of items that haven't been unavailable for years and I know there is much more to come. His knowledge of product and O scale in general is incredible and he's always willing to share.  

He took on a tremendous undertaking with ROW and the speed at which he has accomplished all these updates and improvements is mind boggling. His passion for the hobby is inspiring and his willingness to help and teach is monumental.  Jays' one from the old school way of thinking.....and that, in my book, is a good thing.  It's not about the money, it was about preserving the hobby and building on Lou's legacy. 

For those who may not know, Jay does some pretty incredible drive conversions too. 

 

Thanks Jay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

BH

 

 

I couldn't agree more, he has taken this company in such a positive direction and has truly advanced ROW with the website, product photos and customer photos.  Jay is a very nice man and I wish him continued success.  Great job Jay, and thank you for all of your hard work. 

I could not agree more about Jay. But there are others as well, there is the guy with the passenger

care detail parts. Last I herd he had over 350 parts available and adding more. I think the name is Delta.

Bob

Let's not forget Lou Cross who ran ROW for many years and developed a customer base that Jay could build on.

BTW, what is Jay's URL?

Ed

Kind words by all and it's truly appreciated.  There will be some huge announcements a little later.  If I'd finally get around to paying my fair share on the OGR Forum I would say more.  Bottom line for me, I'm still investing all I can on upgrades, inventory, and the website.

Ed,

I will never forget Lou and what he left me.  I'm reminded of him daily and I pray he would approve of what I'm doing.

Being the only employee makes many things take longer than I'd like but, we're getting there.

Jay

Jay C posted:

Kind words by all and it's truly appreciated.  There will be some huge announcements a little later.  If I'd finally get around to paying my fair share on the OGR Forum I would say more.  Bottom line for me, I'm still investing all I can on upgrades, inventory, and the website.

Ed,

I will never forget Lou and what he left me.  I'm reminded of him daily and I pray he would approve of what I'm doing.

Being the only employee makes many things take longer than I'd like but, we're getting there.

Jay

For us Proto 48'ers, your contribution is priceless Jay!  Good things take time, and making great things greater takes even more time.

And one could find not a kinder soul in our hobby than Lou.

Please do not forget Atlas. Even though we do not like the china (small C) drive , for the money they are hard to beat. Look at the Zephyr cars. I have a S8, GP9, RS1, GP35 and a few more other brands. I won't deny they have problems but it seems to me no more than MTH, Lionel, etc. How many of us like Weaver, can be customized to better match prototype. What about Williams? 

Nuff said.

Dick

I agree with CBQER, I started in O Scale with the old Atlas F-9 set back in the 1970s. It was a time when you bought brass if it was affordable, if not you kit built or upgraded Atlas or AHM products. As time when on not being in a position to acquire what I wanted in O Scale I boxed everything up and switched to HO. When Atlas O entered the O Scale market with new products the HO collection was sold off and the O Scale models I had were unboxed, a new era was started and I never looked back.

If you don't have an unlimited budget then you must have patience and the ability to improvise. O  Scale modeling has made a giant leap forward in the last 25 years, I hope I'm still around to see the status of the hobby 25 more years from now.

Best Regards to All; Gene 

Thank you all for the kind words as we really appreciate it. We are working on several new projects that should increase our line in many directions. we are also working on a new website that will have pics of all products, so just keep watching our posts. 

Hope to see many of you at the Strasburg 2 rail show on Saturday!

Precision Scale for their lost wax brass detailing parts

This may be biased coming from me but don't forget the custom structure builders like Alan Graziano, Harry Heike, Stu Gralnick etc. who fill in the niche between the small and main line manufacturers with their excellent building skills.

Joe

I never met him but Bob Rzaza detailed parts [ now part of Des Plains Hobbies O scale America line] is in need of mention. Bob R filled the void for many detailed part gaps that are either hard to get or were not covered by PSC. The only issue is that Des Plains hobbies refuses for some reason to place pics on their website of the part so people are guessing what the detailed part is... which cuts back on sales! it's a vicious cycle.

Another mention is importer Bill Davis of American O Scale [A.K.A. brassmonger on "that auction site"] he brings in many UNIQUE detailed parts for today's modern locos that PSC and others have yet to offer.

BTW, What ever happened to CLW?  The Parts alone must have SOME kind of value... rather than storing it in boxes somewhere.

They can be purchased.  Not sure they advertise.

There is a guy on eBay that sells them brand new.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Centra...a:g:20wAAOSwCGVX4sY6

Speaking of parts, Bill Davis, "Brassmonger" is selling off his stock of OMI "spare" parts so if you need anything, better get cracking!

Peter

Peter,

FYI, that "Guy" is CLW.

Jay

I did not realize that Jay, good to know.

I didn't know  the company still existed thinking the parts and manufacturing  equipment had been taken over by someone else like you did with R O W.  Is the fellow you are referring to the original owner of CLW?  

Peter

I have to add my appreciation to your contributions to we old O scale farts!!!!

Peter,

No, he's not the original owner.

Glad to be of service,

Jay

One other "recent, but not current" entry I would make is Pecos River Brass. Many of his cars were outstanding in my regard, especially, the modern tank car run featuring CONC, DOWX, and UTLX.  The various runs of cement and other hoppers were outstanding as well. Then there were the awesome runs of Santa Fe ice reefers and the varied classes of Santa Fe cabooses. John was perhaps the first to bring O Scale solidly into the intermodal age with his Gunderson well cars and he had more planned as well as well. After John closed his importing business and turned to other interests, Atlas O obviously picked up on some of the projects and perhaps we will see more.  John Smith was certainly and authority on the headaches of importing brass models from South Korea and his legacy is may fine freight cars for both the modern era and the steam/transition period.

Lets also not forget the work with brass castings that got many brass models up to snuff in the past done by Levon Kemalyan of Kemtron.  I tend to not get many of the newer models(out of my budget that is alotted for my O scale), so I depend on the great older kits like All Nation ect to fill my needs.  Also keeps me busy on those long cold winter nights.  I also want to applaud Jay C, he has been a huge help trouble shooting my old All Nation chain drive issues and how to fix them.  Most of my models were made either before I was born or when I was still playing with 3 rail on the floor of my room.  With Atlas re entering the 2 rail world again, along with others offering their models with a 2 rail option, the future looks good for now.  Mike

Mike,

Thank you.  I do enjoy helping.

Jay