Fall S Fest 2018

Interesting that Ron at AM is reissuing a steam engine.  He said just over a year ago he wasn't going to build steam again because Lionel had flooded the market.  I am glad he is as that is a nice product.  I hope it will be adaptable to Legacy or DCC.

I was at S Fest today, just left. The new Pacific from AM looks good. Should be available around April. I checked with Ed Goldin. He can put in TMCC/cruise/Railsounds, fan driven smoke and an operating rear coupler. Just buy the DC only version. AM also had a leftover Streamlined NYC Hudson for sale. These are hard to find. It was the scale version.

I contributed some money to DesPlaines hobbies buying a number of Hirail cars. I see that Rusty left a lot of scale cars behind. It was a good event, for me worth the trip from California.

I had a table to unload some of my left over S.  The crowd was down from last years, and according to my source, registration for venders was too.  Odd....prices mostly stayed the same????

I was happy to see Des Plains there with some of their stuff.  The 40% off sale had some nice stuff.  I was really surprised that there was no example of the new Thrall gondola or the new well intermodal cars just to get them in front of the consumer.  

Once again, AM had some “last ones” at their booth.  Had I not departed S I would have been all over the BN wide nose SD60.  AM really needs to look in all the nooks and crannies for out of production stuff.  

Ben

One more thing: Rishelam's impressive booth of quality Flyer:

Rusty

Roundhouse Bill posted:

Interesting that Ron at AM is reissuing a steam engine.  He said just over a year ago he wasn't going to build steam again because Lionel had flooded the market.  I am glad he is as that is a nice product.  I hope it will be adaptable to Legacy or DCC.

I thought about that, but in the NASG article Ron just indicated that he wouldn't do a Mikado because Lionel "flooded the market."  I haven't counted, but seem to recall Lionel doing all most as many Pacific's as Mikados...

However, AM's Pacific was released in 1997, four years before Lionel's Mikado (add a couple more years for their Pacific,) so the AM tooling is already developed, siting idle.  The Vanderbilt tender is a nice addition.  Plus, AM's Pacific's are just about the best running steamers I've seen.  I expect at least one of the new Pacific's will eventually find their way onto the Great Plywood Glacier.

Interesting that Rapido Trains is copying AM's mechanism style for their HO CP Royal Hudson...

Rusty

That is excellent news about the AM Pacifics. Maybe I should call Ron and lobby for the Katy to be re-issued. Now I feel a little better about the Legacy Berks being cancelled.

Also, I'd like to get two of those IC dairy cars. I wonder if there are any leftovers.

traindavid posted:

Wonder if AM will consider selling Vanderbuilt tenders alone; to be used on other engines???

David,

Ron usually will sell just about anything separately if you ask.  But since they're not ready to be shipped yet, he may not have them on hand.  Give him a call. 

I recently purchased two sets of ALCo power trucks for a project, and a few other bits and pieces.  For instance, the diaphragms for his Budd cars are available for those of us who want to kitbash old, beat up, junk box Gilbert cars.  He's a modeler too. 

Those Pacifics are indeed tempting...

traindavid posted:

Wonder if AM will consider selling Vanderbuilt tenders alone; to be used on other engines???

One of the guys on S-Scale.io apparently talked to Ron and reported the Vandy tenders will initially only be available with the locomotives.

Rusty

I'm in no hurry, perhaps in a year or so they might be available.

I'm thinkin' the Vandy would look dandy behind AM's Northern for a nice freelance loco.

Rusty

I talked to a Dealer for AM.  He says Ron has no plans to sell the tender alone till he recoups his tooling costs on it.  That could take years according to the dealer. 

Roundhouse Bill posted:

I talked to a Dealer for AM.  He says Ron has no plans to sell the tender alone till he recoups his tooling costs on it.  That could take years according to the dealer. 

Running some extra unlettered tenders could possibly help to recover some of the tooling costs.  However, rerunning the Pacific could also tie up a fair amount of capital.

It's Ron's business (and $$$,) he has to run it as he thinks best.

Rusty

Any one know if they sold the SD60 BN?

Gunny

The last time I walked past AMs booth on Saturday around 1pm-ish, they still had it.  I would give them a call and see if you can get it if you want it.  Like I said, if I did not make my exit from S, I would have knocked people over to get to that sucker....

Ben

Gunny, I attended an informal modeler's roundtable in the clinic room before happy hour, and someone had teh BN SD60 there. It was only lettered on one side.

I just talked to Ron At American Models.  He gave me some new information on the new Pacific.  I asked him what road names he was going to do.  He said that he would make any road name a customer wanted on their engine as well as engine number.  All he would ask is that he be able to charge a $50 not refundable deposit.  

This seems just the thing for you guys that want "your" railroad to get a newly produced engine.

I asked him about price.  He said his price for this engine was only going to be at $50 more than the earlier Pacifics even though his production costs have gone up considerable.  

Well, custom printing a roadname and number is an interesting offer.  I assume he's also going to have some "stock" roadnames also.  We'll have to see when the ads come out.

Regarding prices...  These were the prices Ron had posted at this past S Fest:

And these were the prices in the 2008/2009 catalog:

Also the prices in the 2013 catalog when the stock was virtually depleted:

So, it appears a little more than $50.00, but I do indeed understand that costs have gone up (All you have to do is go to the grocery store...) since the last production run, whenever that was. 

That said, I'm still interested in getting a Vandy version when they become available.  If none of the "stock" roadnames suit me, it'll be the Great Undec RR then.  

AM's Pacific's are good, stout locomotives.  (When they were new, we ran one for 6-1/2 hours straight at a Scenery Unlimited open house...)   Also, my 1998 era AM Pacific is still going strong.

Rusty

Rusty, thanks for the photo information and old prices.  He told me NO stock road names by the way.  Also, I bet it will over a year for selling the Vandy tender alone.  He was not encouraging at all on that.

Well now, doing the whole production as decorate-to-order is an interesting concept.  I can't think of anyone who has tried that in any scale.  Sorta takes the risk out of stocking roads that don't "move" quickly.  It'll be fascinating to see how that works out.

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

Well now, doing the whole production as decorate-to-order is an interesting concept.  I can't think of anyone who has tried that in any scale.  Sorta takes the risk out of stocking roads that don't "move" quickly.  It'll be fascinating to see how that works out.

Rusty

Geoff Graebel aka Greenbrier does it for GP-30's.

Roundhouse Bill posted:

  He said that he would make any road name a customer wanted on their engine as well as engine number.  All he would ask is that he be able to charge a $50 not refundable deposit. 

That is great news. I am ready to put down my deposit for MKT 391.

Chuck K posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

Well now, doing the whole production as decorate-to-order is an interesting concept.  I can't think of anyone who has tried that in any scale.  Sorta takes the risk out of stocking roads that don't "move" quickly.  It'll be fascinating to see how that works out.

Rusty

Geoff Graebel aka Greenbrier does it for GP-30's.

Bad example.  The GP30 was initially only offered as an unpainted brass model.  Offering them painted (at extra cost, I recall) was a result of slow sales.  Greenbrier has been trying to unload those GP30's since 1997.  Greenbrier hasn't done anything since that I'm aware of.

Whereas, I presume the AM Pacific is going to any color you want as long as it's black with a gray smokebox with your choice of roadname and number printed (or decaled?) on.

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

Chuck K posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

Well now, doing the whole production as decorate-to-order is an interesting concept.  I can't think of anyone who has tried that in any scale.

Rusty

Geoff Graebel aka Greenbrier does it for GP-30's.

Bad example.

Not to me...it's "decorate-to-order" and they are beautiful models that he will paint to any of the dozens of GP30 schemes you want and any road number you want. He also offers your choice of DCC decoder installed or straight DC.  And at what I consider a very reasonable price for a customized scale brass diesel.

Wasn't trying to create a debate, just noting a dealer who will customize his locomotives.

Anyway, come on Pacifics. Looking forward to ordering one or two from Ron.

One of his dealers sent me this earlier post.  I am going to do a review of it in the S Gaugian as soon as he has a production model to send me.

Well, that answers a couple of questions on how it's going to be done. 

Based on previous catalogs and web pages, artwork for roadnames available should be: AT&SF (Santa Fe,) B&O, CB&Q (Burlington,) CR&IP (Rock Island,) Great Northern, Lehigh Valley, Milwaukee Road, MKT, Pennsylvania, Pere Marquette, New Haven, New York Central, Northern Pacific, Southern, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific.

And we can probably throw in some Northern artwork not duplicated on the earlier Pacifics: C&O, Cotton Belt (SSW,) and Western Maryland.

I think I got them all...

Now all we need to know is when AM will start accepting orders.

Rusty

Rusty:  You didn't read it completely. You can order now.

I looked up to find which roads were known for the Vandy tender.

B&O, Canadian National, Grand Trunk, Great Northern, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific

I have a AM B&O Pacific so that is what I would get this new tender to match when (if) he will sell the tender alone.

I purposely presented the road names without regard to accuracy or comment in order to list what I believe AM has the artwork for.

As far as I'm aware, the list of railroads that had Pacific's with Vanderbilt tenders is short: B&O, C&O, Erie, GN, SP, TN&O(SP) and UP.  New Haven may have done a tender swap on one or two Pacific's.  You're definitely not going to find a Vandy anywhere on the Pennsy.

And of course, only the Erie had true USRA heavy Pacifics, (the Southern Railway PS4 was close, as were C&EI's...) so in a perfect world the model is inaccurate for any of the roads offered by AM, regardless of tender type.

But we're in S, so options for road-specific models are extremely limited.  Some of the scale guys will get their tidy-whitey's in a knot over which road had/had not, but probably 95% of the 85% of the market won't.

As for myself, I'm being flexible.  I'm thinking of the non-existent UP P-14 class Pacific and whether I have AM letter it or letter it myself is a decision I haven't made yet...

Rusty

I agree with Rusty.  It's not perfect, but close enough.  I'll have to save up a few bucks, but I'll probably get one since AM's things run so well and C&O is one of my favorite roads.  I found an example of a C&O F-15 Pacific with a Vandy tender.  Move the bell, add number boards (maybe) and a few other tweaks, and I'll have it.  From the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society's site: