Folks,
Many of you know that I purchased the Lee Lines tooling and parts last year. Several of you now own shiny new old stock engines and passenger cars, built from original parts that were acquired as part of the deal. The package also included the original patterns for the engine castings and the extrusion dies for the passenger car roofs and sides. And 150 motors.
I have built out most of the 11 engines that I had parts for, as well as over 60 passenger cars in SP Daylight, American Freedom Train, N&W, and a couple of specials. I have enough passenger parts to build about another 40 cars, then I run out of roofs. All other parts can be made or bought.
So here's my question: is there additional interest in the GS-4 Daylight loco to consider producing additional castings? If I was to continue it would be very small quantities (single digits) as long as I could assure good quality. The new engines would continue to be virtually exact copies of the originals.
Same question goes for the passenger cars - I have built them in the original 22" length as well as the 30" long cars that some of you saw at the TCA National. An investment in an extrusion run would need to be made - 500 lb minimum (roofs first, each 22" long roof extrusion weighs about 1 pound, so we are talking a lot of cars). I still have extrusions for the sides for about 150 more cars, so that decision comes much later.
Your feedback is much appreciated. If you think you may be interested in an engine, please let me know - no commitment required, but it helps me with the decision to invest in new castings.
And thanks again to those that contacted me and now own some of these wonderful trains, it's been great to build them for you and to know you all as train friends.
I also have 5 sets of boilers and tenders for a near scale version, I will be building the first of those in coming months with larger drivers and a better drive system. About 3 inches longer overall than the aluminum Lee Lines engine and finer detail. Apparently Dana Barlow intended to build these up (maybe for G?) and never got to the mechanisms. Pricing will be comparable to the aluminum engine. This one will be weighted to assure great pulling power.
Thanks again
Jim Waterman
