fisch, I'm working almost every day on it. I'm doing it a little differently than any of my old layouts. I building one section at a time and finishing or almost finishing that section before I start the next. In other word, if I keep to my plan nothing will be running for a long time. I get bored just doing one thing so this keeps me interested. We were so lucky to find a house with the garage under the living area. It's not hot at all. We are on the side of a hill so the house is three stories but you come into the house in the middle. One story up and one down. Then you go down one more story to the garage. We have a large parking area outside so that's where the Explorer lives. The garage is "L" shaped and big enough for four cars so I have more room than before. Don
If they had listed it in BB&BC, I'd have pre-ordered. I'm not going to spend that kind of money on a unit that I'm going to have to repaint and no decals are available. The timing of that announcement was lousy due to the recession. If MTH tries again this year or next, and adds SP and BB&Bh to the mix (both railroads had McKeen cars), they likely will get a better response.
Originally Posted by Steve "Papa" Eastman:
MTH would have made them if there had been enough preorders. Many on this forum and others had the "I want to see it first" attitude. If they are offered again, get your order in or they will die again.
Steve
I saw the McKeen displayed at the MTH booth at York, and determined I was going to get my order in as fast as I could, and did. McKeen had space on UP property in Omaha, and UP and quite a number of other roads used these. They even made a gasoline road auto bus with that body, portholes, etc. A lot of their "success" was
based on McKeen's personal ability as a salesman, and connection with UP, as they outpaced the mechanical technology of the time, had several mechanical quirks, and were not reliable. As for the MTH doodlebug being a model, I could not find a similar car in any of the three Keilty doodlebug books, but...even though the books would seem complete, probably some cars were omitted.
Originally Posted by Southwest Hiawatha:
I'd love to have a McKeen car, but it would have to be lettered for the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia, a Milwaukee Road subsidiary that did have a Windsplitter. The picture below is an old postcard of a McKeen car on the streets of Bellingham. I was hoping that whenever MTH did its second run, it would catch up on the other roads that had them, including SP as well as the BB&BC. The MTH catalog announcement listed them in Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Pennsylvania, and Virginia & Truckee.
I also was waiting for a second run to order an O gauge version of the BB&BC's McKeen Motor Car.
The above vintage postcard is the exact one I sent to Dick Mayer to help him make my Standard Gauge McKeen Motor Car, i.e., the Milwaukee Road's (BB&BC's) "KULSHAN MOTOR CAR 2". Dick's finish product was only the second "long" version of a RichArt McKeen Motor Car that Dick ever made with the first being his original prototype, which Dick donated to his club as a train show door prize.
Though the BB&BC didn't have them, I also ordered four McKeen trailers from Dick, two of which he finished before his death. These include the observation trailer "BELLINGHAM TRAILER 1", and the "SUMAS U.S. MAIL EXPRESS 3" trailer. If MTH ever offers for sale any BB&BC trailers in O, I'd order them too!
Bob
Attachments
Images (4)
Jpos, can you scratchbuild in any way? The main body wouldn't be too hard except finding or making the porthole windows. 2nd problem would be finding power trucks and making decent side frames. The roof could be made of balsa or hardwood and sealed, then painted- use rare earth magnets to hold it on.
I plan on a build one of these days...
I would love to have MTH change their plans and produce the Mckeen motor car after all and I still believe that there is a real market for one to be produced in O and standard gauge tinplate. Producing the trail car would be a no brainer too. At York, I had a conversation with Lou Caponi about the possibility of Lionel and LCCA getting together on this project and this really could happen. How many others would be interested?
Eric Hofberg
TCA, LCCA
I could go for a tinplate Windsplitter IF the price wasn't too far in the stratosphere. If we are talking tinplate, I'd prefer Standard over 0 gauge.
Originally Posted by chug:
I would love to have MTH change their plans and produce the Mckeen motor car after all and I still believe that there is a real market for one to be produced in O and standard gauge tinplate. Producing the trail car would be a no brainer too. At York, I had a conversation with Lou Caponi about the possibility of Lionel and LCCA getting together on this project and this really could happen. How many others would be interested?
Eric Hofberg
TCA, LCCA
A number of my favorite railroads operated these cars so I'd certainly be interested.
Bob
Well, I walked through that MTH display at that York and blinked when I saw the McKeen car displayed...thinking, "They are ACTUALLY building something I would buy??!!" Hoping it wasn't a mirage, I put my order in right away, in spite of the V&T being the closest road of interest and no unlettered one was offered. Unfortunately, it sounds like others were asleep at the switch, but that is just those on the web here...it will take more orders than that, and must have, for nothing happened. I saw the one in Carson City years ago, before apparently successful restoration, but not since. Gotta get back there and shoot photos, for this will be another military rule: ("Want something done right, do it yourself") If somebody cast the body and truck
frames in resin, and offered that, I would be off and running.
