Sad News For S Scale

Yikes...best wishes to his family...

Mark in Oregon

That is awful news. Ron was a great friend to the hobby, he will be missed. All the best wishes to his family.

Terrible news! I just spoke with Ron ten days ago.

My condolences to his family

Gunny

Sincere condolences to Ron's family from the entire crew at OGR. He will long be remembered for his many great contributions to our hobby.

Yep, just received Doug Peck's newsletter.  Sad indeed.  He had some great products.  This could be another knife in the heart of S gauge.

Condolences to his family and very close friends.

Wow! Definitely my condolences to Ron and his surviving family. While I purged my collection of S scale last century [ cheap AF stuff], I still appreciate the efforts of American Models and S Helper Service. I hope for all you S scale fans that American Models still continues.

Sad to hear of Ron's passing, condolences to his family, co-workers, and friends from the Badgerland S Gaugers.

Ray

Not just a sword-swing at S, but at the entire hobby, for us in O who have lost producers, very bad to lose anyone who contributes to the support of any of all the facets of the hobby.  Way too much has disappeared or become much harder to access, and that has often been due to the unwanted loss  of the principal.  Layout flags could be lowered to half staff.

My condolences to his family.

Very sad to learn this.  Thinking of his wife, children, co-workers and many friends.  Mike   

As others have already said, this is very sad news to hear.  My thoughts and prayers are with Ron and his entire family.

Over the years I had conversations with Ron mostly about trains, but sometimes a little politics and economics got mixed in, we were on the same page.  Ordering from Ron was always fun, one time when I was done with my order he said "is that all", and I added a nice New Haven woodshed caboose.

In 2019 I worked with Ron and he helped our club design a custom tank car which his team created for us.  This project was great fun for me, and I want to believe that Ron enjoyed it too. I have attached a photo of one of the cars.  We printed 50 cars as #1997 for the year the ACSG Carolinas Division was founded , and 50 Cars with the #2019, for the year Ron and his team built the cars for us.

Thanks for listening,

George

Condolences to all the family and friends. Sad.

Jim K

Aflyer posted:

In 2019 I worked with Ron and he helped our club design a custom tank car which his team created for us.

Ron also did an excellent job in making our "S" Fest cars for the 2020/2021 event, hoppers done in the Hiawatha tradition, and a beautiful job it was!

Ray

There is no doubt in my mind that S (in spite of recent other setbacks) would not be where it is today if Ron hadn't mortgaged the house and started up American Models back in the 1980's.

Rusty

As a American flyer and S Gauge fan I am saden to hear of this news.  Condolences to all the family,

Regards

Jackie

Rusty is 100 % right on Ron putting S back on the map!

Bob G

One thing I will never forget is that everytime I talked to Ron, I could hear Rush in the background.  So much so that Ron and Rush are permanently associated in the recesses of my brain.

I will continue to do what I can to keep them in business. I try to never buy anything on the secondhand market that AM or one of their dealers has in stock. It's always a good day when I have a package show up from Whitmore Lake, MI.

BTW - there is a nice message from his wife Karen and a couple of great pics on their homepage...

https://americanmodels.com/

It's good to hear the family intends on continuing the business.

Rusty

I worked with Ron to produce a club car for our club (South Jersey S Gaugers). I found him to be easy to work with, and his suggestions added to the final product.

Quite a few years ago I did an interview with Ron for an article in CTT.   For some reason, it wasn't accepted, even though I included photos and notes.  Their loss.  One was finally done years later.   While to talking to him I noticed his thoroughness in planing his products.   He kept his cards close to his vest as to new things since he didn't want to be accused of delaying products he promised.  Once in production and in his hands for sale, his products took everyone by surprise (a friend of mine bought two Train Masters when they suddenly appeared at a show where they were introduced).  Ron was made a lifetime member of the Southeastern Michigan S Gaugers a few years ago and brought a test shot of his triple bay hopper to a meeting.  He once even hosted a meeting at his facility in Whitmore Lake.  It was like being the proverbial kid in the candy store!  Little things like this will keep his memory alive for me, as well as AM's products.

He got me back into S with the release of his GG1.  The one I have is from his first run, and it's still performing like the day I got it.  His policy of providing any part and quick help via phone made AM a stand-out company.   Thanks, Ron.