Whooo HOOO! 3rd Rail taking Reservations for the ACE 3000!

RailRide posted:

rheil posted:

(my original quote snipped)

Normal minimum production run of a brass steam locomotive from Sunset would be approximately 120 units.

If, after 4-6 months of initial announcement there are less than 30 - 40 reservations that indicates it's probably not worthwhile to proceed. Once a project reaches 75 or so reservations that is an indicator that it is probably going to sell out in a reasonable time frame. Definition of reasonable -? Perhaps a year or so.

Projects that receive 60 or so  reservations within several months are generally kept on the reservation list for some time but no financial investment to proceed with the project is made at that point.

Perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be: for projects that do come to fruition, what was the range of timeframes from announcement to delivery? 

I didn't see a separate thread for the C&O 1309, but ran across it as one of several recently announced items in a post here on the Forum. Like a number of folks above with the ACE3000, my first thought at seeing the price of the 1309 was Yikes!

RailRide,

Time frames from announcement to delivery vary widely.

Once sufficient reservations are received to make a financial investment in a project the next step is to reach contractual agreement with the builder on price and quantity.  Once that has been accomplished the usual steps of design, production, testing, and delivery are generally planned to happen in a 12 month +/- period. This 12 month period varies depending upon how busy the builder is.

But the total time frame from announcement to delivery is very dependent upon reaching the minimum number of reservations to make a project viable. In some cases this has been as long as 5 years. In others  I have seen it happen within 12 - 18 months. In still others the project is cancelled due to lack of reservations.

I noted from your profile you are a C.O. tech. Verizon?

BobbyD posted:

daylight posted:

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Keep in mid the 3rd rail GM train of tomorrow listed a lot less msrp than the ho counterpart AND for the Ho set YOU had to decorate and paint an E7! I reserved a demo unit although the prr would be interesting to!

I was going to start a new topic but since you mention the Train of Tomorrow, why does the Red Island Rocket (RIR) lists for $2249.00 (diesel, not sure if it's brass or plastic ) with 4 cars when the ToT sold for $1550.00.  Very similar IMHO.  I understand that costs go up but this is a hefty increase.

I hope the RIR gets made.

Many more could be sold at $1550.00

Since the Rock Island TA is a one railroad locomotive (like the Pennsylvania and C&O turbines) there seems to be no way to spread the locomotive costs around like the Train Of Tomorrow did? The E7 tooling was used to produce locomotives decorated in other road names.

So the engine of the RIR is not an E7????  I know very little about diesel engines

Orignally posted by Daylight:

So the engine of the RIR is not an E7????  I know very little about diesel engines

NO The Train of Tomorrow is an E7 and it's complete, Just take it out of the box and it's ready to run.

With the HO set YOU the buyer had to get an E7- paint it- and add the Stainless steel decorations that came with the HO cars. The HO set did not have an E7, just the cars and a kit with the Stainless Steel Fluting. The HO set commands a premium of $2k and up!

Here is the HO set:

https://brasstrains.sirv.com/p...jpg?profile=showcase

rheil posted:

RailRide posted:

rheil posted:

(my original quote snipped)

Normal minimum production run of a brass steam locomotive from Sunset would be approximately 120 units.

If, after 4-6 months of initial announcement there are less than 30 - 40 reservations that indicates it's probably not worthwhile to proceed. Once a project reaches 75 or so reservations that is an indicator that it is probably going to sell out in a reasonable time frame. Definition of reasonable -? Perhaps a year or so.

Projects that receive 60 or so  reservations within several months are generally kept on the reservation list for some time but no financial investment to proceed with the project is made at that point.

Perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be: for projects that do come to fruition, what was the range of timeframes from announcement to delivery? 

I didn't see a separate thread for the C&O 1309, but ran across it as one of several recently announced items in a post here on the Forum. Like a number of folks above with the ACE3000, my first thought at seeing the price of the 1309 was Yikes!

RailRide,

Time frames from announcement to delivery vary widely.

Once sufficient reservations are received to make a financial investment in a project the next step is to reach contractual agreement with the builder on price and quantity.  Once that has been accomplished the usual steps of design, production, testing, and delivery are generally planned to happen in a 12 month +/- period. This 12 month period varies depending upon how busy the builder is.

But the total time frame from announcement to delivery is very dependent upon reaching the minimum number of reservations to make a project viable. In some cases this has been as long as 5 years. In others  I have seen it happen within 12 - 18 months. In still others the project is cancelled due to lack of reservations.

I noted from your profile you are a C.O. tech. Verizon?

Correct-amundo on that last one

Thanks for the insight. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

---PCJ

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Orignally posted by Daylight:

So the engine of the RIR is not an E7????  I know very little about diesel engines

NO The Train of Tomorrow is an E7 and it's complete, Just take it out of the box and it's ready to run.

 

With the HO set YOU the buyer had to get an E7- paint it- and add the Stainless steel decorations that came with the HO cars. The HO set did not have an E7, just the cars and a kit with the Stainless Steel Fluting. The HO set commands a premium of $2k and up!

Here is the HO set:

https://brasstrains.sirv.com/p...jpg?profile=showcase

yes, the TOT is an E7 but what diesel designation will pull the Red island Rocket

The Rock Island Rocket will have a TA  built in 1937:

Which pre-dates the E7 by 8 years.

Rusty

It would be nice if Scott could have the factory add a little magic stretching dust to this TA project and come up with an E1 in Santa Fe WB colors.

Charlie

Rusty Traque posted:

The Rock Island Rocket will have a TA  built in 1937:

Which pre-dates the E7 by 8 years.

Rusty

What is a TA?

Charlie posted:

It would be nice if Scott could have the factory add a little magic stretching dust to this TA project and come up with an E1 in Santa Fe WB colors.

 

Charlie

and Milwaukee Road 1938-1940 Hiawatha colors

daylight posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

The Rock Island Rocket will have a TA  built in 1937:

Which pre-dates the E7 by 8 years.

Rusty

What is a TA?

The unit in the photo is a TA. For additional information, you might try Google.

for others who did not know what TA Stood for:

The EMC-TA was a model of Diesel locomotive produced for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad by the Electro-Motive Corporation in 1937. The original six Rock Island Rocket streamliners were three- or four-car stainless-steel semi-articulated trainsets built by Budd Company, powered by six identical locomotives, #601-606. The locomotives were classified as model TA—the T indicating Twelve hundred hp (890 kW), the A indicating an A unit (cab-equipped lead locomotive). The Rock Island Line was EMC's only customer for the TA locomotive model.