US $5.95 • Can $7.95 - O scale trains

You’ll have to excuse me this month.It’s been hard, lately, to get a singlethought stretched out to column length(Can’t be age; perhaps the influence ofstrong drink). I figured that a group oftotally disassociated thought provocationsmight be a fun change of pace from myusual practice of flogging a single thoughtbeyond recognition. So, without furtherado (and with apologies to the late greatKin Hubbard) we present…Scace’s Short Furrows:Item: Lately, there have been severalreally nice diecast steam locomotivesintroduced in the Hi-rail world. Lionelhas announced a B&M Mogul, K-line hasa decent scale Hudson out, and showedtheir B&A Berkshire at the last coupleof TCA meets at York. The castings areexquisite, the proportions are good-toexcellent.There is nothing I’d like morethan to be able to convince Lionel or K-Line that there would be the potential foran at least reasonable return on investmentto do some of these locomotives intwo-rail, much like Weaver’s 2-8-0 or 3rdRail’s offerings (and I’ll keep trying!).In lieu of that, perhaps there would bethe potential for some after-market drivesthat would just bolt up to, say, the LionelMogul. We’ve been hearing you, here atOST, asking for more on smaller railroads,and small modestly priced steam to run onthem. Now that these newer diecast Hirailpieces are well within the “neurosis”tolerance of most scale types, after-marketdrives may be a new market niche.Although a more complex approach tosteam conversions, the approach of dropindriver sets has worked well for the Proto-48 folks. Can it work here, in a somewhatlarger marketplace?Item: I recently had the privilegeof visiting Phil Opielowski, Bob Buck,Jimi Smith, and several others from theAmherst crew. If you remember, Phil isthe guy who wrote the article on scratchbuildinga couple of B&A cabooses and aflanger out of styrene, which appeared onthese hallowed pages a couple of issuesago. Phil has scratchbuilt some magnificentstructures on his Ware River branch,including the stone station at Palmer,Mass. He and Jimi have formed a partnership,exchanging ideas and methods usedin building structures, and Jimi has builtsome truly magnificent B&M structuresas a result. The lesson here is one that Ihave been flogging for some time, now.There is wisdom in numbers. Seek outothers around you who are well behavedand can pass skills and new ideas on foryour benefit. In return, you can bringfresh approaches in different fields, suchas painting, carbuilding, or trackwork,that benefit the other parties involved. I’msure that Phil and Jimi are scurrying abouttaking photos of their work for the “Modeler’sShelf” section of this august journalas we speak (Right, guys? That way, wewon’t have to be inundated with Joe’sN&W stuff.). By the way, Phil and hisdarling bride, Brenda, were perfect hosts,plying this thirsty traveler with coffeeand gin (in separate containers! C’mon!).I learned a lot, was pleased to see Phil’sand Jimi’s work, and always love matchingstories with Bob. Thanks to all theAmherst guys for making me welcome.Item: Take a look at those diecastautomobiles and trucks on your railroad.Do they look like part of the scene, or anifty collection? Part of the fun, unlessyou collect them (in the original boxes,thank you) as an adjunct to your railroading,is to paint and weather them. You dothis with your rolling stock, so these puppiesare fair game, too. If you model the1940’s, as I do, you’ll discover that mostcars were painted in single, rather mundane,colors. Dark reds, blues, and greenspredominate with black. Grey was morecommon than you’d think. Whitewalls(for you young sprats, these were tireswith white sides; very snappy!) were rareduring the period, especially during thewar. The lacquers used in that era tendedto go flat, as well. Just look at some photosand you’ll get the idea. You ‘50s folkscan go crazy with the two-tone paint andwhitewalls to a point, but there were stilla lot of more conservatively colored carson the roads to go with those scarlet andwhite ’57 Chevys. The bottom line hereis to check out photos and video footagefrom your era, and follow suit. It wouldamaze you how much of a difference thislittle bit of neurosis makes in the scenesyou’re creating. Besides, it’s fun to hearthe agonized screams from the diecast carcollectors when you pry ‘em apart, paintthem, and dull them down a bit.Item: Many a newcomer to our worldmay be curious as to how the reservationsystem works for the various manufacturers.Because of the relatively smallsize of our marketplace, even the leastexpensive locomotive projects, and manyof the higher end rolling stock offerings,are announced by manufacturers well inadvance of their availability. The goodfolks at, for example, Sunset/3rd Rail willannounce the project and “take reservations”.Reservations are considered astatement of real interest by the marketplacebefore significant capital is investedin development and production. Thiscan be frustrating to us, because we mustwait. Occasionally, the manufacturer willcancel a project, dashing our expectations.Then, we sulk a lot, and say lotsof unstudied bad things on the Internetabout how we got hosed. Actually, nothingcould be further from reality.If the manufacturer decides that reservations(read expressed interest in theproject) don’t meet expectations, theyhave a couple of choices. Let’s use 3rdRail’s B&M/B&O 4-8-2 as an example.Say the B&M guys “subscribe” all theB&M 4-8-2’s and the B&O guys aren’teven close. Then Sunset could choose todrop the B&O version as a bad risk. If theHi-rail folks fall short on the 3-Rail ones,and the 2-Rail ones are over-subscribed,Sunset can choose to shift the ratio ofthree-rail to two-rail models. If the wholething looks soft, then it is probably wiseto drop the project, and be very circumspectabout trying other projects for thatrailroad.Remember that what is a luxury tomost of us is a livelihood to some of us. Itonly takes a couple of bad calls to breakthe bank, even with some of the largerimporters and manufacturers. Some of thecompanies that import our loot are soleproprietors(one person running the entireshow); for them it only takes one projectgone sour to put them in the tank. Ourreservation system, no matter how clumsyand drawn out it may be, is a very importantmarket research tool for the manufacturer/importer,and a method for you tohave your voice heard. Meanwhile, youB&O guys need to get on the stick, ‘causewe New Englanders want our 4-8-2!Let’s go Exploring!◆Sept/Oct ’04 - O Scale Trains • 25