The Signal House waycars have always held a lot of interest for me since the
importer was here in my hometown: Sheridan Road in Peoria, IL. I only have
vague memories of actually visiting the Signal House shop. The story about
these models as I understand it is that the Loogers were involved with Dr.
Dave Simon of Nickle Plate and they almost certainly had Kumata build a bunch
of Q Waycars (I think this all happened around 1975 or so). These were the
last of the early Japanese waycars to be made (Trains and LMB both did them
back in the '60s). The Signal House waycars were unique in that they had a
"modernization" kit to blank out the rear windows but still didn't have
cupola bracing rods. When the waycars arrived in Peoria someone noticed the
smokejacks were all on the wrong side of the roof. They then enlisted a
bunch of friends to remove those smokejacks and mount them on the opposite
side. This explains the marks that are still on the roof of the unpainted
waycar models. The Loogers made a gift of a waycar to everyone that helpe in
the "great smokejack soldering switch" project. As far as I know Mr. Looger
still has some of these models that he sells occasionally. Nickle Plate may
have taken some to sell as well (they must have brought in a bunch of 'em).
Signal House also may have had their name on some of the GN baggage / coach
sets that NPP brought in. I may be wrong on that.
If anyone can add or correct any info in this story I'd love to hear from
them.
Mike Martin / Peoria Heights, IL
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