On Fri, 1 Aug 2003 07:17:23 -0700 (PDT), jkohl wrote (in part)
>
> Concerning manufacturers...
>
> Some of them seem to shoot themselves in the foot anyway. I mean,
> there are what...5 companies now doing the Challenger? How many do
> we need? Yet nobody is doing a nice 2-10-2 or 2-10-4, which was
> probably more prevalent than the Challenger anyway! So, we get
> overloaded with one type of locomotive, and nobody does another
> type. I would almost guarantee if somone did a really nice 2-10-4
> in a few different roadnames, they'd clear the initial run in no time!
>
Several points: ". . . a really nice 2-10-4 *in several road names*" -
And how would you do that? 2-10-4s (which was a relatively rare wheel
arrangement anyway) were pretty much road-specific. Would you buy a Texas &
Pacific 2-10-0 painted for CB&Q 6315? Or a Santa Fe 2-10-4 lettered "KCS"?
When Bachmann manufactured a Santa Fe 4-8-4 (on an SP GS-4 chassis), did you
buy the "CB&Q 5632" version?
One reason for the proliferation of Challengers was that the first on the
market (Bowser) required a lot of craftsmanship to assemble . . . and
initially came without an appropriate tender. Later mass manufacture was
based on the fact that a little tweaking would semi-fairly represent engines
of the UP, Clinchfield, D&RGW, D&H, etc. . .
If you look at the mass-production of steam locomotives, you find USRA
designs - many semi-accurate road names each (0-6-0; 0-8-0; 4-6-2; 2-8-2; 4-8-
2; 2-8-8-2) . . . a Baldwin "catalogue" 2-8-0; the "Russian Decapod"; - and
then you encounter the "fame factor". Bachman's N&W J resulted from the
disproportionate amount of photography of the dozen or so prototypes in their
final survival years when most other mainline steam had vanished . . . the
perrenial production of NYC J-3A Hudsons probably stems both from the
inordinately large prototype fleet combined with the early Lionel
popularization of the design. Don't hold your breath waiting for a mass-
production 4-6-4 that would look plausible when lettered for an S-4 . . . it
just ain't gonna happen . . . any more than Lifelike bringing out a Wabash P-
1 in Bluebird paint.
The nearest category which *might* happen in HO midwestern modern steam could
be a Rock Island R-67b, because its basic dimensions were "cloned" during the
WW II design freeze for a few other roads, like the D&H. That won't make a
very convincing O5A <sigh>.
To paraphrase a recent campaign cry, "It's the economic, stupid!" (no
offense). Many years ago, there was a small start-up which released resin
kits to modify standard HO kits as CB&Q steam. It vanished without a trace.
Now that resin technology has advanced some, and quality steam chassis are
becoming relatively inexpensive, maybe someone will work out a marketable and
equitably priced way to (for instance) put an O-1A on top of an Athearn USRA
mike . . . etc. It still won't be pocket-change cheap, but it *could* happen-
Marshall Thayer,
daydreaming in Mt. Pleasant, IA
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