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Re: [BRHSlist] Stingy or not Stingy?

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Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Stingy or not Stingy?
From: "zephyr9903" <zephyr9903@iowatelecom.net>
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 10:46:20 -0600
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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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