Sat., Dec 28th,13, 15:45 Hrs. M.S.T. Hi Group, Here is a Question - If Anyone has Any Answwers. Are Various Car Dies Regardless of Who Makes Them Being Shopped Around as Such? Cases in Point - L B F, Huberman, Now Exact Rail. Various Dies by Blueford Shops - Athearn/MDC.? Con Cor - Kato. I Go Way Back in N Scale so I Know Things Like Roco, RR, Atlas Had an Alliance of Sorts, MDC Sold Out to Athearn Con Cor - Kato Alliance. etc Have Various Cars at the Begining of the 70s Up to Present Time - You Don't See Them Anymore. Still Have Them - Worth Keeping as I See It. Coments Anyone!. Thanks, Andrew,
I can speak for Bluford Shops....Our tooling has always been new. As new tooling arrives so does the better detail ,it's what folks expect now days.
Can't speak to n scale, but lots of tooling has moved around as small time shops fie. See Front Range/McKean or LBF.
Too much of this to summarize in a post. But look around the 'net, Andrew... for example spend some time on Spookshow's site. http://www.spookshow.net/freight/freight.html I also have information on the Atlas First Generation and where some of it ended up on my own site with more to come as I get to it (which won't be anytime soon, unfortunately).
LBF and Huberman were owned by the same guy, with LBF being (from my outsiders understanding) perhaps his second or third bankruptcy, but he started over. Forget the gents name. That said, those 65 gons LBF made were originally something called E and C shops, I believe and I think he must have bought that tooling. And, Trainworx bought some of that tooling on his last bankruptcy. As you note, Athearn/Horizon bought MDC out completely and then seemed to reissue some cars with old but perhaps cleaned up tooling, and certainly better paint jobs, so that was a continuation/succession, not a tooling transfer. It seems a few toolings have switched hands. What about those airslide covered hopppers? Forget the original maker, but think Bowser took that over, not sure if it was the entire line, company, select tooling, whatever. I agree with Blueford shops, the bar is set so high now, I wonder if old tooling would sell a lot. Almost on topic, but had a discussion with an industry insider once and they mentioned that some companies tooled in soft metal, which limited runs somewhat, while others spent a bit more which lasts longer. I guess they were more optimistic about N scale!
I am no expert on these things, but I think you mean Hubert and not Huberman. Dan Huberman is PWRS. Dave
Founded by Amro Elsabbagh in 1988, the now defunct Delaware Valley Freight Car Corporation was the source of the tooling for Bowser's 50' General American Airslide Covered Hoppers.
Jan 1st, 14, Hi Group, The replys are Interesting, Thanks, What Prompt My Question was I Got a bluford Shops C.V. Caboose - No 4004. I Really Liked It a Lot. I Had an Athearn Caboose Almost Identical Caboose Given to Me - Same No. 4004 Orange was a Bit Different etc. When I See the Old E & C Shops/LBF/Huberts Plus the Excel & Athearn Gondolas They All Look Very Similar in Style/Make, etc. I Have Various E & C Shops,LBF, Coal Porters in Misc and B.N. Bought Them From Various Sources so I Could Make Coal Unit Trains. Was Lucky, Able to Buy C.N. Plus the B.N. Green/Black, Green/Silver to Make Some Nice Unit Trains. Cars Came From. Deluxe, Athearn & Kato. Interesting How They are All Strikingly Similar. Athearn is the Only One Making Coal Porters at Present.. Tnx. Operator.
The C.V. caboose was a special run from Bluford Shops. Bluford got it's start by running special run cabooses from Atlas and a very few from Athearn. (We did the C.V. caboose first with that road number,don't know why Athearn did the same road# as well)
Because Athearn is nothing if not a "me too" operation? (Cf. the Missouri-Illinois boxcar... are we to believe that Horizon didn't know that TB did one... or do we just assume that they don't care?)
The reason the cars are similar is that they are all based off the same prototype. As for E&C, LBF and Huburts, they are all the same molds/cars. Athearn, Kato and Deluxe all tooled their own cars and use the same prototype car.
Some gets shopped around and some seems to disappear forever. Has anybody remarketed those flatcars with the big covers used to haul airplane wings? Or the VertiPak auto haulers? How about that old four truck tank car?
The skybox flats, the ones with covers used to haul aircraft parts are made by Huberts now, think only HO currently. Vertipaks are ExactRail, they still have a few roadnames remaining. Probably not as popular as they were hoping for as its an odd prototype and wasn't used for any real length of time.
The old Atlas/Roco 94' tank car only had one production run (back in the 70s). I guess not a good seller? Cheers, -Mark
Thankfully I got all the “Skybox” and “VertiPak” cars I wanted when they were first released. I have never managed to get my hands on one of those 94’ tank cars. Not that it would look very good going around my 15” mainline radius curves.
