Hi guys, The April announcements in N scale from Bluford Shops have been posted: www.bluford-shops.com Thanks, Craig Bluford Shops
Where does one go about getting a hold of one of these cabooses if you LHS doesn't carry Bluford shops?
Well, your shop can order directly from Bluford Shops or through Walthers or Portman Hobby Distributors. If they choose not to, nearly all of the big mail-order dealers carry our line. I suspect Feather River Trains is the one physically closest to you. http://www.featherrivertrains.com/cgi-bin/webstore/shop.cgi?t=main.index.htm&c=start.htm&storeid=1 Craig
Thanks for posting. I have not been to that site in some time and spent some time on the timeline tab. That is a good idea and appreciated.
I'm glad you are offering the MoPac transfer, as per your December announcements. There is one I still see frequently in Tulsa, OK on the old MKT Sand Springs branch. I'll be sure to get one. And I'm still pushing for one of the Rock Island flat car based transfers!
Craig: Thanks for the announcement. In the future would it be possible to get larger artwork to see more details? We'd also like to have end art showing the placement of the reporting marks to show customers. Oh and a dealer announcement memo would be wonderful.
In a word George, no. When we do a new announcement, it is with a rough draft of the artwork and that is what is posted on the website. Then, while we are collecting pre-orders, we use that time to confirm logo variations, lettering styles, road number series in some cases, and the small lettering in con-stencils and dimensional data. Often the rough draft includes con-stencils and data from previous runs that will be replaced in the final draft. Also, the rough draft considers only of the car side. The ends are not drawn until the final draft. If anyone has questions about build or reweigh dates or that kind of thing and it doesn't say in the text of the announcement, feel free to drop us a line. I thought you were getting the dealer edition of the pdf newsletter but now I'm not seeing your address on the list. I'll add your @swcp address now. There are attachments on these newsletter emails so maybe that was the problem. Craig
Nice one Craig, both NW and both GBW Pre-ordered through my UK supplier. Took the opportunity to order the NW 70 ton hoppers too. Cheers, Kev
I appreciate you doing an EL version. But it is not prototypically correct. The EL transfer cabooses were a square body cabin, not the elongated body. And the windows were in the corners of the cabin. Not in in the center of the sides. See the photos at www.rr-fallenflags.org. Other than that the paint scheme and road numbers are correct. Don
Don and Rick, We are aware of the differences in the prototypes. It makes no sense whatsoever to do hard tooling for what amounts to a small subclass of one or two railroads caboose fleets. The numbers just are not there. The Chessie car was one of a kind (really, with just one road number!) with that specific set of details. No manufacturer would touch an exact model of that car even in HO brass! Our Short Body Bay Window caboose is an exact model of a common MoPac prototype and is very similar to cars operated by a number of railroads. The other versions including the one in the latest announcement, are designed to generally resemble transfer service cabooses on a wide spectrum of railroads. This is what makes this project feasible. Transfer cabooses (as opposed to the short bay window version) were built by the railroad's own shop forces, usually from components from retired cars. The Chessie cab was built from a boxcar. The C&EI cars were built from old gondola frames. The N&W cars were built on old NKP trailer flats. So the details varied quite a bit from railroad to railroad. Craig www.bluford-shops.com
