SANDHOUSE GOSSIP  

The Boss and Hostler have been so busy doing inventory and other misc that they have not had time to compose anything for the Sandhouse gossip.  I thought I would just say hey.  And if you have any suggestions for the website, send them to the boss and be PERSISTANT if it is a great idea.  Sometimes they need a little prompting to get it going.

      See Ya,

               SHAMBLES

Feb 6, 2008

A word from the boss about Grumpy Ole Men.

Our regular visitors know Hostler Ginchell has been a faithful sidekick and occasional help to Red Ball’s proprietors from M. Dale Newton Days (1939-56); Howell Day days (1956-1976) and with Merle Rice since then. The past few weeks have not been his best.  He’s shoveled snow the past two that wasn’t snow. We had 6 and 10 inch snowfalls that were laced with freezing rain to become glacier-like shoveling challenges. He was heard muttering about Global Wetting.   Then this week we arose at midnight   “Super Tuesday” when an urgent phone call summoned us to immediately sandbag our warehouse building in Roanoke .  He was muttering the whole time about the feller a few years ago who was wondering why our corporate name (then) was Wabash Valley--the guy claimed we weren’t anywhere near the Wabash River. It was during the very week when waters of the Little Wabash River were swirling feet deep through the street in front of our factory building. All this comes on the heels of quite a bit of back talk he has been giving the radio when the would be presidential candidates were speaking and his observations about the toolmaker who was so close to having our new cabooses ready before he “hung us out to dry” when lucrative  ($196/hr) medical equipment tooling jobs came along.

As you know, Hank Ginchell finds silver lining in lead clouds at times, but in the interest of keeping him and our website upbeat just now I haven’t mentioned that it was time to reflect for a new column.  Send in an order and we’ll get him cheered up, OK?

Boss Merle

SANDHOUSE Dec 16,2007

Well thu boss haz let me at this kee board agin so I’ll torture you a bit.  Last week we wuz covered with ice an couldn’t du much now this weekend it dumped  way over a foot of snow an started driftin it.  The boss had gone out at 3AM  an shoveled so he could git ta church in the 4 wd  an that was a misteak. By seven thu snow changed frum wet an sleety ta soft an drifty. He went nowhere like ever body else.  But, he sez, at least that first six inches of ice wasn’t under it.  Why 3AM you ask?  What kinda person would make kits fer other folks today anyhow? Well at least it wuz him an not me out there.

Seems like when things are goin smooth sumbudy just hasta put sum rumble strips in thu way.  We had the new caboose kits so close we could taste them.  Then the toolmaker got a bunch uv big buck jobs fer medical apparatius an no time fer us. Boss sez this is no diffrunt frum when new auto plants waz a building.  But it is.   Most uv the uther tool shops are gone now.  They got too hungry when all their bizness went ta China .  Scares me an I’m fearless.   If we git ta the point where nobody here kin MAKE stuff we’ll all be washin winders, mowin grass an scratchin backs fer the next feller, right?  They calls it "service economy." But then there’s thu folks that are cumin cross thu border ta do all this stuff -- cauz we won’t---.  Well it sounds kinda like Nero an that bunch that jest laid around eatin grapes, watchin sports an thinking -- back in histry.   Well ennyhow thu boss iz up ta hiz armpits in alligators now on that toolmaker thing.   An then lately bunches uv folks starts callin Barb at the 800 order phone.  When is this?  When is that?   Boss tells her ta be polite (after all he iz payin her real $$ ta take those calls when they CUD jest read the updates he puts on thu website an use thu order fone ta order).Her voice is so sweet maybe they are jest lonely?   But I say she shud jess say  "Whenver you say, you can jess come here an push a button ta make it happen then."   When a feeler has a cold duz he no when it’ll be dun?   When yure tryin ta make sumthin (or someone) function I figure the same principle applies.   It’ll git well when it duz an not a day sooner.

Recently I Told you I might be movin agin.  Thu boss is talking with sum folks about them continuing ta make Red Ball elsewhere’s.  It would be a new bunch of scenery there but I don’t know what is cumin down.  He did hold up on reissuing the Heritage kits accvounta thu negotiations.  but I’m looking ahead ta the PRR H30a covered hopper (jest waitin fer one stinkin part)the Brill 55 an Fountain Square thet seem ta be next up.  We jess got the D&RGW Dynamometer cars out last week.  Seems like theres not near so many new things happenin lately frum other kitfolks,  guess peepul are buyin petrol huh?

Well I always did like merry go rounds. The horses jess keeps bobbin up an down as it goes round.   Kinda like watchin the polls fer Iowa an NeuHampshire aint it? ( I spell it that way ta class it up.  Otherwise that name reminds me of a hog farm sign down the road here in Hoosierland-they got Hampshires an Polland Chinas).    Here we go, round agin.  Here’s hopin you have a blessed season as we go round agin.  That happens when we are a blessing to others especially. Remember, HE came that you could be blessed.

\

Please call an order to Barb

I need a bonus.

SANDHOUSE- October 10,2007

They say one thing thatz always the same is change.

Well when I kame here ta Hoosierland from New Jersey in 1976 it waz a lotta change.  Started out wif Red Ball out in LA an the tall trees of Oregon .  Then across the river from thu Big Apple where Howell Day kept shop.  But in Indiana change is ALWAIZ!  They say here if you don’t like the weather wait a day.  Well the 90 degree October daiz we been havin might jus turn inta snow by end of themonth accordian ta sum folks.  But change has been uther waiz tuu.   Boss Merle closed out thu card sided reefers (over 200) and boxcars (over 100) Howell had made (we called em QuicKits)  an we waz making different types of car kits here long after uther folks stopped making metal an wood kits.  Course we made some in plastic two. We tried sum in N scale. Howell had printed sum reefer an boxcar sides in N so the boss made floors gons an special flats back in thu 80s. Now I knew we dun a lotta stuff (the boss wuz makin Hometown an sum cars before we came here with Red Ball) but he tolled me las week we had made 167 difrunt Red Ball cars hear at Roanoke an that 78 of em wuz totally new designs he dun.    That iz a bunch uv change cauz it ain’t just new paint jobs, it wuz new cars.

An the hole thyme-since 1939-jus look how thu railroads haz changed!

Well I got ta rummulatin about change when boss told me he wuz putting Red Ball up fer sale.  I kinda figured I’d settle my dust beside a lake up here in northern Indiana or in thu purty hills down in thu south end uv Hoosierland  an retire.  But if HE retires I’ma wunderin if I might hafta muv somewhere else.  Aftur all a new captain uv the USS Red Ball  shore will hafta catch up on a lotta stuff. I figure Red Ball an I hav made way over a thousand totally difrunt kits since I been with M Dale, Howell an Boss Merle. Well he duz need ta retire- psathetic thu way he wuz hobbling around this summer.   Whatz next?  Change I rekon. It’d almost be like I wuz sentenced ta life with Red Ball but ya no, evry day is so diffrunt I lkike it thata way.   Got my Gladstone packed soz I’m ready ta start packin a buncha Red Ball fer truckin.  Boss says I’ll be packin D&RGW Dynamometers an Pennsy H30a Hoppers next tho.  There’s two more new wunz frum Red Ball fer the list.  It changed agin.

Thanks fer stopping buy

Hostler Ginchell

SANDHOUSE  April 20, 2007

Well  folks, my tyred bones hav had sum rest. Thu boss shure hasnt tho.  He haz been wurkin sum long ours with thu mold makers on thu Red Ball caboose kits.  It is impressive to me what all goes into designing molds an kits. Shure aint a button to push fur instant results. He wuz kinda blue when he got back frum thu moldmaker yesterday. Said there wuz sum mistake in hiz math an when the CCAD drawing of one caboose floor landed in the CAD pichure of the mold base it wuz two short fur a cupola to fit.  So today has seen him punchin buttons sum more.   So I’m getting a rest with nuthin new ta package rite now.  That;; change pretty quick cause he has instruction sheets sittin here fur the Alaska boxcars, REA reefer and B&M RPO troop car conversions.  I wuz reading them an lo an behold he talks about thu Chicago Car co.-I ain’t seen no one tell befour whut he sez there. Its kinda neat ta be where thu research gets inta a bunch more than just color pictures of paint schemes. 

 Well, we had summer a few weeks ago and then anuther winter that made everywun say "Global Warming?  What globval warming?"   So instead of buying neat train kits a bunch of you have been fillin yer gas tanks an paying utility bills I bet. I really could pack a few more boxes a day though.  So if you got a tax  refund may I help you ?  The bucks cumin here don’t bild palaces, they buy new molds.

 Sum folks hav noticed that not much haz been cumin out frum  most kitmakers.  Ya no, thei pay fer new molds with money frum thu kits they sell. Them big outfits tend ta make new paint jobs an awful lot on thu stuff they have their Chinese make. It iz jus that simple.  Member when yur local hobby shop had neat kits?  Now they hav  hear today, gone tomorrow paint jobs.  An we all complain. Thu boss took one uv his B&O wagontopo boxcars to a store in Indy thu other day fer them ta show off.  Guess what.  The owner called two days later an said he waz gonna need a bunch of B&O kits.  Now folks this same shop told the box he cudnut use any GE steeple cabs the day the boss walked in with a kit when they was new.  A customer standin there said "I’ll tsake two."  The store stocks em ever since. Maybe we all need ta help our local shop sell prototype specific KITS  by loaning them a model we is proud of.  If your shop starts showin kits off an sellin em  maybe we can get this here hobby rerailed.

 Sum folks is upset that sum magazines is gone.  Well ya know so many magazines need lotsa advertisin bucks an sum people jess read magazines instead of building kits. Talk about a vicious cycle!   The boss sez a neat story showin a good job of usin a good kit duz more good than hundreds of dollars of ads. I am getting tyred of hearin him tell  about havin ta run a second run of steeple cabs when RMC printed a story by Trevor Marshall.  He sez he had spent a couple kilobucks advertisin them in sanother magazine that ran a story bout traction after that-an never told folks about Bowser kits or our steeple cab or anything they could do to model traction.  Sad nuff them editors cant seem ta find folks ta build new kits fer review even, but boss sez that wuz kinda unreal.

 Well I gotta be careful.  Seems like we r all better at telling others about how ta do there job when we don’t do those those jobs (an never did?).  That kinda gets to me an those boss.  Ya mite be interested ta know that no one has decided to respond ta the boss invitashun ta be a kit manufacturer that he had Shambles put on this website.

Thanks fer stopping by

Hostler Ginchel. 

March 1,2007

Well my fan sez its about thyme I wake up an right some thin.

It shore is grate ta hav the boss feelin butter after hiz summer uv eye surgry, oncologist an anuthur speculist I caint spell.   He haz been wurkin on thu molds fur the new caboose kits an thu coffin car an thu rest uv the converted troop cars.  Sum uv ewe wonder where iz the Pennsy depressed centere flat, where iz thu braced side caboose, where is thu Pennsy H30 covered hopper, where is thu wreck crane an thu pile driver an all I kin say iz they iz on his genda.  Write now iz caboose thyme.

Bout a year ago sum fella called that makes N scale troop cars wunderin how ta make converted ones frum there kits.. Well the boss did HIS research thu hard way an even has made brass sides ta convert that fellers cars.  Woodent ewe no it.  Other day sum guy frum Milwalky emailed.  They waz thinkin bout it too but their waz a couple things thu boss didn't splain on hour Troop car page where they waz doin thu research.  He told em he waznut planning ta help them compete.  After awl, we got brass sides ta do THEIR cars WRITE too- with B&M RPO, Rio Grande Dynamometer, REA reefer and Alaska boxcars at thu etchers shop now.   DeGaull of them folks.   That. my friend is why the boss has not put pictures of the coffin car on thu website

Thu coughin car iz anuther story.  George had access to sum real ones till 9-11.  Then BAM.  No wun was allowed in their.  So we haz been tryin ta get better pixures or spetial purmission since then  WELL REJOICE.  Thu boss took lotsa good pictures in November and we got measurements happenin  cauz wun uv them cars got outa the base.  An I'm not tellion wherer it iz either, but at last you fellers that cudnot get good answers frum the boss on "When?" no why.  And its startin ta happen!    Now what's NOT happenin, an it iz a shame- you Monon folks that voted fur thu stone gon an coke car better order em.  The boss aint coffin up the bucks fur the rest uv the toolin till you do.    You wanted thu converted hospital cars too but they need sum reservations.  A shame cuz the most of the work is did since we dun the hospital car. 

Wow.  No suuner did we start shippin thu B&O Cincinnatian cards than those folks started telling us they want thu other B&O passenger cars too.  Reserrvations is what it takes folks.   Thu perduction negatives runs a kilobuck or two fur each sheet AFTER  our CAD guys git the stuff reddy ta go ta thu etcher.Same goes fur changing scale on a project.  So ifn you want thu FURST one fur $1thousand or so it can come quicker.

Well, it haz been slower lately but so have we.

Thanks fur stopping buy

Hostler Ginchell

And now an honest state of the union address  from the boss

A very well known, frequently published, and highly respected model railroader just circulated his thoughts to a wide circle of his friends.  In a nutshell, what kind of a nut am I.  I have stacked hundreds of engines and many hundreds of cars on the shelf.  This year I'm thinning them out and building a layout at last.  This phase of the hobby was induced for a great many folks when reasonably priced, mass produced Oriental plastic models flooded ashore like a Tsunami. Domestic kit makers [who have significant tooling investment] have hung on for survival. The number still molding in the USA can be counted on your fingers.  Museum quality resin kit makers established a beachhead with models that can only be obtained in this manner- but few can build them.

So many magazines serve the many niches of the hobby that many have substituted reading for railroading.  But they can't survive either. The manufacturers (except the big plastic importers) simply cannot buy the needed space in them all. What is "needed space?"  It is what it takes to become noticed. Articles in the magazines seldom tell how to build & use kits -  or inspire to do so. Instead they review the ready built models imported by the big advertisers. Most of the "how to" stuff in recent years has been so high tech it scares folks off.  "I could never do that."   I am so opinioned on this because I know it is true. More of my life savings was spent building the molds for the Cannonball GE Steeple Cab kit than I had EVER spent on a new auto till then. Kilobucks more went to Milwaukee for ads (though they never mentioned the kit editorially). THEN a story by Trevor Marshal in RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN came out.  It was inspiring.  It showed how he used the kit. I had to make a new production run -  and only then (4 years after release) did that kit make me the first dime. And only then did a lot of folks learn to enjoy doing some NEW things in the hobby.

We all know it is increasingly difficult to find a well -stocked train shop. Those "get it quick while you can" Oriental plastic imports changed the whole business plan of our industry.  "Train shows" aided that trend- in fact THEY BECAME the hobby for some. In many parts of the country it will be interesting to see if real train shops will spring up again- like new growth after a forest fire.

Sales are pitiful in our industry- for serious modeler stuff.  Long time collections are being thinned and high dollar purchasers are becoming very selective.  The bright spot is that train sets are selling briskly this year.  Some magazines are disappearing. Now the next step that must happen is obvious.  Get out a kit and your new digital camera.  Get the story ready for a magazine to tell.  The story of how you enjoy the hobby can inspire some of those train set buyers. If we can develop more "Trevor Marshalls" folks like us can keep interesting kits happening- and hopefully even revive the local train shop.  Those train set buyers need to get inspired at club shows and in the magazines while they are interested.  Local newspapers are anxious to print human interest stories and club shows open that door. For heaven's sake, don't brag about how many thousand dollars you spent or how many engines you have.  Help INTEREST the new modeler by having the newsman photograph a scene where there is laundry on the line, a goat eating from the garbage can or kids fishing under the bridge where your favorite loco is crossing. THAT could convert a trainset buyer into a model railroader. I regret that the "big folks" in the hobby business choose to promote the hobby in a different manner, pushing their higher priced items for an audience of collectors. Avon did that too as I recall. The rest of us got into this hobby because we found something of it to be enjoyable.  A lot of people sure do need good clean fun today.    

December 15, 2006

Well my fan sez its about thyme I wake up an right some thin.

It shore is grate ta hav the boss feelin butter after hiz summer uv eye surgry, oncologist an anuthur speculist I caint spell.   He haz been wurkin on thu molds fur the new caboose kits an thu coffin car an thu rest uv the converted troop cars.  Sum uv ewe wonder where iz the Pennsy depressed centere flat, where iz thu braced side caboose, where is thu Pennsy H30 covered hopper, where is thu wreck crane an thu pile driver an all I kin say iz they iz on his genda.  Write now iz caboose thyme.

Bout a year ago sum fella called that makes N scale troop cars wunderin how ta make converted ones frum there kits.. Well the boss did HIS research thu hard way an even has made brass sides ta convert that fellers cars.  Woodent ewe no it.  Other day sum guy frum Milwalky emailed.  They waz thinkin bout it too but their waz a couple things thu boss didn't splain on hour Troop car page where they waz doin thu research.  He told em he waznut planning ta help them compete.  After awl, we got brass sides ta do THEIR cars WRITE too- with B&M RPO, Rio Grande Dynamometer, REA reefer and Alaska boxcars at thu etchers shop now.   DeGaull of them folks.   That. my friend is why the boss has not put pictures of the coffin car on thu website

Thu coughin car iz anuther story.  George had access to sum real ones till 9-11.  Then BAM.  No wun was allowed in their.  So we haz been tryin ta get better pixures or spetial purmission since then  WELL REJOICE.  Thu boss took lotsa good pictures in November and we got measurements happenin  cauz wun uv them cars got outa the base.  An I'm not tellion wherer it iz either, but at last you fellers that cudnot get good answers frum the boss on "When?" no why.  And its startin ta happen!    Now what's NOT happenin, an it iz a shame- you Monon folks that voted fur thu stone gon an coke car better order em.  The boss aint coffin up the bucks fur the rest uv the toolin till you do.    You wanted thu converted hospital cars too but they need sum reservations.  A shame cuz the most of the work is did since we dun the hospital car. 

Wow.  No suuner did we start shippin thu B&O Cincinnatian cards than those folks started telling us they want thu other B&O passenger cars too.  Reserrvations is what it takes folks.   Thu perduction negatives runs a kilobuck or two fur each sheet AFTER  our CAD guys git the stuff reddy ta go ta thu etcher.Same goes fur changing scale on a project.  So ifn you want thu FURST one fur $1thousand or so it can come quicker.

Well, it haz been slower lately but so have we.

Thanks fur stopping buy

Hostler Ginchell

And now an honest state of the union address from the boss

A very well known, frequently published, and highly respected model railroader just circulated his thoughts to a wide circle of his friends.  In a nutshell, what kind of a nut am I.  I have stacked hundreds of engines and many hundreds of cars on the shelf.  This year I'm thinning them out and building a layout at last.  This phase of the hobby was induced for a great many folks when reasonably priced, mass produced Oriental plastic models flooded ashore like a Tsunami. Domestic kit makers [who have significant tooling investment] have hung on for survival. The number still molding in the USA can be counted on your fingers. Museum quality resin kit makers established a beachhead with models that can only be obtained in this manner- but few can build them.

So many magazines serve the many niches of the hobby that many have substituted reading for railroading.  But they can't survive either. The manufacturers (except the big  plastic importers) simply cannot buy the needed space in them all. What is "needed space?"  It is what it takes to become noticed. Articles in the magazines seldom tell how to build & use kits -  or inspire to do so. Instead they review the ready built models imported by the big advertisers. Most of the "how to" stuff in recent years has been so high tech it scares folks off.  "I could never do that."   I am so opinioned on this because I know it is true. More of my life savings was spent building the molds for the Cannonball GE Steeple Cab kit than I had EVER spent on a new auto till then. Kilobucks more went to Milwaukee for ads (though they never mentioned the kit editorially). THEN  a story by Trevor Marshal in RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN  came out.  It was inspiring.  It showed how he used the kit. I had to make a new production run -  and only then (4 years after release) did that kit make me the first dime. And only then did a lot of folks learn to enjoy doing some NEW things in the hobby.

We all know it is increasingly difficult to find a well -stocked train shop. Those "get it quick while you can" Oriental plastic imports changed the whole business plan of our industry.  "Train shows" aided that trend- in fact THEY BECAME the hobby for some. In many parts of the country it will be interesting to see if real train shops will spring up again- like new growth after a forest fire.

Sales are pitiful in our industry- for serious modeler stuff.  Long time collections are being thinned and high dollar purchasers are becoming very selective.  The bright spot is that train sets are selling briskly this year.  Some magazines are disappearing. Now the next step that must happen is obvious.  Get out a kit and your new digital camera.  Get the story ready for a magazine to tell.  The story of how you enjoy the hobby can inspire some of those train set buyers. If we can develop more "Trevor Marshalls"  folks like us can keep interesting kits happening- and hopefully even revive the local train shop.  Those train set buyers need to get inspired at club shows and in the magazines while they are interested.  Local newspapers are anxious to print human interest stories and club shows open that door. For heaven's sake, don't brag about how many thousand dollars you spent or how many engines you have.  Help INTEREST the new modeler by having the newsman photograph a scene where there is laundry on the line, a goat eating from the garbage can or kids fishing under the bridge where your favorite loco is crossing. THAT could convert a trainset buyer into a model railroader. I regret that the "big folks" in the hobby business choose to promote the hobby in a different manner, pushing their higher priced items for an audience of collectors. Avon did that too as I recall. The rest of us got into this hobby because we found something of it to be enjoyable.  A lot of people sure do need good clean fun today.    

Thank you for your continued support.  I wish for you an inner peace as you enjoy creating your little slice of the world.     Boss Merle

October 20, 2006

Its been a while since I cud git ta thu keybored folks.  Bin havin ta keep up on sum things while thu boss had one excuse after nuther.  Last week it wuz skin cancer surgry an jus befour that it wuz a bone marrow biopsy an befour that a bunch of tests an befour that eye surgry.  He keeps goin like that battery rabbit but spending two much time in hospitals an docs offices ta suit me.  Time ain't all he's spending there so comeon.  Git those orders on the way, pleaz.  Yuve had time ta recover from gas-tank-itis.  If you iz waitin fur a personal note he'z gittin thru the stak on hiz desk now.  We is gittin him off the siding up ta speed.

In spite uv the boss we haz bin gittin a lot dun.  Waitin on the etched underframe parts now soz we kin git out thu Cincinnatian and B&O A18 coaches. Shippin rite now on the new CNJ  decals fur a ton uv freight cars, the expanded B&O decals fur wagontop an caboose  (yep the caboose kits are gittin closer) and a big sir prize.  Red Ball iz doin a real loser with the CSX an CR hopper topper that fits Bowser's hoppers.  The plastic topper an etched walks are grate but the prototype shur wazn't.

Sum uther new stuff gittin much closer iz the Brill 55 motorcar, thu Illinois Terminal Class B, the B&O, N&W an Virginian cabooses an a brand new traction snow sweeper kit .   The wreck crane, pile driver,  PRR H30 and DC flat are waitin fur the boss to feel like tacklin sum stuff an the Monon coke and stone cars are waitin fur more reservations frum you folks that voted fur them.  So, yep, we iz keeping busy round here. Not much happenin in US where people has ta do the work.  Thu big buys are wurkin the Chinamens a lot so please tell the boss he aint old fashioned making new stuff here.

There wuz a retirement here too. Fifty years ago this December Kurtz Kraft announced the first styrene craftsman kit in HO.  Their PS 1 boxcar first sold for 79c and 98c and the big steel molds were designed before things like standard mold bases. Athearn boxcars still had wood floors, steel walls and roofs.  Later on Howell Day had KK make a couple thousand and sold an exclusive run of the cars as "Red Ball" then the molds were sold to "Rip" Van Winkle at Alexander Scale Models in Michigan.  A few yellow kits (Alexander's name is under the floor) were made but the intricate molds, available materials and molding technology still made them tricky to produce. When the boss bought them from Rip in the late 70s he spent a bundle reworking the molds so they would work with newer plastics and the Cannonball name was put on as Red Ball's sibling line.  Red Ball was metal and wood then in the 70s and Cannonball was plastic.  Well ta wind up the long story, the boss has finally retired these historic molds an plans to make the "last run" PS1 kits up fur model history buffs.  Let's see, 98c fifty years ago equals how much in 2006?.  

Well, thanks fur stopping in.

My fan asked how I'm doin an thus truth is kinda tired.  Good ta hav thu boss feelin better.

Hostler Ginchell

 August 21, 2006

MARK TWAIN had sumthin ta say bout reading his own obituary. So do I.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?  Shucks, folks, the boss paid to renew our domain back at the beginning of August and lo an behold it expired anyhow. What was inturesting was that the spam junk I had to scan  (cuz some  real mail gets mis sorted by the internet filters) went frum 400 or more a day to a cuple dozen.  Boss sez whut wuz interesting to him wuz all thu "expurts" telling on thu internet that they juss new we waz out of bizness an why.  Juss becauz the website wuz off thu air fur four days?   Well TWO folks did check with us ta see if the internet obituaries bein ritten by a bunch othur folks wuz fur real.   Seems ta me like rumors an gossip muss be replacin model railroadin as thu hobby of choice fur sum folks.   Why there's even one feller in thu B&O bunch  --that wrote an obituary -- an he orders stuff so he can broadcast how HE thinks thu kits should hav been made an then he returns them fur a refund.  Whut a hobby he haz!  Maybe B&O folks aughta expect  him ta actually put hiz own money inta molds an tooling that HE engineers sted of freeloadin with hiz pronouncements on thu internet.  After all, HE must know how it SHUD be done since he haz been busy telling others how he wood do it.  Kinda interesting too that the traction expurt who thinks we are tryin ta do too much hasn't ordered any kits.  If ever budy bought as much as he duz the boss shur wood be over extended like the feller sez he fears.  Well, my thanks ta the TWO  guys (named Doug an Jason)  that actually checked with thu boss stead of juss runnin their internet mouths.

Well business  has been purty slow but that haz been kinda okay.  I been swamped  while the boss has been havin anuthur round of eye surgery an sum othur serious  medical problems. No obituary though.  In July, I got thu Baldwin D kits out in O & S scale, thu Duryea underframes and am packin thu Red Ball B&O  A18cg coach  (kit 4424 ) right  now. I ran outa Nitric Acid tank cars too. Thu Cincinnatian is all sittin here fur me ta pack- except one stinkin part not here yet.  Thu Brill 55 kit tooling is goin inta perduction except the roof tool is runnin a bit behind. Next are the last 5 troop sleeper conversions ( D&RGW Dynamometer, REA Reefer, B&M RPO, Alaska boxcar and Alaska Hi Cube).  An thu Illinoise Turminal class B is right behind it in line .  Thu boss haz been wurkin hard with thu tooling folks on the H30 and a bunch of caboose kits- three N&W, two Virginian, two B&O an NYC-Rutland in HO as well as sum in N and O.  He haznt tolled me ta tell you, but its in a sheet he had printed up ta mail folks- I saw thu mold work for a HO McGuire Cummins double truck snow sweeper.     Now I spose thu Monon folks are gonna gripe cause the freight cars they voted for aint on the list.  Boss sez  it would be great ta hear frum them- in the form of orders since they voted fur the cars. The tooling is purty well along but the boss sez the kit lovers need ta git sum orders in.  Ha, speakin over overextended, late and slow, juss one word. Milwaukee. Yeah the tooling IS done ta run our Milwaukee Red Ball branchline combines.  Need a few more orders. See, you thought  sumthin else when I sed Milwaukee I bet.  

Yep, you SP folks, thu economy baggage tooling is almost dun.  Thu boss seems worried bout holdin price lines. Plastic parts have gone up about 50% this summer and metal prices are jumpin inta orbit.  But I better git busy. Theres a lot happin here -  an we aint got anything goin on in China  we do thu work here in USA.   Sorry ta be so glum an dismal this visit..  Maybe it juss overwurk.  But at least I aint dead yet in thu words of that feller Monty.

Thanks fer stopping by here stead of lisenin to them fellers that  bubble over with misimfurmation.

Hostler Ginchell

Sandhouse May 26, 2006

Hostler Ginchell is sidetracked just now with some medical problems. You know the type- he's too feisty to stay away for very long. He threatens to be back packing new kits, updating the Yardsale and rambling on this page in June.  Meantime we'll throw in an op-ed that was written by the boss.

The Good New Days 

Perhaps childhood during and right after the Second World War wasn't so bad.  There were no wall-to-wall plastic toys (I was thrilled with one homemade wooden truck because it had wheels - second hand Tootsie Toys didn't).  Teenagers didn't drive muscle cars (gasoline and tires were rationed-cars were not made).  And dumps weren't mountain high (the huge mountain southwest of Fort Wayne was vast, fertile, fresh vegetable fields farmed by a girlfriend's father with Mexican help). After all, the "tin" cans and glass bottles were scrupulously gathered and recycled by string-saving parents who had learned depression survival. Wartime survival was their new motive. And, yes, walking to school was normal, but back to the point.

Three dollar gas has suddenly alarmed us again.  There was precious little at any price in the war, there were precious prices on gas in the inflation riddled seventies and reality once again has sent us into some formsof denial. A new twist of irony  (that is an intended pun) is reality now.  We are madly building mountains of natural resources -  steel "tin" cans, plastic "everythings", glass jars- for mining in a future century. All the while we are consuming existing resources as if survival doesn't depend on them for the next generation or three.  Whether it is wood, oil or metal, the prices are escalating   There may be plenty of sand but natural gas makes it glass. And these are the staples.  What about fertilizers ?  Like plastics, they went into their producing factories as petrochemicals - oil and natural gas.  Although bio fuels have a momentary glamour, be forewarned- not only will they compete with food suppliers for farmer's crops, they will require his fuel powered machines and fertilizers.  Ah how glum this all sounds.

There are bright spots for the good new days though. One is the untapped resource of over five billion pounds per year of readily available material to make just one type of plastic -  replacing the need for that much petrochemical. For another plastic variety (there are several types) the number is closer to 18 billion pounds a year*.   The numbers for other types of plastic are similar. Instead of using these billions of pounds of [oil/gas replacement] material we are paying tax money to build mountains out of it. A decade ago we were using about a third of it. Statistics indicate we are now discarding 80% of this oil/gas replacement material and using only 20%.  Some American plants that were built to use it have been closed for lack of enough material for efficient operation  -- we were so determined to landfill it instead. To repeat that in different words: Americans are burying billions of pounds of usable oil/gas each year. We are paying good tax money and depleting land supplies near our cities to undertake this madness. And the percentages are similar for aluminum and other resources too.

Back in the old days [when I was a kid] there were school movies that showed shiploads of scrap metals and iron junk being loaded for sale to Japan.  This was, of course, prior to December 7, 1941 when they used it. Perhaps we are too proud to recycle our plastic, glass and metal?  The most common plastics can be reused and the others can be fuel for heating or electricity generation.  If there is a social stigma to this that keeps you from recycling, you might be interested to know the rapidly growing economies halfway around the world aren't too proud.  The "good new days" are happening-- in China, India, Vietnam and their neighborhood. Shiploads of plastic [part of the 20% that does get recycled in the USA] are going there.  This, you see, cuts down on the amount of oil and gas they need to make new products for us to buy and trash. They are willing to outbid American plastic processing firms to feed the rapidly growing appetites of their economies. Appetites for our "garbage."

Oil shortage? What oil shortage? Forget the torpedoes (again). Full speed ahead -- to the landfill.

*Statistics based on  Plastics News  issue of May 22, 2006 "Consumers Waste Wanted Material"

April 21, 2006

Well folks, I found out I have a fan club. Thank you fan #1, you waz rite. I  have werked fur M Dale out west back when John Anderson waz their (he later put Kemtron on thu map and then started Cal Scale), and then I bounced ta thu right coast  in Dunellen with Howell Day bout 1955. Then ended up here with Boss Merle inn the heartland fur the last thirty years of Red Ball's existence.  Whut most folks don't know is that when M Dale waz getting tired the line came ta Elkhart , Indiana, a couple years where an architect had it.  He got smart an decided ya couldn't make much livin makin train kits fur othur folks. Those othur three fellers seemed to just injoy creatin new kits so much they didn't notice that little detail.  But I got off on a siding.  It seems like Boss Merle is needin sum high tech low pay help so he don't git so wiped out.  Now I ain't high tech, jess low pay.  So if there's a CAD guy out their  (that's high tech not low character cad) that could lend a hand ot jess mite make life a bunch easier hear. There's so much ta do an …well you git thu idea.

Boss has been purty concerned of late.  Seems like a lot of folks nt a lot of thu new stuff but  then when it gits available there's not so many more gitin thu kits. He sez  sum of hiz frends are jess not makin new kitsee a cause of it.  An that's whut gives him hiz kix- making new ones.  He sez that ifn you all did pictures an stories fur the magazines theet wud tell uthur folks how much fun kits ar.  You tell us an that's grate, but , well when Trevor Marshal did that story on thus steeple cabs it made the boss do a second run uv kits an he axially made sum money on the kit thern!

HEsez things is looking glum.  Styrene plastic an metal have both been shootin up like fireworks on thu fourth.  That kinda reminds me uv when he pulled the old Hometown building line off the market a couplke decades back. He sez then that folks wudn't pay tweice as much fur the next runs of kits.  He wuz shur wrong.  Those go fur a lot more than that even on ebay. Yup, he sez last week sum kits frum folks up north got cancelled even befour they made it ta market.

Well, I no he haz had constant meetings with George on the Illinoiz Terminul B, with thu moldmakers on the cabooses, with Doug on thu Brill 55, H30, Monon cars  and several passenger cars. And in beween I see him wurkin on sum other kits thut  I am not allowed ta know about.  He sez I  am an old leaky.   I did hear him talking with Dick about those  Oregone signal bridges last week. Seems some Chinaman mistranslated a drawing just a bit.  Knowin Dick that coulda started a internatshunal incident.  Guess its just gonna start some neat bridges tho.

Hey folks- thu boss haz a rash of postcards askin fer free catalogs, guys callin Barb (an she charges the boss a bunch fur evry call) askin him ta call them - then they ain't home  an emails ntin thu latest dope on a kit or askin fur a personal email when a kit is ready . Pleeze git real.  Well I no he took all last night getting updates ready fur Shambles thu webmaster  an I no he answers email most evry morning (except thu ones that don't type their address rite).  So pleeze check out the WORKIN ON THE RAILROAD update on moist every page before ya ask .  He don't mind anserin whut he didn't have posted- that tells him what he needed to say on the website.  But sum of you are kinda like those young chicks putting on makeup with one hand, talking on the cell phone with the other and don't know they is on the on ramp with all the interstate already two stuffd full fur there little red car. PAY ATTENTION I say.  Now I pologize.  Like sumbody sed I'm a grumpy old man I guess, but I jest worry that the boss gits two busy with sum of that stuff. I seen M Dale git tired an I don't wanna move agin- unless my #1 fan wants ta buy Red Ball, of course. Him I could git along with - he reminds me like Dale, Howell an Merle.

Well  please buy a kit befour they go up.

Its cheaper than gas fgur a joyride. A LOT cheaper in fact.

An come back suun  fur another session with the old grump.

 Hostler Ginchell

March 1, 06

Well the boss sez I better git  writin cauz tax refund time cud git us bustin agin. Goodness we sure haven't been fur the last cupul weeks.  Boss keeps sendin kits off to Canada, Britain an around the world.  Now I sez that's good fur the balance of payments an thanks to you other folks.  But what happened here in the US of A?    Our stuff duzn't go thru any of the ports to you, you know.

I think the boss is concerned about sumthin else. We git notes from folks tryin ta navigate the site an he's wurkin hard ta make it easier.  Sum of the notes cum from folks who are in thu web bizness an they think we need em.  But a lot of others say they like thu fact that we don't hav a polished up standard format catalog sheet fer a web site- but we try ta visit more like we are or like a good hobby shop person.  An that's why the boss gets right back to answer yur emails- if you give the right address.   But he got a note last week from a lady in area code 531 that stured up a hornet's nest here.  Not cause she's a lady.  Sum of you guys would be surprised how many ladies are model railroaders, we here frum a lot of em.  But back to this hornet's nest.

Jennifer sez, an I quote, "A great site where one can enjoy the thought of a great mind long departed. Cheers for the good work!"  Now thu boss sez it haz becum evident to you folks that my mind haz long departed.  I'm tryin ta tell him this sweet lady is refreshed that we talk bout stuff that other folks don't- an she sez their minds ain't bein great.  I no sum folks jess use the imformashun highway ta be old grouches an don't think. Or think they is thinking but don't know what they are talking bout.  Then there is those with sumthin to sell on websites are too busy tryin ta sell ta let you know they are humans.  If they are. Boss tried ta git Jennifer ta explain an sez since she didn't reply he sez he is right.

Folks this cud cause thu boss ta make me retire or ta take this page away frum me. Pleez tell thu boss he is wrong an my great mind ain't long departed.   yet.     Pleeze.  He's a young pup an thinks he nos all about Red Ball.  Why the first Red Ball kit he built as a 12 year old kid was the Bucyrus Erie 200T wreck crane.  An I packed that kit back then in the 50s in Dunellen workin with Howell Day.  Bet I've fergot more than he knows. Oops, is that what happens when a great mind departs?

He haz been mighty busy checkin the crew out as the new caboose molds are movin along. Since he invented  how thu molds are made he's gotta do that.  An  those new Cincinnatian car kits are gonna be difrunt too with the nickel silver sides an raised letters. The outfit doin the roofs fur our new Brill 55, B&O C15 and Illinois Terminal B&C lost a key employee but those kits are still movin ahead. Yet..  I been packin the new ex troop car bunk car.  This one is a good deal for folks modelin a lot of roads. He sez the new B&M RPO and Alaska boxcars are in sight too.  We ain't slappin paint on a troop car claimin it is an Alaska boxcar.  We're makin those to copy the real cars RIGHT.  Fer starters there are brass ends  as well as brass sides.

Well drop buy agin suun. 

An tell thu boss he needs me an you need a new Red Ball kit to,please

Hank, the Hostler, Ginchell

January 26, 2006

Well folks I'm sorta out of breath from all thu boss has had me doin this month.  We dun shipped the new Pennsy troop sleeper and troop kitchen in HO; the new Baldwin D Steeple cab in HO; the new Baldwin B in both O and S (with a few S yet to go yet) An I had ta make new packin runs on the B&O Wagontoip and Mann's Creek cars in O and HO .  The boss got new  packages on those Mann's Creek cars that r purty spiffy. He sez I won't be so busy in February but he's been in meetings with mold makers evry week on new cabooses an a new.  Oops, he won't let me say that word yet. It will be neat tho. At least they wuz when winter oops.   He sez jess the B&O Cincinnatian, Brill 55, Illinois Terminal B, the troop conversions fer B&M RPO, Alaska boxcars an D&RGW dinermometur, Monon Coke an Gon, Pennsy H30 and  pile driver are coming on my plate. Less see. That was five new kits in January and I think he's fallin fur sum new math if he can't count how many new wons is next up..

Say, the boss sent a lettur off ta thu editor man up at Kalmbach that probly won't get printed .  I found it on this machine an I'm gonna tack it on here.  I member back when brass was big an Woolworth had lotsa nice Rivarossi stuff.  Friends sent me clippings  frum newspapers  about model railroaders.  They always bragged how much money they spend ore how many passenger trains "they built" an never did tell what fun they hav in this hobby.  Pogo said it-"we have found the enemy an he is us."  I think thu boss had that in mind. He tolled Mr Terry we don't haff ta make model railroading SEEM simpler.  We juss need ta stop makin it seem so hard. Sum folks think they gotta b "politicallyt correct"-an  in this hobby we seem ta need ta be "prototypicallycorrect."  I know he works hard ta make kits that  don't haff ta be tough-but can be prototypically superdetailed up by those that want it that way.   An I know he worries that not many stores have kits any more. New kits come along when  earlier kits pays the bill to make em happen ya know.  Have ya counted how many folks make wood  or plastic kits in USA today?  Yer fingers can do thu counting..

Well I gotta git ta work.  Thu boss is wurkin on new molds so much I gotta do sum of his work  Guess I made a mistake or two doin it two.  Sent one feller an HO kit stead of O.  Got a stack of envelopes frum folks with questions or wantin catalog sheets, got a package back where the post auger sez no one by that name lives there  (the custumer sez he duz, now what to do?).  Never a dull moment.  Never a siesta.  This ole geezer gotta really work at not bein a grumpy-that iz why doin kits fer folks ta njoy peals to me.

Thanks fer stopping bye.

Hostler Ginchell

Feb 9, 2006

This letter from the boss has already received as much comment from our website visitors as all our Sandhouse website columns combined. If so many of you feel that strongly in agreement please let the editors know they need to quit making it all high tech and get people INTO DOING things they are comfortable doing  (or can afford).

The boss was afraid he would offend some who enjoy being rivet counters (and after all, we strive to make our kits suited to your use, rivet counters). In Interestingly every one who responded, and claimed to be a rivet counter, agreed that the missing link idea was as important now for others as it once was for themselves.   The boss was especially concerned about this potential problem with all the cartoon image riots.  He wondered to Hostler Ginchell whether Shambles, the webmaster, should be ordered to remove his picture on the homepage- the one Shambles sneaked down there.  We know the Roanoke, IN town marshal is not equipped to deal with busloads of rioters if that idea caught on with the rivet counters. So we thank you for being rational and thoughtful. Now, please go tell it to the kings of the [model] mountains.

Thanks for the invites to visit some groups and for the encouragement. [ Orders for more kits would be more encouragement, of course]. Quite honestly, your domestic kit manufacturers need encouragement and sales very much. Pause and consider how much "new" they have been able to provide in recent times.  Here is just one response we received, reprinted with permission: 

Dear Merle:

Well I agree 110% with your views. I was at the Amherst club show in Springfield
Mass, last weekend. Its about 20-some years old and the combined attendance for
Sat and Sun is usually near 20,000! Hadn't been there in 4 or 5 years, and it's
filled with regular folks like old train shows--selling off unwanted items,
dealers with good deals or no deals (trying to be twice ebay prices so no one bought
them and resold them online),half a dozen clubs with exquisite modules and LOTS of 
manufacturers! Along the same wall they've been for years were Tichy, Betlehem Car Works,
Stewart (with Bowser stuff also), City Classics, Branchline, and Funaro and
Camerlengo---these, folks, were the ONLY kit makers there! 

Broadway, Atlas and Intermountain as well as the new improved Athehorhouse
(athearn-horizon-roundhouse) were all there with RTR stuff that's beautiful but
is not going to get the average person into the hobby! I asked the Blue Box boys
if their kit line was going out of production and the big guy from LA said absolutely
not... but where as there any mention of kits in their literature---sets, rtr,
Genesis...nothin' at all 'bout them kits Uncle Irv invented and got a lot of us past Tyco.. 

Also noted is the demographic trend we all see in the publications and on websites.
The people under 30, let alone 20, were few and far between (most were with the clubs
or museum/hysterical society tables). 

Whether we want to admit it or not, society as whole in this country is "ready-to-run"--the
"McDonaldization" if you will. Soup doesn't need a can opener-its pop-top---packaging
for convenience is the rage among companies who want to do well on Wall Street. However,
the markup , if food retailers priced themselves like this hobby, would put us all back to
eating at home and baking our own bread! I'm nearly 50 and make 45,000 a year in northern
New England--darn good money, but I will never own any of these $80 to $200 dollar imported
pieces cause it bugs me to pay what it takes! I can build.. wait.. did I say the "B" word?
Oh yea Well I've said my piece and Lord knows what we'll do when you guys retire.

All the best, stay healthy, and good luck!

Mitch Kennedy
Lewiston ME

To The Editor of Model Railroader

January 25, 2006

In your  March "Could it be Simpler" editorial you lament the fact that model railroading has become a high tech hobby that scares off potential participants while you praise the "World's Greatest Hobby" promotion for its success. Let's reflect on some basic points:

1)      There really IS a pathway for the quick satisfaction seeker.   Woodland Scenics, for one, has virtually ready- to- use home layouts. There is also a growing cadre of folks who make their living building layouts for those who want more. There are clubs with layouts and modular groups. These are analogous to the RC folks who must take their planes out to a special somewhere, aren't they?

2)      The "high tech" level in this hobby (we used to call it "rivet counting") has been elevated to such prominence in the hobby press (and NMRA affairs) that the gentleman's observation reflects the cultural image, not the culture. Hardly a new product gets reviewed without breaking out the calipers and comparing with reference resources the average reader does not possess -or even know exists-and is evaluated on this basis.  Internet chat groups are full of messages from those wondering if it is alright to do what they would enjoy doing. They dare not err in prototypical accuracy as detected by an "expert". Somehow their enjoyment would be cancelled. Manufacturer investment in creating and providing new products is frequently roadside-bombed by a reviewer ("official" in magazine or "unofficial" in internet group) who [right or wrong] would have done it differently. (They have been known to be wrong, to have "axes to grind", to be upset they weren't "consulted", and to have personal prejudices. No matter, they have no investment to lose-speech is free.)  Thus the former atmosphere of enjoying the hobby has been replaced by the need to be "correct."  Magazines are stuffed with scratch building or modification of models to the nth degree rather than inspiring "how to use and enjoy a kit" content.  What is sorely missing is an intermediate or transition level approach that helps inspire and lead folks FROM the introductory [ formerly "Lionel or tinplate"] enjoyment of the hobby toward the revered grail, "high tech."  Even the normal December content articles have not touted introductory concepts such as the Woodland Scenics layouts.  It is no wonder your acquaintance perceived an unattainable ( and undesired ) pursuit of this hobby.  It is also no wonder our domestic [intermediate] kit makers are either disappearing or struggling to survive.  Their sales levels can't support today's advertising costs with ads that are visible among the giants. Their products are beneath editorial radar - and disappearing from the surviving hobby shop shelves as a result.

3)      There is a rapidly growing "counterculture" in our hobby. It is easily detected in many internet groups. Perhaps it is personified by the Yahoo On30 Interurban group. (After all- how many 30 inch gauge trolley lines were there?)  Bachmann's On30 products have perhaps spurred the idea along and given it a "legitimacy." These (On30) are among the growing number of folks who are doing what they enjoy despite the lack of "prototypical accuracy." (Perhaps they are just now becoming "brave" enough to say so publicly?)  I visited a local club of their kind just last Saturday at a resort area outlet mall. A half dozen operating layouts - not one was in prototypical HO-- were RUNNING as additional projects were under construction.  Goodness, there went a GG1 pulling an N&W passenger train, er, it was lettered Norfolk & Western, not certain if it had a prototype. Their goal is to enjoy (and promote) the hobby, not to compare blueprints to vernier caliper readings and microscopic rivet counts. When they set up at train shows the rivet counters display contempt-while these folks are running their trains and displaying enjoyment..

4)      The WGH promotion is certainly creating more public awareness and curiosity. It appears that imported, assembled, products that evoke nostalgia for "those who can afford" are doing well.   Fellow intermediate kit makers are not detecting movement toward the level of "ENJOYING  BUILDING AND DOING."  This is critical if we expect folks to remain active in model railroading once their collection shelves are filled and their discretionary funds are transferred around the world. This is how the "high tech" modelers once learned to enjoy our hobby their way.

Sincerely

Merle Rice

Model RR Warehouse-manufacturer of Red Ball, Cannonball and Hometown kits

WHAT? ME WRITE AN ARTICLE?                             Posted Jan 4, 2006

There is a secret that has begun to leak out as many celebrities are releasing books they have written. Often they didn't write them.  You know the president has speechwriters but you may not have realized there are folks out there who make their living writing books and articles that have someone else listed as author. The "author" spells out what should be included and [usually] has the opportunity to deal with the product provided by the ghost writer.  So our bottom line is this: if you enjoy building kits, you can be an author.  Please read on.

Hobby shop owners and modelers we know have increasingly been complaining in recent times about two matters:  hobby magazine content and "state of the hobby".  And the small manufacturers do too. "Boss Merle" has a bottom line suggestion to address the complaints. Lets look at them one at a time as we head to the bottom line..

MODELERS: It seems like the magazines don't inspire me any more. I  get through a $5 magazine in less than a half hour, cover to cover. It just seems like infomercials for a few big importers. I have cancelled my subscription.

BOSS RESPONSE: Well we aren't going to argue with you on that. We recently shelled out several hundred dollars for an ad in a "special craftsman kit advertising section" of one magazine and found no articles in that issue about building craftsman kits.  There were two pages of ads that gathered in thousands of dollars for the publisher. The closest miss was on scratch building trees. Once upon a time we couldn't wait to get to the basement and  DO something after spending a couple hours in the newly arrived issue. We KNOW that can still happen. After Trevor Marshall's RMC article about a prototype electric line we had to run a second run of the Cannonball GE steeple cab kit. The article was not an infomercial and not a conventional "review/" It showed how Trevor USED a reasonable priced kit in an appealing prototypically oriented (but not rivet counting) project. .

MODELERS:  Most magazine articles any more are so picky about tiny details that I don't feel confident I can build a model that won't be criticized. It seems like even the products on the market aren't "quite right."

RESPONSE: Don't worry about criticism of your efforts. Most model railroaders don't have all the measurements and reference drawings available, let alone memorized. They are proud and happy with their work and with available projects until some "expert" tells them it is "all wrong." "It should have another row of rivets or be a couple thousandths longer "  If it is better than they could do your visitors will be impressed. If they have already done a similar project, they'll be either helpful, polite or obnoxious.  Consider the source on the ill-mannered ones.  We who make the kits are fully aware that the obnoxious ones seldom offer to help when we are investing our own kilobucks in the tooling.  They seem to keep their resources and knowledge secret and wait the opportunity to complain we didn't ask them for help.  As a rule they have no idea what compromises must be made to make it even possible to produce a kit or to contain the price at a reasonable level. Their talk is cheap-cheap shots. There is a place in this hobby for museum quality models and there are a few who can make them.  We can all learn from them but we cannot all BE them-so don't let them detract from your enjoyment of the hobby. A moving train on your layout does not have mirrors installed to inspect the underside nor calipers measuring the nearest thousanths of an inch on every part. The boss says there are folks who would rather not have ANY model of a particular car than one that has a manufacturing compromise. And they intend to make you miserable too. The boss wonders what they drive!

MODELERS:  The magazines don't seem to review products any more unless they are imported, ready made cars and engines. If and when they do, it is long after the kit was released, and it may even be out of production.

RESPONSE: Editors who will talk to us about this frankly admit they do not have folks available who will build a kit in a timely manner to report on their findings. Most manufacturers we know by first name will no longer even send out kits for review!  It seems that reviewers feel their mission is to criticize the picky points (see previuous item) rather than help modelers enjoy available products. On expensive imported ready built and brass this may be appropriate. It only takes a few measurements to evaluate the item so it can be rushed into print. (Sometimes prematurely. We know of one loco that was recently recalled from the shops for faulty drive but got a raving review), On popular priced kits there are probably more appropriate approaches. We know that one of our own kits was panned in the 1970s because "there is no prototype."  Our folks had crawled under and measured over the real car in a nearby yard while designing the kit.  This reviewer managed to kill sales with his "expert knowledge" - a risk manufacturers can ill afford. Reviewers have often let their personal prejudices enter as well.  That is expected in a "how to" article but an objective  product review is another matter. 

MODELLER:  I didn't see any ads for an XYZ  kit, is it available?

RESPONSE:  A "one time" small ad in Model Railroader costs around $400. In the other magazines (and how many are there now?) it will cost $100-$250 each.  The cost of ad preparation can easily be half those amounts. The Cannonball steeple cab was advertised in repeated issues of Model Railroader when the kit was released yet a year or two later their feature on modeling traction neither mentioned this kit nor available Bowser models. Sample kits sent to ALL magazines were built or photographed in kit form by two magazines (but not Model Railroader) within the year after release. People were still learning of the kit three years later! The small manufacturers have neither the pocket book nor the clout to cause mention in publications or place repeated large ads for items which may only sell a few hundred kits. Hobby shops were the answer at one time.  Most of the survivors are now unable or unwilling to stock lower volume items.  They are hard pressed to keep current with the continuing flood of imported limited editions and road names.  All this is why our website is structured as it is.  We attempt to keep you posted on developments [not just catalog listings] from American kit makers: Bethlehem Car Works, Cannonball, Central Valley, City Classics, Eastern Car Works, Tichy/CMA, and Oregon Rail.  Other quality American kit providers with websites that also are designed to provide actual information include American Model Builders, Bar Mills and Bowser. Wooden car kits can be enjoyable and are made by Huff and Puff.

MODELER  It seems like some items get announced or advertised far too long before they are available.  Why can't you kitmakers do better and get your act together?

RESPONSE Because of the problem becoming visible among all the large ads from high dollar importers, some small kitmakers are trying to build up demand in advance. Ads that are placed when a product is released won't appear for as long as three months later.   Thousands of invested dollars are sitting there waiting for sales. IF hobby dealers have ordered the item they become disgusted because there are no sales on their investment until ads appear.  Many of us do not attempt advance information as a rule.  Sometimes we must because of rumors or advance notice of competing imports.  When we try to mesh the timing better, a glitch in only one kit part or a delay from one supplier can foul the best laid plans. Glitches are (by definition) unpredictable and impossible to know the timing and duration.  So are accidents and illnesses at small subcontractors-or in our own crews.  Mold making can create particularly troublesome (and long) delays. This step is so expensive that delays can occur when sales of other items slow or fail to meet expectations. New products from small companies are usually financed by sales of existing products.  No kitmaker will admit when this problem exists-rumors constantly abound anyhow that any given firm is no longer in business-no need to fuel them. Once upon a time most of the kitmakers knew what kits were underway from others and avoided duplication. Today the climate is different. There are firms that run off to China or inexpensive resin mold making with the good idea of another to bring a competing import or kit.  When we smell that happening it can sometimes cause unexpected changes in our timing plans..

MANUFACTURER: How can we reach and create new model railroaders with the situation that has been painted above?  We cannot tour the country going to all the many train shows.  That would take all our time that is needed to research, design and produce the kits.  The expense would be even greater than the ads we can no longer afford. Even when we DO attend the shows, the magazine editors seem to only notice the high profile ready built imports. The industry program to create new modelers has deliberately targeted midlife customers who can afford expensive imports using a "nostalgia collector marketing" approach. The long term health of model railroading depends on people becoming personally involved.  The American kitmakers mentioned earlier recognize that their products are important to this end.  We are the intermediate step from "beginner products" to the "advanced scratch modeler" level.  We cannot dictate editorial content to the publishers, even if the long term healtgh of their business needs to hear us. Hobby shops once offered "clinics" on kit building and painting. Most are not even stocking kits now.

RESPONSE  The boss has judged model building at many county 4H fairs. He has noted in recent years that there is a tremendous decline in the activity. The kids tell him they have a tough time finding ANY kits.  He knows that many are trying age-inappropriate kits too. The problem is spread to many levels in our electronic game era.  The most obvious place to start is with those who are already interested but are not seeing the "next step" in the hobby shops: Model rail magazine purchasers. The joy and inspiration of building and using KITS can be promoted.  Bowser has begun an effort aimed at hobby shops. Model Railroad Warehouse is embarking on a parallel path.  We want to encourage kitbuilders to pass along your enjoyment of the hobby. We cannot pay you to write articles (magazines do that), but we will help you write them about the kit and part lines we distribute

1)     If you want ghost writing assistance or an English teacher to review your writing we can help.

2)     Since there are so many magazines and they have a policy.of not accepting duplicate submissions. We will attempt to "shop" for an editor who seeks the type of story you tell for publication reasonably soon.

3)     Since good photos of construction steps are needed, we can assist by photographing your work if you are unable to do so.  After you have built a finished model, we can assist by providing another kit for use in "step by step" photos.  

4)     And we will certainly "plug" you and the publishing magazine by posting a photo of your work and the publication issue info on our website..

Why do it? Some want the author's stipend, others like the recognition.  Why do WE want you to do it? We feel the ultimate growth of the world's greatest hobby depends on people enjoying kit building, not just shelving collections. Kitmakers don't drive fancy cars.  We all have many items we'd like to produce, sales permitting. If you are anxious to see more new kits, you can help make that happen too.  Perhaps your local hobby shop keeper would like you to give a clinic too!

HOBBY SHOPS INTERTESTED IN PROMOTIONAL CLINICS-Please check with us for assistance.

Dec 2005

Well the boss is goin  away at the horspital giving the docs another chance ta practice so I mite git a bit long winded.  He's had a bunch of folks askin about prices ta git brass kits maid inb difrunt scales. Well he an George an Doug are designing so they can do that but ya don't just soak an HO size to git N or heat it up ta git S or O. Aftur they make it work in HO there is still lotsa hours ( an time is money, bout $50 an hour worth) changing the tooling.  THEN theres about $500 in each new production negative (some kits git several negatives - Baldwin steeple cabs git three) so that furst model in a nuther scale aint cheap an lotsa folks need to order em so that cost is spread around. He can figure what the cost is on the square inches of brass, but then the more sheets git shipped here  from the left coast the lower is the shipping  two. He tries to makle em as reasonable as he can .. Some groups  have dun it.  We've made N scale log cars and brass parts fur the Mann's Creek hopper. The N scale troop conversion sides was a lot moiré work cause the MicroScale  troop cars didn't have the same proportions as Walthers and Cannonball cars. In S we've done troop sleepers and conversions an just now the Baldwin B steeple cab.   Got those in O too. Usually a bunch of folks got together an pooled orders to get those to happen.  You can git the word around and do that fer free-it costs the boss a bunch ta advertise so there goes the price neighborhood. Till he noes the number  ta make on the first run its hard ta know an exact price.  In HO he jus don't make the run till there's a nuff orders ta make the advertised price work  (cause all those costs and a lot more are involved in the first HO model  So in LTD series they are custom run when a nuff git rerserved.   The boss has already got them designed an ready fur final tooling if they are listed as LTD or interurban kits, but -well he's still waiting for more HO reservations on L&PS cars, the northwestern   boxcars an more. He sez  folks think they shud jus be made an wait to be bought but he don't hav thaty kinda kilobucks.  Sum of you remember the days of brass imports that had ta be reserved, right?  Sum never did happen. Now you know why..

Seekin of bein made of money, them banks is chargin more an more.  The boss blew his stack when one credit card company deducted about 10% on sales in October.  Anuther one sent a letter that  THEY was givin more free airplane rides so they'd take more out of hour sales since they was more competitive.   Now why should I pay for them ta compete? He sez.   Boy the oil companies an the credit card companies shur have there hands in our pockets don't they?

Then there's the folks that think new kits shud jus appear at the snap uv a fingur. Boss sez they sometimz hold onta information like it waz pentagon stuff so they can gripe.  An they wanna complain the kit otta be a difrunt model.  Why o why is that one outfit makin anuther N&W Y6b?  Cauz they SELL a bunch an what you want wud sell a few duzun.  An why of why duz it take so long fur sum new kits ta cum out-- late?   Well when there's a problem its gotta be solved.  An it cud be that anuther kit ain't sellin fast nuff ta buy the new molds. Or nuther outfit jus did a similar kit an so it needs ta wait. Or the moldmaker went outa bizness  (like our cabooses) an someone else that is good nuff gotta be found an start ovur halfway thru   or the moldmaker goofed (like one Oregon signal brige or our troop cars years ago) an hasta fix lotsa work. Them molds is carved in solid steel folks.  That makes spensive iron filings.  Seems like sum of them website chattering bunches have a new hobby that shure aint model railroadin. An I'm not namin it cuz I don';t talk that way.  Ifn You wanta no what's happin here don't put a questinon out on sumbudy else's bull board cuz that's what yu'll get--bull.  Some wisenhimer who don't know thu answer will anser.  That's why thu boss puts updates on evry page of our website an ansers evry email (ifn you get your right address on it so he can).  But cumon.  He caint send a personal announcement when a new kit is reddy like sum of you ask. He pays Shambles ta put those updates there evry month an you can read em fer free, right?  Hey I guess I got ta be a grumpy ole man.  Hope I do better aftur the boss is back frum his opuration.  Hope yule have some cheer this seasonm  two.  I'm trin ta make new neat kits ta make ya happier.  Now jus buy em so the boss;; pay me, OK?

.

 October 27,2005

Goodness its been awhile.  Frost is on the punkin and the trees are real purty.  Boss let me out ta see em yesterday afternoon. The boss had had me jumpin here. Got  caight up on earlier kits after movin into our new building.  We just got the new troop HO conversion car kits  out, Pere Marquette offsides tool car (hocky foks will get that inside joke), the outside door express cars for Rock Island, New York Central , Phoebe Snow and EL fans and  B&M 2 door baggage out.  About all the folks waitin on N scale troop conversion sides fur there  MicroScale troop cars have got em now an I got more here.  We got sum purty enthused feedback on those.  Now  it is on ta the N and G(F) scale log buggies and the HO Pennsy Troop cars.  Boss says I gotta keep up at blindin speed since the Baldwin D  test sheets are just being checked an he wants all these things in good shape before he goes under the knife agin early in December.  George is wrappin up the Illinois Terminal B body, Joe is wrappin up the O & S scale Baldwin B an Doug has a plateful including the new caboose series. Boss is finally getting thu old Red Ball printing plates ready gur folks that ordered em.  They went thru the fire (that is thu printing plates did) so that's more a job than he planned on.  Yep theirs tooling goin on on the wreck crane, the pile driver,  the PRR H30 , B&O  C15.an sum more I can't tell or I git killed  If you think nuthin is happinin fast nuff ta suit ewe yure as bad as the boss!  Well sum  friends around here hav sure helped us git the mess cleaned up. A couple you might know are Rob Pepper an Jason Cook.  An a lot of you have sure had encouraging words an prayers .  Boss says if a one day fire can be that much problem he sure aint inclined ta check out hell.

The boss got a email frum one of the magazines with three reasons he should pay a kilobuck fur an ad in there next issue. Think he insulted them when he answered with three reasons NOT to.  He's really been as bad as a yeller jacket nest this fall. Seems like the magazines keeps pannin products that people CAN get an not telling em how to use kits ta enjoy thu hobby. Yep there is a bunch uv great modelers doin great stuff but boss says most folks jus say "wow, I can never do that good."  Maybe if sum of you folks would  do storeez about usin sum of the better kits we'd get more beginners ta decides ta build models.  Boss says  the RMC story Trevor Marshall did using our steeple cab got more folks goin in traction than another story in anuthur magazine a year earlier ABOUT traction that  didunt mention the steeple cab, or Bowser or anything the reader COULD DO.  He figures there is over a thousand new HO traction modelers than there was two years ago. The price of ads today an the number of kits they sell is a consternational problum. Fur  US kitmakers.  I gess the Brits an Chinese are enjoyin model railroadin more than the Mericans these days.  I say that cauz we ship a lotta kits ta Britain an Europe.  An the Chinese build lotsa kits fur the US.

Well I got ordurves to be short winded an get some shipments out taday..  Thu boss is getting out sales tax reports.  He sez there sure is lotsa inconsistency in the states on that.  Last year when he did the Seattle Show  Washington state charged him a percentage of the tax fer the privlige of collectin it.  This year fur Cincinnati the state  charged him a flat fee so they could process the paperwork with his check. Those Buckeyes have difrunt tax rates in every county (and even iin parts of sum counties) an it chages every uthur month  so they gotta do lotta processin.  Here in Hoosierland they give him back a tiny percent fur collectin it.  Usually it covers the stamp ta mail it in.  Hiz ours of paperwork is on the boss though.  Kinda reminds me uv the feller who wondered ta hiz friend if the hole world was a bit touched "except me an thee an sumtimes I aint sure about thee."

Sandhouse August 8, 2005

 O myAching back

Well the contractors left today and we are busy movin into the new kit packing building. The boss will find me here an cut this litul note short I bet!  It's been a long haul dealing with debris for two months.  Shure is good to have fresh air again even if it is hundrud degree type air an 200% humididity.

The boss has been tied up the last munth with Doug an mold makers fur the new caboose kits an the pile driver.  You folks are in fur a treat on these kits.  This week he an George are wrapping up the Brill 55 and Illinois Terminal B I think.    So much iz happinin my head is swimming.  The boss is postin an update on thu Red Ball page an it shur looks like I'm gonna be busy packin em in the new building.  The first sheets of Pennsy Troop car brass came in today-he held them an the new troop conversions up till the building was ready-an a lotta folks are waitin fer more of the B&O M53 and Mann's Creek Cars..He sez I gotta git them all dun by Labor Day cuz the Baldwin D is cumoin in next an he's keeping the tracks clear fur them cabooses an other new kits.

Well, the editor of MODEL RAILROAD NEWS sez the daiz of mom n pop hobby shops is over.  We shur no times has changed.   The boss talked wuth lots of other kit makers at Cincinnati an they think so too.  All the big time operatopns is getting them poor Chinese ta build yur trains an now ya see um, now ya don't.  The shops think they gotta hav em ta compete but they won't hav em fur more than a week or two.

Mean while these kits made in USA that are available can't be fouind in many shops.  An they gotta be seen-we know that cause you folks that saw them in Cincinnati loved them. Specially stuff like our 17x21 Hometown brick sheets in so many scales ancolors. Man the boss sold nearly half of the year's run cause people luved em.  He sez "Yep, but there wasn't hardl'y any hobby shop folks there, an not a one uv em is stockin these things you loved." 

That's a real quandary.  Us US kitmakers still put a price on hour kits that allows a hobby shop ta make a livin.  But then WE gotta do the stockin an sellin.   That's why the boss is doing the LTD kits the way he is.  They are special order  cauz he knew the stores would just special order em if they even did that. So he made them so the price is write.  Now that's takin some getting ust to.  In fact some of yopu want to no if your hobby shop can order em fur you.  Yep, but  since they didn't really sell em (they wrote yur order fer you) they will jess git a commission so we can make a decent price fer  these  lower volume kits.  There's other kitmakers wunderin what to do two.  As a ruyle we don't discount hour  own kits cauz that'd be competin with the dealers.  But when the dealers don't STOCK the kits what are the new rules of the game supposed to be'  Well, the Boss is goin to try a new idea at the Columbus, IN club show in September the Saturday after Labor Day.  They'll have a display of Red Ball kits that people can order and the club will git a commission.  He's not mad at any dealers, but golly folks, there aughta be a way fer folks to see the neat stuff bein made here in the USA.   He's spent a thousand bucks many months fer magazine ads and folks still discover our kits  four and siz years after they've been released.  The magazines can't seem ta find folks that''ll BUILD a kit SOONLY fer review.  An the kitmakers are sick an tired uv "EXPERTS" that think a review is done with vernier calipurz.  Wasn't that RMC story  by Trevor Marshall NEAT when he showed how ta USE the Cannonball steeple cab and AMB parts'   The boss sez it's rediculus how folks don't know what a train car is sposed to be like then when sum guy sez it aughta be difrunt than the kit they are afraid ta buy the kit.  Boss sez every kit made (in China too) has compromises that has ta be made.  Sumtimes so a mold can simply be made-or made ta work.  Sumtimes so the price can be decent.  He also sez the "expurtz" don't have a buck in the project an may not no it all.  His first kit  (O scale NKP Coach in the 1960s) was reviewed in MR by a feller that said there was no prototype fur it, Well that feller didn't crawl around measuring under the NKP car in East Wayne yards like Dick Yager did or heeda node better!  An if you know RPY, you can still hear his explosion when that came out in print. Guess that's why he lives near Mt St Helens now.