Dear Jack:
All of American Model's streamliners are 80 foot cars. I see that a
short history lesson is in order. (Fortunately I am just doing a
cut-and-paste from another e-mail I sent months ago.)
Don made these to go with his FP-7. His FP-7 was really what restarted
S-Scale. Ron was the first, modern manufacturer that was serious about S
Scale and did mass production. The original version would not negotiate a
22 inch curve and had body mounted, scale size, dummy couplers. He then
went on to create these passenger cars to go with it. Because of the
limitations of even 40 inch radius and 80 foot cars, the couplers are talgo
mounted.
This was about 1986.
The explosion started when S-Helper asked for (and got) donations to defray
the cost of cutting the molds (1989). S-Helper and American Models had a
number of success stories (1989 - 1993). Ron, who was selling at a small
profit, got further money to develop his own line. S-Helper, who was
selling at a small profit, ended up developing their own line. (That is
another story.)
So the AM smooth sides were created for the S _S_C_A_L_E_ crowd. I saw
them in the 1980s being pulled by SCALE F-units on SCALE track with WIDE
radius curves. When Ron started offering them with highrail wheelsets in
1988 is when I jumped on board -- knowing full well they would not go around
my AF curves. (Actually, with a little tweaking they can be coerced to go
around AF curves. But they will not clear an AF switch box any way other
than straight which is why you keep hearing me ask for wide switches!)
Ron has had great success with the Budd cars. In the short time they
have been available, he has sold more than the streamliners ever sold! But
the Budds are shorties and will do a 22 inch curve. There was an effort to
raise funds to kick start sale of full-length Budd sets. Ron's requirement
was 100 orders. With 100 orders Ron would have cut full length molds. (He
needed about 150 sales to break even.) But it fell short at 77 orders. (I
have the streamliners. I don't want Budds -- at any length.)
Because it died at 77 orders, every time someone cries for full length
cars, I just shake my head.
The full length streamliners are beautiful. What I originally wanted were
the AF (or new Flyonel) streamliners. I tried to purchase just the
passenger cars when Lionel released the UP streamliners (using AF molds).
Charles Ro just laughed at me. (They didn't tell me but Lionel sold them
with AA PA-1s as a boxed set.) I wanted all four AF cars plus an extra
coach. I purchased a six car train of AM UP streamliners in highrail and
never looked back.
(Charles Ro's laughing at me also had an effect: Ron Leventon now gets
my Flyonel business.)
Thorin
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 10:16 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [S-Trains] Re: Schreiner Passenger Cars
Thorin,
Thanks for the great info! One last question..............was the coach you
bought from Ron of AM an 80' or a 72' item?
Thanks,
Jack Riely
P.S. Thanks for emailing the vendor.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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