Post by harborbelt70 on Mar 23, 2024 12:24:15 GMT
Happy Saturday, and if some of this sounds like a gripe, grudge or pet peeve that’s because it is. But it’s also a reason for some side shots I have not posted before and advance notice of a new direction I may take.
My gripe is over the lack of quality and reliability that the main US train importers give us – especially Lionel. My list of repair projects on their products just keeps getting longer and I am tired of it. OTOH, very recently I have come across some real passenger car gems made mainly for the European market, and that starting me thinking and looking up a few things.
In the course of doing that, I was reminded that one recent issue has concerned color fidelity in Lionel products delivered compared to catalog illustrations. In contrast, below are some examples of green finishes that were rendered correctly, the top two being Euro prototypes made by the Korean manufacturer Samhongsa for the Swiss importer Lemaco (mentioned again below) and the bottom one a very fine 3rd Rail D&RGW steamer from roughly 6 years ago. I dunno who was the maker of the 3rd Rail engine but it reflects Scott Mann’s attention to detail:
I should say that I don’t have any of these brass models - and the info I have on the prices of the Euro ones is that they are at least double Lionel’s catalog prices for big steamers. In contrast, as has been noted on OGF before, the difference between Lionel’s and 3rd Rail’s prices is not large; the practical difference is in operating features. Anyway, by a steep learning curve since these Saturday threads started, I’ve begun to understand some history relating to model train production. For example, I never knew anything about Bing as a manufacturer until @af2030 and @healy36 started posting about their collections although my main interest has always been in scale versions of US prototypes.
Don’t get me wrong – Lionel has belted some home runs as far as I am concerned but it’s mostly hit and miss about what you actually get. More importantly, to a very large extent I think that the likes of us long-term Lionel consumers/enthusiasts are being taken for granted/a ride. Despite that, my recent personal favorites are the UP Greyhounds shown in this video, mainly because of their operating features although both have had either design or assembly defects I’ve had to deal with:
Last week I stumbled across this piece of history from 1998 relating to Lemaco that helped inform what passes for my knowledge base: Lemaco History (https://www.lemacoprestigemodels.ch/files/docs/Loki-Bericht%20für%20Internet_engl_29-04-2021.pdf)
What it explains is that ‘way back in the early 1960s, the best quality model train manufacturing was in Japan but it served mainly the US market, in which people were happy with unfinished brass models with no painting, lettering or indeed windows or passenger car interiors, or any lights. Some of this had to change for the Euro market and then later with the advent of command control. Since about the mid-80s, there have been some great examples of passenger cars made either in the Far East or continental Europe and a few that I have now seen (either Korean- or Italian-built) courtesy of other people are illustrated below:
Shock, horror - these are 2rail DC models in 1:43.5 scale. “It’s O scale, Jim, but not as we know it.” The American connection is that the prototypes were pre-War Pullman (UK)-built cars, mainly for the Orient Express and various trans-European routes.
What this is leading up to is that I may move my focus to something that does not cost me in terms of sheer aggravation let alone ridiculous prices. But I can’t depart from the 3rail O scale tradition of operating features, novelty and some good-natured whimsy. In that department, I remember that I did not post a complete set of photos of my 21” UP Lone Star Business Car’s interior rebuild because, apart from Queen Elizabeth II, the passengers include Mother Theresa and a boy scout. These are figures I got years ago at York from Scenic Express that I feared might offend the sensitivities of certain people, including my old friend Brian Vaill, but as my very devout Catholic elder brother wasn’t fazed by them at all, here they are:
P.S. Queen Elizabeth was added right before the car was completed and so does not appear in the above but she is nonetheless prominent:
