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The Anthracite Railroad historical society is going to produce some resin shells of the Baldwin DR441500 the fore runners of the RF16 sharks. They will be tooled to fit the P2K FA2 drive. Here's the link. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.anthraciterailroads.org/sale/models/BaldwinBabyface.php">http://www.anthraciterailroads.org/sale ... byface.php</a><!-- m -->
As a CNJ fan they are some of my favorite units, can't wait to see the production run . The New York Central had similar units and my be of use to NYC models.
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I hope they get the decals setup too, do they have a set date on when they'll be done?
Tom
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That'a quite a unique model...Don't think I've ever seen one of those (model or real...  ).
Gus (LC&P).
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Right now they are saying that they will be ready by the end of the year, Tomustang.
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A bit pricey for just a shell...
-Dave
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Puddlejumper Wrote:A bit pricey for just a shell...
If the quality of the castings is good, I don't think that the price is unreasonable - the chances of getting a model of such a low-production prototype would be slim to nil in plastic and prohibitively expensive in brass.
If they plan their moulds carefully, perhaps the nose section could be used to produce some of the double-ended CNJ units, too.
Wayne
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The cost of Brass is in the cost of Material plus the amount of labor required to build the model with most of the cost being labor. That is why Brass rolling stock used to be made in Japan, but as the wages increased in Japan, the industry moved to South Korea. The major cost for plastic is in the mold and die work. Once the molds and dies are done, that cost is recouped over the life of a production run or runs as the case may be. It costs the same to produce a die for a "one off" model as it does for a locomotive type that every railroad in the country used. The difference is that the cost must be recovered by the buyers. If every model railroader in the country was a customer for the model, it could be produced cheap, but since it is of limited interest it will be expensive. At $110.00 per shell they are probably only looking to "break even" and may even lose money if they don't sell enough units. It may be that with the $50.00 deposits received they have a good idea of interest, and will break even on the first production run.
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Russ, as I understand it, the diesel will be a multi-part resin casting, which is probably the most economical way to offer such a niche market item. The greatest cost would likely be creation of the "master" used to make the moulds.
Wayne
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doctorwayne Wrote:If the quality of the castings is good, I don't think that the price is unreasonable - the chances of getting a model of such a low-production prototype would be slim to nil in plastic and prohibitively expensive in brass.
Wayne
True, true, I hadn't thought of it that way. I do suppose that it would be worth it for a model that won't ever be available anywhere else. Especially if the casting is done well.
-Dave
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Just a quibble....
Russ..."The difference is that the cost must be recovered by the buyers."
Not quite...The cost must be COVERED by the buyers, and RECOVERED by the manufacturer.
And of course you gotta put on materials cost, labor, overhead and profit on top of that....
Gus (LC&P).
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I don't really think the price is all that high only because about 11 or 12 years ago I purchased an A/B set in brass for about $350. They were unpainted and in used condition. That was a good price at the time. I have a pic of them In tomustangs trains in the snow thread
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Steamtrains Wrote:Just a quibble....
Russ..."The difference is that the cost must be recovered by the buyers."
Not quite...The cost must be COVERED by the buyers, and RECOVERED by the manufacturer.
And of course you gotta put on materials cost, labor, overhead and profit on top of that....
OOPs! I generally end up editing every post for typos, sometimes two or three times in the first 5 minutes. I missed those completely! My posts would be totally incomprehensible without the "edit" button!
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Russ is right on about the cost of tooling vs. the price of the product. The fewer parts produced, the higher the cost of the part. Cast resin tooling is considerably less expensive than cutting steel for high pressure injection molding, but the cost of the original patterns will not be cheap, considering the amount of work involved in producing a pattern to produce a highly detailed reproduction. You get whet you pay for.
And let us not forget tool life - Tool steel for high pressure injection molding can produce millions of parts, especially in a multi-cavity mold. Tooling for a cast resin part, although considerably cheaper, has a much shorter life span and, depending on the size and complexity of the part, is probably a single cavity tool, which limits the number of parts produced before a new tool must be built.
The price of the Baby Face shell is not altogether unreasonable, I don't think, if you take into account the current price of a cast resin Westerfield or Funaro & Camerlengo kit.
biL
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Or even the standard price of a locomotive these days, the price is reasonable, if you take a proto 2K for example you have $170 dc F7 standard locomotive, complete.
For just the ARHS shell it's $110, that still gives you $60 to buy a used powered chassis at a show/shop for cheap, then add the detail parts/decals/paint to break even.
Tom
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