11-07-2014, 03:54 AM
You are absolutely right to wonder why it has taken so long to produce a model of "Big John" and that is what is so surprising.
Perhaps it has something to do with "Big Johns" intially being kept from interchange and restricted to "home rails" by Southern Railway to avoid interline charges. This may have resulted in manfacturers deciding that the market would be too limited.
What these manufacturers may have missed due to poor research is the date or dates that "Big John's" began to be interchanges with the rest of the US rail network. This point would provide a launch point date for modellers to say when they can include these cars in operations on their layouts.
Also of interest is the fact that "Big John's" were pioneering the development of the "unit train" concept by Southern insisting that the operate in large blocks not a single car shipments.
Mark
PS I had to have a bit of a chuckle about the name "Big John" as when I was an apprentice Carpenter I worked with a guy and his crew called "Big John Constructions", a nice bloke. "Right you are, Mark" was a regular comment to me by "Big John".
Funny the things you remember from your apprenticeship, but stuff that happens in later years just washes under the bridge.
Perhaps it has something to do with "Big Johns" intially being kept from interchange and restricted to "home rails" by Southern Railway to avoid interline charges. This may have resulted in manfacturers deciding that the market would be too limited.
What these manufacturers may have missed due to poor research is the date or dates that "Big John's" began to be interchanges with the rest of the US rail network. This point would provide a launch point date for modellers to say when they can include these cars in operations on their layouts.
Also of interest is the fact that "Big John's" were pioneering the development of the "unit train" concept by Southern insisting that the operate in large blocks not a single car shipments.
Mark
PS I had to have a bit of a chuckle about the name "Big John" as when I was an apprentice Carpenter I worked with a guy and his crew called "Big John Constructions", a nice bloke. "Right you are, Mark" was a regular comment to me by "Big John".
Funny the things you remember from your apprenticeship, but stuff that happens in later years just washes under the bridge.
Fake It till you Make It, then Fake It some More