Are they ever going to be here, whats taking them so long to get them out?[banghead]
SP–
Y’know, I’m just not holding my breath, anymore. For either the BLI OR the Horizon cars. If they come out, they come out. If they don’t, well–too bad for we SP fans, I suppose. Meanwhile, it’s pretty obvious that Walthers has decided to go with the 20th Century Limited (but then Walthers pretty much sticks with the Midwest/East Coast anyway), so we can’t expect anything from them. All we can do is wait for either BLI or Horizon to get off their duff and start either manufacturing or at least IMPORTING the cars. Maybe it’s a result of the earthquake in China or something.
I’ve given up waiting. If they come out, they do. If they don’t–well, maybe Accurail will start manufacturing passenger cars here in AMERICA!
Sorry, don’t mean to sound so negative.
Tom [:(]
I have given up too, thats why I ask to see if anyone knew about it or had given up to. Its to bad they just dont do it.
Espee’s ‘Daylight’ cars were one-of-a-kind, with high windows, 44’ Talgo cars, and a 3 section diner - difficult to paint up for other RR’s , and still sell.
RESULT is hesitancy re R.O.I.(Return On Investment).
On the other hand we have finished brass cars from ‘Whistle Stop’ for $400-500 each. Meanwhile, I have a Richard Wright/MHP triple diner unassembled kit.
Excuse me! but when does the Santa Fe Super Chief and Great Northern Empire builder mean midwest and east coast. Also the Hiwatha Cars made it to the Pacific Northwest. I want a correct 20th Century Limited and Broadway.
Now I am being negative!
Regards
Rick
BLI continues to offer the best line of unavailable products. I’m still waiting for the Dreyfuss Hudson that they “introduced” about two years ago. The locos I have bought from them are top notch but it is extremely annoying the way they promise products that are not in production. They ought to just shut up about what they are offering until they have actually produced it. I’ve pretty much written them off as a viable manufacturer.
Rick–
Ya got me, LOL! [:I] I was in a bad mood when I wrote the original post. Of course the Empire Builder and Super Chief ran in the West, and certainly those Hiawatha cars made it out to Seattle.
What I originally meant (and didn’t state very clearly), was that a strictly West Coast streamliner didn’t seem to be high on Walther’s ‘to do’ list.
Like you, I think a correct 20th Century Limited would be high on a lot of modeler’s lists. That was one beautiful train. But I’d sure like to see a “Coast Daylight”. It might not have ever traveled out of California, but it was extrem
I suspect those days went out of the door when they had the “blowout” sales. Those blowouts are BAD NEWS, as far as a manufacturer is concerned. It means they overproduced and are having to dump the excess stock - not a profitable business! The cost of producing a locomotive is, I believe, in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it clear that a few “flops” could quite quickly bankrupt a company.
I think they usually have a significant portion of the design work completed by the time the model is announced - that was certainly the case with the PRR I1s, as there were CAD renders shown at that time. Then they wait to see what the response is - if there was a full run (a few thousand models) reserved, then you can bet that the company would be cutting the molds straight away - even then, it’s still MONTHS of work to get a model produced.
There is an excellent article on the process here: http://www.modelrailroadnews.com/pages/Polk0307.html
Try asking your question here. Matthew from BLI is usually very quick at answering any questions.
http://precisioncraftmodels.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1
Magnus
Tom,
I also would like a Daylight. Although I mostly model the roads that came into Toledo, I do have a Westside GS4 and would like a correct train to go with it. I do have the AHM cars and although the paint matches perfectly the cars are all wrong (mostly PRR cars).
Regards
Rick
According to something, they have 1/3 to half the cars made, They may be waiting on the other cars and the Daylight loco to hit pre-order
My guess was that they might do somthing like that and wait to have the Daylight and car sets out at one time, but if the Daylights is going to only be made from a lot of preorders, then I dont think the Daylight will be made, B/C of the MTH Daylight being out now and how vary vary nice it is, I dont know if they could make a better one then the MTH and with the kinds you can have with the MTH (Daylight, AFT, BNSF, Sall And Big SP, Waybaby GS-4, GS-6 and the WP GS-64) I just dont know if BLI can do a better.
They could, but this would turn into another DCS/DCC thread, so we won’t go there. One of the bigger selling points for MTH is that it is out now. BLI has rthe advantage of colors matching. And they are doing cars not done by MTH. Plus, MTH is doing a different second roadnumber than BLI, so theoretically, one could still buy a Daylight engine (or 2) from each. Seeing as how I alrweady have a Bachmann DCC 4449, this is what I may end up doing.
I did a DCS/DCC thread, all I got was that if you run DCS on DCC you get a normal DCC loco, so there is no need to talk about that. But as for the colors matching am getting a GS-6 so color dont matter to me [:D] but if they are going off the plans of the real Daylight paint on cars and loco then they should mach… should. I did not know about roadnumbers thats cool I might have to look in to that.
Eh, there could be more. Colors, see Floquill Daylight Red and Daylight Orange. They are NOT daylight colors, I can assure you. I don’t know about the GS-6, but I do sorta know that BLI is doing 4452, and MTH has 4451.
The GS-6’s were orderd in 1943 but they were going to be made to the GS-4’s spec’s but the Warborard did not let passenger locomotives allowed it due to meaterial requierments and they need freight sercive loco’s for the war, so the GS-6’s were made to GS-2 specifications that had 74 1/2- inch drivers. Then Sp changed the GS from ‘Golden State’ to ‘General Serice’ so it would look more like somthing for freight service, it worked and the board alowed the order of 16 engines classed as GS-6 #4460 to 4475. But the war board sent 6 of them to the WP. The material shortages of made the engines not have skirting but they did have the skyline casing and they never had the Daylight red and orange paint, just panted good old black. They look vary good even with out the skirts and paint.
Now you know a little about GS-6’s[:D]
I actually meant about the roadnumbers. 
O well it seemed a little odd for a sp guy not to know anything about GS-6’s lol. As far as I know BLI is not doing a GS-6 or GS-4’s with out skirting, but MTH is doing GS-4’s with out skirting. And as for the GS-6, I think there are two #4460, #4466 that are going to be made. And the MTH has #4453 (in daylight) and #4437 (black no skirting).
The one I want to see, and neither one of them’s doing the Partial Daylight. I know I saw Mountains, and I think I saw Northers that had daylight tender schemse, but the loco herself lacked the streamlining to be painted and were left black.
Course, If I knew anything about SP, I’d do something about my avatar LOL
Yes the 50/50 paint looked vary nice, If MTH makes one I will grab it no matter what, even if I do have a GS-6! That paint only happen to GS-4. There were about ten cases when in minor shopping the skirting was taken off, so that you could get to things faster. The transition scheme only lasted a few months, but it was a vary good few months. The ones that got this lucky paint were the 4433, 4434, 4435, 4437, 4438, 4439, 4441, 4442, 4444 and the 4445. Accucraft makes little live steam 1.32 scale 50/50 Daylight but it will cost you $5,000. Here is a youtube vid of it running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu-Zx87iO7Y&feature=related