I have three brass Preicision Scale HO models of Southern Pacific heavyweight passenger
cars: all have identification or car-number problems.
70-BP-15-2 baggage/postal car #5168. This is actually a model of a -3 since it has 2 doors
and 5 windows per side as opposed to the -2’s 3 doors and 1 window.
Also, #5168 was a -3. (I had bought this item sight unseen, but I’m actually glad since the -3 is more handsome to me.)
C-60-10 coach #2073. This looks like a -9 since it has 20 roof vents rather
than a -10’s 12. Also, #2073 (a former three-digit T&0NO car) was a -9. (I was ignorant of this problem when I purchased the model, but this error did not “harm” me.)
C-60-10 coach #2168. This also looks like a -9 because of the vent number.
Unfortunately, #2168 was one of the longer 72-C-1s. (I was also ignorant of this issue when I purchased the model, and I’m a bit irritated.)
So, all three models had problems. The good news, I guess, is that
“only” one had a “fatal” flaw, requiring a renumbering. Or maybe I
should convert it to caboose service since it looks like (similar
windows and utility roof vents) SP 967.
You will find that some of the higher end brass cars will even have a few discrepancies. I have found some very minor “problems” with a couple of my brass passenger cars, but nothing that is a show stopper. I do understand that with the sort of money spent, these things should be dead on. It does seem that things are getting better, although I have always wondered how long the brass market is going to remain profitable enough to continue importing.
Their string of recent (i.e., in the brass world, over the last five or six years) steam HO models in my interest roads (Western maryland and N&W) are exquisite.
Those three in my possession are older models (painted and lettered, but no interior, labeled “The Whistle Stop”). They are nicely done, and I don’t regret their acquisition. Still, I don’t see why the importer couldn’t properly label and number the models. Was there a miscommunication between importer and producer, producer not taking proper care, or importer gave producer the wrong information? Since I had a 100% error rate in the models, I wonder what other people’s experiences were.
PSC (Precision Scale) has had issues in the past. The first that I knew about was a B&M steam engine that had the “Boston & Maine” in a white square outline…only they put the word “Railroad” with the herald, which only appeard on B&M stationary, not steam engines.
The second was the New Haven R-3 4-8-2 model they recently did. They used the wrong font for “New Haven” on the tender. It’s amusing that Bachmann Spectrum for a little over $100 can get the right lettering on a plastic tender, but a $1500 brass model cannot.
In PSC’s defense, when this issue was brought up to them by the NHRHTA (the New Haven’s historical group), PSC offered to repaint and re-letter any R-3 tenders for free to any one who shipped the tender to them before such-and-such a date. This was done promptly, and those NH fans that knew about the return policy enjoy a more accurate model. PSC deserves credit for fixing it.
I don’t know about your SP passenger cars, Mark, but they certainly got my F-81 D&RGW 2-10-2 right, even to that funny little perched doghouse on the Vandy tender and the “Salt Lake Shops” flat face. The only problem I had initially was that the lead from the motor was attached to the swivel end of the drawbar, and came loose. Sent it back to them, they attached it to the middle of the drawbar–with apologies and no charge–and it runs like a Swiss watch and pulls almost anything I want to put behind it.
PSC is pretty tops in my book, both in quality and service.