Global Outlet and John Henry

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Does anyone have a link that is specific to Global Outlet and the brass locomotive John Henry?

I have not been able to find out anything about the company either thru a previously given link or web searches.

Thanks

Chris

2

Sorry to report that the Company - and therefore all their projects - are dead. The last model they did nearly complete is an Ingalls diesel which has been finished and imported by another company.

The rep of Global Outlet wrote an email about his company and the whole brass business about 2 months ago. There were more than one major negative fact leading him to the decision to cease this business. For example - and in my eyes this is most important - he regretted that they NEVER had even close to enough support from modellers.

I know that email from a yahoo group, and it is a very frustrated view to the brass business in general. By interest I could send it via PM.

3

Wow, thats too bad. But what can you say, brass is very expensive. In the case of the Jawn Henry, it would probably been about $2000.00. And then how many modelers have a layout to run it on?

The Tower 55 UP Gas Turbines never got off the ground either. Too big, too limited interest.

Oh well… more F units please…

4

Brass is very expensive.

To be blunt I could make that 2000 dollar brass engine happen but the result will be divorce. It is that simple.

If they will produce the engine or others in Plastic that is where they will get the support NOT brass.

Allure to the shine of money from brass as a path to riches in manufactering isnt the true path in the hobby. Those who own brass do so because they enjoy that position in life and can afford to. The rest of us working stiffs make do with what we can scrape from our food and gas bill each month.

Now if they want to build brass engines for the joy of it and have very low costs then go for it.

5

Definitely NO! I own brass because the engines of biggest interest to me never came out - and most likely never will come - in plastic! And most other owners of brass are seeing that as the major reason, too. No doubt there are some people of the category you have in mind, but they are few against the more serious modellers. BTW brass isn’t always expensive. There are thousands of models being cheaper than today’s plastic models. Some have problems yes, but with only some light skills in repairing most can be solved.

6

Fair enough.

The reason I accept your position is that I have been examining the possibility of buying a Red B&O Wagontop in Brass (Painted, mint) for a very long time. Such an item will most likely never be made in plastic RTR for whatever reason.

I also understand that there is a certian amount of “Skillset” (Anyone have a better word?) necessary to effectively own and operate a Brass engine.

I will not forget the days of 100 dollar brass and 55 dollar toys-r-us engines long ago. I should have gotten that brass back then. What a investment they would have been.

7

Are there any B&O cabooses in brass?

Magnus

8

Yes, many.

9

VAPEURCHAPELON

Global Outlet started to sell their brass direct to us since their very high quality brass prices were so high that adding on more cost and discounting the models to dealers was not possible I have the Global Outlet 5011 class 2-10-4 by Samtech and it is a marvelous model.

I had emaled them about building the SF 2900 class and was told they were interested in that model but had scheduled the Virginian Electric, Jawn Henry and the Ingallis models in the near future.

It is sad to see them go out of business but brass is too expensive for most of us and most of the friends I know who used to purchase several new brass models each year are not purchasing anything except Die Cast Metal and great plastic models. The market is still active but it is smaller than ever at the latest prices.

I would like to see the Yahoo letter than you talked about if you don’t mind sending it to my PM.

CAZEPHYR

10

Where can I get these! I don’t own a single B&O caboose and I need them desperately.

Magnus

11

Lillen,

Walthers has some decent Platinum line B&O BAY WINDOW cabooses that were used about late steam early diesel but they were blue. I settled for three of these because I need cabooses and already own one chessie bay window to tide me over until I can work up the courage to get 300 dollars for a single caboose.

Ebay has a few regularly, I think there were 4 on there as of yesterday, three of which sold for goodly sums of money.

Caboose and other providers of Brass in the USA have them in stock from time to time.

A mint caboose with box and flawless paint and kadee couplers roughly 200 USD more or less. More if several people get into a bidding war.

12

Thanks for the info. Are these the ones you are refering to?

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-40456

Magnus

13

I can’t say for sure, but i seriously doubt that this type is old enough to get in contact with steam engines.

Falls Valley did provide good advice. I too would recommend to have a look at ebay from time to time. Type in e. g.

brass caboose

baltimore caboose

b&o caboose

Probably you will always find some there.

To look at the larger online brass dealers like caboose hobbies and brasstrains.com etc. ist also a good idea.

Do you wish to get always EXTREME detail? I ask because LAMBERT imported a really nice Wagon Top steel caboose, but there is sparse underbody detail - but the detail which already IS there is nice. These are Japanese models with high quality. Sometimes I saw these even with nice paint for below 100 bucks.

Good luck.

14

Hi,

Thanks for those e-bay sugestions, I have found a caboose and perhaps I will bid on it. I’m not sure right now. Since I have never bought anything on e-bay before I’m kind of reluctant.

Magnus

15

Instead of looking on ebay where many sellers refuse to ship overseas, try one of our Brass dealers who carry strong presence on the internet. They may be one or two willing to do business with you.

I found a photo of a EM1 sitting on a ready track hooked to one of the blue Walthers Bay Windows and am searching the internet for it again. To me that is proof enough that those did enter the picture in the very end of steam.

Maybe one day we will see the real wagontops in plastic RTR.

16

If you’re willing to tackle a resin kit, Pacific Mountain Scale Shops makes/made kits for B&O I-12 wagontop cabooses and I-17 bay window cabooses.

Their web site is down at the moment, but Pro Custom Hobbies lists them and shows photos of the finished models at http://www.procustomhobbies.com/catpages/PMS.shtml .