Never see anything in the Model Railroader magazine about new brass products. I did see a review in the NMRA magazine about 2 new N&W passenger cars by Division Point. Is this an oversight or maybe I just missed the articles. I may not be able to afford many of these beauties but it would be nice to here about them and how they perform. Just my thoughts, for what ever it is worth.
Some time ago, MR did a review on SP 2-6-0 from Sunset Models, so they do reviews on brass.
Craig:
I think it’s because we’re talking a real ‘niche’ element here. The only brass review I’ve seen recently was in MODEL RAILROADER NEWS, and that was of the SP&S/NP/GN Z-6 4-6-6-4 from Sunset, which was released in VERY limited runs. (It got an excellent review, BTW.)
And most brass is, these days, relegated to very limited runs, unlike the days of old when Akane, Westside, PFM and other importers were releasing large runs of brass locomotives onto the market (at relatively reasonable prices).
These days, there are only a few importers on the market, and their locomotives are being released in runs of perhaps 50-100 as opposed to ‘mass’ releases back in the ‘glory’ days of brass locos. So it could be the reasoning that since it is such a limited market, MR might still believe that the product is limited to ‘collectors’ instead of actual running modelers.
At least that’s kind of my take on it.
Tom [:)]
Tom,
I have to agree. It seems like there are smaller numbers of these items. I have been looking a Precision Scale Southern MS4. They were about $1350 when they came out 2-3 years ago. There were several different versions such as those with Elesco water heaters, etc. But, there were only about 30 or so of each made. This makes it tough to find and hard to afford. I actually, ordered one of these from a dealer before they came out. But, after waiting 3 years for them to be produced, I cancelled my order.
Model Railroader, in common with all magazines, has a significant lead time between preparation of a product review and having it in the readers’ hot little hands. So, if MR isn’t given a lot of ‘preview’ time, by the time subscribers and others learn about the release of Podunk and Northern #1 by Beautiful Brass (in three different versions) the last of them will have left bare spots on the dealers’ shelves. OTOH, the only available ‘preview’ sample for an early warning to MR would probably be a pre-production one-off, usually with more bugs than a shipment of sweaters from Bedbug City.
Back when MR did brass reviews on the basis of pre-production one-offs, the review almost always contained a statement to the effect that the manufacturer had assured the reviewer that something less than wonderful, “Would be corrected in the production models.” Since the last locomotive I bought based on MR’s evaluation was a Mantua Shifter, I can’t say of my own knowledge that the corrections ever happened.
Add to that, MR probably receives far more products for review than there is room for in the magazine…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You also have to realize that MR is designed for the masses, and while plastic locos are starting to go north to $200-$300 with DCC and sound, Most mass modelers aren’t spending $1350 for a loco, 2-3 years ago or now.
Also I think there may be some special consideration given to advertisers,and not to many brass manufacturers are advertising in MR, probably due to the fact presented above.
If you go back to the 1960s/70s, Model Railroader reviewed brass all the time. And that was when a well stocked hobby shop would have a case full of brass from various importers. PFM, Gem, and Max Gray would keep a brass engine in their catalog for years. I gleaned from the reviews back then that the importers would submit a sample for review. But there is not much sense in a review if the model is entirely sold out before the first model even hits these shores, which seems to now be the rule not the exception.
Dave Nelson
There are several reasons why you see no brass reveiws of the current models, first and foremost is MR does not “buy” these models for reveiw, the manufacturer/importer “donates” these models for reveiw, so for a run of say 25 models at $2000 a piece would you want to “donate” one of them for a reveiw that probably will have absolutely no bearing on your sales of the model.
Secondly, as stated earlier, today they are being made in very small runs, less than 50 is not unusual so they usually have more buyers than they have models anyhow which makes a review of the item rather pointless.
Sunset is the exception as they are still trying to make affordable brass for the average guy who is interested in brass locos, hence the MR reveiws of their models.
So because of the production/shipping costs the new highly detailed brass has gone into the realm of the collector/high end user and he will buy the product regardless of what a reveiw in MR would have to say.
In other words, the good old days are gone fellas, now plastic costs as much and more than brass used to cost, gas is $3.00+ a gallon, milk is $4.00+ per gallon and nobody wants to work for minum wage let alone $5.00 per day. It’s a new world out there and things just aren’t cheap anymore, but take heart, in another 15-20 years we’ll probably be sitting around saying what ever happened to those inexpensive plastic locos we used to be able to buy for $200-300, the last one I bought cost $1000!!!
Mark
i don’t believe that’s the reason. They reviewed the “Little Joe”, didn’t they? Was that for the thousands of modelers of Milwaukee’s electrified section or the South Shore?
I think it’s more that the brass manufacturer’s ignore MR, not the other way around.
The Little Joe is a stock model - I can walk into my LHS and pick one up, if I should so desire. With the extremely limited runs of brass these days, there aren’t any ‘extras’ to send out for reviews - 55 people put money down, they make 55 models.That wasn’t always the case - but if you have old issues note that in many of the reviews, especially getting into the 80’s, when it was for a brass item the review usually said that they were likely already sold out but check your dealer just in case. Production runs are now much more controlled than they were 30-40 years ago.
–Randy
I don’t won’t to appear condesending but if you really want to know the answer to the question why don’t you write to Model Railroader Magazine’s question column or e-mail the question to them. The, “Contact Us,” button is at the bottom of this page. The answers given so far are reasonable but they are, after all, guesses; maybe good guesses, but guesses none-the-less. My thought would be that the editors and staff at the magazine did not have a meeting and specifically decide not to review brass. In fact, if you do contact them you very well might not get an answer, or if you do, one that’s vague, because they probably don’t know either. It’s doubtful it’s an issue they dwell on, well at least not till now.
Ray
One of the reasons for magazine review is to get the word out about the product - it’s really a form of advertising. If you guys say that brass production is limited to the number of preorders - than what would be the reason for manufacturers to sent out a review sample? On the other hand what would be the reason for MR to review such sample if they know this model will not be available by the time review goes to print? I think this is a pretty straight forward situation.
Besides, with $400 brass hybrids from BLI with tons of detail and DCC/Sound - who would spend $1500 on a brass loco with limited manufacturer support and no industry standard DCC/Sound?
most likely because walthers doesn’t sell much of it.
grizlump
FWIW in general the best place to get reviews is Model Railroad News, that’s the primary focus of the magazine.
I remember reading a review of a brass locomotive in RMC back when Tony Koester was an editor there in the 1970s. Koester was reviewing a NKP 2-8-2. Toward the end of the article, Koester commented that he was going to have a hard time time returning the review model to the importer. (Koester was working on his then-contemporary era Allegheny Midland at the time.)
So perhaps the importers are no longer sending review samples to the magazines.
I also seem to recall that Koester once commented on having to “tune-up” brass models before putting them into service.
Mark,
I agree with you. The new plastic models are getting up to the $1000 price range. I have a friend that will install a Tsunami sound decoder for a total price of $100. Not bad.