There is no doubt that the loss of JHM has left a void to be filled. About a month ago someone on FB marketplace posted a couple of hundred JHM kits for sale and I clicked on it as I thought I would get a couple that I have been looking for. Not at $39.95CA each thankyou very much.
On some of the FB sites I visit, guys are designing MRR stuff and sharing the files on their own pages so you can print them off at home. I am hoping some talented person will start designing JHM type stuff and share those files.
I forget the exact situation with Tichy but as I remember it they did try to aquire it and a combination of price and the family’s unwillingness to sell both played a roll. I have a stash of about 6 or seven left to assemble. For that matter I still have a box of Greg’s Garage resin autos that I picked up still to assemble. 1/87 autos have always been a bit of a sub-hobby for me so much that when I get those done the roadways will be a bit crowded.
The Jordan vehicles were very useful for those of us modelling earlier eras, and my late '30s layout has about four dozen of them in use. I have four more yet to be built…a horse-drawn carriage and a horse-drawn hearse, along with the Erie B-2 Steam Crane and the Erie B-2 Steam Shovel…
When one considers the amount of model railroad tooling that was good in its day but has lived on and on under various owners and now shows how outdated (and/or worn out) it has really become, the loss of Jordan’s products seems all the more regretable because the fineness of the tooling, as seen in Dr Wayne’s closeup photos, was way ahead of its time. Plus while this or that vehicle, Ford Model Ts are an example, have been issued by others, there were so many things in the Jordan line that have not been available since. Anyone modeling the pre-automobile/early-automoble era in particular would really feel the loss.
I have never read absolute confirmation that the tooling was destroyed but it starts to look that way doesn’t it? At least I guess it can be said that the Jordan name was never debased with inferior versions or aged tooling no longer up to current standards.
Not a tremedously helpful personal observation, but maybe a month ago I was perusing the MR archives, and came across a mid 1990s review about the new Jordan Miniatures’ 1928 Ford Modal A Tudor sedan (I have one I built years ago but alas painted using Testor’s rattle can since I had not yet used Tamiya). Anyway, even though the mid-90s are 25+ years ago, somehow Jordan (and that Model A) always seemed to be from the mists of time, like those 1960s Eko vehicles or good ol’ Plasticville, and somehow it never entered my mind they were introducing new products - even though I was a MR subscriber by then and very likely read that review at the time. Bit of a disconnect on my part.
My dad said he remembered the horse drawn milk wagon the coal wagon and the ice wagon, that the horses knew what house to stop at and would just stand there till the driver whistled or what ever the horse responded to to move along. So no reins needed there. I’m sure there where reins laying somewhere close in the box seat. More then likely, the horse just stopped in front of every house on the street till he heard the ‘‘giddy up’’ tone. It’s not like the horses moved real fast.
Well the Dray wagon filled with junk/metal was a different story.[:O]
