Hello I am trying to find any info on this company. I just picked up one of there loco’s and would like to find out more about it. The box said the loco is a NYC S-1 class loco. But when I look for it all I get are steam engines or SW-1 switcher’s. The loco looks to be electric or gas/electric not sure. Here is a pick of it.
Am I looking up the wrong thing? Any help on the company or the loco would be great. Thanks Frank
According to information on this web site, they were an importer of brass models ca.1965:
http://www.uncledavesbrass.com/br-lstim.html
I doubt very much that they are still around. If you carefully examine the bottom of the model you may see a manufacturer’s identification mark. Chances are, it was made in Japan.
0-6-0, this locomotive is an electric loke–see those little things that look like rabbit-ears TV antennae sticking up directly adjacent to the cab; those, believe it or not, are pantographs. This loke was, I believe, one of the Central’s first designs to facilitated the mandate requiring smokeless lokes to move passenger trains into and out of Grand Central in downtown Manhattan.
Most (model locomotive) import operations of this nature operate as sole proprietorships; they last awhile and then disappear into the vapor or when the owner dies the business dies with him. In the 1960s Pacific Fast Mail was the hobby’s biggest import operation in the country. If I recall the story correctly the founder of PFM had been on occupation duty in Japan right after Big Brawl Two where he encountered Japanese craftsman. Later when he acquired some capital he went over to Japan, approached Japanese entrepreneurs and contracted to have say 250 locomotives made to offer to the American buying public–I’m not sure of this but I believe his first import was that good ol’ 1950 Class locomotive. He built up the premier (scale model) import business but when rising labor costs in Japan drove production to Korea PFM gradually exited the brass import business and the last I remember hearing they had gone into the publishing business and, as a matter of fact, I don’t recall even having heard of that in quite awhile.
Chances are this Kaw Valley Scale Models was operating out of some guy’s garage or, at the most, a very small office; if the owner ever really made any real money in the import business he sooner or later decided that his mortgage payment was a better place to invest his profits than in new brass locomotives. The imported brass locomotive business go just a little crowded in the 1960s and 1970s and a number of names disappeared in quick order; your’s might just be one of them. So much is said of Kato these d
I have one of those that i picked up off ebay. It was custom painted as #100. It looks like an S1 model which has one pair of pilot wheels making it a 2-8-2 electric. Originally they were an 0-8-0 but handling problems forced the addition of pilot wheels. Later models became 4-8-4s in S2, S3 and S4 models. Not to be confused with Alco,s diesels. They were used in GCT in NY to switch passenger cars in the underground station and coach yard at Mott Haven Yard in the Bronx, NY, The pantographs on the roof were used with the overhead third rail on the ceiling of the terminal when the regular third rail shoes were not able to contact the third rail while passing over the rows of slipswitches. The last ones have all been retired only a few years ago and some of them were saved for display. I got to ride in one from GCT up to Mott Haven when I was a kid as my father worked for the NYC. My loco runs very slow at full throttle and I haven’t added a decoder yet.
Hello R.T. for some reason I new you were going to say that. Sense I had a hard time finding anything about the company I thought it might be a small co. But I did not think brass trains would be made in someones garage or a small shop. Thanks for the info.
Retsignaimtr just my luck I get my first brass and it has to go underground [:D]. I have a one more question for you. How are you couplers mounted ? On mine the cow catcher is in the way of the screw. I have to choice’s remove the catcher or cut the screw and re drill the hole and get longer couplers. If you have time can you post a pic of you loco please. I would like to see one painted. Thanks for the help Frank
My version of the way model locomotives get made (especially brass): I decide I want a nice model of XY&C’s Z1. It’s either never been made before, or I wasn’t impressed with the earlier version. I talk it up with my friends who also model the XY&C. We find or draw a set of plans and hunt down whatever photos we can find. Between my friends and myself, we have a semi-guaranteed sales of 150 units. We each commit half the forecast price of the loco in advance, and take our money, plans, and photos to a builder in Japan (or Korea or China nowadays). The builder agrees to build 250 units for an agreed on price. In the meantime, I take care of arranging for shipping, selling the extra 100 units to various hobby shops, possibly some advertising, etc. A prototype is produced and approved, possibly with some changes for the production run. The units are shipped and sold, and I came out with a small profit and some nice locomotives when all was said and done.
I get excited by the success and do it again for another prototype. After a decade or two of this, I run out of energy or models that I want to have built or have one or two that comes up a loser. I exit the business. Or I get burned on the first one because I picked a prototype that didn’t sell, or I couldn’t round up the advance funds needed and my family won’t do it again, or I figure the result wasn’t worth the effort, and I exit the business as a “one and done”.
Note the US side doesn’t require more than a garage or small shop. Even the overseas side doesn’t need much more - you are probably talking well less than 25 assemblers, several casters and mold makers
You misunderstood what I was saying.
These brass models were imports from the Land of the Rising Sun; I was offering that Kaw Valley Scale Models was–and this is only a perhaps–headquartered in someones garage–in a small office at the most. Custom-made models are, perhaps, built in someone’s garage but not brass imports offered by, say, Sayonara Models.
Sometimes a hobby shop entered the import business–Hallmark Models comes instantly to mind–but I recall that another prominent mark of the 1970s or 1980s was also a subsidiary of another hobby related business; Northwest Short Line was once an importer of model locomotives and pioneered the use of Korean craftsman although their first endeavor in this arena became known as Disaster Models. Seldom did the volume of an imported item exceed 250 units–Akane was a noted exception to this rule; although PFM was an exception one did not need a warehouse to store one’s offerings–a metal shelf unit or two would probably suffice.
There are frequent postings here on the forum by members looking for parts to repair a long-past brass locomotive offering from Japan or Korea. They aren’t always availabl
Another good reason to stick with more well known brands over smaller odd ball importers like Kaw Valley. Of coarse if they make the model you want, its either take the gamble or pass on it. That is one neat looking engine, I like it! Cant wait to see it running again!
Unfortunately for the hobby those things we would like to see offered by our favorite manufacturer are sometimes–perhaps frequently words it better–offered by someone else which leaves us with a Hobson’s Choice as to whether to purchase or not to purchase. As an example, I would like to see an ALCO RSD-7/RSD-15 offered in N-Scale, preferably by Kato or Atlas. What, however, if the unit were offered, instead, by Bachmann? Do I reject it out of hand or do I accept the fact that it may be being offered by what I might perceive to be a “second-best” manufacturer but that is what I am going to have to settle for if I want one badly enough?
These loco’s did get to see the light of day. In addition to pulling yard transfers from GCT to Mott Haven they also worked in North White Plains on the Harlem divison and Croton Harmon on the Hudson division which were the northern ends of the NYC’s electrified territory. They also pulled passenger trains when the NYC’s regular electrics were not available. I gerw up two blocks from Mott Haven yard so I got to see them quite often. Kaw Valley was just the importer. There was an article many years ago about a Japanese company that was having this very model built in S.Korea I believe it was in RMC. I can’t post any pictures here but if you send me a P/M with your email i’ll be happy to send you some. The couplers seem to be Kaydee’s scale size couplers the number of which I do not know. Unfortunatly it appears that the kaydee’s on my model are glued in with the kaydee pocket but there is room to mount the coupler farther back on the mounting position and use a 2-56 screw after tapping the base. The coupler will be closer to the pilot and may look better. I’ll try this should it become necessary to replace them.