Anybody remember PFM - PACIFIC FAST MAIL? Great company, indeed! I remember the owner, Mike Pearsall, a very honest seller, and their exquisite brass products, TENSHODO, UNITED, etc., and of course, his sound system, selled for many years…
Mike Pearsall??? IIRC, Don Drew started PFM as a sideline to an auto dealership. He contracted a Japanese builder to make some geared engines and sold off the excess under the PFM label.
Jim
PFM. Yes, how could I forget. I still have about twenty or more of their wonderful locomotives that still run as good today as they did when new. Some have needed replacement motors and the like, but I have never broke any gears or most any other drive parts. Mike Pearsall of PFM was acknowledged in the Brown Book by my friend Ray Brown for giving information to Ray for his book.
Their Crown models were the finest at that time and some can still shine around most standard brass. Their early diesels should be avoided, but most of the steam models I have are still in demand. I don’t compare them directly to any of my Divsion Point, Challenger Imports, Overland or Key models since the PFM models are thirty to forty years old. Brass has taken on a whole new dimension recently for detail but the cost of the new items is very high. I still like the old Crowns and keep them just because they remind me of a past era.
Don of PFM recently passed away according to MR.
My only problem with PFM is everytime I purchased one of their trains sets, they ommitted the transformers and tracks. That is why I ended up with several UP Challengers and Big Boys trying to get the whole set. HA!
I still have one of the sound systems with all of the input tapes for the tape deck and reverb. It never go used so I could have purchased one more Challenger instead of the sound system. Go Figure!
CZ
I remember PFM with great affection–my first brass lokie was their extremely popular Santa Fe 2-8-0 which I bought in 1960. Still have it. Still runs like a little top (though with a new can motor). I’ve got quite a few other PFM lokies, and they’re all running and running well. Very sturdy, nicely detailed for their; time. I’ve replaced the open-frame motors in most of them.
Their articulateds have a rather unique reduction system between the motor and the rear set of drivers, which makes it pretty difficult to change out the motor without having to go to NWSL and adapt a totally new gear-tower drive, so my two Rio Grande 2-8-8-2’s and my Salt Lake 2-6-6-0 are still chugging along with the original open-frame motors, however I’ve been able to adjust them so that most of the ‘grind’ between motor and gear-box has been eliminated. And they do what they’re supposed to do–haul like a team of oxen.
In case anyone’s curious, here’s a list of my PFM’s. All darned good lokies:
ATSF: 2-8-0
Rio Grande:
4-6-0
4-6-2
2-10-2
2-6-6-0
2-8-8-2 (2)
Great Northern:
2-8-2
4-8-4 (S-1)
I like 'em all.
Tom [:D]
PFM Canadian dealer in Vancouver was Van Hobbies. I passed that store every day. They had in addition to the PFM line their own PFM sub-brand the VH line and of course just about every other major manufacturer as well. Spent a lot of money in that store over the years…
First locomotives purchased on the lay away plan was the CPR T1a, still have ir. It was never used as it requires at least a 32" radius and I have not had a layout with broad enough curves. Hence, the engine never was painted in contiues to sit in a display case. Nicest looking engine I have ever seen to date. Gosh, I just realized that the engine is 34 years old.
Yep’ PFM brass was the standard of the world in the 70s &80s
A bit noisy to be sure but for fine detail and running quality they could not be beaten.
Still have all but a few of mine.
I may only be a teen, but I know many of PFM’s members very well. My grandfather was the inventor of their sound system, along with PBL’s. I knew Don Drew well, but he passed away last fall due to throat cancer, I believe. I have many memories of going up there, (Their building is in Edmonds, Washington) and going to watch the 4449 come up, once in 2000, the other time in 2007. When my grandad died, I inherited most of his trains… So I’ll have a decent amount of PFM and PBL narrowgauge locomotives at some point.
Yup!
I remember drooling as a little one over their advertisments in MR. The only PFM piece I have is the '84 NYC Niagara Crown by Tenshodo. Beautiful model. I have it in the shop being modded a bit with some extra details and weathering. Some would call that blasphemy. I just tell them, “I’m a modeler who collects locomotives, not a collector stashing away models!”
I remember PFM very well from the ads I saw in MR in those days. That was in the early 70´s and I was especially fascinated by PFM´s sound system and the level of detail their brass locos displayed at a time when all other makes were kind of crude. I was a teenager then and still into Maerklin. Buying a PFM loco was out of question with prices around 80 to 100 $. Given the exchange rate to the good old “Deutschmark” in those days, that was nearly a quarter of my father´s monthly spendable income!
40 years later, brass locos are still very expensive, but have lost the attraction to me, as die cast or hybrid models have the same level of detail - at least to my eyes…
Sure do remember PFM. Bought my first one in 1971 from Orange Blossom Hobbies in Miami. It was a PRR I-1 decapod. Still have it and it still runs great with the original motor. Cost me $95.00 MSRP. Followed up with a PRR L1 mikado, K4 Pacific, C&O H5 (I think) 2-6-6-2. Also bought a B&O class E27 Consol. Still have some of these engines and they all still run great. Sooner or later I may get around to installing DCC/Sound in the ones I have. Also remember buying some great Westside Models stuff too.
Sure enough. Still have a catalog from 30+ years ago. there is a Santa Fe 2-8-0 in there for $79.95. Wish I had the Royal Hudson model by PFM
I may have my history wrong but I believe Bill Ryan started Pacific Fast Mail in the early 1950s, and ran it up to his death, which was about the time they introduced the sound system. Many of their imports reflected his personal interests in WP, SP and other western roads. I believe their very first “product” was not brass but sets of John Allen slides.
Dave Nelson
to this day, two of my favorite locomotives are a pair of PFM 8000 Lima class ICRR 2-8-4’s. both run like well oiled watches and out pull most of the modern day chinese products. i did replace the rubber drive couplings with universal joints some years back. only modification necessary was to replace the lead truck wheels with plastic but that was the fault of a too tight curve on my old layout that caused an occasional short when the metal wheel touched the chassis. to my knowledge PFM products were about as good as you could buy back then. some were better than others but PFM did not knowingly sell junk like hallmark and sunset started flooding the market with.
grizlump
PFM will never be forgotten. Were it not for their efforts in the 1950s and 1960s the brass locomotive industry would not exist as it does today. PFM was the ground breaking company. I purchased my first PFM locomotive in 1976, and still have it. Since that time I have acquired many others, and despite the fact that the detail is not up to the standards of today’s brass, many of them are the finest in my collection. They are so much better built than the delicate locomotives today. PFM’s builders were true old-world craftsmen, and took great pride in their work. This shows on their models, especally those produced near the end of production in the 1980s. These were truly outstanding models, and are to this day largely under-appreciated by the collecting and modeling communities. I marvel at the level of detail applied to current brass imports, but frankly would settle for a somewhat less detailed model that has the detail soldered on straight and solid, something that the current builders are still trying to perfect.
Two of my prized PFM imports.
Beautiful models!
I’ve been a PFM sound person since 1983. That is one of the reasons why I laugh at the people who think sound and DCC are synonymous. I have two of the sound systems.
PFM always had the full back cover of MR for years and years. I thought they made the finest brass locomotives until W&R started production.
Very nice indeed. Is that one of the 1961 Nakiama built models or a later Fuji?? I had the 1981 J3a which was absolutely great, but sold it with the Fuji H8 some time ago.
These are some of my Tenshodo Challengers and are still great looking thirty years after they were imported.
CZ
I´ve the Great Northern Y-1 Electric, in the Empire Builder scheme, really a superb model, great details, great running, a heavy weight model. Has not flywheels, but the slow motion is excellent, even in comparison with actual models.
Thanks for the kind words. These models are both late run Fujiyama builds. The Poppet valve C&O Hudson was done in 1986, and the Baker valve in 1988. Fujiyama’s workmanship had advanced to quite a high level by that time, as evidenced by the counter sunk valve gear screws and near flawless castings.
Your Tenshodo Challengers are nice as well. Each run that Tenshodo built was better than the previous. In fact the last run they did about 1997 was spectacular, and compared very favorably in detail with todays imports. And were far better built.