Modeling Committee

[NW Modeling List]

Spring must be coming; it's time to take another whack at the Modeling Committee. Give the guys a break! Where does one think the DP heavyweight project came from? Harold Davenport and others have been working with, and on DP for years on several N&W/VGN projects. That the projects don't reach the market, or reach the market with flaws doesn't diminish the hard, persistent work that has gone into providing the data. As I said a couple of years ago, there are limits to what can be accomplished with commercial firms that have their own interests and concerns. We can provide data, but they do what they do, when they want to do it.

Re the Yoder gons: we published his beautiful CAD drawings for those cars in the Arrow and solicited interest in an HO version; we got zero interest...zero, not one indication of interest. Rich had said he would consider it if he had enough interest; we didn't respond so he moved on. And as a sidelight, the data for the O scale versions was provided by members of the Society and from our Archives. The result is the most accurate G3/G4 ever produced. (Of course, now F&C produces a much improved HO resin kit version of the cars in a one-piece body at a fraction of the cost of an HO brass version. Steve and Sharon responded to persistent requests from NWHS members to update their resin kit. One suspects they used data from the Yoder car to do that.) 

Re VGN hoppers: the Commissary offers a set of Bowser H3 hoppers in the as-built lettering, the data for which was provided by Harold Davenport and is spot on, and Bowser markets the same hopper in the later lettering. Projects undertaken by Bob Bowers for the Commissary have to be as commecially viable, or more so, than for commercial firms. The money he has at his disposal is limited and precious. He has been at his job for many years and he has as good a feel for what members will actually buy, as opposed to what they say they want, as anyone in the Society. He does a great job with what he has available.

At the recent show in Springfield, Broadway was asked what happened to the CF caboose to go with the locos; "not enough interest" was the response. They were asked to reconsider.

Russ Goodwin has great contacts within the major manufacturers and has worked hard to interest them in N&W/NS projects. But again, the manufacturers have their own agendas. The late Jim Gillum worked tirelessly on model projects; Jim Brewer produced beautiful resin kits of two N&W cars. And no one has worked harder on the subject of accuracy than Jim Nichols. I am sure there are others who have worked behind the scenes to get stuff done. My point is that the NWHS modeling community has accomplished quite a bit; that it has not satisfied every desire, or responded to every fleeting idea should not diminish the efforts of a number of dedicated members.

Now, how about an HU hopper!! Been trying for years, in plastic, resin and brass, alas.... 

Bill McClure
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