Custom Run ESM G26 Gon - Conrail MOW & New England Southern

[Philip H]

You guys keep this up and I'll have an all gondola road.   :

[wm3798]

Not necessarily, Phil...  A 40+ year old MOW gon wouldn't likely wander off line the way a 30+ year old short line car with roller bearings and a 1964 rebuild date...  I'm just sayin...

I'll be in for one for those occasions when I'm feeling all Conrailey, but I can't pull the trigger till after the books close on mine.

Lee

[Ian MacMillan]

Are you doing decals for multiple road numbers?  The Laurel Valley has courteously included this feature.

Lee

Not on this run as I'm trying to keep down on the quasi foobieish as much as possible. Its already a quasi at the moment.

However another run of a different car might have decals for road numbers...details to come.

[Philip H]

Not necessarily, Phil...  A 40+ year old MOW gon wouldn't likely wander off line the way a 30+ year old short line car with roller bearings and a 1964 rebuild date...  I'm just sayin...

I'll be in for one for those occasions when I'm feeling all Conrailey, but I can't pull the trigger till after the books close on mine.

Lee

All true, but if one of one's major planned industry happens to service railcars . . . and the said MOW gon needs new trucks or bearings . . . .  I'm just sayiin . . .


And Ian, great model!

[daniel_leavitt2000]

X58?

Are you doing decals for multiple road numbers?  The Laurel Valley has courteously included this feature.

Lee

Not on this run as I'm trying to keep down on the quasi foobieish as much as possible. Its already a quasi at the moment.

However another run of a different car might have decals for road numbers...details to come.

[Ian MacMillan]

X58?

Are you doing decals for multiple road numbers?  The Laurel Valley has courteously included this feature.

Lee

Not on this run as I'm trying to keep down on the quasi foobieish as much as possible. Its already a quasi at the moment.

However another run of a different car might have decals for road numbers...details to come.

How much cash do you think I have!?

[bbussey]

What is the # required for the undecs? 
The 'custom runs' appear to require 20.

Much higher than twenty.  The limited runs don't have to go through two price discount levels, and the twenty-minimum is a provisional courtesy this time around to the Railwire community.  Both of the limited run cars that have been announced share paint and print colors and artwork with the third G26 release and can "piggy-back" with items in that group; a standard limited run would be a minimum of 200 pieces and the cost probably would push the selling price higher than $27.  An undec G26 is not the same as a conventional R-T-R model; decorated or not, it must be manually assembled and glued which is labor-intensive.  Package inserts still have to be created and a UPC code assigned, which adds to the cost.  Currently, advance reservations on the undecs are nowhere close to the minimum required, whereas the reservations for the ten decorated models are either close to or have exceeded the minimum.

[bsoplinger]

Perhaps in the "dumb idea" line…

What about selling the undecs unassembled also? Just the bare sprue(s) from the casting process? I know if I was doing the undec thing I wouldn't mind having to assemble it also. Just a thought on the cost to assemble problem.

I'd like a few to do in other Lehigh Valley schemes but it is a 65' mill gon, its not like there were unit trains of them and I need 4 or 5 dozen or something. So 2 or 3 more would be all I'd want. And for now I'll be happy with the 3 numbers that were done and my half dozen kitbashed ones (each made from a pair of the ConCor gons from info I got here) although I could probably 'bay the ones I painted in Tuscan as the factory ones are nicer than my kitbashes

[Ian MacMillan]

I am also releasing the following car:



See http://www.amoskeagnorthern.com/v2/ for details

[bbussey]

Perhaps in the "dumb idea" line…

What about selling the undecs unassembled also? Just the bare sprue(s) from the casting process? I know if I was doing the undec thing I wouldn't mind having to assemble it also. Just a thought on the cost to assemble problem.

I'd like a few to do in other Lehigh Valley schemes but it is a 65' mill gon, its not like there were unit trains of them and I need 4 or 5 dozen or something. So 2 or 3 more would be all I'd want. And for now I'll be happy with the 3 numbers that were done and my half dozen kitbashed ones (each made from a pair of the ConCor gons from info I got here) although I could probably 'bay the ones I painted in Tuscan as the factory ones are nicer than my kitbashes

No honest question is a dumb one.

Selling the car unassembled also requires additional cost.  The layout of the parts on the runner was done without consideration of selling the parts unassembled, so either new packaging would have to be designed, or the parts would have to be "de-sprued" and arranged in the current box  - which is labor-intensive and would still require a new inner nest.  The demand doesn't warrant investing the additional funds to proceed.  With this specific model, the coupler and trucks are purchased from MTL.  The modeler can purchase the 1015 coupler on the open market, but the trucks are manufactured specifically for the G26 model (currently there is no Dalman, Nat B-1, or Coil-Elliptic truck frame w/o coupler available from MTL).  So that would be another expense that would have to be included in an undec kit and drive the price higher.  

There is a perception that paint and ink are a large expense in the production of a car, and that undecs (whether assembled or in kit form) should be noticeably cheaper than the decorated cars.  That perception isn't an accurate one.  Tens of thousands of model design and tooling dollars have to be amortized across the production runs (plural) of the model.  The box paper inserts have to be cut and scored, and the smaller the run, the more expensive per unit that is due to the setup costs being amortized across the run.  Assembly instructions would have to be written and included.  You have to assign a UPC barcode.  The pool of UPC codes costs a noticeable amount of money on an annual basis, so it causes hesitation to burn one on a low-demand product, especially with the smaller manufacturers.

So while an assembled undec G26 might become viable one day, it is unlikely that an unassembled version would ever be released.

As an aside, the mill gons you kitbashed from Con-Cor models are based on a Lehigh Valley prototype far more common than the Valley G26 class.  You are more prototypical today with six bashed Con-Cors and two ESM cars than with a mill gon roster of only ESM cars.

[Dave V]

Now HERE'S some Grade-A Conrail MoW gondola p0rn...!

http://thecrhs.org/image/view/8220/_original

[tom mann]

Now HERE'S some Grade-A Conrail MoW gondola p0rn...!

http://thecrhs.org/image/view/8220/_original

Bryan, this scheme would be awesome!

[bbussey]

True, it would be.  But it also would be a big foobie, as the LV G26s were gone by the 1960s and (as far as I know) never appeared in that lettering style.

I wish I could do the standard yellow-end Conrail cars, but the scheme was used on later classes.  The overwhelming majority of the G26 (no suffix) class, even though they were long lived, remained in Pennsy CK livery to the end.

[bsoplinger]

I never imagined the undec as other than order direct from factory, so no need for a UPC code, inserts and packaging. Just toss a sprue in a box

For couplers, let the modeler purchase the coli-eliptical or Dalman trucks with coupler then cut it off and body mount it, no need to purchase 1015's then either

I know there wasn't much saving in the paint and lettering, I was just offering a way to make an undec available in a cost effective way that would mean they could be there for folks who'd want them as opposed to making a suggestion for a viable product if I finally manage to make myself clear.

PS: I could live with a CR foobie cause I think they'd look good and still be the right size (65') even if they were G26 vs the real Lehigh Valley Bethlehem built 65' car. And it'd be a much nicer gon to be a foobie than the Athearn "put the paint on with a putty knife" 65' gon.

[bbussey]

If you saw the sprue, you'd understand how that would be problematic.

Most people would not want to cut the coupler box off of MTL trucks.  Also, the 1023 knuckles (which are used in the trucks) do not fit inside the ingrained G26 coupler box, which was designed specifically for the 1015 knuckles.

The current batch of schemes are minor foobies for the model.  The reservations will meet the minimums, but the demand overall will determine if additional "fantasy" schemes will be considered.  The first release with the three Pennsy CK cars was larger than I preferred due to minimums I had to meet.  I have a number of Pennsy CK variations from various decades lined up to do, but it wouldn't be prudent to proceed on those until the inventory from the first release is more depleted.  Their definitely will be more Pennsy CKs when that happens, but this third batch schedule for release in the summer will be the last appearance of the G26 for a while.  The focus will shift to the XIH for a year, and then pivot strongly to the next car after that.