A new manufacturer of laser kits, The Train Troll, is offering On2/On30 kits of Wiscasset & Quebec 28′ boxcars in three variants. A WW&F variant is in the works. Current kits range from $36.50 to $39.50. More products are promised for future release.
Category Archives: Suppliers
Personal Service
Earlier this week, I bought two pair of Micro Engineering On30 turnouts on eBay from Big Discount Trains. My order was packaged and shipped very promptly and arrived yesterday. This evening, I received a phone call from proprietor Ron Boscia, to make sure that I received my order in good order.
In our modern society, that’s business practice that’s pretty much unheard of — and is certainly goes a long way towards garnering my business next time I need something.
Victors Scale Models — Status, Anyone?
It appears that Victors Scale Models, a small company in the UK, may have fallen victim to the world’s current economic woes. They’re web site is gone, and I’ve heard reports that e-mails are not being returned, that the phones aren’t being answered, and that they moved “over a year ago” (but no one knows where).
On30 version of the Victors Scale Models SR&RL #19 kit. Photo from Victors Scale Models web site.
It’s a shame, as they were offering what appeared to be a beautiful kit of SR&RL #19 in On30 (and also On2 and HOn30), and were working on a kit for one of the Forneys as well.
If anyone has a definitive answer about the company’s status, please drop me a line. I’m wishing now that I’d found the U$460 the model would have cost me…
UPDATE: Indeed, Victors Scale Models have gone out of business. Word is that Neil Sayer may begin producing his own etched kits in the future.
New Schooner for Searsport
While traveling from Bar Harbor down to Rockland, ME today, we rolled through Searsport, ME, and stopped at the home of Blue Jacket Shipcrafters. We picked out a nice model of a Friendship Sloop for our living room, and Donna bought me a beautiful kit of an 1877 New England Schooner. It will make a lovely addition to the town of Searsport on the Corinna & Searsport.
We also spent some time poking around Searsport. It’s amazing that almost no evidence of the once major shipbuilding industry remains. I did find one original looking boat shed and some evidence of the marine railway that used to serve it.
Many of the buildings in the town of Searsport are intact, based in the few pictures I’ve been able to find. Of the nine shipyards once in operation in Searsport, I could find obvious remains of only two — maybe three. Searsport was once the busiest port and shipbuilding center in all of Maine, but it is curiously un-documented, unlike other ports such as Rockland.
On another interesting note, there’s a print on the wall in our room that shows the two four-masted schooners (Hester and Luther) that were brought to Wiscasset in 1932 by Frank Winter, who was owner of the WW&F at the time. The ships languished after the railroad’s demise in the mid-thirties, and were finally removed in 1998. (more details on the Hester and Luther can be found here).
Atlantic Scale Modelers & Scotty Mason’s Kits
Atlantic Scale Modelers Harbor Master's Office
Just downloaded my advance copy of MRH this morning, and in the news section, found an announcement of a new kit from a “new” supplier, Atlantic Scale Modelerrs. Atlantic Scale Modelers got their start back in the 70′s providing scenery materials to modelers and were a pioneer producer of what has become a staple in the modeling world — ground foam!
Atlantic’s first kit offering is this Harbor Master’s Office, which was inspired by a structure on Dave Frary’s layout. Dave Frary’s modeling, along with that of Bob Hayden, sparked my interest in Maine 2-footers many years ago.
The small footprint of this model make it a perfect “fit” for the shadowbox shelf layout I talked about yesterday, and I’m sure it will look great on the big layout, too.
Scotty Mason LCL Freight House
Another must-have for the big layout looks like it may be this new freight house from Scotty Mason. It’s patterned after a much larger structure located in Franklin, MA, but I think it would work just as well somewhere in Maine.