Horray, horray, the First of May! Outdoor railroading begins today! - May 8, 2008

Well...no real Earth shaking revelations to tell you about, but a lot of little news.

As I mentioned last month Bachmann has released the new 2008 catalog. They have made it 1/2 size. All the products are still there it's just that the size is smaller. There are some significant product changes.

No more HO heavyweight cars. None. Not as 4 car sets or as singles. Gone. We do list several Heavyweight cars on our web page. We have these in stock. When they are gone there will be no more.

The Bachmann line of scenery products continues to expand. More trees, grasses, different colors of ground foam, AND ballast. The most interesting thing about this ballast is that it isn't ground up walnut shells as in the leading brand. This is ROCK. So what?, you say. This stuff doesn't float away when you glue it down!

The Spectrum line of HO steam locos is gradually leaning toward DCC and sound in everything. Even the 4-6-0's and 4-4-0's! Check the listings. Not everything is available this minute, but will become available later in the year.

A full line of E-Z track DCC controllable turnouts is coming. This sounded silly to me at first, until I realized that there is NO wiring to be done. The switch motor is in the roadbed base, the turnout gets its power from the track and the control is via the hand controller. No more under the layout switch machine installation!

And now the bad news. Price increases. Not an across the board price increase, but some significant increases in some items while others remain untouched. We have updated our Bachmann web page listing with the new prices but IF we have it in stock, we will sell it at the old price. So if you place an order on line and get a total, then your package arrives and the total is less than you thought, you got lucky and we had it in stock at the old price.

In February I attended the Nurnberg Toy Fair. I go just about every year to see what is new in the model train business and this year it was different. Sort of weird. Definitely not upbeat. All of the German manufacturers were walking around on eggs. Marklin had gone bankrupt and was reorganized, the same with LGB, Roco had their financial troubles and now have a new owner, and Kibri also has a new owner. After the show we found out the Fleischmann had been sold. Now we find out that LGB of American is changing their name, and Marklin has sold Trix, and Hornby has purchased Corgi. What does all of this mean? My first guess is that the costs of manufacturing in Europe are squeezing the daylights out of these manufacturers. A reluctance to go to China for low cost manufacturing has created a situation where they can't compete. And what about China? SandaKan is the builder for a large number of American and some European manufacturers and they can't keep up. Quality control and delivery dates are suffering and with rising oil prices driving everyone's baseline, prices are going up. What's the old Chinese curse?, 'May you live in interesting times.'

For the steel mill enthusiasts we will be hosting a book signing on June 21st for the new book on Bethlehem steel titled, 'Inside Bethlehem Steel, the Final Quarter Century', by Peter B. Treiber and Elizabeth A. Kovach. Here is a chance to talk to the Authors and buy an autographed copy for $49.95. Come join us, this should be a lot of fun.

Planning for theSteel Mill Modeler's Meet in Lancaster, PA, September 11-14 is going well. We have determined the subject for the 'Dean Freytag' award. Each year we pick a different topic. We have had ,lighting, bottle cars, use of non- traditional materials, etc, This year it will be for the best model of an ancillary building.

What is an ancillary building? That's the little structure that is always in the way when you are trying to get a great picture of a bottle car, locomotive, BOF, blast furnace , etc. Its not until you get home and look at your photos that you realize that the little building WAS the great photo. Think of storage buildings, car repair sheds, offices, machine shops, etc., etc. The winner gets a great plaque to hang on the wall of the train room..

I will be attending the NMRA National Convention in Anaheim, CA, July 13-19th, not as a vendor but as a plain old member. I haven't done this for ages. I will be giving two clinics, one on 'Backdating the Walthers Blast Furnace', and I will be assisting Kenichi Matsumo with a clinic on the early days of Japanese brass manufacture. Kenichi grew up with these early builder/manufacturers and knew most of them on a first name basis, If you want to know who was who, what got built and why, Kenichi is the man to ask. Check the NMRA web page under convention information for date and time.

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