In the late 70's/early 80's a firm named GSB announced a HO model of a SD40-2. There were lots of delays and Athearn beat them to the punch with their own SD40-2 model.
I think GSB was an east coast outfit and did get their model out, but they did not last long in the market place. Anyone remember who was behind GSB or what the initials stood for?
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I remember the ads, and with the archives, I've been able to see what ads MR ran, and their review in the May, 1983 issue.
I just Googled GSB, and there is a lot of info out there to sift through, including past threads in here. The one at the top of the list was from March, 2010.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/171133.aspx
Mike.
My You Tube
Distant and thus unreliable memory is that the G in GSB was Gordon Cannon whose Cannon & Co aftermarket diesel parts played an important role in the growth of the prototype modeling effort.
GSB had other products but they mostly advertised that SD40-2 for a long time before they had product to ship.
Dave Nelson
I have a GSB SD40-2. Mine came as an undecorated model with a number of separate detail parts and prototype specific parts. The only detail I would consider poor is the set of main handrails, which are thick enough for an O scale model. The rest of it was finely made for its day and made for a nice looking model.
The main problem was the chassis. The plastic frame was known to warp, and on mine, every single gear was drilled slightly off center. It took a lot of trial and error testing to get each one to properly mesh with the next, but I finally got it to the point of being a smooth running model. If they had used a stronger frame and properly drilled the gears, these things could have easily been top runners in their day.
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all i could find in searching mag collection was GBS rail ltd. in some town in pa. no break down of the meaning of GSB
I remember ordering both the GSB and the Athearn when they came out when I ran the hobby department at Hobby Lobby (yes they actually did have trains but that was during the 80's when they were much smaller) We sold several of the Athearns but the GSB just sat there and eventually went on clearance. They made some nice diesel and caboose interiors but those and the sd40-2 were all that they made despite a catolog that had a lot of vaporware stuff in it.
Looks like they were originally in Maryland:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/id53.html
drgwcs They made some nice diesel and caboose interiors but those and the sd40-2 were all that they made despite a catolog that had a lot of vaporware stuff in it.
They made some nice diesel and caboose interiors but those and the sd40-2 were all that they made despite a catolog that had a lot of vaporware stuff in it.
They made these, too:
Which were, and are, appropriate for some UP lightweight passenger cars.
Ed