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What happened to the Delton Plastic Injection Molds (Dies) for their Trucks when they closed down?

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  • Member since
    January 2020
  • 1 posts
What happened to the Delton Plastic Injection Molds (Dies) for their Trucks when they closed down?
Posted by square_eyes on Monday, January 13, 2020 3:59 PM

Molds just don't disappear! Who got these Delton truck molds, when they were all sold up?

Wanting Delton Trucks (excluding wheels)... either complete or the various plastic parts.

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Monday, January 13, 2020 4:45 PM

Welcome to the Model Railroader Forums.

I'm not familiar with Delton, but a quick search indicates that they're for garden railways, so you might have more appropriate responses in the Garden Railways Forum.

square_eyes
Molds just don't disappear!

Actually, sometimes they do.  Quite a few years ago, New England Rail Services announced a soon-to-be-forthcoming model of an HO scale model of the Dominion-Fowler boxcars, a prototype which numbered over 30,000 copies.  I saw a test shot in a nearby hobbyshop (itself disappeared a few years ago) indicating that it would have separate parts for the doors, ends, roofs, and exterior bracing, so that almost all prototype versions could be offered. 

As best I can tell, the dies were made out-of-country, likely China, but I'm not positive on that.  Anyway, the dies were on their way back to NERS when the train they were in suffered a serious derailment in, I believe, Montana.  Many of the derailed cars slid quite a ways down an embankment and the dies were lost, as some of the boxcars understandably split open.

Quite a few years later, somebody actually found the dies, and they were apparently undamaged.  Unfortunately, I was never able to re-contact NERS, and as far as I know, they're no longer in business.  I'd guess that the cost of the dies was considerable, but possibly covered by insurance.  In that case, the found dies are legally the property of the insurance company, although I've never heard any more on this. 
There have since been a couple of HO offerings of similar cars, which have likely covered the demand, but they're not near the same calibre which would have been possible with those "lost" dies.

Wayne

  • Member since
    January 2022
  • 1 posts
Posted by rail bob on Monday, January 10, 2022 5:32 PM

I just acquired a Delton caboos and one of the trucks is missing. I thought I might be able to replace both trucks with a different manufacturer's product. These are metal wheel trucks for interior lighting. Would LGB or another brand work?

  • Member since
    March 2011
  • 1,950 posts
Posted by NVSRR on Tuesday, January 11, 2022 6:57 PM

I cannt quite remember who aquired Delton, maybe aristo craft. somebody does have them but I havent seen any production in years.    But KAdee to the rescue.   They make G scale trucks and couplers.  they should work fine. 

 

Shane

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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