Just thought I'd pass on Broadway Limited's latest Hybrid Brass steam offering, a New Haven I-4 4-6-2 Pacific.
http://www.broadway-limited2.com/announcements/New%20Haven%20I-4%20Hybrid.pdf
Tstage mentioned in an earlier post that he talked to BLI reps at the Cleveland WGH show and they seemed to be of the opinion that BLI was not going to offer anymore brass hybrid models... hummm.
Sure would like to see some B&O offerings from BLI.
Just thought you'd like to know, Ed
The brass hybrids are exceptional value in my opinion. They are less than half the price of brass, albeit also without much of the detailing. Otherwise, they are/were nicely constructed and well painted. Mine run really well and I was glad to purchase them. I don't believe BLI has released any recently, maybe the Dreyfuss Hudson being the last? They keep putting off their offer of the Union Pacific 4-12-2 and the Santa Fe 2-10-2.
I can't imagine that BLI didn't do well with their brass hybrids, although one or two had some QA problems. If they stay on top of those problems, they'll sell every one they build for the price, especially discounted.
-Crandell
Ed and Crandell,
I received that same e-mail ad this morning about the New Haven I-4. When I talked to Ken Silvestri at the Cleveland WGH show 3 weeks ago, he told me that the brass-hybrids would cost too much to manufacture. Given that the NYC Mohawks were $450 MSRP when they came out in 2009, that explains the $250 increase for the I-4s.
Even though the Mohawks presumably didn't sell well, they are as scarce as hens teeth compared to the MTH Mohawks. And, if there is one available on eBay or at a train show, it's usually $200 above MSRP.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
B&O? Seems to me that if they can do a NH I-4, they can do a B&O P-7d CINCINNATIAN Pacific. Are you listening, BLI?
Affordable martching cars would be nice, wouldn't they?
As a member of the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association crew that worked on this project, I can say this all started 2 years ago. John Pryke got this going when he and John Sheridan (NHRHTA member and contract artist for BLI) got into a discussion on a possible follow up to the successful BLI I-5. It was John Pryke's idea for the I-4, and Sheridan took the idea and brought it to BLI. They were interested due to the good sales of the I-5, and the project was on. With the blessing and assistance of NHRHTA Pres. Bill Dulmaine, I was brought in to assist John S. (I've known him for 20 years) along with Randy Hammill and Chris Adams (both of the NHRHTA and heirs of John Pryke's knowledge). John Pryke was also of critical importance at this stage supplying us with prototype plans he had used to create his scratch built model back in the day.
After sending BLI the plans we had, the group of us gathered every known photo in every publication we could think of, using old "Shoreliner" magazines from the NHRHTA to old "Along the Lines" NHRR employee magazines from the 1920's. I even went so far as to photograph the real NH headlight my club has so they could make a perfect copy. When BLI's original CAD files came back, they were converted to 3D and then nitpicked by the group for errors. Then we used prototype pics to show what things should look like and sent in the corrections. After another round of nitpicking, the plans were okay'd by the group as the best we could do.
Unfortunately, John Pryke passed away last month before the model could be officially announced, but his fingerprints are all over this model. It was John's idea to offer multiple tender designs, and BLI went with the 12-wheel W-12-c square tender and the 12-wheel V-1-a Vandy. It was also John's idea to offer multiple I-4 variants (which is where the I-4-c, I-4-d, I-4-e, I-4-f come from...and these are mostly about the superheater hatches or lack thereof).
This model is dedicated to John Pryke. All of us in the crew hope that this model honors his incredible attention to detail and love of New Haven steam power.
Paul A. Cutler III
That's neat, Paul. Thanks for sharing that bit of background info.
Paul,
Thanks for the additional information and thanks to you and the New Haven Historical crew for the work. As well as the I-5 turned out the I-4 will be eagerly anticipated by those of us who run branch lines and are not as motivated as John and you. J.R.
tstage That's neat, Paul. Thanks for sharing that bit of background info. Tom
Ditto, Paul. It's good of you to offer us this background. It helps to show how personal and involved this hobby is for every item brought to market. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to provide the hobby with a scale reminder of things past. Sometimes it was a committee of dedicated individuals, such as yours.