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 Posted - November 08 2016 : 12:34:32 PM
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I received the first of the newsletters from Hobbytown of Boston today. They are back in business
and are getting parts (and apparently some kits as well) into their supplies.
http://hobbytownofboston.com/
For those of you who are interested.
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Posted - November 08 2016 : 4:31:06 PM
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Maybe too many people trying to find out? I couldn't get the link to open.
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - November 09 2016 : 01:59:18 AM
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Got me there. Just tried it and didn't have any problems, other than the internet being a little
slow here.
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Posted - November 09 2016 : 2:05:26 PM
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quote:Maybe too many people trying to find out? I couldn't get the link to open.
Originally posted by JNXT 7707Â -Â November 08 2016Â :Â 4:31:06 PM
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I had that problem at first. But when I tried it today, it was fine.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
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Posted - November 11 2016 : 7:32:17 PM
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quote: quote:Maybe too many people trying to find out? I couldn't get the link to open.
Originally posted by JNXT 7707Â -Â November 08 2016Â :Â 4:31:06 PM
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I had that problem at first. But when I tried it today, it was fine.
Originally posted by kovacste000Â -Â November 09 2016Â :Â 2:05:26 PM
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This is great! Lots of good news from Hobbytown, too.
But if you read further down, you find out that Lee English scrapped *ALL* the Bowser and Cary steam & diesel loco & die-cast diesel shell tooling.
Dammit!
All that history, all those possibilities...poof! Gone. And I imagine the Selley tooling went the same way.
This makes me angry. You'd think for his parents' sake he'd want to see it continued in use somehow.
Edited by - Autobus Prime on November 11 2016 7:36:23 PM
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Posted - November 11 2016 : 11:33:40 PM
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quote:You'd think for his parents' sake he'd want to see it continued in use somehow.
Originally posted by Autobus Prime - November 11 2016 : 7:32:17 PM
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He maybe did want to see it continued in use, but there would have had to be a buyer. When you think about it, Bowser was mostly made up of old tooling bought from Penn Line, Cary, Varney, etc., so you'd think he would seek a buyer to do the same. Who would that be? It seems like most companies are moving away from that sort of product. I'm thinking that Bowser couldn't make a go of those lines any more, and no other companies thought they could either.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - November 17 2016 : 1:59:15 PM
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quote:
But if you read further down, you find out that Lee English scrapped *ALL* the Bowser and Cary steam & diesel loco & die-cast diesel shell tooling.
Dammit!
All that history, all those possibilities...poof! Gone. And I imagine the Selley tooling went the same way.
This makes me angry. You'd think for his parents' sake he'd want to see it continued in use somehow.
Originally posted by Autobus Prime - November 11 2016 : 7:32:17 PM
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Yeah that was kind of the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, that simple statement from the newsletter that all those molds were scrapped. No further comment, although really what could he say? A horrible loss. I can't imagine the reasoning behind doing that.
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - November 29 2016 : 01:06:42 AM
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Yeah and it sheds a little new light on the timing. Now that I think of it, 2009, the year Bowser discontinued metal kits and immediately stopped supporting parts (which was strange)...was also a year of elevated scrap prices.
Well, I guess we now know why the kits went out that year.
A few thousand dollars in scrap value, and no more Bowser, no more Cary, no more Penn Line, no more die-cast Varney, no more Selley, no more Pennsylvania Scale. They had some Hobbyline too, I think, and John English, and Arbour, though I dont know how much actual scrappable tooling Arbour had...probably just dumpster fodder.
There went Pittman too, I bet. Bowser had that tooling.
Bowser basically had 50% of the history of US model railroad manufacturing in their warehouse. Underutilized, in my opinion, but the potential was there if a motivated person had gotten hold of it again...but theres no getting hold of it now.
I wonder if any of the scrappers hung on to it. Would be crazy if we started seeing Bowser designs on China ebay...
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