and he notes - You have Midgage confused with AF on the extrusions. Bill Stewart had the passenger cars in production (as Sylvania Models) two years before AF and as the story told to me by the late Gene Fletcher, Bill had some of the cars at a train exposition in New York and A. C. Gilbert saw them and hired Bill as a consultant for the AF extruded passenger car design. Instead of cash for his work, Bill accepted payment in K5 boiler shells, pilots, cylinders and tender bodies for his scale 4-6-2 under the Midgage name. The boiler shells are recognized by the details under the running boards being ground off before they were painted.
Bill Stewart ran several businesses including a soft metal and lost wax casting company, an electronics assembly company, Midgage Models and Sylvania and he was an engineering consultant. In the fifties he quit making the cars and locomotives and devoted his time to his electronics business, keeping the soft metal casting and lost wax business (his wife actually ran that service) and traded Sylvania Models to Gene Fletcher for accounting services. Gene disposed of the inventory except for a few extrusions and in the 60s sold the name to me for a buck. I still have the original artwork for the logo and ads. There was a fellow in Illinois who brought the cars back in cast resin - can't remember his name but I recall he passed away a few years ago. Raleigh in cloudy Maine At 11:56 AM 11/3/2008, David Engle wrote: >I didn't realize that Enhorning actually had extrusions done. Would >they be the same as what Midgage had AF do for him? I have several >car-length pieces from those extrusions; one has an AF boat-tail >bolted to it that came from Doc Johnson. DJE > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Bud Rindfleisch >To: <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>[email protected] >Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 10:49 AM >Subject: {S-Scale List} more to Enhorning > >Hi guys, >I too, like Tom Baker, had that Spring of '64 S Ga Herald as my >first issue (later acquiring some older issues back to 1962 from a buddy >leaving for Viet Nam). >I also had an A-B F unit on order from the Enhornings, at this time >in Ludington. Like everyone else, after several year's wait and much >correspondence with assurances they would be made, my wife and I drove >up there from Buffalo, about an 8 hr trip. (hey gas was less than a buck >a gallon then) >They were very cordial and welcomed me in to their well equipped >shop. I could see they had good intentions. I saw the actual dies used >to make the F shells, a unique die that had interchangeable fixtures >that enabled them to make both the A and B. The shell, as Don correctly >mentions was a phase IV F-3 (F-7 "horizontal" grills with two lengthwise >roof slots for the F-3 dynamic brake grids) the cab/nose however was a >different animal. While being one of the better, in any scale at that >time, bulldog nose contours it had E-8 style flush numberboards. The cab >side sand hatch filler doors were also in the lowered location like an E >unit. They did however, have clear plastic EMD F numberboards as >separate castings >I managed to talk them into giving me a bunch of shells and a slew >of decals in an equivalent amount to my full down payment. The fun part >was, I was able to hand pick my shells and got all straight ones. They >are still straight to this day. They had no "B's" at that time. >What no one has mentioned yet was the proposed aluminum passenger >cars they were going to make. I saw several extrusions about 6-7' long >just waiting to be cut to 60' and 80' lengths and have windows punched >out. These were quite similar to Am Flyer's original aluminum cars. I >got a couple pair of their passenger trucks in the deal which in no time >at all disintegrated into Zamac dust. >Bud Rindfleisch > >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
