And I think we are all aware that CDS is selling down their inventory and no
longer reprinting exhausted sets; whether the owner will
find a buyer willing to revive the business is open to serious doubt (perhaps
the same problem as Champ decals). The owner of
Clover House has been a one-person (with his wife helping out) for many years
and he has kept producing hard-to-get items mostly
as a service to model railroading. He has long had unique lettering sets,
most of which probably didn't sell in the two digits in ANY
scale in a given year--a business model that would drive MBA seminars nuts.
Without being really knowledgeable about the process, I suspect the problem may
be, as with decals, that dry transfers are fairly
labor-intensive to produce and cannot be computerized economically. And the
market is small, as relatively few model railroaders
still actually paint and letter equipment, not many more than still build it.
I've used both decals and dry transfers over the years, and each has its own
distinct advantages and limitations; I don't know which
I'd choose if a given lettering scheme was available in both (which it rarely
is). Perhaps Greg Komar is still printing dry transfers (and
he does offer a decal option for those who prefer it), although his line is not
so extensive as either Champ or CDS. Good quality, though.
Jace Kahn
General Manager
Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co.
> I don't know when the sale took place but just recently learned Clover
> House is now under new ownership. They did have a reasonably good supply of
> S dry transfers. Russ Clover made me a batch of PRSL RDC dry transfers years
> back. I still have not used them. I much prefer decals anyway.
> I have been told by multiple people that there are NO new model railroad dry
> transfer sets currently being made in any scale because there is no one left
> to actually make them. Previous producers of dry transfers have since
> switched to selling "made to order" decals sets. At least that gives them
> the option to produce in multiple scales. Sounds like an open opportunity
> for some enterprising S Scaler to jump in and corner the model railroad dry
> transfer market.
> Bill Lane
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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