RE: KINSMAN passenger cars. Yes, the cars appear to be B&M prototypes but still are generic. An outfit that still operates in O-scale produces beautiful wooden passenger cars. I believe it is called LaBelle and currently operates out of somewhere in Utah or Idaho. Its ads have appeared over the decades in MR and RMC. Originally, the company was located in Wisconsin. I wonder if they could ever be persuaded to crank out some cars in S scale.
Tom ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Rollain Mercier [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 4:53 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Re: Kinsman wooden passenger cars prototype... and he notes - While the prototype open end cars Kinsman used for the kits were Boston & Maine equipment, they were not unique to that road. The New Haven, Maine Central and Bangor & Aroostook also had them. Several roads outside New England also used similar cars. The prototypes were built by Laconia Car Co. in the 1880s mostly for branch line and secondary trains. When steel cars were mandated early in the 20th century, most of the New Haven cars were replaced and the balance sold to the B&M/MeC where they augmented their existing fleet. As time progressed most were relegated to back woods lines where they lasted (at least on the B&M) until the end of steam on the branches in 1953 which coincided with abandonment of passenger service on all but the main lines and commuter trains out of Boston. Several of the cars remained in service well into the 60s in work trains and I believe a couple went to Edaville. Sadly I witnessed the end for a dozen or so cars at B&M's Billerica Shops. The cars were spotted on siding well away from the buildings, pushed over on their sides by a front loader and burned. Any metal that remained was salvaged and the trucks were sold to tourist lines. An interesting note is the 'special' treatment the New Haven gave some of their cars - they removed the outer sides and replaced them with metal - scribed to look like wood. As the story goes, the NH had to use steel equipment in and out of New York back in the early century and not wanting to spend a lot of bucks on commuter cars, they shopped several wooden cars cladding them in steel but the public had fears of riding in steel cars lest a derailment bring the cars in contact with the wires or third rail - so a mechanical engineer came up with the idea of making the cars look like they had wood sides and nobody knew the difference. There was one of these cars used on a tourist line near Worcester back in the 80s Raleigh in Raineigh Maineigh At 02:05 PM 10/2/2011, Don Thompson wrote: > > >Dear Darrell, >I was told by the draftsman of the kits drawings, Bill Boucher that >the prototype was the B&M wooden passenger cars that lasted much >later than most mainline cars of this type. I am sure that Rollie >would have more information on the prototype... >Don Thompson > >On Oct 2, 2011, at 1:56 PM, Darrell wrote: > > > True, the Kinsman kits are very basic and "generic" in the > one-size-fits-all sense and the detail level. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------ 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: [email protected] [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/
