Page Porter became head of the Art Department after Model Die Casting moved to Carson City, NV.  Page had Clarence Menteer's ear and had proposed the WP autocar project to him.  John Ryczkowski was probably the real impetus behind the project and provided the general arrangement drawing, without which we couldn't have done the tooling.   Richard Hendrickson also provided photos and diagrams.

Monju Menteer, Clarence's step daughter, pretty much had the say on what new cars we would do.  She felt that the future of the hobby was women in N scale and prototype didn't sell.  The last was, I think, a result of conversations with Richard Schweiger of C&BT Shops.  After Page's departure, Monju had her way.

As for my input, they had offered me the chance to buy one of those vacuum-formed plastic 4X8 layouts at dealer discount, which I declined.  Every real model railroader wants a layout, right?  But my interest then was Southern Pacific over Donner in 1949 and cab forwards on that layout wouldn't have worked.  So Monju and her new art director decided I was just a brass collector and railroad historian and knew nothing of the hobby and thus my opinion was worthless (despite that I've been reading model railroading magazines since 1963).

Brian Leppert
Carson City, NV
MDC moldmaker for 18 years