Brian Chapman writes in part:

"Do such manufacturers attempt to plug into the expertise residing on
sites such as this one (and the MFCL and modelintermodal lists, as further
examples)? Could not the STMFC and similar sites populated with highly
knowledgeable modelers and railroad historians have an enormous impact on the
hobby's models..."


Brian,

The simple answer is NO; with good reasoning because within hours the
conversation would break into ,"Why did that do this car and why not the XXX car
which we all need..."

Most manufacturers know the source of the information and in many cases are
willing to pay the price to obtain this information at a reasonable cost
(providing it is accurate) in order to get it done. There is a circle of
sources that they can rely on for this information and often this information
is not just a single individual but several. Ignoring these sources would
be a mistake IMHO. Individuals such as Tony Thompson, Richard Hendrickson,
Tom Madden and Ed Hawkins as well as others, and then there are historical
societies that are successful in bringing projects into view, likened to
the new to be released Baldwin Centipedes that was a cooperative effort of
the PRRT&HS modeling committee and the guys from the Seaboard as well, and
perhaps the N de M guys as well. This is the way to get it done. This
relates to close inspection and review in most cases. Often is the case that the
project has no final review before release and that to is a mistake IMHO
and often kills sales of the proejct...

Bringing a project to the masses would be a disaster as these folks would
tell you and quite frankly knowing these folks personally, they would just
simply and quietly walk away from the whole thing.

Greg Martin
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