Guys,

I spoke with John Hitzeman at AMB today. I'm going to
send him a roof from a Sunshine kit this week and he's
going to custom-fit the running board for the roof and
send me some examples. I asked him for a self-adhesive
board similar to the AMB #294 r/b for the
Intermountain 40' box car. John expects the r/bs to be
about $5.00 each with no frills packaging.

So, here's the plan: When I get the sample, I'll post
a photo where we can all get to it (my PBase site or
the YahooGroup sites). I'll also be able to estimate
the cost. He'll send them to me bulk, and I'll break
them up to send to you (which will be a little extra
for shipping). Take a look, decide if you want any,
then let me know a final on how many you want. I'll go
back to AMB with the total numebr of r/bs. OK?

I'm also going to e-mail Ed Hawkins and see what kind
of data he's got on the cars--I'm hoping I can get the
correct board width and length from his library. If
it's not available, I'll use the #294 as a default.

John also indicated he'd be willing to make custom
running boards for other models. I think a great next
candidate would be the Red Caboose X29 car. The r/b in
the kit is okay but not great, and the wood r/b made
by RC for the X29 is horrible. So, let's see how the
Sunshine r/bs come out first and we'll go from there.
One more note--PLEASE don't besiege John H. with
e-mails! He's busy and is doing us a big favor (at low
cost) in his spare time.

John Golden
O'Fallon, IL


--- John Golden <golden1014@...> wrote:

Guys,

Boy, am I surprised at the number of responses to
this
project! Thanks for your interest. I forgot to
mention
that this is a non-profit profit--I don't intend to
make a cent off this.

At this point, I consdier all the orders tentative
since I don't know what the cost per running board
is
and I won't commit you to anything until you
understand the cost. I figure it'll be around four
bucks per r/b, maybe a little more for a custom run.
We'll see...

I e-mailed John today and he wants me to send him a
roof from the SS kit to get an exact fit. I'll
probably just take it down there myself this weekend
or next. I'll try and get the cost down if I can,
like
reducing packaging or whatever. The total TENTATIVE
order from all you guys is 38 r/bs, plus several
guys
sent me an "I'm interested" message so the total
order
could continue to go up.

I'll tell ya, if this works, I may try and get him
to
do r/bs for other cars, like the RC X-29 or some
other
popular cars. Much more to follow!

John

=====
John Golden
O'Fallon, IL
http://www.pbase.com/golden1014

=====
John Golden
O'Fallon, IL
http://www.pbase.com/golden1014

John Golden wrote:
"John also indicated he'd be willing to make custom
running boards for other models. I think a great next
candidate would be the Red Caboose X29 car. The r/b in
the kit is okay but not great, and the wood r/b made
by RC for the X29 is horrible. So, let's see how the
Sunshine r/bs come out first and we'll go from there."

How well have the AMB wood running boards held up in service? I'm
not that big a fan of scale lumber for running boards, as I've had
to repair a large number of them on the NEB&W due to warpage from
seasonal climate changes.


Ben Hom