12/29/03 - With this year coming to an end, we hope that you have had a great holiday thus far. We continue to tie up loose ends during the holiday season and the shipping of our latest project, the N&W Y6a also continues. If you are on our mailing list you should have received our latest mail update by now, we have had a number of them returned due to incorrect addresses, if you want to continue receiving our updates you must make certain that we have your correct current address. We have posted photos of our first caboose sample model, the PRR N5c cabin car and we continue to plan for it's production. We have also received the latest samples of our Union Pacific project and we'll posting photos in the next couple of days, make sure you check back to see the latest information regarding that project. With the holiday season almost over we'll be moving forward with our K-4 reservation process and we'll be posting information to that affect on the K-4 project site shortly, we apologize for the added apprehension created by the delay. We will be offering a final 2003 update on line to highlight what we expect in the new year, please check back before 2004 in rung in to see the latest. Be safe and responsible in the remaining days of 2003!!

12/05/03 - As we head into the last month of this year, we are scrambling to finalize a number of issues before the new year. We are finishing up a new mail update the will go out to everyone on our mailing list in the coming week, we are in the process of getting our Pennsy K-4 offering in the mail, we're shipping our newly finished N&W Y6a models, we have our Union Pacific 4-12-2 in the final stage of production, and we have several new projects in development including our PRR G22b gondola and PRR N5c cabin car. We will be posting new information for all of the involved projects on the individual project sites over the next couple of days, so be sure to check out the project sites of interest.

11/11/03 - We need to advise that if you have had difficulty getting through to us by E-mail, we have experienced difficulty with our service over the past several days and it has just been resolved. If you have not been able to get your message through or have not received a response to a message sent in the past several days, please send your message again. We apologize with the inconvenience.

10/22/03 - As of today, our site is running on a new and faster server with the hope of offering you consistently faster download speeds to make accessing our many 'PDF' files easier. Please let us know if you experience any difficulty with downloading files so we can rapidly address any new issues. With this change in place, we will move forward with posting new image files to our Y6a project site, these will be of our production sample model.

Our apologies to anyone that looked for us at the recent TCA Fall Meet in York, Pennsylvania, we were unable to make it to the show because of a last minute health problem within our family, all is progressing well at this point. Many thanks to those that have expressed concern and forwarded their best wishes.

10/08/03 - As we move towards completion of our Y6a project this month and our Union Pacific 4-12-2 by the end of the year, we are beginning to focus intently on the upcoming Pennsylvania K-4 project which will be open for reservations early next month. From the beginning we have urged those interested in our chosen prototypes to get involved with our efforts, not only by purchasing, but by sharing their knowledge and becoming part of our development team. We have been pleased with the response up to now, but as we move into our new projects we do so with a new level of support from those that have a serious yearning to see their favorite locomotives modeled correctly.

As the development of our K-4 project continues, we have been supplied by clients with copies of every review ever published about previously produced K-4 models, we have critiques also from serious modeling clients written expressly for our use so we can consider what has been previous produced. I should also mention that this new level of involvement is already happening in regards to our C&O H-8/Virginian AG project which will follow the K-4 in next years production. This involvement is what will propel our efforts to the next level in terms of quality, detail and accuracy. Beginning with our current Union Pacific project be began issuing periodic updates that were mailed to reservation holders, this is a practice that will continue with all future projects as we try to draw customers into the process earlier. We are not looking for passive observers when we share the development information as we gather it, we are hoping for feedback from our reservations holders so that our production efforts take on a more 'custom built' approach, with decision making being shared. For this approach to be successful, we have to require an early involvement (reservations) for two reasons; so we can target our communication efforts to those individuals that are serious about a given prototype or project and just as important, so we know who to listen to in the process of developing our models. As the cost of producing quality brass scale models continues to increase, it is important that we strive to eliminate wasted effort and time in our processes, this new focus should help in doing that as well.

As we look forward, we have to look back to our original mission statement, to produce models that will require no further upgrading in order to own the ultimate example of a given prototype. We have to reiterate what has been said all along; we do not pretend to be experts on any particular prototype or railroad, we have to rely on the best researchers and data that we can locate that pertains to our chosen projects. We act an editors in the process, compiling and sorting data, then orchestrating the decisions required to bring our miniatures to life. The unique and long lasting relationships that have been nurtured with our suppliers in South Korea are what will make the final difference in our models.

9/27/03 - We would like to express our appreciation to Jim Canter and the Indianapolis O Scalers for putting on another great show this past weekend. We regret having to leave the show late Friday night to honor important family commitments, but our time at the show was well spent. If you have not made the effort to attend this event in the past, we highly recommend making plans for next year. Both of the dedicated O Scale publications were in attendance as were some friends that we have not seen in recent months, the new faces in the crowd are always exciting!

At the show we displayed our early Y6a sample model and the latest sample of our 'postwar' version Union Pacific 4-12-2 and many in attendance had a hard time deciding which model they liked more which was very gratifying. The feedback on the models at this show was particularly interesting as several individuals who previously had shown little interest in our projects expressed the feeling that the UP sample was the finest model they had ever seen. This came as very high praise and as a bit of conformation that we had made the correct decision in pursuing the development to the extent that we have. Most importantly, the reservation holders for this project that were in attendance offered their unanimous vote of confidence for our efforts.

We are working very hard at this point to actively plan for the longevity of our efforts and you will note some changes in how we are approaching a variety of issues ranging from the development of projects to how the business aspects are being addressed. We have a sincere desire to continue delivering the finest models possible, but it needs to be noted that it is increasingly more difficult to achieve our goals as a result of builder attrition in Korea. We can not afford to be complacent in our efforts and must always look to the future realistically.

9/10/03 - We have a lot of activity going on in several project areas, be sure to check our individual project sites for the latest details. We have just updated our site introduction to address the ever changing importing environment, you may want to take a look to see how we will address the issue of competitors jumping projects in the future. We have mailed the first Pennsy K-4 project update, if you have expressed interest in this project and have not received a copy let us know, it is also available for download. We are working on the latest general update and that should be in the mail in the next two weeks, it will cover the latest developments with our rolling stock and caboose projects. As the Fall show schedule starts up next week we look forward to seeing many of you at the shows, there's always a good time to be had!

8/20/03 - In an effort to make purchasing our models easier for clients, both domestic and international, we have arranged to accept payments by the on-line PayPal service. Utilizing this service you can forward payment directly from a bank account or by using any major credit card. We will be posting a special page on our site that will provide the details of this service very shortly. We hope that this will fill the long felt need for expediting our transactions for those wishing to use a credit card for their purchase. Stay tuned for the details.

8/17/03 - Just a brief update; we're happy to be back on-line after being caught up in the massive power outrage that affected the northeast and part of the mid-west. Our servers were down for a portion of one day prior to being brought back up on emergency power systems. Things are pretty much back to normal as of this date thankfully.

8/10/03 - Additional images have been added to the Union Pacific 'type' project site.

8/08/03 - We have just a couple of brief notes to pass along tonight, we will continue to update individual project sites over the next several days so make sure that you check them out. Earlier in the week we made mention of our phone system being out of control, well it seems that the problems have been dealt with sooner than expected so we should be 'reachable' at this point, don't hesitate to give it try if you would like to speak with us.

We have posted the first batch of photos of our latest Union Pacific sample model and there will be additional 'shots' added as time allows. The latest printed update for the UP project has been completed and will be mailed tomorrow to all reservation holders. We are extremely excited about the progress that we are making with the development on this project and after seeing the new samples are more comfortable than ever with our decision to take a major step back before moving forward. We'll continue to share as much material as possible on the web in spite of the fact that the copying by other builders persists.

We have had a great response to our explanation of rivet pattern development offered on our Norfolk & Western Y6a project update site and have had requests for a continuing effort to explain different areas of our product development in greater detail. We will make the effort to do this as time allows, but we will probably approach subjects in a more generic manner so as not to give away everything that we do. The Korean building environment continues to change and it will probably be helpful for you to understand in a little greater detail the inner workings of developing a brass project and some of the decisions that have to be made in the process.

Several weeks back we made mention that we would be reevaluating a couple of projects that we had passed on, this was due to the fact that there seems to be no integrity left in the business side of the hobby in terms of project selection. One of the projects that we revisited was the 'Pennsy' J-1, we feel that we owe our customers with an interest in this project an answer regarding our intentions so they can plan for the future. As it stands now, we will not be producing this prototype in the near term, but that does not rule it out for some time in the future. There are two 'Pennsy' locomotives that we will most likely produce before we would get to the J-1. We do have plans to produce what is arguably a more significant prototype with that wheel arrangement

Soon to be posted, more information on our highly anticipated Pennsylvania K-4 project, check back soon!

8/04/03 - Another Korean visit is in the books and what an adventure it was this time around! It was a great trip, but the best part was bringing back one of the latest samples for our Union Pacific project. The sample will be photographed as quickly as possible and the images will be posted to the project site, we'll also be preparing a printed update for our reservation holders that will be mailed by mid-week. In short, we are thrilled with the results of our extended effort on this project. We'll also be posting an update on our Norfolk & Western Y6a project which is moving along very quickly.

An issue of major import today is the state of our phone system, courtesy of MCI, our service is currently a total mess and they tell me that it may take up to two weeks to resolve. If you attempt to call, your patience is requested and please be aware that we know problems exist and that it is suppose to be corrected.

7/20/03 - The response to our recent mail update has been overwhelming, so much so that toward the end of this past week our E-mail account became so full that it actually shut down. Our apologies to anyone that tried to send us a message and had it returned, please try it again, we should be over the hump at this point!

We also need to offer a bit of a clarification regarding our planned caboose, cabin car for you PRR fans, projects. The assumption has been made by many that we were dropping our plan to produce the PRR N5 and N5b cabin cars, because we announced that we are moving forward with the N5c, this is not to the exclusion of the other two versions. There is considerable difference between the N5c and the other two versions and it seemed unwise to undertake an effort to produce all the versions simultaneously, not to mention that for those wanting to purchase all versions it would be a very uncomfortable proposition to have to do it all at one time. We do intend to produce all three versions with perhaps one other (yet to be officially named) caboose project in between.

There will be a new round of individual project site updates this week, so check back soon for the latest.

7/07/03 - Our latest print update is now available on line, you may click here to download the 'PDF' file now. If you are on our mailing list, you will see the update in your mailbox shortly. Be sure to check out the latest online update for our Union Pacific 'type' project, there will be several other project site updates in the next couple of days.

As part of our design verification effort for our Y6a project we recently tested several of our Y6b models that have been in service for well over a year at this point. Our interest was in seeing how the performance baseline had shifted if at all since the original production. On average, the samples ran at a very smooth 1.9 SMPH at the bottom end and 70.5 SMPH at the top end which represents a prototypical top speed. As the models have loosened up in service, their performance has become more consistent from one model to the next. Our efforts from the beginning have been to produce models that are historically accurate in terms of detail, but that also set the standard in terms of performance on the rail. We believe that we are accomplishing that end, but our efforts will not diminish, they will only intensify.

With all of our future locomotive models our clients will receive documentation that states the individually tested performance of the model they are taking delivery of. Included in the information will be the scale operating speed range and also the pulling power measured to the nearest 100th of an ounce. The data should prove useful to ensure that our models are performing to their maximum on each clients home road and if not where the problem may lie.

Check back soon for additional updates!

7/01/03 - Heading into the holiday weekend, we have several quick bits of information to offer prior to our next round of project site updates. The next quarterly mail update is being prepared now and will be in the mail by the end of the week, surprisingly, we're almost on schedule this time around! Our Union Pacific project is making great progress and it promises to be the best model we have done yet, it will offer the most sophisticated and accurate detail ever, reservations are almost closed out. We have started the reservation process on our special edition Norfolk & Western Y6a project and two weeks into the process we were two thirds reserved. The design and development of our Pennsylvania K-4 project continues and several key decisions have been made, a special K-4 exclusive update is still pending as we have had to deal with other more pressing issues, stay tuned if this is your project of choice. Our Souther Pacific GS-1 is in parallel development with our 'Pennsy' K-4 and the excitement around this project continues to grow, the T&NO versions are offering a great research challenge, but we're making progress. Our Pennsylvania G22b gondola with containers project is underway with a different production source than previously planned, more detail will follow shortly. Our plan to offer three different Pennsylvania cabin cars (cabooses to most other roads) has evolved into a planned series of cabooses from a variety of different roads, these will be modeled with a level of detail to compliment our locomotives. The first in the series will be the 'Pennsy' N5c with and without antennas, the N5c and the second in the series are both in development in the capable hands of our new builder that will handle this series exclusively. We will be offering rolling-stock components in the near future and a new project site will be created to make that announcement, this is a change from our previously stated position. Finally, we are getting back on the issue of display materials for our previously released models, this is a difficult endeavor for a variety of reasons, but we will handle it as a service to our clients.

As part of our continuing product development we will be making use of a new layout which is finally in the active planning stage. We will incorporate old as well as new components for evaluation purposes and although automated signalling and 'blocking' will be a core features, we will be using DCC technology as well with the hope that what we learn can be included in future models. A major focus of this effort will be for us to be competent based on experience is making recommendations for particular products to our clients. If you have suggestions for particular equipment that you feel we should be considering or including in our planning, please let us know the specifics.

Although we have written extensively on the issue of integrity within the hobby, particularly between importers in regards to project planning, we are finally out of words on the subject. Upon reflection, we have been a bit naive (which is painful to admit) and that has been taken advantage of by our competitors, friendly and otherwise. As we approach the announcement of several new projects our planning is being handled differently, the access to multiple competent builders now allows for this. Make no mistake about it, we are more dedicated to our efforts than ever and our resulting products will be our best evidence. As we strive to improve, unlike our competitors we cannot go to their web sites to copy in detail the technology they offer, we already offer it so we have to work even harder. It seems a bit ironic that those who argued most vehemently against our design concepts are now following suit, but we feel it's great for the hobby. Our clients know that we listen intently to suggestions and ideas, that will continue at a new level so please keep your thoughts coming!

6/15/03 - We are getting back up to speed after returning from the O Scale National Convention in Dallas, Texas. I would like to thank John Smith and all of his workers for their efforts in putting on the convention, personally, I had a great time in spite of the fact that the convention was not well supported. Aside from our business interests, spending time and sharing ideas with friends that share a common interest is what the convention is suppose to be all about, not just buying, trading and selling model trains. When the attendance at the conventions is low, everyone looses, the opportunity to share ideas and provide direct feedback to importers and manufacturers is lost. My thanks also to those friends and customers that did show up and shared their time and some great meals!!

We have activity on several fronts so be sure to check out the individual project sites over the next few days.

6/12/03 - Just a brief comment regarding the new dates you will see on many of our project site listings; we are in the process of doing considerable site maintenance prior to doing material updates. You may not notice any new material, but you may notice a different 'look' on many pages, once this is complete many of the project sites will be materially updated.

6/04/03 - As usual we're behind with our updates, but this time it's for happy reasons, I am a very proud parent! Our oldest daughter graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC the middle of last month and the family was certainly in attendance, actually two weekends in a row. As we get ready to head out to the O Scale Nationals in Dallas, Texas we have a couple of quick announcements to be followed up by more detail shortly. We hope that if you're an O scaler you are making plans to attend the convention and support our corner of the model railroading hobby.!!

Our first priority is to let our Union Pacific 'type' customers know that there is another project update in the mail which provides the current status and details on that project. The redesign has been more than a hand-full, but we're thrilled with the end results, the update will be posted on-line once our customers have it in hand. Secondly, the offering materials for the Norfolk & Western Y6a project are in the mail, for more detail check out the Y6a project update page. Next, we have the details of our Pennsy G22 gondola project almost finalized, it has been a bit if a struggle and for more of the details check out the G22 project update page. The Pennsylvania K-4 project design continues to progress and we'll be posting new information in the next few days, we are wading through endless variations very deliberately trying to make certain not to waste effort, stay tuned for more detail on this project. Finally, we have come to some conclusions regarding our upcoming series of caboose projects, we'll be providing the details in our forthcoming update newsletter that will be mailed out in the next two weeks, if your on our mailing list, you'll get the details. Included in the next update mailing will be a re-subscription form that we'll request that you return to us if your still interested in receiving our mail updates. The updates will continue to be free to all that request them, but we need to make certain that our mailing list is up to date..

4/29/03 - Shown below is the first sample model for our Norfolk & Western Y6a, the stable mate to our Y6b released about a year ago. We are working as quickly as possible to get a full set of images posted to the sight and that should happen in the next couple of days. Please check back soon for further details.

4/19/03 - As of this date we have updated a number of individual project sites, make sure to take note of the new info available. Since our last mail update, which was also posted on web site, we have made a number of significant advances in our planning for the future. Perhaps the most important decision made is that we will produce an ongoing series of cabooses beginning with our already announced Pennsy N-5 series 'cabin cars'. We have had continual prodding by clients to produce cabooses to accompany our locomotives and we will now heed those requests. In addition to the Pennsy models, we will produce: Norfolk & Western units, C&O units and Virginian units for starters. The specific types and projected timing for production will be announced shortly, but we can tell you at this point that these will be near-term projects. Stay tuned for the upcoming details.

4/02/03 - Just a brief update to advise that the latest customer update has gone out in the mail and has just been posted on this site. We have spent a great deal of time in the last month organizing our latest efforts and there is a lot to report , more of that will happen here shortly.

3/01/03 - We have enjoyed the feedback since our last update and it is heartening to know that many feel the same as we do. To sum up where we go from here, we will follow the most often offered suggestion thus far in pursuing the projects of importance to us while we continue to cooperate with the couple of other importers that share our desire to grow the hobby in a healthy way.

Since we have shared the fact that we are in the process of expanding our output, there has been expressed concern that we would increase our production to a level that would preclude many from keeping up, we can assure all that is not our goal. We are seeking the ability to deliver two major steam projects a year with the possibility of adding the occasional diesel along with our rolling stock. There may be special situations that arise such as our decision to offer a special short run of N&W Y6a's, but we will endeavor to concentrate on our type of product development. Our scheduling should not change substantially, with all announced projects staying with Sun JIn Models and projects that present special opportunities being developed by our new source.

Regarding the ability of our new builder to meet our standards, after talking to nearly thirty of the remaining builders in Korea, we are convinced that we have made a great choice otherwise we wouldn't bother risking the investment. Being very honest about our approach to the business of importing, there is no magic involved. There are key elements that are certainly fundamental to the process, the most important to us is the feedback that we constantly receive from those that care about particular projects.

2/18/03 - We're back from O Scale West and once again it was a great trip, our sincere thanks to Rod Miller and the committee that put the show on again this year. We always look forward to getting to the coast at least once a year for a show because the modeling community in the west has some of the best modelers in the hobby, it's fun to see what their doing and just as important to us, to hear what they want to see coming from our efforts. It was also fun to share some time with our friends from the East and Midwest, a good time was had by all.

A rather disturbing situation did come into better focus while at the show. The issue relates to a question we have often been asked - Why do certain importers announce projects already being developed by others? In a free-market economy businesses certainly have the right to pursue whatever plan they choose, but the practice of duplicating model projects does raise several important questions that should be considered by all that care about the hobby. Does duplication in a relatively small market make sense and is it good for the hobby? Would it be better to make project selections that compliment, rather than constrict, what is being offered to the O Scale modeler and collector? Does this practice result in the best quality products being brought to the marketplace, or are some models compromised in an effort to be the first available? As a consumer spending considerable money for O scale products, do you simply want a model of a given prototype or do you want a faithful reproduction in miniature of what has drawn you to a particular locomotive, car, or ‘road’ in the first place?

From the outset, Kohs & Company has openly made our project selections known to all that are interested. We did this for three basic reasons, to allow our customers to adequately plan their purchases, to preclude the accidental duplicate project selection by other importers, and to allow us to seek development assistance from knowledgeable hobbyists. On more than one occasion we have backed off on developing projects announced and even contemplated by others. Two other companies have followed a similar policy, Car & Locomotive Shops and Keystone Model Works. This has been a matter of business integrity and trying to do what we felt was best for the hobby..

The practice of 'jumping on' is not new to the hobby, but based on what we learned at O Scale West, it is now clear that this marketing strategy is becoming the rule rather than the exception. For example, Key Imports has recently changed their business approach and is now overtly developing three of the same locomotive projects as both Car & Locomotive Shops and Kohs & Company. As a result of this decision the O scale consumer has a serious choice to make – Do you spend typically a little more for a model that is thoroughly researched, developed and offers out-of–the-box quality or spend a little less and get a product that seemed like a good idea. If saving a little money seems like a good choice, consider the inconsistent quality in the O scale marketplace in recent years and the reasons for it. When the issue was addressed at O Scale West, the comment from the Key Imports representative was that, they didn't care who was doing what, if they felt they could sell some models they would move forward on any project they choose. Rich Yoder Models is knowingly doing the same thing to Keystone Model Works, having recently announced a hopper car that is currently in production at KMW.

Serious consideration of this situation is very timely for Kohs & Company, as we look to the future with new and expanded plans based on what we have learned as a result of our series of sold out projects. In previous news updates we indicated that we are bringing online a new builder to produce our rolling-stock, which should allow us to produce a number of already announced projects in a more timely fashion. We are also pleased to announce that we are adding another fully qualified locomotive builder to augment the builder we already have in place. It has taken over a year of visiting and interviewing twenty-six builders to reach a point that we felt we could confidently supplement the unsurpassed model building ability of Sun Jin Models, our current builder. We will do so with select projects, not only to provide our customers with more product choice, but also to reduce the time it takes for us to deliver our models after they are announced.

As a result of this move, Kohs & Company has already added the Southern Pacific GS-1 4-8-4 (delivery timing to be announced shortly) to our production plan, and as many of our customers and competitors already know, we are moving forward with the development of our EMD ‘F’ units. Given the changing environment in the hobby we will now reconsider the requests of many of our customers and will reevaluate several projects which were originally on our tentative production list but were removed in deference to other importers, one of these being the Pennsylvania J-1 and J-1a 2-10-4’s.

We have been successful in our approach thus far and that will not change, we will not compromise our models to be first in the market place or to be less expensive than our competitors’ models just to sell more. Our best advice to the hobbyist is basic consumer common sense: support who you feel is doing the best job and whose products offer the best value for your dollar. We all know that in this hobby when the 'best' becomes available, the inferior models that came before it have greatly diminished value. Don't accept second rate models from anyone that you are paying first rate prices for. By doing this you will encourage all of us to do a better job of delivering quality products.

2/03/03 - We need to once again apologize to those that have tried in vein to call or that have waited for a response to an Email as this year has started out a little rough again with regard to the health of a parent. Things are starting to get back to normal now and hopefully we'll have a chance to get caught up before the next bought! Our sincere thanks for your patience.

2/01/03 - In recent weeks we have had a number of inquiries about what future projects we will be pursuing, apparently it has been learned that we are seeking reference materials for several projects that we do not currently have listed. The fact is that we do have several prototypes in mind that we would like to model, but before we place them on our production list to replace what we have already produced, we are trying to determine the feasibility based on what reference materials are available.

We have found that what we require and what other importers/builders are willing to use is vastly different, we can spend several years trying to accumulate what we feel we need and still not have enough, our C&O K-3 project is a prime example of this situation. During our visits to a number of other Korean builders while trying to expand our production capability, we have had the opportunity to see the type of reference packages that many of the recent O scale projects have been built from, we were stunned to see that we had used approximately twice as much reference material for our GLe cement car project as compared to the most documented locomotive project we were presented during our discussions. I should mention that the competitive builders were not trying to compromise the efforts of their buyers, they were simply responding to our inquiry of what the individual builder required for reference to produce a locomotive project, we were shown a number of examples to illustrate what they had been previously provided.

We mention this to illustrate that our expectations for reference materials more often than not do not correspond to what we are typically offered by those trying to persuade us to undertake a given project. Several thousand dollars is usually spent accumulating the data to produce one of our locomotives. This is not meant to discourage those of you that have small amounts of data to offer, it's very unusual for us to locate large collections on a given subject, it usually comes from a little here and a little there which is why it takes time and money to gather.

1/26/03 - The most recent update date change is the result of site maintenance in preparation for the updating of several of our project sites.

1/12/03 - The new year has been a very busy one already with our first visit of 2003 to Korea completed and we are extremely excited about what was accomplished. During the trip we had a chance to see the most recent developments on our Union Pacific project, we added a special edition project to the production line up and we have begun to firm up the production details of our next regularly scheduled project, the Pennsylvania K-4 Pacific, please visit the individual project sites for the details.

Many of you know that we have been struggling with the issue of production capacity and trying to deliver what we would like in a timely fashion, we are confident that we have a solution at hand. After meeting with four builders in addition to the ones already visited in the previous few months and several key individuals who have decades of experience in the model building business, we reached two conclusions; first that we will assist in the formation of a new builder specifically to build our rolling stock and that perhaps there is currently only one other builder in Korea capable of producing locomotives for us. After looking at all of the options including doing work in China, we felt that we needed the security of an exclusive arrangement for producing our product so that we would not wind up competing against ourself by developing a builders capabilities only to be used by another importer who has exerted minimal effort in advancing the craft. Our new arrangements should provide the opportunity to pursue on a more timely basis the production of not only what we have formally announced, but also some of the things that have been discussed on a one to one basis with some of our supporters............things like diesel locomotives and accessory items to compliment our previous projects.

Speaking of previous projects, we have been trying to find or develop a source for custom displays for our locomotives and we have been close on several occasions, but until now, no cigar! With meetings planned during the next two weeks this situation too may be handled at last! With one false start already behind us, we have tried to avoid getting into a situation that would leave us once again promoting a product that we could not ultimately deliver due to unreliable supply. What we feel we have at hand is a situation that could deliver us not only custom individual displays, but also custom cabinetry that would allow for displaying and preserving groups of models in formal room settings. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed if you are one of the many that have been asking us for displays, we'll keep you posted as this situation is either finalized or blows up on us!!

1/03/03 - Our apologies for being missing-in-action for the past few days, the flu bug that has been going around the mid-west hit and hit hard on Christmas eve. As we head into the new year we have major updates due on our primary project, the Union Pacific 'type' and also our next project in line, the Pennsy K-4. We'll try to get caught up as quickly as possible as we know that there is a very high level of interest in both of these projects. Along with planning our projects, we are working on some of the peripheral matters that have been topics of discussion for quite some time now, things like; display cases, roller bases and the like! Many things that we had hoped to accomplish in-house are now being out-sourced in an effort to get more accomplished and to satisfy the desires of more of our customers. The only problem with this approach remains finding reliable suppliers that can be depended on long term, we think that we have found two that will be of great value, more on that as we get caught up in the next few days.

Once again, thanks for your patience and continued interest!!

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024