12/25/04 - Just a brief update to say Happy Holidays! We wish you all the merriest of holidays and the very best in the New Year! One brief aside; our latest 8-page update is in the mail to all of our customers and those on our mailing list. We look forward to a great year and the renewed opportunity to meet many of you in person at the up coming shows.

12/05/04 - You may have noticed that we have not done a general news update in a while although we have been updating specific areas of our site as events develop. We are behind in mailing out our promised printed update, but it is in the works and it will be our largest to date (8 pages), it will be going out later in this coming week. We have been extremely busy with business developments and that is part of the reason we chose to hold off on the mail update, we wanted to be able to present as much new information as possible as we finish off another year in business. The update will pass along new show information, we have been invited to participate in the Nürnberg International Toy Fair this coming February, as well as the latest news on current as well as new projects which will be launched in the very near future. If you're on our mailing list you will automatically receive the update and if not and you would like to be, just let us know by forwarding your postal mailing address.

10/27/04 - The response to the photos shared below on the 24th has been extremely strong, as a result we are going to add a new section to our site dedicated to sharing photos or our miniatures in action. If you are an owner or have photos appropriate for this purpose and would like to share them, please send them either by E-mail or postal mail (we will return postal submissions) and we'll be happy to give you credit for your efforts in sharing as well as modeling. Please provide any descriptive information that you would like included.

10/24/04 - We recently had the pleasure of seeing one of the Norfolk & Western Y6a models that we produced in operation, the photos below show Y6a #2156 on the mainline of the fantastic road built by Ken Schlinger and his son Wade, she has a beautifully modeled 40 car consist on. It is not often that we have the chance to see the models that we produce in action, but this was a real joy and our sincere thanks go out to the Schlingers for providing this opportunity. The dedication, ingenuity and creativity that goes into building such a miniature 'world' provides us with incredible inspiration for our own work!

10/04/04 - The work of preparing and shipping our latest project continues, although not as fast as we would like. We have explained with past projects that the completion of the models by our builder does not mean that we have reached the end of the process, much work remains for us to continue to achieve the level of satisfaction that our customers have come to expect. Our builders are without a doubt the best available, but we still need to address items of detail and function that can only be handled once the completed production models arrive in our shop. Our shop work has seemed to many to be somewhat of a secret process that only served to heighten the anticipation of our waiting customers, it should be so easy to pack a model up and send it on it's way, but it is far more involved than that. As our own expectations for better quality, functions, features and detail are raised with each new project, so too are the expectations of our customers. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts to achieve what we are all after and the golden commodity is always time!

At the suggestion of one of our long-time supporters that has enjoyed the production process photos that we have posted as a result of our frequent visits to Korea, we will be posting photos of the preparation process that takes place in our shop once the models arrive. It is extremely important for those with an investment in one of our models to understand exactly what we are doing while they wait patiently for their new model to arrive on their doorstep. Our process is not only concerned with the cosmetics of our models, we are testing each and every model for complete functionality, including: sound functions, lighting functions, mechanical features, tracking, scale minimum and maximum speeds as well as actual measured pulling power at the tender coupler. We will be posting photos that will hopefully convey exactly how much effort we put into the pre-delivery process, this should be happening in the next few days.

There is a new update in process that will be mailed out next week to everyone on our mailing list and it should hopefully bring everybody up to speed on where a number of our projects stand in terms of development and production. Be sure to check our individual project sites over the course of the next few days for new updates, there's a lot happening.

10/01/04 - Just a brief update to address a problem that we have had with our E-mail server in the last couple of weeks; if you have attempted to contact us by E-mail since the 17th of September we have probably not received your message due to our server problem. We apologize for the inconvenience, but if you have not received an answer from us to a message sent during this period, please send your message again so we can respond.

9/10/04 - Our apologies for the lack of updates on the site, we have been working hard to get our latest project delivered to customers and haven't taken the time to post new info. We will be catching up on the site in the next few days as we do have a lot of new information to share, please be patient and check back frequently.

8/29/04 - Just a couple of brief comments for today to be followed by more detail this coming week. First of all, we had planned on attending the Narrow Gauge National Convention in Santa Clara, California but have now determined that we need to continue our efforts to get our current project shipped out to clients as quickly as possible. This is a major disappointment for us because narrow gauge conventions are a great opportunity to see examples of some of the finest modeling being done, we hope to attend other narrow gauge events in the coming months.

We plan to add an additional line of tools to our offerings, shown below is the flagship product for the Profiform tool company in Switzerland. The model 320 combination metal shear/brake (cutter/bender) is the finest table-top unit available anywhere. We have used the equipment from Profiform for years and our builder likewise has had their equipment in their shop. There are a range of tools offered by Profiform and we are in the final stage of making the necessary agreements to offer their equipment stateside, if you are an active builder you'll need to follow these developments as this equipment is essential facilitating quality projects. We hope to have a full-line catalog posted later this week.

Stay tuned for more new info as the week progresses...............

8/17/04 - In past weeks we have made reference to the idea of offering specialty tools and supplies to our customers with very attractive pricing, we are now moving forward with that plan. To start with we will be offering North Coast Engineering DDC equipment, American Beauty resistance soldering equipment and Badger Airbrush equipment. We are establishing a 'customer only' location on our web site to provide sample pricing and a listing of items that will be typically stocked once we have this plan rolling, if you are a current customer you will be provided login information either by E-mail or postal mail to allow you to access these special pages. An announcement will be made here when the information is available on the site.

We have continued to move forward with our plans to deploy DCC technology as part of our future projects and we will be offering installation services for DCC equipment in previously purchased models through an outside contractor that will work closely with us to ensure quality of work and service. The details of this service will be announced in the near future, so if you are interested in DCC stay tuned for further updates on this subject.

8/08/04 - Our K-4 project site has been updated with a number of new construction photos, we have quite a few more to put up and we will get caught up as time allows.

8/04/04 - Just a brief note to let our P:48 customers know that an update letter is going in the mail to them regarding our long-running problem. We hope to have this situation resolved near term one way or another!

8/02/04 - Over the past couple of years there has been a reoccurring question posed to us on many occasions; why are the models that we produce so much different than those of other importers? Our basic explanation has been that the owners of our building firm, Sun Jin Models Company, are interested in building fine models on a very personal level and not just making money. A great example of this is shown below, a personal project of Mr. Lee's, a hand build fully detailed scale model of the Eiffel tower. Complete with operating elevators and scale lighting, the entire project was drawn, fabricated, soldered and assembled by Mr. Lee. The stream of innovative talent at our builder flows from the top down!

8/01/04 - It has been an incredibly busy month with our participation in the NMRA National Train Show staged in Seattle, Washington, our attendance at the O Scale National Convention in the Washington, DC area and an inspection trip to Korea just completed. Additionally, many of you know that ill health issues have persisted with an aging parent, but fortunately our family has once again come out on the happy side of that situation. We have been promising updates on all of our current and active projects and now after our latest Korea visit, we're in a good position to relate exactly where we stand on each front. We'll be starting with updates online tomorrow and we will also be sending out printed updates to our reservation holders this week, one brief piece of important news has to be related at this point; our Union Pacific project is complete and it our finest project yet, any way you care to measure it. The persistence and dedication exhibited by our builder, Mr. Lee and Mr. Han at Sun Jin Models Company, is unparalleled in the industry and we have to again publicly congratulated them on their outstanding effort.

Among the many messages and inquiries that we have received in recent days was the photo shown below and we had to share it with all that are interested in prototypical modeling. The photo is of one of our PRR GLe class cement hoppers that has been exquisitely weathered for one of our clients in the United Kingdom by UK master-modeller Martyn Welch, what a fantastic job! If you have any 'in service' photos of one of the models we have produced and would care to share it, please forward same to us by E-mail or postal mail and we'll be very pleased to post it online.

7/19/04 - It has been several weeks since we have taken the time to offer a general update, as you may have noted from our project specific updates, we have been very busy with a number of efforts. We have had the chance to see and meet many of you at the recent shows and we look forward to those future opportunities that remain this summer. First and foremost we have been pushing to complete our Union Pacific project and the end of that project is at hand after many months. The response that the sample models have elicited at the last couple of shows has made our effort worth while, the comments from particularly those that have been waiting with reservation in hand have been extremely important to us and those individuals have seen the justification for the wait shown in the models. Those of you with reservations should have seen photos of the finished models by now and we will be posting new photos for everyone else in the near future. Work continues on our PRR K-4 and N5c projects, there will be new updates posted yet this week as well as for the C&O H-8. You should also note that we have posted a brief but hopeful update for the C&O 'Mikes' project and we are very excited about the new prospects, this will hopefully be a rapidly developing situation. Check back this week as we will be trying to offer more new info prior to heading for the O Scale National Convention to be held in the Washington, DC area at the end of this week.

5/16/04 - Our continued apologies for being distracted from updating our site as regular as usual, but it has been unfortunately unavoidable. We hope to be back in the groove at the end of this week after a quick inspection trip to Korea, thanks for bearing with us! A new update has gone out in the mail to everyone on our list and it has also been posted on our site, we hope to get these out on a bimonthly basis for the remainder of the year baring further distractions. We will be updating the UP 'type', K4 and N5c project sites shortly and there is other interesting news to share as well so please check back soon.

4/13/04 - We have been promising to update on a number of topics over the past few days and it seems that the days have been flying by while we have been dealing with a number of issues both new and old, our apologies for the delay. We have new projects to announce, old projects to update, matters of general interest and issues of improving our support of existing customers. We will not get it all accomplished in this one session, but we'll get started.

Looking back at the Chicago March Meet, it was great to see many of you in attendance and we had the best show this year in all of the years we have been doing the Chicago show. We particularly enjoyed the hospitality gathering that we hosted on Saturday evening, it was a wonderful opportunity to sit and chat about the hobby in general as well as gather new input regarding our current and future projects. We hope to do more of these gatherings at future shows and we'll try to announce our intentions well in advance so attendees can plan accordingly, many thanks to all of you that took the time to attend. Our thanks also go out to Mike Hill and his staff for another great event!

In recent months we have tried to track the sales of our models in the secondary market and have been amazed both at the elevated prices some of the models have garnered as well as some of the models that have been 'given away' on eBay. In more than one instance, at the same time that one of our models has been sold on eBay for considerably less than the original price, we have arranged sales for customers of the same model type for the original price or more. We understand that many modelers would prefer to deal with us as the original maker of the model of interest to them, but once a project sells out that is no longer a possibility. What we hope to offer in the near future is a certification program for our original owner customers so that we will be able to direct new customers to available models and will be able to certify the condition and extend the warranty to the new owner. We plan on doing this with no profit for us, simply as a continuing service to our loyal customers. All of the details are not resolved, but they will be announced shortly.

As we research and develop our projects we very often come into contact with very unique individuals, outstanding modelers as well as people with incredibly high standards for anything they turn their attention to. We never cease to be amazed by the effort put forth to achieve desired goals, not for profit, but rather the simple self-satisfaction of doing something as well as it can possibly be done. One case in point is illustrated by the images shown below, seemingly some simple nuts and bolts until you consider the actual size and scale of these fasteners, take a dime out of your pocket as reference to fully appreciate what you are seeing.

The largest fastener above is an exact scale American Standard 'heavy duty' 1-9/16" X 18" bolt and nut in O scale, the smallest is a 5/8" bolt with 318 threads per inch! Also notice the bolts with the perfectly formed 'acorn' heads. The materials used are nickel, steel and brass. The image below shows a highly detailed O scale Elesco type 'H' feedwater end cap that utilizes all functional fasteners. The individual responsible for this incredible work has also produced fasteners as small as scale 3/8" nuts and bolts. This is the type of dedication to miniature excellence that we hope to incorporate in our efforts on an ever increasing basis, the goal is perfection!

A new project has been added to our caboose series and this is one that has been long anticipated by our Norfolk & Western modelers, make sure that you take time to see what we have planned for our second caboose project. Additional updating will take place prior to heading for the TCA show in York, Pennsylvania this coming weekend, we hope to see many of you at the show. Be sure to check back frequently for additional news.

4/04/04 - Just a brief update to let you know that we have not permanently left the country! We have a bunch of updating to do and we promised some new information several days back, but time has been extremely short since the big show in Chicago. We will be working on our updates early this coming week, looking back at the March Meet, catching you up on the current project activities and offering up a bunch of new and exciting info. We are in the process of preparing our next mail update and hope to have it in the mail by the end of this week. We appreciate your interest in our projects and most certainly your patience! Please check back soon for the latest.

3/18/04 - Since beginning the reservation process for our 'Pennsy' K-4 project, we have been inundated with inquiries/requests regarding what our next PRR locomotive project will be. In an effort to relax the level inquiry we can tell you at this point that the choice has been made and the prototype will be identified in the near future, the choice is the result of the direct feedback we have received, ultimately our K-4 clients have made the final selection for us. Stay tuned for the announcement of this project once we have resolved some scheduling issues.

3/14/04 - Over the next several days on our site and during the O Scale March Meet in Chicago, we will be discussing several new initiatives that we will be undertaking to further support our client base, particularly on a post-purchase basis. We are constantly striving to improve our relationship with our clients as we do not take for granted the level of support that we have garnered with our modeling efforts. If you will be attending the March Meet, be sure to check with us at our display for the details on the hospitality gathering that we are organizing. As always, we will be seeking your feedback on and suggestions for our future planning.

Regrettably, we must acknowledge that we are aware that one of our competitors is willfully spreading lies about our business, what his ultimate motivation is remains to be answered. We will not dignify his ramblings by going into detail, just know that we are aware of who is responsible and that we will be dealing with the situation on our own terms. Should questions or concerns arise from something you hear about Kohs & Company, do not hesitate to get in touch with us for the straight facts.

Be sure to check out the updates on our individual project sites for additional details about our activities. We look forward to seeing many of you in Chicago!

2/29/04 - It's been a while since we have done a general update, but many of our individual project sites have had updated material added, there's a lot going on at this point and were extremely busy trying to keep up. Our Pennsylvania K-4 and N5c cabin car projects are now open for reservations, our Chesapeake & Ohio H-8 / Virginian 'AG' project is in the active design phase, the Pennsylvania G22b gondola with containers is close on the heels of the N5c project and we are actively working on our New York Central Niagara project. Be sure to check out the project sites for all of these projects for the latest information.

Our Union Pacific project is nearing completion and we'll be extremely happy to reach the end, it's been a long haul for all involved, but the results will be well worth the effort. While the competition continues to copy what we have done in the past, we continue to push forward with new details and features in an effort to honor our commitment to improve with each and every project. As shown below, we no longer use mechanical fasteners to hold the side rods on the driver crank pins, beginning with the UP 'type' we are using machined pins that are held in position from the back side of the driver which eliminates the possibility of the side rods coming loose.

In the close up photo below you can see the prototypical cotter pin used to hold the braking bar into the brake hanger behind the driver, is this more costly and time consuming, of course, but it is also more correct!

1/16/04 - Another trip to Korea is complete and we are extremely happy about the project progress that we reviewed while there, we expect to be closer this year than previously to having a productive and timely schedule; in fairness to all involved, we have to acknowledge that what we are trying to do is very difficult. Regarding our locomotive projects; the Union Pacific 4-12-2's are almost complete and they look awesome, our best effort yet. Great progress is being made on the Pennsy K4 development and during the trip we reviewed samples of the first parts in process, we'll be posting photos of some so you can judge for yourself how well we are doing. The planning and development for the C&O H-8 is ahead of schedule with the planning for three of our versions complete, this also includes the Virginian 'AG'; suffice it to say that we have more reference material for this project than we have had for any previous effort. Regarding our rolling stock; the Pennsy N5c cabin car effort is moving forward nicely and we are nearing the point when we will start taking reservations, the Pennsy G22b gondola w/containers will not be far behind. Our new rolling stock builder is working out great and the projects ahead promise to be very exciting in their own right. There were also exciting developments regarding passenger equipment and we will be soliciting serious feedback pertaining to that type of equipment shortly, we are getting much closer to moving forward with our previously announced plans and expect to expand on them as well. We will be offering more details on all of these subjects on the individual project sites over the next few days so please be sure to check back periodically to see what we're up to. We are very enthused about how the new year is starting out and we hope that yours has been great thus far!

1/01/04 - As we head into the new year, we want to again thank all of you that have been such faithful supporters, even if you have not become a customer as yet. We hope that you have all had a great holiday season and we face the days ahead feeling reenergized by having spent time with family and friends during the holidays. We look forward to the next twelve months with great anticipation and excitement about the project that we have in the works, they promise to be our best yet. Our steam locomotive development is well established at this point and we are beginning to feel the same about our rolling stock efforts, the first sample (PRR N5c) from the new builder that we established shows great promise and we are hopeful that we will now be able to move forward with our passenger equipment development. The subject of diesels has come up quite during the past year and our plan is to push forward at full speed with our development during the next twelve months, this is an area of personal interest which makes it all the more exciting. In recent months we have discussed at length the issue of integrity between importers regarding project selection and we believe that we have offered our last words on the subject; in the future we will be guided solely by the wishes of the majority of our current and prospective customers and may the best models win the support of the serious operators and collectors. We will be trying to communicate on a more timely basis in print in the new year so if you are interested in what we are working on it will be of critical importance that we have your current mailing address, we will no longer make address corrections and re send based on returned mail from the post office, if it is important to you, please keep us up to date. As we have said from day one of our efforts, never be afraid to let us know what you think, it will be more important than ever in the future!

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