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Another mystery is what happened to all of the tooling that was used to make Bill Bensons Right of Way Industries products? They made some beautiful passenger cars, trains and accessories in  their day.

 

Well Most of the ROWI items were brass with some exceptions.

  • IT appears that MTH picked up the signals.
  • Ross has the Trackwork tooling and has thankfully upgraded that product
  • Weaver and now MTH has the 20' containers. 
  • passenger cars were plastic
  • I don't think the molds for the metal Ft's were ever made and hence was the downfall of Rowi.

I have no Idea what happened to the double stack tooling as well as the following mass produced items:

 

  • 3 bay offset hopper cars
  •  50' flats for farm tractors
  • stock cars  

[The above 3 could have been subcontracted from Weaver models since they look very similar]

  • 40' containers for their double stack cars

 

Last edited by prrhorseshoecurve

To my understanding the company that does bachamann owns the dies and have least some of them to RMT and some other companies check RMT's hoppers they probably will look very familiar to you look at his GG1 walter can correct where I'm wrong but this is from what I under stand is the case and yes bachmann is probably using some in the williams line and who else has leased some not sure but If I remember correctly theres 2 or 3 companies that have use of the old dies.

The R.O.W. Alco PA's were simply beautiful - especially for their day in the 1990s. Ours had very advanced lighting over the windshield, side number boards, a rear cab back up light in addition to the usual number boards and headlight(s). Lots of detail in the pilot with hoses etc. as well as windshield wipers. I believe they were the first scale PA's in O gauge to be released. The Santa Fe and D&H had an unusual body treatment over the brass construction that gave the illusion of stainless steel which contrasted with the 'normal' silver of the trucks.

 

Strong pullers with twin Pittmans and good sound featuring the 'Alco bark' they were expensive @ $1395. Actually not bad for brass...

 

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Originally Posted by prrhorseshoecurve

Well Most of the ROWI items were brass with some exceptions.

  • IT appears that MTH picked up the signals.
  • Ross has the Trackwork tooling and has thankfully upgraded that product
  • Weaver and now MTH has the 20' containers. 
  • passenger cars were plastic
  • I don't think the molds for the metal Ft's were ever made and hence was the downfall of Rowi.

 

1. I'm not sure there ever was an actual transfer of assets (tooling) with regard to the ROW Signals, Trackwork and 20' Containers. The folks producing them today likely created their own tooling. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this one.)

 

2. I don't believe ROW ever made plastic passenger cars. Theirs were brass.

 

3. The tooling for the ROW die-cast FT bodies (A&B) was indeed produced (...and hence was the downfall of ROW).

 

TRW 

Originally Posted by PaperTRW:
Originally Posted by prrhorseshoecurve

Well Most of the ROWI items were brass with some exceptions.

  • IT appears that MTH picked up the signals.
  • Ross has the Trackwork tooling and has thankfully upgraded that product
  • Weaver and now MTH has the 20' containers. 
  • passenger cars were plastic
  • I don't think the molds for the metal Ft's were ever made and hence was the downfall of Rowi.

 

1. I'm not sure there ever was an actual transfer of assets (tooling) with regard to the ROW Signals, Trackwork and 20' Containers. The folks producing them today likely created their own tooling. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this one.)

 

2. I don't believe ROW ever made plastic passenger cars. Theirs were brass.

 

3. The tooling for the ROW die-cast FT bodies (A&B) was indeed produced (...and hence was the downfall of ROW).

 

TRW 

TRW~

 

My friend, you are quite correct on 1 and 3.

Regarding item 2, the passenger cars were aluminum extrusion made in Youngstown and sent to Korea for processing.  The prototype bi-level passenger cars were brass.

 

Lou N

 

Originally Posted by Dennis LaGrua:

 I also saw some used O gauge boxcars on Nicholas Table that were marked with the name of a totally different manufacturer like UMB Made in China or something similar. They looked identical to Lionel box cars. Anyone know anything about that company? There is also the Industrial Rail tooling which reportedly Atlas has. 

Bottom line-no shortage of tooling with the Chicoms manufacturers. 

Might that be UMD, United Model Distributors, originator of Industrial Rail?

 

---PCJ

Originally Posted by c.sam:

The R.O.W. Alco PA's were simply beautiful - especially for their day in the 1990s. Ours had very advanced lighting over the windshield, side number boards, a rear cab back up light in addition to the usual number boards and headlight(s). Lots of detail in the pilot with hoses etc. as well as windshield wipers. I believe they were the first scale PA's in O gauge to be released. The Santa Fe and D&H had an unusual body treatment over the brass construction that gave the illusion of stainless steel which contrasted with the 'normal' silver of the trucks.

 

Strong pullers with twin Pittmans and good sound featuring the 'Alco bark' they were expensive @ $1395. Actually not bad for brass...

 

DSC08206

DSC08217

c.sam~

I am glad you liked the Alco sounds.  I remember recording them on a portable casette player.  It was always fun to have the right sound for the locomotive.

 

The finish on the D&H and SF was nickel plating over the brass.  And the Pittman motors were 7 pole skew wound with ball bearing end bells and rare earth magnets.  I believe they were 60 bucks each at the time.


Going thru customs in Korea i had a package with an Alco D&H body in it.  The customs people wanted to see what was all wrapped up.  When I showed them a train they became kids all wanted to have a look.

 

I am fortunate to have two prototypes, Erie and E-L. 

 

Regards,


Lou N

I have a set of K-Line 15" CZ passenger cars I bought on Ebay for 80.00 to include shipping.  At the time I was new in the hobby and had no idea what I had except that I was missing the observation car which I ended up getting on Dash for 50.00.  I now know what I have and they will never leave my collection ever!  If anyone ever released a high quality set like this again I would definitely buy it.  I need a set of Texas Specials but that's a dream right now. This is not a new thread and maybe one day one of these companies will hear our desperate cries.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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