Reply to "Another one Bites the dust"

@Tom Tee posted:

This thread seems to underline the reason for buying Sunset brass.

Plastic may or may not fail.

Zinc pest may or may or may not attack.

Old brass just seems to live on indefinitely.

I would prefer brass castings over zinc, if manufacturers and buyers would accept the added production costs.

I’m fact, here was an innovative effort by a Michigan company in the 1970s to make a brass shell (which I assume was produced from a lost wax brass casting) sourced from the original Rivarossi plastic shell of the IHB 0-8-0 modeled in N scale. (It fits perfectly on the original Rivarossi diecast chassis.)

But sheet brass manufacturing is a labor intensive process that’s only suitable for small production orders, such as those which Third Rail commissions. If you had to make 2,000 O gauge brass locomotives, it certainly would increase the labor costs for the manufacturer.