Hello all
Today we have a JAD City of Portland polishing the rails ..think Lionel 752 set on steroids .....first produced in 1980 to help use up some of the unsold Hiawatha coaches . Nose and tail sections was designed by Jerry Brown ( builder of his own stream-liners including an up scale version of the M10000) . The nose and tail sections are made of Alumilite...( epoxy / plastic stuff) ... same material John Daniels later used for casting his GG1's . Bodies of the train are stamped metal ... all a bit of the "light " side in my opinion . Powered by a McCoy "super" ? motor ...not so super in my book ... the set arrived as new as could be hoped for a few weeks ago ... motor was locked up solid ..add some oil and more oil and work the wheels back and forth and rolling / running has been attained . Motor is still far from super ...perhaps just needs more breaking in time. Visually the set is stunning (assuming you like the look of the M10000 and having admired the Lionel O gauge 752 set ..but wanted one in standard gauge) . Construction on the JAD pieces is a bit "basic " ..... works but not the quality of a Lionel 752 set .
I believe Arno mentioned that about 25 of the M10000 sets were made by JAD .....the contractor who made the sets for JAD went rogue after the initial contract and cranked out a few extra sets independently till being stopped ..so total number of these sets out there ?
Please see TCA Western Division excellent website for more information at
http://www.tcawestern.org/jad.htm
Last photo from Arno Baars' collection to compare the JAD M10000 bottom shelf ( much more toy like ) to Jerry Brown's M10000 ..standard issue middle shelf and close to scale ( assumed 3/8" ) top shelf ...... top shelf is a very good term for Jerry Brown's work.
Cheers Carey ...
