Bad News Key Models

That is a setback. What will be the effect on brass prices?  Key Models has some beautiful models!

Shouldn’t be any price effect, they don’t ship very many anyways

Matt Makens posted:

Shouldn’t be any price effect, they don’t ship very many anyways

Regardless of how many units are shipped, Key's price will likely go up.  If tooling and jigs can't be salvaged, they will have to be recreated.  Plus, a new builder has to be found and production costs negotiated.  There's also no guarantee that all of the factory's staff will wind up at the same new employer.

Rusty

IF Key Models decide to push on. Hope lots of insurance was in place.

Trying to replace molds/etc sounds like a very $$$ proposition.

Wow... what a wild year for the model railroading industry! (Grandt Line closing, Hobbico bankrupting, Shinohara closing... on and on it seems!)

railroad-guy posted:

Key’s factory in Korea just burned to the ground and everything is s total loss. All the research material, castings, tooling, etc is gone.  Dave is going to fly over after O Scale West to see what if anything can be saved.  To say the least this is a disaster.  Don't know anything more.

Unfortunate.  When any updated information becomes available, please share that with all.

I hope Dave rebuilds.  His models were state of the art and, more importantly, he is a great guy.

Ed

railroad-guy posted:

Key’s factory in Korea just burned to the ground and everything is s total loss. All the research material, castings, tooling, etc is gone.  Dave is going to fly over after O Scale West to see what if anything can be saved.  To say the least this is a disaster.  Don't know anything more.

This is my email that I sent to Dan and I didn’t want it realeased until we had more information about this situation.  A few posts here are the exact reason I wanted to wait, people speculating on what’s going to happen without any information or facts.  I’m asking that everyone please wait until we have more information and Dave Devita has developed a plan for the future.  

Good gosh, we have suffered some catastrophic losses in exact scale O Gauge. Precision Scale and Overland - out;  Key may be mortally wounded.  Kohs, well, you have read the complaints. Glacier Park - nothing in O Scale appears to be on the horizon.    If you see a piece that appeals to you today, you had best grab it. There may not be much coming in the future.  Mainline steam is withering, now O Scale brass may be shrinking away. Guess it had to come - wish it was after I had died .

Hi Roger,

Great to hear from you, just wish it wasn't under these circumstances. 

Butch

mark s posted:

Good gosh, we have suffered some catastrophic losses in exact scale O Gauge. Precision Scale and Overland - out;  Key may be mortally wounded.  Glacier Park - nothing in O Scale appears to be on the horizon.    If you see a piece that appeals to you today, you had best grab it. There may not be much coming in the future.  Mainline steam is withering, now O Scale brass may be shrinking away. Guess it had to come - wish it was after I had died .

I think I saw online that GPM is offering a PRR T1 in HO scale.    Interesting. 

.......yes, HO scale. Looks like a real beauty. But nothing announced in the O Scale pipeline.

mark s posted:

.......yes, HO scale. Looks like a real beauty. But nothing announced in the O Scale pipeline.

Kind of sad for us steam/transition era modelers.  But then again the MMW stuff is pretty exciting and Protocraft keeps cranking out neat cars.   And of course Rich is doing the Mather cars.

Most interesting to me is the fact that Jimmy Booth is doing PRR steam.   I thought nobody wanted PRR steam any more.  I guess the exception is when it is things like a T1, not common steam locomotives that one sees everywhere.  

Different scales, same sales/marketing appeal I guess.

I dunno - the Mather cars have been in the announcement stage for something like 5 years.....when?     MMW diesels are coming - again quite long lead time. Coming for sure??

Protocraft is a remaining bright spot.    20 years ago we had 5, maybe 7 brass importers acitive in o scale. Now, almost all gone.    

mark s posted:

Good gosh, we have suffered some catastrophic losses in exact scale O Gauge. Precision Scale and Overland - out;  Key may be mortally wounded.  Kohs, well, you have read the complaints. Glacier Park - nothing in O Scale appears to be on the horizon.    If you see a piece that appeals to you today, you had best grab it. There may not be much coming in the future.  Mainline steam is withering, now O Scale brass may be shrinking away. Guess it had to come - wish it was after I had died .

Glacier Park should have a new gondola in O late this summer. I had emailed a few months ago and was told to stay tuned. 

Is not the Glacier Park gondola a styrene kit ----- not brass ?

mark s posted:

I dunno - the Mather cars have been in the announcement stage for something like 5 years.....when?     MMW diesels are coming - again quite long lead time. Coming for sure??

Protocraft is a remaining bright spot.    20 years ago we had 5, maybe 7 brass importers acitive in o scale. Now, almost all gone.    

Rich is slowly but methodically working through the details of making the Mather cars one hundred percent accurate.  Unlike most other models, models of Mather equipment suffer from a lack of prototype drawings or even equipment to measure and get details from. Add that to a car company that built many different flavors and there are a lot of details to work through.  

For those so inclined to view some of Key's best,  Bill Davis has a Key ABBA F7 set in  Rio Grande Prospector colors on his American Scale Models web site.

This thing is gorgeous and I'm a drab PRR DGLE man myself. 

Disclaimer - absolutely no connection to Key or Davis. 

The ASM website is under maintenance... so?

mark s posted:

Is not the Glacier Park gondola a styrene kit ----- not brass ?

Last gon kit from GP was not styrene but ABS - much stronger yet nice thin profiles.

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

The ASM website is under maintenance... so?

Link deleted by me  Google it to keep everyone happy.  

PUBLISHER NOTE:  no active links to non-sponsor sites.  Nothing wrong with posting them but no direct links... 

railroad-guy posted:

Key’s factory in Korea just burned to the ground and everything is s total loss. All the research material, castings, tooling, etc is gone.  Dave is going to fly over after O Scale West to see what if anything can be saved.  To say the least this is a disaster.  Don't know anything more.

Update on the fire.  The loss was restricted to all the ten of thousands of drawings and photos, the CZ pilot models, all the castings for the CZ project, the DCC and DC Controllers, the test trackage, computers, etc.  FM was building a project for The Europe market and I don’t know what stage that project was in.  Key has copies of all drawings and photos of every project they have ever built. I also have the all same documents so all the information required to build the California Zephyr train is easy to produce.  The project will be delayed a little, if you have a reservation we ask that you bear with us while FM recovers from the fire. 

Roger