Category Archives: News

Chicago Show 2025 – Manufactures / Importers News

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One of the best sites to see at the show was Kadee displaying and selling products at the show. Traffic was steady in front of their table, every time I went by they had guys buying, asking questions and generally checking out their products. We need more manufacturers in O Scale 2-rail and we need them coming out to our major show of the year to meet us at our best.

Next up, some offerings from Atlas O Scale being displayed on Bob Lavezzi’s tables. Mostly modern offerings and a re-release of the former Weaver War Emergency 52′ Gondolas. Atlas O is very good at decorating their cars.

This was a photo of what Rich Yoder brought of his imported truck line. Only a few left.

No, I won’t talk about MMW. Except to say, he was at the show. Until he ACTUALLY imports anything more than sample models, I won’t consider that company to be an importer. Scammer maybe? Thankfully I was not suckered into making deposits to him for models that are more than 10 years “in-production.”

Next up will be the models from the contest display and some more from the tables.

Chooch Ultra Scale II Line of Resin Kits Acquired by Hangman Creek Diorama Company

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The former Chooch Ultra Scale II building and freight car kits are returning to production.  Hangman Creek Diorama Company acquired the rights to these fantastic kits and the line of detail parts.  The new owners are Jess Dozier and Lisa Lund. 

The injection molded plastic parts from the old stock are on their website now. They say they will have the parts back into production sometime in August. 

The building kits and freight car car kits will be later in the year. The Facebook post states, “I expect to be in production and release kits progressively by Jan 2024!!!”

Hangman Creek Diorama Company
Facebook –  Website

This is great news!

Photos from Hangman Creek Diorama Company Facebook post.

WB: In An Orange Box – Reading Passenger Cars

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As a Proto48 modeler, I don’t often pay attention to what the 3-rail manufacturers are doing. Last year was no exception, but Lionel did list a new offering for Reading modelers that almost got past me. They released a new model with all new tooling for a Reading passenger car. Actually for two cars, a combine and a coach.

The cars are based on Reading prototypes built by Harlan and Hollingsworth. The cars appear to be a Reading coach class PBn and combine class CVm. Numbers for those cars:

  • Coach PBn 1100-1175, 1200-1284
  • Combine CVm 589-592

For 3-rail models, they are surprisingly nice. The body appears to scale out closely to published drawings. The roof contour is very nice, the details on the roof maybe be a little exagerated. The main issues I could find with the cars were:

  • Underbody details
  • Steps too steep
  • Roof vents undersized
  • Lack of end details to allow for the oversized coupler to have about
  • Two batten strips on the side of the cars, instead of four on the passenger cars and three on the combine
  • The car diaphragms are oversized

The two above images show that the steps do not go far enough into the car. Also they show the lack of end details like the uncoupling bars, safety chains, steam and air lines.

There may also be a question of how many roof vents are typically on the combines. Some further sorting through photos and equipment diagrams is needed to answer that question.

I’m pleasantly surprised by this offering from Lionel. The cars are much nicer than I was expecting. They will need some work but are a good starting point to build a nice model.

Lionel is offering three different two car sets. Manufacturers price is $379.99 for each 2 car pack. Prices do vary with different retail outlets. I would suggest shopping around. I picked up my cars at a much better price.