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Tedious S Scale History (aka Larry Jackman and Trucks (was Des Plaines Gunderson Huskies
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Never had any Gunderson stuff—rather too modern for my tastes—and Larry Jackman's role in anything is something of a mystery.? I am aware what Don Thompson had related, that Jackman seemed very (or too) interested in the SHS tank car project, so much so that
he scooped them; I believe the Bettendorf?
trucks that came with the original SSA tank car kits have the same attachment arrangement between side frame and bolster.? I am not clear from your earlier message whether Jackman did the Gundersons, or whether they were purely a DPH project, or possibly whether
Jackman did the die work for DPH—and Ron Sebastian is no longer around to clarify that.
Larry Jackman is an interesting research problem for model railroad historians.? I never met him, but he was a member of the O scale chat list in the early days of the internet in the late 1990's.? Apparently he worked for the Santa Fe in Kansas earlier in
his life and did a number of scale drawings, mostly for RMC in the 1960's.
When he was on the chat list, I think he first has retired to Florida with his wife, but when she died he went to live with his daughter in Washington.? I seem to recall that he made some HO car kits in styrene at one time, pretty sure he never did an O scale,
as I was reasonably au courant about anything produced there for forty years.
As to PRS, my understanding is that John Verser was a partner in Intermountain in Denver ca. 1990 when they began producing highly-detailed, all-plastic car kits, starting with the 40' AAR boxcar, followed by the 40' steel refrigerator car, both of which ended
up with exactly the same construction as the PRS S scale kits.? The other PRS kits, for the ACF covered hopper and 50' boxcar, had other sources.? Moreover, one of the PRS truck kits, the Bettendorf, shares the same design features as the Intermountain—spring
planks and brake beams.? At some point I understand John sold his interest in Intermountain and began PRS in Oregon with his son, Felix.? Interestingly, the PRS box and refrigerator car kits sold for about the same list price as their O scale counterparts.?
I don't know nearly enough about technology and its history to know whether the original Intermountain kit dies were computer-generated, although if so John would presumably have found it fairly straightforward to produce S scale dies.? Die work has always
been the most expensive part of styrene kit manufacture.
From your last message, John had not yet developed any trucks for PRS when he did the ACF kits (perhaps apart from the Intermountain-type Bettendorfs, which would not have been suitable for the covered hoppers), so that tends to confirm my inference that the
earlier runs came without trucks.? At some point he developed the National B-1 and ASF Ride Control trucks, mostly for the 40' cars, and they share the locking feature common to your roller bearings (and the SSA tanks).? And, I suggest, the roller bearings
with integral brake beams.? A last thought: he presumably developed his own wheelsets with plastic wheels and double-insulated axles?
but when SHS began production in China was able to buy superior metal ones in quantity cheaply from Don Thompson (who can confirm or dispel my assumption).
What role, if any, Larry Jackman had with PRS trucks I have no idea.? Unless John and Felix could do die-work inhouse (and someone had to do it for the ACF and 50' cars), someone must also have done their truck dies.? A last thought: the SSA tank Bettendorfs
I own do not have brake shoes, but both the B-1 and ASF trucks do (unhappily, and frustratingly, different from each other.? I'll need to check, but I think my DPH tank car trucks do have brakeshoes.
I went to check the NASG website before writing to see whether Peter had sorted out the various PRS trucks, and I thought I remembered him having a section on S scale trucks but couldn't find it.
Jace Kahn
?
Jace,? Although I wasn't that much in the loop, John and I talked frequently regarding some of his projects.? Some of those projects were in the development of the 2 flat boxcar kits (X29 & CGW) that Desplains/ SSA finally released.? When I was shooting
his ad photos of the ACF as well as some of his the 50' (DD) boxcars I would ask him about RB trucks.? He always returned with the Ace versions.? He was reluctant to tool any RBs.?
When I came to the first ever ACF hopper cars, I was handed a test shot for the 3/16's S Magazine intro photo.? That happened at one of the NASG conventions, Pittsburgh perhaps!? I later talked with Walt and he was semi happy to have John buy back what
he didn't sell.? I put that test shell in a drawer someplace, over the next few years,I purchased several of the kits and gradually took those excess parts and added nearly all the missing parts and drilled mounting holes in that test shot.? The final result
was a multi colored car just like old Johnny Cash's Cadillac car/song!
?
I'll stick with my version that those trucks were original from Jackman and only modified when or shortly after he went belly up! Now however the trucks now sold by SSA are another version all together!
Bob Werre
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