60' "Whalebelly" Tank Car

SEARAILS is considering manufacturing a limited run of 17,000 gallon,
60 foot LOA, "Whale" bellied Tank Cars as illustrated and discussed
in the May 1997 issue of MAINLINE MODELER magazine.

Your help is needed to participate in this decision. Tell your friends, the more info/data the more accurate the decision.

Although Charlie, Brad and Robert have been very helpful, I can't figure out how to post a photo/drawing to this site or the Railimage site, so the drawing of this car is posted at the top of our "Home Port" page at www.SEARAILS.com, and at the Zlist in "WHALE", please view it and
complete the poll below and email to harbormaster@searails.com.

We plan to produce this car in White with etched steel walkways and
ladders including a selection of Owners decals.

We need to know if you want the car with, or without trucks and body-
mounted couplers, and if you want Marklin's or Micro-Trains Lines'.
We need to know if you would prefer a kit or ready-to-run, and how
many we need to plan to produce.

We will announce the results of the poll on this list, and indicate
our plans for this project.

Thanks
Jim Shiff

POLL
A. Is this 60' tank car a model you would buy?
B. If yes, how many KITS would you buy @ $55.00 each car?
C. Would you want couplers and trucks included in the KIT? What kind?
D. Would you prefer to buy a painted ready-to-run finished product
for $75.00 each car?
E. Would you pay an additional $50 for a special order paint scheme?
F. If yes, how many special order ready-to-run cars would you buy?
G. If we can drive the volume up, we may be able to sell a package of 3 KITS for $99.00, would you be interested in this? If so, how many?

 

Hi John,

We will take about one week to draw it, and three weeks to create the first prototype, but six weeks for the etched steel walkways and railings. So, the quick and simple answer is about seven weeks for a complete first prototype.

Then we will photograph the prototype and post it to the web and take pre-paid reservations. If people don't like the prototype, we'll eat the cost and bag the project.

Jim

 

The car sound great, but out of my era.

But I'm wondering who does your etching? and would they do work for us "common" folks? Like if I were to send them the artwork.

I can think of millions of Z scale projects involving etching, but I don't want to buy all the items to do it at home only to find out I'm not very good at it.

Thanks

 

Hi Chris,

SEARAILS has used a variety of etchers over the years.

Please go to http://www.metal-etching.com/
and you will find an excellent list of those available by region.

Jim

 

Thanks Jim, I see one over in PA.

I like how they call it "Photochemical machining"

 

Great idea, but we stated in our first posting that there would be an opportunity for a "Special Order design scheme".

We meant that the buyer could specify color and decals in kit or finished formats.

Decals will be offerred with the kit including a variety of Owner/Operators with logos in an included sheet .

The variations in structural design, as David Casdorph writes in his May 1997 MAINLINE MODELER article, were few and only obvious in positions of the ladders and walkways.

There is no monopoly on brains, and we are open in this initial stage to a concensus of opinion.

If no concensus on design, and at least a 90 unit commitment from the Z market (we'll pay for 10 of the required 100 unit minimum for marketing purposes), then we will go with what was published in the posted drawing - we think that is fair. If not say so, and offer another solution - we're open to suggestions.

Jim

 

I would like mine painted on trucks and ready to run!

 

I would buy three full kits for $99, but most likely would NOT pay $55 a piece. A choice of names and reporting marks would be a bonus.
And the product should come virtually READY TO PAINT/DECAL, unlike the MMM pieces that come covered in wax that's hard to remove, and tends to obscure post paint details if it's not completely cleaned from the model.

Has anyone published the RIGHT way to clean the Make-My-Model items?

 

Thanks Mr. Keyser,

All SEARAILS kits which use the Poly-Jet process, as the 60' Tank Car will, are preapred with a primer that eliminates any residue of post-processing AND prepares the part for painting. We prime at 80 pounds of pressure.

The primers we use are white, black, grey, and "rust" (a dark maroon).

In this project we plan on priming all product in white, unless ordered with a Special Paint Scheme with decals and logo. This will allow the white acrylic paint that will be airbrushed onto the part's surfaces to cure with the correct bonding.

We then will air brush a coat of Krylon Crystal Clear for a gloss finish, or Krylon Matte for a matte finish.

As you may note, we are using the word "plan" frequently, and hope that we will be able to publish a full finish specification within a week for the reveiw of those who wish to purchase this product.
Thanks for you reply.
Jim

 

John,

We also want to sell 3/99! (we're planning on making them in 3 to a fret anyway).

But, it depends on the volume purchased.

I thought we were clear on the single unit kit price of $55.00

What price did you think was the original price of the kit, if not the $55.00 in the original post?

And, we're only adding $20.00 for our labor and skill and decals with trucks and couplers to produce a painted ready-to-run finished product for $75.00 each car, or adding $50.00 to produce a color & logo buyer-specified painted ready-to-run finished product for $105.00 each

We would prefer to sell these cars for $19.95 each, but unless we produce 10s of thousands, its not going to happen (also, we take some pride in making our products here, and in limited editions).

Finally, we have received responses that indicate we could sell around 50 units so far, split in half for kit and finished formats. We need to produce at least 100 units to start the project, and we're hopeful to get that level of response before the end of the week.

Thanks for your interest, and shared views, as always please feel free to comment and critique our work and plans.

Jim

 

Thanks John, no sweat, I agree with driving up demand, and I'll add the 3/99 option to the Yahoo list.
Jim

 

John,
Regarding decals.
Each kit, as we originally said, will contain a small sheet of decals. As of now, we are considering the following;
ACFX
UTLX
GTAX
Road numbers and markers and data may be included for each, if they can be read (Tim assures us he will make a strong effort to achieve legibility, but as good as he is, we're not holding our breath)
Jim

 

for inspiration ...

 

Thanks so much for the photos, we will add them to our collection, and encourage others to send as many as they wish.

I would really appreciate knowing how to save, or download these to our library.

You might also want to see
http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/pvt-tank/

The previously anounced included decals, and those the clients who purchase RTR will be able to select for their car's "dress", will be published in advance of production.

Jim