Model Railroading > Traincat brass signal bridges

Is this company still in business or did they go out of business

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,3497759,3497759#msg-3497759

Here is the irony of Traincat.

They are neither in business or out of business.  

Bottom line, I would only buy from him in person if you can walk away with his product. He shows up at Timonium train shows from time to time. 

Bruce

Run....

The stuff on his site looks really well done.

is this a part time business for him?

Joel Brazy
Coatesville, PA

Bruce called it right, go cash and carry only.

jobrazy Wrote:
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> The stuff on his site looks really well done.
>
> is this a part time business for him?

Yes.

From multiple bad experiences, never buy model RR products directly from a company. 

For every order shipped the next business day, you have 5 that give excuses and take 6 months to ship your stuff. "Two more weeks" or my wife died, or I have cancer, or I died, or my printer died, or whatever... 

Stottman Wrote:
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> From multiple bad experiences, never buy model RR
> products directly from a company. 
>
> For every order shipped the next business day, you
> have 5 that give excuses and take 6 months to ship
> your stuff. "Two more weeks" or my wife died, or I
> have cancer, or I died, or my printer died, or
> whatever... 

Depends on the company. I have had no trouble with my direct orders from Tangent and ExactRail. Some of these smaller businesses, though, do have poor reputations that  seem to be driven mainly by the part-time nature of their management. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and these operators are loaded with good intention but have trouble following through.

I'm hoping that Traincat will eventually sell his designs to another company that can produce them on a consistent basis. I really want a few of his B&O 4-track signal bridges and most importantly, the Pratt pin-connected double track thru truss bridge. It's frustrating to be willing to shell out a lot of money for products that just aren't available. I've never managed to catch him at Timonium (I'm lucky if I get there once a year), but hopefully I'll see him eventually.

Edit: His online store seems to be offline now, by the way. The main page works, but the links for the store don't seem to work anymore.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/15 11:10 by drolsen.

I selected Traincat's brass NYC-style bridges for my Conrail Onondaga Cutoff, and have been extremely satisfied with the bridges.  They really are stellar models, but as noted, it took many months to get all the bridges I needed due to the part-time status of the production.  I worked through Integrated Signal Systems, which helps quite a bit, but it still took time to get the bridges that were required.  It would be worth contacting ISS directly, Tim Maslyn there is a good resource for the status of Traincat these days.

Attached are photos of the Traincat kits, which were painted and assembled by ISS.  
1.  The 4-track bridge, extended to about 6 tracks to accommodate the spacing of tracks on a curve;
2.  Detail shots of a different 4-track bridge, with heads from ISS and nameplates I built, decaled, and installed;
3.  A custom bracket mast, assembled from Traincat components by ISS.

~RGDave
www.onondagacutoff.blogspot.com

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