Model Railroading > Highliners bodies

A conversation with Paul not to !ong ago revealed that his Highliners site would be up after the 1st of the year. Looks like the site is up again but minimally. A and B bodies are for sale, but the rest hasn't been restored yet. If you read the history of highliners he even reveals easter eggs on up coming goodies.

 https://highliners-online.com/

Hope he reruns the grills too.

Thanks for giving us the heads up. Does he offer fuel tank skirts that could be used on a Genesis FP7 (the skirt is longer for an obvious reason). I purchased a pair of Genesis FP7s with the fuel tank skirts removed to represent a later date. I would like to retrofit them without going to a lot of trouble.

Victor Baird

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Thanks for giving us the heads up. Does he offer
> fuel tank skirts that could be used on a Genesis
> FP7 (the skirt is longer for an obvious reason). I
> purchased a pair of Genesis FP7s with the fuel
> tank skirts removed to represent a later date. I
> would like to retrofit them without going to a lot
> of trouble.
>
> Victor Baird

Nope, skirts are part of the one piece body shell.

Thanks. That's what I figured and you probably can't get a Fp7 shell from Paul?

Victor Baird

Posted from Android

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Thanks. That's what I figured and you probably
> can't get a Fp7 shell from Paul?
>
> Victor Baird
>
> Posted from Android

Not yet, why not ask him directly?

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Thanks. That's what I figured and you probably
> can't get a Fp7 shell from Paul?

Highliners never made a FP7 shell. The original Genesis FP7s were a splice of Highliner shells with a new longer side panel insert. Eventually Athearn made a completely new mold for the FP units as a single piece shell.  I can't speak for Paul, but I understand he was able to get a bunch of those from Athearn at one time and sold them on his site.

The Highliner shells are great, as are all the other parts that I hope will again be available. Thiough for someone like me who primarily modeled the later phase units (no rear roof overhang, larger side windows, and rounded door corners) the Highliner shell requires some work to get there.  Someday we must get Bob Zenk to share his sketches of his concept for modular F unit shells.  They're brilliant!  Would have, and still could, make for fantastic models.

Elizabeth

Paul is a die cutter, i belive he cut the new FP7/9 shell as well as the original molds. I like what I read on the new page:

 "Along with a few new yet to be seen smaller add-on products, (grab iron sets, pressure cast epoxy-ceramic fan grill forming dies) we will be introducing an important new adjunct to the Highliners F Unit line. Early engineering prototypes may be seen in this product listing’s images, see if you can spot it."

It will be great when he adds everything back to his site and we see what new things he has in the works.

I remember back in the 60's (maybe early 70's) when Paul had a letter in Model Railroader proposing his modular approach to F unit models. It's a little surprising that the shell is only accurate for early F7's and before, given what a stickler for detail Paul is. I wish he'd bring back the signals!

How old is Paul? 

Does he still cut the dies without CNC?

Liz, happy to oblige, courtesy our friend Dave Hussey, who kept these as part of the Gordon Cannon files.

Backstory's simple: I had lunch with Paul at the NMRA Pacific Coast Region convention in San Jose, CA in 1983 while I was on retainer by Pacific Fast Mail. We discussed projects of mutual benefit. (Sounds very high-level, doesn't it?) :-)

Gordon and I had become friends when working on PFM projects together. He and I had discussed making a flat kit (then the rage for limited sales potential for mass market but best for the finest scale modelers at the time). I was invested in the notion that PFM could take these kit parts, assemble them in Korea at one of the PFM factories, and finish them with a Korean smooth-running power chassis.

Paul and I discussed the subject, but didn't plan anything and I don't recall any specific agendas arising from the meeting, other than it was great to meet the guy who'd done such amazing US&S signal models for SP fans.

Gordon and I later roughed out the ideas for the flat kit. I presented to the PFM owner, who couldn't see the benefit to PFM. (He was a swell person, Don Drew, absolutely swell. And very much not ahead of the burgeoning "RPM" mentality of modeling.) I have no recollection of having called Paul and said the project was not happening at PFM. I may have, and I should be considered quite unreliable as far as what Paul's recollection might be.

Dave shared these drawing copies in the last few years as this topic comes up, mostly with Highliners coming back live on the market. I don't claim to be the originator of anything but these drawings and the work done together with Gordon Cannon to refine the concept (see the fans in particular for the rush of familiarity).

Paul Lubliner invested a lot of time in making the best model shell ever done in HO, bar none, with utterly scale rivets and fasteners, perfect contours, and correct-to-scale panel depths -- nothing even approches this delicacy and authenticity in the 2020s world of EDM and CAD moldmaking bluntness, roundness, and exaggeration -- sorry. We still make cartoons; Paul shrunk F units to scale.

Anyway, Liz, here they are, and thanks for asking!

~ BZ

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CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> I remember back in the 60's (maybe early 70's)
> when Paul had a letter in Model Railroader
> proposing his modular approach to F unit models.
> It's a little surprising that the shell is only
> accurate for early F7's and before, given what a
> stickler for detail Paul is. I wish he'd bring
> back the signals!

And how do you qualify that its not correct for anything beyond early F7s.
BZ, that a great drawing, it like looking at the Highliner assembly instructions. Its not just a kit, its an F unit education.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/25 22:21 by TomG.

I had a somewhat unpleasant interaction with him 2 years ago getting grills for a B unit kit I had picked up at a swap meet. Hopefully he’s in better health or has found a partner to continue the business.

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