Dec. 14, 2020
What a crazy year this has been and it is not over yet. I know there is a huge amount of anxiety about the election and the direction our country is headed in but hopefully we can keep our sanity together just enjoying our hobby and the fellowship that we have as a group. I really enjoy talking with all of you. it really makes my day. Thanks to all of you.
Even though the shows have been cancelled this year I have been busy making changes to streamline my manufacuturing processes and adding more items to the product line. I have already added a lighted Texaco gas station pump set to the website and soon I will be adding more switchstands and day targets. So keep watching for that update.
Hopefully next year we can see some return to normalcy otherwise it may be a long time coming. On the positive side, I think a lot of work has been done on our layouts since so much time has been spent at home by all. That is a good thing to see our empires grow, along with our childhood dreams. It also keeps us young and busy.
I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and may God bless all of you this joyous time of year.
Mar. 15, 2020
Well what a time we are living in. I started to Chicago on Friday for the O Scale show and didn't make it to the interstate when I heard President Trump was going to declare a National Emergency at 3pm. I already was getting over a cold and did not want to be caught half way to Chicago if the show was called off. We have been told by a friend that works in the Pentagon that domestic travel restrictions are about a week or two away. He said you ought to have about 2-3 weeks of groceries on hand because all travel may be restricted. So maybe I can make a big dent in my layout room that I am finishing up. Seriously I hope all of you are doing well and will not be effected by any of this. I believe God is watching over this nation at this time and I believe it will all be Ok in a short period of time. Anyway you guys be safe and well and pray for our President and leaders.
Now on to some updates. Hopefully l have finished making changes for a while on a number of the switchstands. It takes about 4-8 weeks sometimes for one change to be reincorporated back into production. As a result I haven't put any of the new stands on my website until I knew I could produce them. The last two days I have been updating the website with the latest products. I went to Chicago in 2015 to gauge the response to what we were doing and was really happy about the response we received but I can't believe it has been 5 years since that time and the changes that me and my CAD drawing specialist have gone through. Some of it is proprietary and is unique for what we are doing but it has been a long progress. Of course it has been part time especially during pool season but it was really nice to pickup this month's issue of Model Railroader magazine and see on a two page spread our Hi level switchstands on Tony Koester's O Scale project layout. All in big beautiful color. I have talked to the magazine and in the near future I will put the HO New Century switchstand in the New Products section along with some of the other stands. I'm trying to build inventory for that day. That little switchstand is amazing. It will work in HO,S,On30 and O scale. It just looks right in all of those scales and has enough throw to work in all them. I'm having to charge a little more for it because I had to use those little brass nuts and bolts to hold it together. It is the most effective and reliable way to keep them together. Soldering is just not an option and more labor intensive.
Thanks to all you guys that have bought the stands and helped us to get to this point with your feedback. I really appreciate it. Sorry I missed out on seeing a lot of you in Chicago. Hopefully we can all get together in St. Louis in June. We think it is going to be a great show with the NMRA being there the same week. A lot of new exposure for our product and scale from the the HO guys. I will also be doing a little clinic on our switchstands and their operation in general. So I hope to see as many of you who can make it.
Sept. 8. 2019
Sorry it has taken so long to update what is going on. It has been a long hot summer literally here in Huntsville, Al. and I had to slow down my production of our products because of the demands in our swimming pool maintenance company. Just not enough time in the day to do it all. What didn't slow down was the development of the new products and the upgrading to 2nd 3rd level revisions in our existing product line.
So I say all this to let you know that we are getting ready for the Indy show Sept. 21 and 22. Our new castings should be here this week for the New Century Switch stand, the upgraded TAS-100 stand and the TAS-102 Racor stand. The New Century stand with day target should work on HO, S, O and On30 applications. I have had the engineering model on HO, O and On30 turnouts and it looks right on all three. It passes the eye test plus it is very funtional. This is a big first for the HO and S markets plus all of the O Scale applications and 3 rail.
The High Level switchstands hopefully will be in hand at the show along with the switchstands mentioned above. There will be three differeent models.
The High Level lighted NKP style with Adlake lantern and day targets with enclosed wires,
The High Level lighted NKP style with Adlake lantern and day targets with exposed wires. There were exposed wires on the first attempts to put Adlake lanterns a top the staff.
A non lighted version with day targets.
I have had some real issues with my email setup but it has been corrected now. It took me a good while to find out what the problem was but in the meantime I was missing customers emails to me which made it look like I was not responding to them. I probably have lost some of you as customers when you thought I wasn't replying but I was just in the dark about what was happening. Technology is both a blessing and a curse.
Anyway I am real happy at where we are with our product line and production is starting to ramp up as we get ready for the Indy show and beyond. If you are interested in any of these products please contact me so I can put you on a waiting list until I catch up with our inventory. I will also be updating our website with new products and information with the model numbers so keep an eye on it in the next few weeks.
If you can make Indy this year I think the new fromat for the show on Saturday and Sunday instead of Friday and Saturday is going to make a big difference in attendance for the show. Dan and Amy are working real hard to expand the show's presence in the O and S scale community.
Anyway this is a great hobby, with great people and I love so much meeting and talking with all of you that I have had the pleasure to meet. i look forward to meeting more of you and hopefully bringing more of our new products to market in the next year that I haven't mentioned here. That is in the future but for now I pray all of you will be blessed by God in your families and your health. Take care.
April 5, 2019
Well it has been a few months since I have updated our website. A lot has happened since then and I want to bring you up to date on where we are. I just got back from the Chicago O Scale show. It was a great show for us in everyway. I sold out of all the switchstands I had with me and just started taking orders. For a few months until swimming pool season slows down (which is our family business also) plese contact me if you need some of the products that I am about to announce. It is only on this update that I am mentioning this because until I can build up some inventory of these products they will be Special Order Items. TAS-103 Racor Model 22 Switchstand w/Adlake Lantern Highly Detailed
High-Level Switchstand with Day Targets
High-Level Switchstand with Adalke Lantern, Lighted
Call me or email me for more info on these items.
I want to thank Bill McConnell of O Scale Turnouts who has 10 of the TAS-103 stands on his display for the trade shows. They really looked impressive all lit up on his beautiful turnouts. They created a lot of interest and sales at the Chicago show. He has been working with me on refining the stands and linkage which will be evident in our next revision of our products and new products which will be announced soon. One new product that we are working hard to release is the NEW CENTURY stand with day target. If all goes well we will be in casting in about 3 weeks. I will keep you posted on that release.
I am working hard to fill our orders from the show and to get our latest revisions into casting. These latest changes will speed up the manufacturing process and hopefully help us to keep inventory in stock on all of our items. These are great problems to have because it shows that you, the hobbyists, are wanting the products that we producing.
I want to thank all of you who have been so supportive of our efforts over the last few years. Through your feedback we have been able to improve the functioning of the products and to give us all products that are to scale and really work on our layouts. This is really a great hobby with great people in it and I say thanks to all of you and I will be in touch again before to long.
Upedate 9/1/2018
Well it has been awhile since i last updated our product line so I will take the time today to bring you up to date on what has been going on. We just returned from the National "O"Scale show in Washington and it was a great show for us. We sold some of all of our products and we had the most in sales totals that we have had since we started going to the "O" Scale shows. That made me feel good seeing the interest in our total product line. Of course the switchstands always create a lot of interest and in a few weeks I will put two new switchstands on our website that we are finishing up on. The first stand is a more detailed version of our Adlake/Racor stand that we are currently selling. The second stand is a Hi-Level stand based on the NKP (Nickle Plate Road) version of the stand. We will also include the targets that will be attached to the stand. Both of these stands have a 3V LED instead of the 12V light that is in our current stand. These two stands are on the Model Railroader layout that will be featured next year in one of their issues.
I have been building our switchstands for over 2 years now and I have learned a lot about our manufacturing process and the linkage setup for the stands. If you have any questions at all about installing your stands on your layout please email or call me and I will be glad to share what I have learned. I have installed these stands on 3 rail as well as "O" Scale switches and I have been able to make them work on any switch. From thse experiences I have made a few changes to the stands and now what I am shipping out to the customer. I am shortening the large gear that protrudes from the bottom making it more in line with the linkage from the switch. I will also be placing in the bag an extension plate that you can solder onto this gear that will extend the throw of the stand. In most cases the extension is not needed so I am giving you the option of using it or not. I will be putting on the website a turnbuckle that I like that will allow you to extend or shorten the throw which makes it easy to adjust the throw. Be looking for that also.
I will be doing more updates now that I have more time so thanks for your interest and keep watching for there are more products coming.
Update 3/14/2018
Well I am sitting here recuperating from my "Reflux" surgery. I have 6 holes in my chest and I am on a liguid diet for a week so regretfully I am going to miss the Chicago show for the 2nd year in a row. We will be concentrating on the National "O" Scale Show in Washington D.C. in August. Our low level Adlake (Racor) and Hi-Level stands will be on display on the Model Railroader magazine "O" scale layout. So between now and then I am working on getting the Hi-level stands into production. Also we are working on getting the powered version of the low level stands up and running. There are another couple of new products underway and hopefully we will see them this year. Thanks to all of you guys for your support and I look forward to seeing more of you in the next year at some of the shows.
Update 1/3/2018
Well what a fast year it was. I meant to update sooner than this but I have been doing a lot of eperimentation and searching for parts to make the Adlake switch stand installation easier for all of us. I think I have hit on a really workable solution that should make for a very durable and lasting installation of this switch stand. You can read all about it under Downloads. This should give you a lot of info to run with and hopefully make your installations a lot easier. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. You can see my favorite gift that I got for Christmas below in my office. My granddaddy bought me a Daisy Model 94 BB gun in 1955 and I gave it away when I was 12. I have been looking for another one for years and I finally found one from an estate sale. I couldn't believe it when I got it. It looks like it was put away for 50 years when I pulled it out of the box. Check it out below. Men and their toys. You all know what I mean.
Update 11/10/2017
I have been real busy since the Indy show. It was a great show and had a tremendous response to our products. We sold out of practically everything that we had. I came home with more ideas for the switchstand and how to make the installations easier. Check the "Downloads" section of the website, in the next few days, for more ways and ideas on how to install the switchstands. I believe I have a solution for even the toughest of installations. I am also working on finding a suitable warm white Led to fit into the switchstand. Dan Dawdy of O Scale Resource Magazine suggested this for long life of the lights and I think it is a great idea. So I am earnestly trying to find one that will be the perfect fit and give the 360 degree of light that we need.
I am working on new models of the switchstands. The highly detailed version of the Racor Model 22 (Adlake), the New Century stand and a High Level stand for the NKP railroad. I have not forgotten about the Bethlehem version either. The Racor and the High Level stands are going to be on the Model Railraoder layout and it will be shown at the National Show in Washington next August and we will be there. We will also be at the Chicago show in March of 2018. I hope to unveil some new products there that I will be talking about later.
I just wanted to give a quick update for now and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday.
Update 9/1/2017
We have been working on building inventory for the Indianapolis show. The show this year will be Sept. 21-23. We are looking forward to showing our Racor/Adlake switchstand with different linkages installed on different switchtracks. I have been working on an under the pc board installation and a side mount linkage that will probably work on any switchtrack. These feature a "spring adjusted" throw that will help in almost any installation to keep the throw tight against the rails. I also have a "mod" that will solder to the bottom of our Racor/Adlake stand that will give you considerable more throw for those "long throw" switches. Also if you need your switchstands "reversed" from the normal way let me know and I can make those for you at no extra charge. I just need to know when I am putting them together for the order. This will work for those modelers who have to reach across the track to throw the switch. This way the "throw arm" will be on the front side of the switchstand closer to the modeler instead of on the backside. I haven't listed any of these linkages on the website yet but if you need one just call me or email me and I will get back to you with a price and delivery for these items until I get them on the website.
I am looking forward to hopefully seeing a lot of you guys at the show this year.
God Bless and say a prayer for all those who are suffering as a result of hurricane Harvey.
Update 7/18/17
Thanks to all of you who have been ordering the Adlake Switchstand. We have received some very encouraging feedback from our customers who have installed the switchstand and have been impressed with the quality of the unit. It has been brought to my attention also that a writer with Model Railroader magazine is doing an article about a portable "O" Scale layout and our switchstands will be on the layout. The article should be coming out sometime next year. Maybe sooner since the Editor of Model Railroader is also an "O" Scale guy. We also are gathering feedback from customers who have bought the switchstand and we are putting together an article that I hope we can get into one of the "O" Scale magazines before to long.
A note of interest on what we are calling our Adlake Switchstand. After searching for 2-3 years for reliable pics of the switchstand with detailed logos and numbers, I have finally come across one that shows that the stand is really a Racor Model 22 in all likelihood with an Adlake Lantern on top. There were also various models of the Adlake Lantern used. We are in the process of coming out with different lanterns in the near future. Also different targets were used on this stand which we have been researching and will eventually bring to market some of these targets.
For those of you who can't wait, you can probably make your own targets and they should easily mount into the top of the large gear on the switchstand. You can just remove the light bulb by gently pulling it out of the large gear and install a brass tube or rod with your target down into it.
We will be attending the Indy show on Sept. 21-23. For those of you who would like to see the switchstand in action drop by our booth and see it in action. I think you might want to take a couple of them home with you.
Thanks for your interest and happy modeling to all of you.
Quick Update 6/27/17
We are in the July/August "O" Scale Resource Magazine this month. We have officially announced the start of delivery of the Adlake Switchstand. Already we are receiving orders. I know there are a lot of hobbyists who have been waiting on this product to be available for a long time and we will do our best to keep up our inventory.
For those of you who order the product, we welcome your feedback and pictures of your installations. Thanks again for your support. Keep an eye on this website for we are already working on other switchstands such as the New Century stands with different targets.
Thanks again for all the support.
Update 5/21/17
Well it has been a long time coming but we are finally ready to start shipping some Adlake Switchstands.
I will start filling the orders I have at the present time in the next 10 days. I am still experimenting with some manufacturing processes but overall I am happy with the way the gears mesh and the overall look of the unit. I am working on different processes for the lenses but I will settle in on one in the next few days. We also are still working on the linkage to connect to the track. It should be done within the next month. In the meantime I will be shipping the units without linkage. The linkage that we have designed will be offered as a separte product. It is very involved but it looks really good and functions very well for different distances of throws.
I will probably start advertising in July for product sales and in the meantime we are working to build up some inventory.
Thanks for the encouragement I have received from a number of you guys. It has been a journey in so many ways just to make one small little product but in the process we have designed over 50 different products that hopefully in the next year will start to make their way into your hands. Thanks again for all the kind words and hopefully this product will be my way to help promote our hobby and make it more enjoyable for all. God Bless.
We have some inventory on the Assembled Utility Poles and kits of the poles (6 ea.) can be put together rather quickly. Please read under About Our Products the description of the poles and their applications
I have inventory of the EMD "F" series Wiring Harness both DC and DCC. The EMD GP-9 Wiring Harness can be put together in a week and also the same holds true for the EMD SD-40 Wiring Harness. We can assemble just about any wiring harness for your needs if you just call me. We can discuss your application and most likely one of our harnesses can be adapted to meet your request. I want to develop harnesses for a number of popular diesel models especially brass engines. There were a lot of brass engines shipped with no lighting whatsoever. We can help you bring that engine to life with one of our harnesses. This also includes 3 rail engines. Our products will work with both 2 and 3 rail products.
Please stay in touch with me. I will be updating this website with any new changes that might occur but hopefully we will start shipping products we have in inventory next week and then the switch stands in December.
Thanks again guys for your interest.