Public Thanks

rfranzosa · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:12 am Post subject: Public Thanks

Hi Gang,

When I was 11 years old, growing up in Connecticut, I asked my parents for an HO train set to replace the battered Lionel O27 Erie Alco FAs that my brothers and I had brutalized over the years.

I received a Marx HO set with a red and grey locomotive from a railroad I had never heard of!

I remember looking at the locomotive in my hand and thinking "what is Monon, and what the heck is a Hoosier?"

Fast forward almost 50 years.

I was contacted last summer by Rick Berg, creator of the incredible Monon 2 route. He asked if Gaetan and I could do a few of the Monon cabooses. I said sure, and he sent me pictures of the SIX different caboose styles that Gaetan hadn't already done! This included strange looking 'head-end' cabooses, required by Indiana laws.

It got wierder. Box cars with grain hatches? Gondola cars with coke containers? a fleet of passenger cars built from US Army hospital cars? Troop kitchens convered to express cars, cabooses and steam generators? I was hooked!

I spent more time preparing this set than any I have done before (5-6 months). I have become a Hoosier Line fan!!

I want to publicly thank Rick Berg for his tireless support throughout this project. He provided me with an incredible amount of detailed historic information and photos. I hope that my efforts with this set are worthy of his great route.

I also want to thank David Carleton for his encyclopedic knowledge of passenger car construction, and Gaetan and the rest of his team for all of their testing and support.

RGF

Prole · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 52

The Monon certainly was an interesting railroad. Any chance of producing CIL's BL2 for us Hoosier fans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_BL2

rfranzosa · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:45 pm Post subject:

Gaetan · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:14 pm Post subject:

need diagrams and very good pictures from the cabview taken in the right position

rfranzosa · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject:

Coming your way, mon ami!

Wink

Prole · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 52

http://exotic.railfan.net/BL2.htm (Link to a diagram)

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/monon/mon30ads.jpg

I like the cab number on the underside of the platform steps of the Monon units.

Prole · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 52

Not to press the point, but it would be nice to have a BL2 set (like your Geep and Cadi sets). 9 railroads ordered them and there are 7 preserved in museums back east (we didn't get any out here in the west).

In the June 1962 issue of Model Railroader Magazine apparently are drawings of this Ugly Duckling, if anyone came come up with the back issue.

http://album.atomic-systems.com/showPic.php/22426/BL2_cab.jpg

rfranzosa · Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:51 pm Post subject:

Nicely done, also some great picts over at railpictures.net