former (late) live steam parts supplier

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blff cty lcmtv wrks
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Joined: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:56 am

Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by blff cty lcmtv wrks »

i remember when i ordered my first set of mogul parts. when i asked him how much to make the check out for, he said to just mail him a check when i got my parts. he didn't know how much the freight would be and he would write the total on a stick on invoice. not many people would do business that way. some of them wont even ship your order, even when they get paid up front. i made damn sure i wrote him a check real quick. i even called him to let him know the check was in the mail. i still have my first bill that i got from him. a real gentleman.
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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Greg_Lewis »

blff cty lcmtv wrks wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 10:21 am i remember when i ordered my first set of mogul parts. when i asked him how much to make the check out for, he said to just mail him a check when i got my parts. he didn't know how much the freight would be and he would write the total on a stick on invoice. not many people would do business that way. some of them wont even ship your order, even when they get paid up front. i made damn sure i wrote him a check real quick. i even called him to let him know the check was in the mail. i still have my first bill that i got from him. a real gentleman.

Ditto for me. A rare individual for sure.
I remember chatting with him about building a 10-wheeler, and saying that I thought I'd build a starter engine first. He said, "Bah! Build the engine you want to build." He was right.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Berkman
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Berkman »

I remember hearing he was not a fan of waterjet/solid frame for his locomotives and preferred the built up style.
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NP317
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by NP317 »

When I ordered my Allen Ten Wheel from Gene, he also told me to send him a check when I saw the total due.
And I had purchased the ENTIRE casting set and drawings, plus some additional items. Non trivial.
Honor with a virtual handshake.
Rare today, because of some stupid people trying to take advantage of such honesty.
Call me a Luddite, but I prefer that honest world.

And I still learned to use a computer...
well... sort #&%@......
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Pontiacguy1
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

I remember hearing he was not a fan of waterjet/solid frame for his locomotives and preferred the built up style.
That may be true, I've not seen a locomotive that Gene himself built that did not have the built up frames. That was probably just what he was used to doing, and it was faster for him and required less machining.

However, most of the 1 1/2" scale locomotives that we know and see that use built-up frames were designed in the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s. Back then there wasn't a quick and easy way to cut frames out of the solid and most people in the hobby considered a milling machine to be a luxury item, and thus didn't have one. Because of these limitations, frames were designed in smaller pieces that could be bolted together so that they could be machined on a very small mill or even a lathe with a milling attachment. That's the main reasons why I think that most of these locomotives were drawn up originally with the built-up frame.
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Highiron
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Highiron »

I have several of Ken Seymour's detailed Parts patterns and molds and have some of Fred Ellis's of power models stuff as well I have retool some of it build and sell it all regularly
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