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Post by GP40P-2 on May 26, 2017 9:20:42 GMT -8
Brakie made a comment in the Lima switcher thread about ordering one back in 1978/79. That sounds like a good topic, all the stuff that has been announced through the years and never delivered. Bonus points if you actually put out money and never got anything!! My first contribution is for an Eagle II Trailways bus, announced by an outfit called "Little Things" back in the early 1980's. Sent money, and 30 years later we are still missing a good selection of long distance buses; and I am still waiting for Cliff Claven to deliver the two that I ordered and paid for.... The second will be the American GK P30CH and their idea of its fantasy little brother, a F30BH(??) four axle version. Both were in the Walthers catalog in the late 1970s. My GSB catalog is buried deep in storage, so someone else can run with it. I do remember an RS-1, MP15AC, SD40T-2 and some Geeps, all now released by others. Did he have anything that no one has ever gotten to? Diesels, steam, rolling stock, structures, vehicles, detail parts, decals, it is all good, so what do you have?  ? Please try to bring up anything that was actually advertised in some way (Walthers catalog, magazines, etc), not word of mouth rumor stuff (i.e the Athearn BB F40PH). It might be fun to build a master list of everything that didn't quite ever make it out the door, aka Vaporware. Jim |
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Post by The Ferro Kid on May 26, 2017 9:46:44 GMT -8
As I mentioned in another thread, the Lima switcher was advertised one month in a 70s-era Model Railroader. I'd have to really dig to find which issue.
Then there's the River Point Station FL-9, still described on their website but with a pop-up explaining the travails they encountered trying to get the shell into production. So, perhaps not entirely "vaporware," because some tooling existed, but the project was stillborn due to inability to find a manufacturer, and of course the coming of the Rapido FL-9.
Stillborn also sort of describes the Lindbergh GE U25B. Apparently there were some test shots of it, but never went into production.
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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on May 26, 2017 9:54:10 GMT -8
I was looking forward to the Branchline 40' box cars with welded sides - particularly the ones with 6' doors. www.pbase.com/dh30973/image/31435058I could bring up the vaporware of Railflyer also. Luckily I held off from pre-ordering anything and didn't get burned like others did. |
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Post by dti406 on May 26, 2017 10:11:12 GMT -8
Front Range announced and did some test shots of a Ribbed Side 60' ACF Boxcar, some of the shells exist but no underframe was ever made.
A company called D&H Models announced an RS-1 and had advertisements on the back cover of Mainline Modeler, but they never produced it.
Rick Jesionowski
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 26, 2017 10:17:42 GMT -8
Well, there IS that NW5 by OMI I mentioned a few minutes ago. And the follow-on T55 stuff. UP gas turbine? ?? Ed |
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Post by Spikre on May 26, 2017 10:18:23 GMT -8
 early 70s Lima Models announced the Lima LS-12 or LS-1200 Roadswitcher. seems a Fat body mold was made,but never put into production. Lima did make the SP GS-4 body that originally was put out by Lionel, then later by Bachman. Tyco around the same time announced a PRR J-1/1a Texas that never showed up. will think of some more later. Spikre 
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Post by scl1234 on May 26, 2017 10:19:51 GMT -8
Maybe these won't ultimately turn out as vaporware...but they were if you expected them in 2016...now ~40 percent of 2017 has passed with no updates. Which begs the question: Will the "vaporware definition" for this thread be ~5 years elapsed since product announcement with no sign of delivery? Perhaps less time? I predict the Atlas U33s/U36s will be available before the end of November barring accidents... |
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Post by keystonefarm on May 26, 2017 10:59:17 GMT -8
Company called East Coast models offered a scale width hood GP-9 . They never produced one but it later showed up as one of the first Front Range products. I did have one of the GSB SD-40-2's with the Bulldog chassis and Tan can motor. Way too light and the trucks gearing had issues. They also had a PRR E-44 as a future product along with some MP-15's and others. While it seemed like vaporware for many years the Highliner F unit bodies had the longest wait for a product that I know of. --- Ken
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Post by jonklein611 on May 26, 2017 11:08:08 GMT -8
I'm half tempted to mention the Atlas AEM-7 Re-runs (with sound this time). Announced in 2014, and as of today, pushed out to Q3 of 2017 for delivery. No money down for my reservation (thanks trainworld!), but I'm hopeful these turn up, eventually.
Rapido's LRC almost ended up in this category, but it did come out, eventually.
Trix announced a true HO scale ICE-1 in 2009, with all new tooling / cars (most ICE train models are compressed length because of the tighter radius used in European model railroads). I was ready to place a pre-order, then Marklin / Trix promptly declared bankruptcy. They skipped that year of the catalog and moved right on to the TGV...
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Post by craigz on May 26, 2017 11:29:31 GMT -8
Company called East Coast models offered a scale width hood GP-9 . They never produced one but it later showed up as one of the first Front Range products. I did have one of the GSB SD-40-2's with the Bulldog chassis and Tan can motor. Way too light and the trucks gearing had issues. They also had a PRR E-44 as a future product along with some MP-15's and others. While it seemed like vaporware for many years the Highliner F unit bodies had the longest wait for a product that I know of. --- Ken I know the East Coast Models guy...still lives here in central North Carolina. That whole experience with Front Range/Fred Becker left him with such a bad taste in his mouth that he quit trains for many many years. He's back now as East Coast Railroads...he's doing some nice work, especially the Seaboard's Magor-built wood caboose models... eastcoastrailroads.com/caboose/UND.html ...not cheap but very very well done models of a distinctive prototype. |
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Post by roadkill on May 26, 2017 12:00:13 GMT -8
Didn't River Point Station announce New Haven PS coaches like the ones Rapido makes?
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2017 14:26:09 GMT -8
I'm half tempted to mention the Atlas AEM-7 Re-runs (with sound this time). Announced in 2014, and as of today, pushed out to Q3 of 2017 for delivery. No money down for my reservation (thanks trainworld!), but I'm hopeful these turn up, eventually. Rapido's LRC almost ended up in this category, but it did come out, eventually. Trix announced a true HO scale ICE-1 in 2009, with all new tooling / cars (most ICE train models are compressed length because of the tighter radius used in European model railroads). I was ready to place a pre-order, then Marklin / Trix promptly declared bankruptcy. They skipped that year of the catalog and moved right on to the TGV... I'd call the AEM7s vaporware at this point. I just hope that Atlas is taking their time re-tooling the shell to add ditch lights  Who am I kidding. Most manufacturers believe that ditch lights aren't important  |
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Post by oldmuley on May 26, 2017 14:38:43 GMT -8
What about the wi-fi decoders that were under development by Railflyer -> Phoenix-Micron -> Layout IoE -> Rebel Locomotives? There were a lot of promises made 2 or 3 years ago, then nothing...the decoders just disappeared (along with the layout IoE website.) I now see he-who-shall-not-be-named is selling detail parts and shells over on Shapeways.
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Post by talltim on May 26, 2017 14:57:37 GMT -8
Think I was quite lucky with Railflyer, the bits I ordered to detail a Athearn Geep converted to GP40-2W all arrived. Mind you, in the time it took me to half build it, not one but 2 RTR versions were released
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Post by roadkill on May 26, 2017 16:54:22 GMT -8
Who am I kidding. Most manufacturers believe that ditch lights aren't important What are "ditch lights"  ? |
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Post by Judge Doom on May 26, 2017 17:39:23 GMT -8
There was a small Canadian resin manufacturer in the 90's that was promising things but sometimes not delivering on them. Associated Model Makers (AMM, may have been related to Nova Tech, NAFTA Trains, Prototype Model Makers, and Fletchco Scale Products) released what some call "soap carvings" of resin loco shells including CP's SD40-2F*, CN HR-widebodies, CN/VIA LRC, Turbo Train and a few others, but also had a long laundry list of Canadian-specific models they were going to or wanted to produce on their website, as well as ads in Model Railroader.
I've heard from others that some shady individuals may have been in charge, and that some modelers got burnt over the years dealing with them.
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Post by dharris on May 26, 2017 17:39:41 GMT -8
Some Intermountain engines like the Tunnel Motors are vapor like.
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Post by Mark R. on May 26, 2017 18:32:14 GMT -8
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Post by jbilbrey on May 26, 2017 19:20:43 GMT -8
There was a small Canadian resin manufacturer in the 90's that was promising things but sometimes not delivering on them. Associated Model Makers (AMM, may have been related to Nova Tech, NAFTA Trains, Prototype Model Makers, and Fletchco Scale Products) released what some call "soap carvings" of resin loco shells including CP's SD40-2, CN HR-widebodies, CN/VIA LRC, Turbo Train and a few others, but also had a long laundry list of Canadian-specific models they were going to or wanted to produce on their website, as well as ads in Model Railroader. I've heard from others that some shady individuals may have been in charge, and that some modelers got burnt over the years dealing with them. I remember their ad's and websites starting in late '95 and running through 2002-2003. The one that stood out for me was the Nova-Tech HR-616. Fortunately I was either a broke college student or a broke newly-wed during that period and never sent [wasted?] any money on their products. Since we're talking about resin vaporware, Abacus Modelworks had a whole bunch of models at one time listed on their websites. But as far I know, few if any of the projects ever saw the light of day. Our poor brothers up North has had a run of Vaporware. In addition to being the home of the above "soap carvings", they have to deal with the reputation of True Line Trains. Their NSC 50' 70-ton Newsprint Box Car probably has earned the nickname of "vaporware". Years ago, Hobbycraft had pre-production samples of a HO RS18u at one of the large trains shows. Unfortunately, I think that project died when all the errors on the Hobbycraft RS18 and P1K RS11 came to light. Between the vaporware in this hobby [and on the military modeling side], I have become wary of any new manufacturer that springs up from nothing. There are the companies like Exactrail and ScaleTrains that have been formed by individuals with prior experience in the field which I can trust. Others, like Rapido, have been able to quickly build a solid reputation of producing what they announce. However, if "XYZ Company" suddenly springs up on the 'Net with the bold announcement of producing, say a GP38AC, an E44, or an Ingalls 4-S, in injection-molded plastic and no one knows anything about the owners, I would be very hesitant to spring for a pre-order that requires any kind of payment. James Bilbrey LaVergne, TN |
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Post by el3672 on May 26, 2017 19:26:06 GMT -8
always looked interesting & promising but....FAKE NEWS |
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Post by Mark R. on May 26, 2017 20:07:47 GMT -8
always looked interesting & promising but....FAKE NEWS The owner was even on one of the model train forums promoting this product as well. Obviously, it was well received, but as the weeks / months passed and people dragged the thread back for updates, the owner was no where to be found. Mark. |
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 26, 2017 20:45:13 GMT -8
What's amazing about AmazingRailroadSignals is that they show absolutely no product.
THAT is AMAZING!
Ed
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Post by areibel on May 27, 2017 5:11:47 GMT -8
There was a small Canadian resin manufacturer in the 90's that was promising things but sometimes not delivering on them. Associated Model Makers (AMM, may have been related to Nova Tech, NAFTA Trains, Prototype Model Makers, and Fletchco Scale Products) released what some call "soap carvings" of resin loco shells including CP's SD40-2F *, CN HR-widebodies, CN/VIA LRC, Turbo Train and a few others, but also had a long laundry list of Canadian-specific models they were going to or wanted to produce on their website, as well as ads in Model Railroader. I've heard from others that some shady individuals may have been in charge, and that some modelers got burnt over the years dealing with them. That "gentleman" was doing the same thing in several scales. He produced a few small resin detail items in TT scale, then promised rolling stock and a GP38-2 and never delivered. The thing no one could figure out is he actually had the masters for several TT freight cars (that were sold later on Ebay), his castings looked good but evidently he just couldn't get his stuff together. |
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Post by ddatrainman on May 27, 2017 6:02:07 GMT -8
Didn't River Point Station announce New Haven PS coaches like the ones Rapido makes? I remember they were trying to produce the FL9 (which Rapido made) |
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Post by rails4dmv on May 27, 2017 6:52:43 GMT -8
How about Canadian Model Trains (CMT)?...The whole company became vaporware! I still haven't gotten the full story of what happened with that company.
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wdw
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Post by wdw on May 27, 2017 7:29:35 GMT -8
In the late '70s, Lima announced an HO Big Boy.
They even put what looked a lot like a Rivarossi model on the cover page of their catalog IIRC (but that catalog is stowed away thousands of miles away, so I have no way of checking it soon).
WDW |
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Post by dreadnought on May 27, 2017 10:04:09 GMT -8
The guy promising "Kerosene Pink" signals. If anyone knows what railroad used that aspect, and what it indicated, let us know. A google search on the term turns up - nothing! I found this database on transportation markings report which, on Page 93, indicates that Kerosene Pink is a signal marking, but not what it does. The reference for it is an advertisement, so it might be that Kerosene Pink was advertised but never actually used. ntl.bts.gov/lib/16000/16800/16808/Clearman_Brian2009.pdfThe guys at Trainorders also couldn't figure out exactly what it meant. One said he had actually seen one, so perhaps they did exist, but no one seems to know what for, or who used them. www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,215584 Some more digging shows that the only person, seemingly, who has anything to say about what it does is Mr. Vaporware himself: www.dwnewman.com/AmazingRailroadSignals/faq.html"- "KP" ("Kerosene Pink"), a magenta / hot pink aspect used on some roads as an aspect that fits in the hierarchy of aspect restrictiveness, between Lunar and Amber (yellow)" Naturally, I'm not sure if we should trust his interpretation, but there doesn't seem to be much information available elsewhere. Dreadnought |
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Post by Judge Doom on May 27, 2017 10:34:53 GMT -8
How about Canadian Model Trains (CMT)?...The whole company became vaporware! I still haven't gotten the full story of what happened with that company. If I recall correctly (it has been a number of years - 2012?) Tom Tomblin, the owner of Canadian Model Trains (dealer/retailer), was shilling everyone on the (not affiliated) CanModelTrains Yahoo group with some new-age hype about how CMT was undergoing a dramatic change or something to become more of a supplier/manufacturer in the hobby. He was assuring many people things were alright. Red flags started going up when all of their inventory was, all of the sudden, sold to True-Line Trains (which ended up gaving TLT a headache as they didn't get any pre-order or reservation lists for products CMT customers had deposits/orders for, nor any deposits) and people couldn't reach CMT (phone line down?). All of the sudden, basically overnight, Tom just vanished. It was a surprise to some of the CMT employees too, one of which posted such on the Yahoo group. He burned a lot of people, including all those with deposits/preorders, Overland, and Rapido, and put the HO-scale Pointe St. Charles caboose project they had in the works with Rapido into a snafu, along with everyone losing the reservation $$$ they put down with CMT (TLT would later purchase the (nearly finished?) tooling for it, and have since produced it). Word is nobody's been able to contact Tom since. His wife may have been having health problems at the time, but the extent of which or any other financial problems he or CMT may or may not have been having are still unclear to many. ... Our poor brothers up North has had a run of Vaporware. In addition to being the home of the above "soap carvings", they have to deal with the reputation of True Line Trains. Their NSC 50' 70-ton Newsprint Box Car probably has earned the nickname of "vaporware". Years ago, Hobbycraft had pre-production samples of a HO RS18u at one of the large trains shows. Unfortunately, I think that project died when all the errors on the Hobbycraft RS18 and P1K RS11 came to light. James Bilbrey LaVergne, TN TLT had those later NSC newsprint boxes announced for a while, but Atlas eventually came out with their quite nice model, and that is likely the end of it from TLT. I suspect it might be the same issue for their RS18u, it and the RS10/11/18 are ripe for the taking for someone else to produce (the old dimensionally incorrect tooling hasn't been rerun by Walthers or TLT since the Walthers takeover of Life-Like (which resulted in Hobbycraft going their own way and forming True-Line Trains) so I suspect it got lost and neither of them have it - there was mention of some lost tooling in the split). The RS18u model they had on display was just a modified old-run P1K RS18 with a chop-nose for show display purposes, so any new tooling probably wasn't made yet. Probably ditto for the 50' NSC boxes. From all their posts on social media, TLT doesn't seem to be on solid financial ground at the moment. They're slowly trying to churn out more new and rerun product, but they've had to pare down their planned SW1200RS release dramatically to just CN units in one scheme for the first run in DCC only (no DC), and their new business address traces to a self-storage facility. Both owners have also stated they're dealing with some family issues, but are keeping TLT going and working to get new product out when they can and when finances allow. |
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 27, 2017 10:37:52 GMT -8
Some glass, when exposed to sunlight, takes on a color cast: sha.org/bottle/colors.htmNote the words "light pink". Perhaps there are/were clear (white) indications that changed to "kerosene pink" because of that. Ed |
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Post by drolsen on May 27, 2017 11:01:24 GMT -8
What was the name of the East Coast resin designer who had the website listing a couple dozen or so prototypes that he planned to produce about 5 or 6 years ago? He had lots of interesting ideas, including the Chessie HC-44 ACF 2700 cuft covered hopper. I believe he appeared at a few shows (like Springfield) with flyers for his product line. I think he had produced molds for other resin companies and was trying to branch out on his own. It's too bad that he seems to have faded away, but I'm not sure I could have afforded, or found the time to build, all the interesting models he was planning. Their NSC 50' 70-ton Newsprint Box Car probably has earned the nickname of "vaporware". I'm pretty sure they said they were canceling that model after Atlas announced, and then quickly released, theirs out of the blue. A bummer for them, but the Atlas model is excellent. Dave |
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