ESM — Made In America Low Side Gondola reservations

[bbussey]

Four years in the making. 

The moment FINALLY has arrived to solicit reservations for the ESM Made In America 41' Nine-Panel Low Side Gondola craftsman kit.  The model is based on the Maine Central and Atlantic Coast Line prototypes.  The price will be $40 per kit.  The minimum run quantity will be slightly over the reservation number, not to exceed 110 pieces.  The etchings and rapid prototype parts will be produced according to the reservations.  Do not assume that this kit will be available for subsequent releases.

To place reservations, send an email with quantity desired to lsgrez@esmc.com.  Should reservations exceed 110 pieces, they will be filled chronologically.  Please do not remit deposits or payment at this time.

You also may review the current unpublished iteration of the assembly instructions HERE.  While there will be some minor modifications and corrections before publication, they will make apparent the skills and tools required to build the kit.  This kit is slightly more intricate than the G32C Gondola but far easier to build than the KV Caboose.  If you have any questions or observations regarding a step in the instructions specifically or about the kit in general, please post in this thread.  Please do not email queries to the reservation email or to any other ESM email address.

The project is being announced here at Railwire first because it was spawned here.  The kit announcement will be posted on Facebook and the website in one week.

The long-running LSG project thread will be concluded with the post-mortem sometime in July, after the kits are released.

[Missaberoad]

Order placed, excited to see these... 

[Lemosteam]

Nice job on the design and the instructions Bryan! 

[up1950s]

Ordered my 10 as promised , and thanks for doing these .

[peteski]

Bryan,  is this the same gondola for which you took reservations earlier in another thread?  Or was that just to gauge the interest in these models?

[CrazyLynx]

+2 - reservation request sent.

Thx Bryan for getting that project through to completion!

[bbussey]

Bryan,  is this the same gondola for which you took reservations earlier in another thread?  Or was that just to gauge the interest in these models?

Pete, never took reservations on this kit prior to today.  After many setbacks, it's finally near the finish line.

[nstars]

Order placed.

Marc

[eja]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

You lost me at $40.00 per kit. No need too read further.

eja

Umm. For a limited run kit?

Have you SEEN Bryan's level of transparency on this whole thing???

Seriously, I'm so tired of the reflexive complaints about prices these days.

It's still a FAR cheaper hobby than, say, sailing.

[peteski]

I emailed my order to the listed address. I hope it was received because I didn't see an acknowledgement. I like to see a verification that an order (or reservation) has been received and not ended up in a SPAM folder.

[up1950s]

I emailed my order to the listed address. I hope it was received because I didn't see an acknowledgement. I like to see a verification that an order (or reservation) has been received and not ended up in a SPAM folder.

I hope they take Paypal .

[tom mann]

Considering all that is included, it's more than in line price-wise with existing kits.

[Dave V]

You lost me at $40.00 per kit. No need too read further.

eja

This probably isn't your "train filler" car...that's more of a Trainman thing.  But if you had a very specific need for this prototype, $40 is par with what you can expect to pay for limited run cars at this level of detail from any manufacturer.  In fact, look at what Bachmann is selling for much more than this, especially in light of the amount of research and detail Bryan's put into this.

This isn't a car I need (for obvious reasons these days!) so I'm afraid I'll have to pass...but were I in need of this car, I'd be okay at $40.  Bryan's not running a charity...we can't ask him to sell to us for a loss just because we share a forum.   

[basementcalling]

Those are awesome damn directions. Those will certainly help customers produce a high quality model to be proud of. Pictures look great. Wonderful to see our scale reach a point where this type of offering is feasible enough for a company to make it happen.

Not my era or prototype, but can't help wondering if any of the ACL or SBD scheme cars went in or out of Tidewater, Va.

$40 spent on this car is sure better for our hobby than the same $ going to Bachmann for some of their recent overpriced offerings.