Town Models, circa 1976.

The Toy and Hobby House Scale Railroad Division announced their exclusive supply of the Town Models produced SR&RL coach #19/20 with this advert placed in the March/April1976 edition of the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette.

We believe that Town Models was a trading name used by Darryl Townsend when he moved from New England to the Chicago area. Previously Darryl had worked with Lee Snover Snr. on items released under the Leetown name.

We also believe that Town Models produced 50 pieces each of three brass models in 1976 before disappearing from the scene;- SR&RL Coach 19-20, SR&RL Combine 15 and SR&RL boxcar 147 which was offered for sale directly complete with SRE trucks.

A significant feature of the Town Models Coach #19/20 is that it was produced with the original arched windows representing the coaches in their as built condition for the P&R  (SR&RL 19 was built in 1890 for P&R as their #2 and SR&RL 20 was built in 1891 as the P&R #4.) Note that SR&RL Combine #15 was built in 1890 for P&R as their #1.

The Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette advert is reproduced here by permission of Bob Brown, Editor and Owner of the Gazette. http://www.ngslgazette.com/

Custom Brass – the first Importer

Front page of the NJ/Custom Brass catalog.

The most prolific producer of brass items for the Maine On2 modeller has been the Custom Brass line of SR&RL items produced by NJ International. The items were imported into the USA at four different times from builders in Japan and Korea, and covered locomotives, passenger coaching stock and caboose’s. The items are regularly available second-hand via private sales, dealers and eBay, and even today (originally written in 2016, and latest such offering sold mid November 2021) can be acquired in “mint condition”, ie not run or “test run only” in the original gold lacquer finish. In addition, Custom Brass also produced wooden kits for a SR&RL boxcar and turntable.

More pages from the NJ/Custom Brass catalog;-

In a posting to the On2 Yahoo group, Tony Koester noted that the N.J. in N.J. International stood for “Nick (Riess?) and Jack (LaRusa),” the two partners in N.J. International. They both lived on Long Island, not in New Jersey. I am not sure of the spelling of Nick’s last name, but it was pronounced “Reese”.

Tony continued;- when I was editing Railroad Model Craftsman in the 1970s, Wayne Daniels was our advertising manager, and he was and still is a big two-footer fan. Wayne had several NJI On2 models on his credenza, and I suspect he and Jack (more so than Nick) collaborated on this in some way. This was a common practise. Jack may indeed have realized that the limited run of brass models made it feasible to make money on a narrow-interest field (pun intended) like On2.

Jace Kahn writes;- I think Tony Koester is probably correct that his colleague was able to persuade one of the CBR partners to test the market for On2. There were a few specialty basement manufacturers of On2 before 1970, but it was still very much a scratch-builder’s niche.

The first Custom Brass items, the loco #6, caboose, and passenger set, which arrived in 1974/5/6, all came from a smaller builder in Japan calling itself Orion (they also built some of the NWSL brass for Raoul Martin).

By the early 1970’s, Japanese model builders had pretty well reached their capacity, and most, such as KTM were fully committed to the major importers, such as PFM and US Hobbies and Balboa/Westside, and the rising standard of living there and the exchange rate between the dollar and the yen began to really price brass models out of mass-market pocketbook.   

Later entrants, such as NWSL and NJI/CBR had to scramble to find other builders who could still produce the requisite quality at an affordable price, such as Orion. Both Raoul Martin and the NJI/CBR partners had to hunt for builders because they came on the scene after the boom times. Related to this both were among the earliest importers to try to move production to Korea; later CBR imports were mostly by Lhee Do , including the three prairies (each a bit better than the previous one, the long cabooses, and the Eustis locomotives.

What is not commonly known is that originally Raoul Martin of NWSL had plans to import both SR&RL #24 and the “Rangeley”, but nothing came of that until CBR did the #24 and Car Works–much later–did the Rangeley along with other On2 passenger stock.

The SR&RL #6 listed for around $250 – 300 in the mid-1970’s, which was NOT a bargain: it was sort of in-between the price of most HO brass locomotives at the time and comparable O scale brass. As far as I can recall, the Korean made #24 listed at $425 ca. 1983; I think the previous two Prairies (#16 and #18) also made in Korea sold for around $350.

 Chronological order of Custom Brass imports

 Based on the original list “BRASS MODELS IN On2” put together by Walter Orloff & Terry Smith in 2004, and updated Terry Smith in 2013.

		Manufacturer	Year	Quantity	Original Retail Price	Brass Guide Number
Combine	#15	Orion	1974	200
Coach	#19/20	Orion	1974	300	$120	30477
Loco 0-4-4T	#6	GOM	1975	350	$250	30820
Baggage	#8	Orion	1975	190	$120	30476
Caboose	#556	KMT	1976	270	$65	30535
Loco 2-6-2	#16	Daiyoung	1979	125	$350	30826
Loco 2-6-2	#18	Daiyoung	1979	125	$350	30821
Loco 2-6-2	#24	Daiyoung	1983	125	$450	30825
Loco 0-4-4T	#20	Daiyoung	1985	50	$370	30822
Loco 0-4-4T	#21	Daiyoung	1985	50	$370	30823
Loco 0-4-4T	#22	Daiyoung	1985	50	$370	30824
Caboose	#551	WooSung	1985	75		37815

 Brass Guide number;-   http://www.brasstrains.com/

 A selection of adverts and announcements.

The first news that an importer was working in On2 surfaced at the 1974 NMRA Convention when a pilot model of a Portland Forney in On2 was shown and reported in the July 1974 edition of Finelines magazine (the predecessor of the NG&SL Gazette).

There were two adverts featuring this locomotive in the September 1974 edition of Finelines. The second, in page order, was from Custom Brass themselves and announced both the SR&RL #6 and the range of other items to follow to complement the loco;-

The first advert, in page order, was from The Hobby Barn, run by Pauline & Bob Werner who announced that they were now accepting reservations for the loco, and also listed a pretty complete set of major items that impatient persons could order to build their own loco, which incidentally included a number of their own castings released under their Portland Products banner;-

The November 1974 edition of Finelines magazine carried this advert for the SR&RL Caboose #556;-

It would appear that the schedules suggested were a little optimistic, as the first report of the production locomotives being seen was in the September/October 1975 edition of the NG&SL Gazette, and the narrative stated that the passenger cars would be delayed until 1976.

Custom Brass had posted the following advert in the July/August 1975 edition of the NG&SL Gazette;-

This advert was followed closely by this announcement of the wooden boxcar kit in the September/October 1975 edition of the NG&SL Gazette, which also gave advance notice of the turntable.

The wooden turntable kit was announced in the January/February 1976 issue of the NG&SL Gazette.

SR&RL Coaches 19/20 were announced in the March/April 1976 issue of the NG&SL Gazette.

Followed by Combine 15 in the July/August 1977 edition.

The impending arrival of Baggage Car #8 was announced in the March/April 1978 edition of the NG&SL Gazette.

In the March/April 1979 edition of the NG&SL Gazette announced their intention to build models of SR&RL locomotives #16 & #18.

The November/December 1979 edition of the NG&SL Gazette announced that the models had arrived.

The November/December 1982 edition of the NG&SL Gazette carried this picture showing the pilot model of SR&RL locomotive #24.

The advert below was placed in the July/August 1983 edition of the NG&SL Gazette announcing the intention to build models of SR&RL #20, #21 & #22.

In the January/February 1984 and repeated in the May/June and July/August editions of the NG&SL Gazette the advert had changed to offering models of SR&RL #20 & #21, followed by #17 & #22. When the models finally arrived in 1985, no model of #17 was imported.

The last model imported by Custom Brass was the SR&RL Caboose #551, but was announced by this advert placed in  September/October 1982 edition of the NG&SL Gazette;-

Last modified: Date in text changed 19-11-2021; Additional links added and text changes 16-10-2020: 23-08-2015, text revised (2x) with additional pictures 29-06-2016.

Custom Brass – SR&RL Passenger Cars, Coach 19/20