What Silver Crash Car Works is all about

Silver Crash Car Works is about meticulously detailed resin castings, in HO scale, of rolling stock that appeared on American railroads in the years just before and after the Silver Panic of 1893. The period from 1880 to 1900 has always been poorly served by model railroad manufacturers, and until recently, wooden craftsman kits - tedious to assemble and lacking in fine detail - made up 90% of what was available. With the improvements in casting technology over the last few years, our Master Car Builders realized that rather than scratchbuilding multiple copies of the cars they wanted, they could make just one superbly detailed master of each car, then have it cast for themselves and those around them.

The Prototypes for Our Cars
    Both of our Master Car Builders model the Colorado Midland Railway in the 1890s, so all of our cars are based on prototypes that ran on the Midland. Fortunately for those who model other railroads, foreign cars carried half of the Midland's freight, and since the road was an important link in the transcontinental traffic patterns of the 1890s, cars from all over the country appeared on the CM. In addition, the Midland's own rolling stock was in most cases identical to cars bought by other railroads, especially the AT&SF, so our offerings should interest anyone modeling the American railroad scene from 1880 to the First World War.

Details, Details, and More Details
    We take the time and trouble to detail our masters as finely as is humanly possible - including the underframes for the benefit of those who have track at eye level or above - and our cars are cast in Alumilite resin, which reproduces fine detail extremely well. The 300+ bolts on our CM/AT&SF stock car are a good example of what we are talking about, and our refrigerators and boxcars are the first to feature the beaded tongue-and-groove siding and grooved roof boards so characteristic of late 19th-century American rolling stock.

Assembling Our Kits
    Even with all of that detail, our kits are easy to assemble compared to a typical wooden craftsman kit. We have car bodies cast in one piece whenever possible, and our boxcars and reefers are almost as easy to put together as one of those ancient Model Die Casting cars with metal underframe and separate grab-irons. Each Silver Crash Car Works kit comes with instructions and a list of parts like grab-irons and brake rigging (not included) that you will need to get your car looking just like the ones in our photos. We design our cars to accept Kadee old-time couplers, but they are sold without couplers and without trucks. Please refer to individual car pages for our truck recommendations, and for information about the decals or dry transfers you will need to letter your kit.
    There is a great article about building resin car kits on the Amesville Shops website. Please keep in mind that our kits are not intended for assembly or ingestion by small children or pets.

Production Runs
    A silicone rubber mold for one of our models will not yield more than about 25 cars, so our kits are limited editions in multiples of 25. For most cars, we start with a run of just 25 or 50, but will be happy to do further runs if and when the demand justifies them.