Rumor - Southern / NS Big John's in the works from Exactrail

[High Speed Kurt]

Via a cryptic response in a thread, it appears big john's are on the way at some point. 

Kurt

[Badhorse79]

That'll be sweet ... remember reading a Craftsman magazine that had a fella kitbashing one and the drawing in the same issue ... I might have to find it! 

[Ptrainman]

This maybe a dumb question, but what is a big john?

Paul

[chipallen16]

A 5-bay woodchip hopper!

-Chip 

[lwjabo]

This maybe a dumb question, but what is a big john?

Paul
It's a Southern Grain car. Was used by Southern to get into the grain hauling business back in the 60. From memory it had 3 bays. At the time it was the largest grain car on the rails. It was light weight as the body was aluminum.

[ARandall70]

Here is some information and pictures on the Big Johns:

http://smrf.railfan.net/SMRF/smrf_research/soubrochure/Big_John_1.jpg

http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/sou/cvd-hop4/

I'd certainly buy a few Big Johns, even though I model the modern era. I still see them in trains, in a variety of paint schemes, red lettering, green lettering, southern billboard letting, southern Claytor font, and in NS.

I think that they are near the end of their service lives, though. 

[Ptrainman]

Ok thanks. I knew it was a dumb question but I had never heard of them before.


Paul

[NSMoWandS]

I don't know. The locl hobby shop had a rep from exactrail come in and drop off a platinum line boxcar for them to display. (and hopefully to generate orders) They told me to take it and put it though its paces. For their supposed top of the line... It looks great... but had to modify trucks to get it to track correctly and had to add some weight. For the retail price of $39.99... I think I could find something better. Just my opinion and experience. If others have them... please tell me what you think about them. thanks.

[Michael Knight]

It is my understand that the recent "Big John" rumors were started following someone's April's Fools wish list on another model railroad forum. The speculation was based on the fact that ExactRail already produces a Magor 3-bay 4750 hopper.

Also, ExactRail future releases will effectively no longer be sold through dealers or hobby shops. ExactRail is embracing a direct sales methods by no longer offering discounts to wholesales or dealers.

[NSMoWandS]

Well, another reason NOT to buy their stuff!!!

[ARandall70]

It did start as an april fools joke, but one of the elements of that joke has already happened: Exactrail announced direct sales only, and the second element, the big john, was mentioned in a reply by an exactrail representative:

From the Atlas HO Model RR Forum at:http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=70311&whichpage=2

Group,

>I find I have to agree with Bob - there won't be
>any more ExactRail product coming to my railroad.

Although we respect your thoughts, we certainly hope that this is not the case. We would like ExactRail products to be an option for you--especially given that the quality of our products is remarkable and our commitments to the industry are sure.

We feel that the best solution for our customers is to serve them with direct model. We believe that the relationships that result will empower us to be better connected to you. The overwhelming majority of our sales are to internet related businesses. In these cases, our merchandise literally passes from our hands to their hands to your hands with a 20-30% mark-up. Insofar as this is the case, the markup is increased cost that the consumer bears.

>Well this part of the April Fools thread is true...is there an exact rail Big John coming out?

As per the comments about an ExactRail Magor Big John, I am not ready to comment about that...yet.

Best regards,

Blaine Hadfield

Vice President, Product
ExactRail, LLC

By no means is it an announcement, but its better than nothing.