Speedwitch Media update

It’s been awhile since I have communicated about the state of affairs at Speedwitch. As some of you no doubt recall, I had planned to have the Milwaukee 50’ single sheathed auto cars released some time during the past winter with other projects to follow. Unfortunately, as you have surmised, that did not happen. The castings to support that launch never materialized from the provider. I parted ways and have finally received all my patterns and masters back. That ends one journey, but another begins…

For as long as I have been in the resin kit and parts business, an adequate supply of castings has been my number one, two, and three challenges. With that in mind, I have decided to begin to make my own castings. I am fully aware that there will be a learning curve. That means that for the immediate future, there will be no new kit or part releases and in the near term (hopefully, limited to about six months) the only new things will be flat cast items, e.g. parts sets and perhaps a flat car or two. I expect it will be a minimum of 6-12 months before I can reliably produce one-piece bodies using closed molds.

That’s the less than good news. The silver lining is that I have several projects sitting here that require duplication of patterns (e.g. flat castings) to be assembled into one-piece bodies. That means that 2025 could see a bumper crop of new releases. Stay tuned… the ride will likely be akin to an old rollercoaster… bumpy in some places, thrilling in others, and hopefully, fast once we crest the first climb! 

What’s available as I type this? Mostly books:

• UTLX Steam Era Tank Cars
• Revised Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual Vol. 3: Refrigerator Cars
  
• The American Railway Association Standard Box Car of 1932
• Prototype Railroad Modeling
  
• Vol. 1
• Vol. 2
• Vol. 3
• Vol. 4
• Focus on Freight Cars 
  
• Vol. 1: Single Sheathed Box & Auto Cars
• Vol 2: Double Sheathed Box & Auto Cars
• Vol. 3: Refrigerator Cars
• Prototype Railroad Profiles

One other thing of note… I have been following the builds by several people of the 40’ CNW PS-1 auto car and SP A-50-11 auto car kits. I am 100% aware that some of the details are quite fiddly. I am working to make changes on future releases that will include jigs and such to ease assembly as well as provide alternate media for those who want to build the kits, but are ok with details that are not 100% representative of prototype, but are markedly easier to add to the models during constructions. Thanks for all the feedback!

P.S. I will post about the building of the MILW 50’ auto car at my blog here as things progress. I managed to get it about 75% complete and then pushed it to the side as it became apparent that the promises of castings being shipped were not genuine.