I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are planning to have a Happy New Year. Make sure your new year's resolutions are realistic and achievable. You might even spend some time practicing writing 2020 a few times. We are starting a new decade of the 2020's and hopefully this coming decade will be happy and prosperous for all.

Did you know that January is “National Hobby Month”? Check out the following web site www.nationalhobbymonth.com, YouTube, and Facebook for more info. Also the National Retail Hobby Stores Association’s (NRHSA) has more info too.

How much model railroading stuff did you get for Christmas? How much did you give for Christmas? Now it's time to get back to building layouts, building models, kit bashing and up grading models, coupler conversions, helping others and sharing your time and skills, and simply enjoying this great hobby. However, more importantly, is making sure your family is well cared for and there's peace and harmony in your home. No hobby, or anything for that matter, is more important than your family.

We will be attending the Amherst Train Show on January 25-26 in West Springfield, MA. This show is one of the biggest and is always well attended by modelers, manufacturers, dealers, and individual sellers, historical societies, and clubs. There's something there for everyone even if you're not a model railroader there are operating layouts, sales, displays, and "information" and "how to" clinics. We are in the Better Living Center building booth #39 in the corner by the West entrance. If you have an opportunity we'd recommend attending this show, you won't be disappointed. The only draw back might be the weather and walking around all day. So check the weather, dress appropriately, bring good walking shoes with good traction, and bring some good tote bags to carry all your purchases.

There are a number of things I need to continually repeat over again as we are still getting questions about:

  • Kadee does not make N or Z scale products since Kadee and Micro-Trains split into two totally separate companies early in the 1990s.
  • We can not just whip out new cars upon demand. It takes us 3-4 years to do a new car from scratch.
  • Freight cars is a "secondary" product for us as couplers are our primary product so freight cars are not the highest priority.
  • We do not make passenger car trucks but only freight car and caboose trucks. We do make 36" wheelsets that are appropriate for replacement in passenger car trucks.
  • The #148 coupler is the Whisker® version of the #5 coupler.
  • We do not make offset scale head couplers because they are really ugly and are not strong enough.
  • Tooling (cutting) a mold for even the simplest of products is really expensive and completely out of an individuals price range, costs for complicated molds are astronomical.
  • We are far too busy with our own projects to do any outside work.
  • We have a very long complicated project list and it's listed according to priorities.
  • All of our (Kadee) products are made right here in our own shop, we do sell some tools that are made elsewhere.
  • We do not announce new products until they are ready to release into the market.
  • We do not normally offer discounts to retail customers as we do not like to undercut our dealers.
  • Have a Happy New Year, enjoy 2020, be patient and have fun.