Bruce McCosh
As part of the Snake River Special Convention, the 3rd Division will hold a special modeling contest, based upon a specific structure kit. Jimmy Deignan, of RailroadKits.com, has created a small HO structure called Marshall’s Shipping ($15 + $5 shipping).
Models entered in this contest must start with a Marshall’s Shipping kit from RailroadKits.com. You can modify, kit-bash or extend it in any way you choose but you can’t spend more than $25 on additional items (i.e., figures, details, parts, etc.) Signs, paint and glue are considered “free” and aren’t included in the $25 limit.
You can make your model into any business you want (i.e. dynamite sales, boat shop, bakery, coal dealer, etc.). The only limit is your imagination. Models may be entered with or without scenic bases. This will be a Favorite Vote contest.
First, Second and Third place popular vote winners will receive $75, $50 and $25 gift certificates for merchandise at RailroadKits.com.
By the way, the Convention’s website has been updated; check it out now at http://pnr.nmra.org/3div/2013.html.
DO NOT PATRONIZE railroadkits.com
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There is no indication that this is a real business. I’m sure they would be glad to take your money, but their web site shows every indication of being no longer in business.
They do NOT have a walters.com vendor number.
There is no indication of when they last filled a legitimate order.
There is no indication of them doing business with honest bricks-and-mortar hobby shops.
Their web site shows a very interesting looking kit, but there is no indication that this kit will ever be shipped. Or even exists. Or any other kit in their so-called “catalog”. And once they have your credit card number, the sky’s the limit.
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DO NOT PATRONIZE railroadkits.com
Dan and Other 4D Members,
I would like to assure you that Railroad Kits is a very functional, active and professional business. I have done business with Railroad Kits and Jimmy Deignan for a number of years and have been very satisfied.
Jimmy’s Pennsylvania RR Middle Division was featured on the cover of Last month’s Model Railroader. Railroad Kits sponsors both the very successful Scale Model Railroad Expo and the Model Railroad Forum website, which several 4D members frequently contribute to.
They are a very real business and I intend to continue ordering from them.
I have absolutely no hesitation recommending the company and intend to continue purchasing their fine products.
Barry Dupler
First, Railroad Kits did NOT post an ad. The company was mentioned in a story about the upcoming Snake River Convention’s modeling contest.
Second, I’m not sure what you saw at their online store,
http://www.railroadkits.com/store/
but to me, it looks like a real business. I admit I haven’t purchased anything from them.
Third, Bruce McCosh, the PR chair for the Convention vouches for them. Bruce, would you like to comment about the comments here:
https://4dpnr.com/?p=2682#comments
If so, reply to me and I’ll post them to the site.
Dan
first the company you mentioned is Walthers not Walters.
Second perhaps you should visit kitforums and get to know Jimmy Deigan.
Finally, I have several Railroadkits and like them very much, they are well designed and quite reasonable.
Dan the discomfort I felt when I read your comments came from the FACT that after almost 50 years in model railroading I have absolutely no idea who you are.
Jan Kirkwood
“I have several Railroadkits and like them very much, they are well designed and quite reasonable.”
Their kits look great. I agree. I was in the process of ordering some, when my computer displayed “virus alert” and “security warning” pop-up messages. I reported it to the site owner, and did not receive a reply until this morning.
No matter how great their kits are ( and I look forward to building the contest kit for the convention ), I felt responsible to let people know that there might be a security problem. Plenty of time to do business with them after they deal with any security issue.
For what it’s worth, I always prefer to buy pretty much anything from my local hobby shop(s), but without a Walthers number that’s not possible. If you are acquainted with Mr Deigan, you might want to pass that along.
“after almost 50 years in model railroading I have absolutely no idea who you are”
Let me introduce myself. I joined the organization for the first time in 1980 at the Science Center show. I served as a volunteer in a number of positions for 20-some years. I’ve given clinics at the local, regional, and national levels. I’ve belonged to a number of clubs in the Seattle area. I’ve had articles published in national magazines. Around 10 years ago, I took a job which requires me to work evenings and weekends. A job I wouldn’t trade for the world. So I don’t attend very many official events, since they always take place evenings or weekends. But I still enjoy the hobby, as time is available.
Nice to meet you.
Dan P
I should have mentioned, but forgot :
There is another whole discussion thread going on at the yahoo groups forum. I don’t really see the advantage of two parallel unrelated threads. Issues just continue to be brought up which have already been answered.
I’ll continue to post there, as necessary, as I have been doing.
I know Al L is anxious to delete this thread. If it weren’t a security issue, I would have told him to go ahead long since.
Dan P
I contacted Bruce McCosh, author of the original article, and asked him to follow up with Railroad-Kits.com. He did and I quickly got this response from Jimmy Deignan, its owner:
I am not aware of any emails telling me I have a virus on my website. RailroadKits.com is scanned daily for any malware or phishing scripts that may harm visitors. This is an automatic feature of my server.
I’m sorry if I missed this gentleman’s email. If you could have him please email me again with his concerns I’d appreciate it.
In a later email, Jimmy admitted that he failed to respond to Dan’s original email:
I apologize for not replying to your first email. I never received it. Perhaps I deleted it by mis-take. I am far from perfect but I never ignore emails. It’s obvious you sent it because that is in-deed a response from my website when you use the contact form.
He linked to this Digital Grab Iron comment page on his site’s customer forum and got several re-sponses from satisfied customers. You can read their responses here:
http://www.kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7941
He also linked to his site’s virus report, showing it is clean. You can read that here:
http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=railroadkits.com
To me, this seems good enough. Jimmy seems like an honorable man, with a clean website. Dan, could you consider that your virus software threw a false positive?
AL
Hi Al and everybody,
You keep saying “false positive” like it’s some kind of holy grail. I’ve seen no indication of a “false positive”.
What I’ve seen is every indication that their web server was infected with mal-ware on the weekend, but that their scan on Monday morning caught it and fixed it. I also scanned my system several times on Sunday and again Monday, and I believe it’s clean, too. In subsequent visits to their web site, I discovered that “broken links” on their site ( which I also reported in the original email ) were no longer broken, and I no longer received “virus alert” and “security warning” pop-up messages.
I never said, or meant to imply, that Mr Deignan is not “an honorable man”. I never said, or meant to imply, there is anything wrong with his kits – I’ve never built one, but they look good on his web site, and I still intend to order the ones I was in the process of ordering when the event occurred. I’m sure he runs an honest business, and has lots of “satisfied customers”. But, even honest businesses get hacked, you read about it all the time.
I’ll just pass along what I tell my students : back up your system frequently ( at least once a week ). And keep your anti-virus software up to date. If you don’t have anti-virus software, get some and install it. Today.
And I’ll conclude with what I’ve most often done in the past, and what I’ll continue to do in the future : patronize your local hobby shop.
Hope this helps.
Dan P