33rd Edition

Welcome to the thirty-third edition of The Eureka Times.

The past year has been a period of ups and downs here at the Eureka offices.

On the up side there has been much to celebrate in our work with our latest manufacturer with delivery of the long awaited 40 class together with the latest in our 12-wheeler series, the MAL sleeping cars, the ACS composite cars and the AB dining cars.

On the down side the on-going attempts to recover Eureka’s tooling from our former manufacturer were continually frustrated in what the lawyers described as an attempt at extortion.  This resulted in regular bouts of depression and periods of complete doom and gloom amongst the Eureka staff.

However, the good news is that the situation has been resolved and the tooling in its entirety has been recovered and transferred to another site for safe keeping. Negotiations are now under way with three separate manufacturers with the aim of expediting assembly and delivery of all projects for which the tooling was being held to ransom.  This includes the K class, VR bogie S flat and bogie O open wagons, the private owner hoppers and NTAF bogie tank wagons. 

Special arrangements have been entered into so that all these projects can be completed by the end of this year. 

Priority will be given to these much delayed projects, especially the K class however, spreading the projects over three manufacturers will allow work on a number of other projects including the 38 re-run, DEB sets and 59 class together with a number of new projects to continue at the same time. 

The air of doom and gloom now no longer hangs over the Eureka offices and whilst there will undoubtedly still be periods of gloom from time to time amongst the Eureka staff   given the two steps forward one step back nature of this business there is much to look forward to over the next twelve months.

Let’s have a look at what is in store over the coming year.

The K Class:

Tooling for the K class has been retrieved and is being transferred to the Borka factory. Borka is the manufacturer who produced the K class tooling. Eureka staff have not yet visited the new Borka factory but we are told that there are three completed K class models in the display cabinet at the new factory. These models were the engineering samples prepared from the tooling manufacturing process. Apart from three minor corrections the tooling is ready to proceed to assembly. It is logical that Borka having produced the tooling should now complete the assembly. The factory has said that assembly should be completed within eight months so delivery sometime in the first quarter of next year is expected. With assembly about to get underway the pre-order price will be adjusted. See the Eureka web site for details. More details including numbers and artwork will appear in the next edition of The Eureka Times.

Private owner hopper, VR S & O bogie wagon, NSWGR NTAF bogie tank wagon.

The tooling for these items has been recovered and is currently in safe keeping at a tool shop in Southern China. Negotiations have been undertaken so that these four projects can be completed expeditiously. It is now likely that these projects will be completed by another manufacturer who has the capacity to deliver the four projects this year. To facilitate this these projects will be marketed under a brand name other than Eureka Models. More details later. 

The 38 Class re-run: 

The 38 class re-run is underway at our main manufacturer in his factory near Nanjing. The tooling has been tested and an engineering sample is currently being prepared. The tooling includes the changes that were made to the cut-out in the nose of the stream-lined version. Some improvements to the manufacture of the side rods and mechanism are planned but tooling-wise the re-run will be the same as the first run.

The re-run will include the following engine numbers.

Streamlined: 3801     Green and Black   Non-Streamlined 3806   Green
                      3802     Green                                                   3807    Royal Train Black

                      3803#   Black                                                   3809#  Black

                      3804     Black                                                   3815    Green,

                      3820# Black                                                     3805#   Green

                                                                                                3827#  Green,

                                                                                                3830 Green

The numbers marked with a hash (#) are being produced in very limited numbers only and are intended to be basically “to order” only. From experience in the first run only 3801 and 3830 will likely be available in retail outlets. All other engine numbers especially those number being produced in small numbers will be available, initially at least only direct from Eureka Models. Artwork is being prepared and will appear on our web-site when ready.

The RH four wheel cement hopper and steel hopper LCH.

The next in our series of four wheel hoppers based on our popular LCH four wheel under-frame will be an RH cement hopper and an LCH steel body coal hopper.

This project will utilise 2000 spare LCH under-frames which are on hand. This will mean that production will be limited to a total of 500 4-wagon packs of the two variations. This is less than half of the run that would normally be produced of such projects and so it is likely that the limited run of both projects will sell out quickly. Order forms are attached for those who want to be sure they do not miss out on these two items.

RH Southern Portland Cement four wheel cement hopper.         Steel bodied LCH four wheel coal hopper

The NSWGR 12 Wheelers – The next in the series - The TAM sleeping car. 

Following on the success of the NCR sets, the MAL sleepers, ACS composite cars and AB dining cars the next car in the 12 wheeler series will be the TAM sleeping car. This variation will be the later version of the TAM in that it will have Masonite sides and no crown lights. This will allow the cars to be produced in Candy livery as well as Indian Red. Delivery in early 2019 is expected.

Preparation of data packages for the next two cars in the 12-wheeler series will commence shortly.

More details next edition of the Eureka Times. Order forms attached. 

  TAM 1925   TAM 936    Both photos Dave Allen

The 40 class:

Delivery of the 40 class is now almost complete. There are still a number of orders un-delivered where the customers who placed the order have not been able to be contacted. If you are one of those who have not received your 40 class please contact the Eureka office.

On hand there are reasonable stocks of green 40 class, very low numbers in Indian Red and almost none in Royal Blue.

620/720, 600/700 two car diesel sets, 900 class DEB sets.

With retrieval of the 620/720 tooling the proposed re-run of the 620/720s can commence. Discussions are underway to this end and it is now proposed that the 620/20 re-run incorporate a run of 600/700 sets. This is a simple process with just four new sides being required. At the same time it would not be difficult to produce the 900s at the same time. This is currently being considered. More details next Eureka Times.

HUB sets:

Amongst the tooling retrieved recently is that of the HUB sets.  Discussions are under-way with our main manufacturer to have a re-run of the HUB sets carried out. This would include more of the two additional cars which sold out so quickly in the first run. Pre-orders particularly for the additional cars are recommended.  More details and order forms next issue.

The 59 class:

Last in the previously announced projects to get underway is the 59 class.

This is a project which requires new tooling. The main consideration on starting such a project is production time at the factory. Discussions currently suggest that tooling will commence later this year after the projects outlined above which require tooling are completed. More details next issue.

The Future:

Eureka’s main manufacturer recently said that to give him eighteen months and he would have Eureka completely up to date to which a Eureka staff member replied that he would not know what to do in such a circumstance of being “up to date”.

Re-runs of the AD60, R class, HUB sets, BSVs, CHGs, 40 class together with new projects such as more LCH variations, more 12 wheelers plus other new projects will keep Eureka staff and our manufacturers busy for the foreseeable future.

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