I just made an interesting and possibly important discovery. I have the Miniatures by Eric kit OHK6 to convert the HO 0-6-0T to an On30 model. As I mentioned earlier, I also have a couple of the Bachmann 0-4-0 Porters. I presently have the cab removed from one of them, and so, I thought I’d take a look at what the MbE cab would look like on the Porter. When I slid it into place, imagine my surprise when it fit perfectly! As if it were designed to fit there! My next step was to compare the two cabs. As it turns out, the MbE 0-6-0 conversion cab is a COPY of the Bachmann 0-4-0 Porter cab – right down to the woodgrain detail on the underside of the cab roof. The wood load delivered with the kit is cast from the Bachmann Shay wood load.
My curiosity got the better of me, and I got the 0-4-2 Porter out of the box. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the bunker was copied from the 0-4-2 — along with one of the stacks provided in the kit. The other looks like it was copied from the Climax/Shay straight stack.
So, now for my $45, I got a bag of copied Bachmann parts, and a couple of domes that I could have gotten from Don. All of the parts appear to be either purchased or copied from others, with only slight modifications, if any.
I’m a little torn here –Â and a little torqued. It appears that the only truly original parts in the kit are a new back-head and a new floor/rear pilot assembly. I doubt now that I’ll buy anything else from him, even though I was planning to get 2 of the Forney kits. I have also removed his link from my web site.