A Note to Our Customers
 
It has been some time since our last update.  Over the past months we have been fortunate to acquire a number of significant and unique collections, and as a result we have spent a good deal of time preparing the models for sale.  Many of the higher value O Scale models have been professionally serviced to ensure their optimal appearance and operation. 

We are continuing to process the O Scale collections of Mike Hill and Phil Marcus. We will be introducing models from the Joe Foehrkolb collection and other O and HO Scale collections over the next several months. We also will be listing high quality S Scale brass models from multiple collections. As always, we want to thank our customers for their continued support.  Please feel free to contact us anytime.

Jack and Cheryl McGarry
Allegheny Scale Models  

July 15, 2023
 
Changes to the Allegheny Scale Models Website
We are in the process of making a number of changes to the ASM website.  The goal is to better accommodate a larger number of listings from new collections in multiple scales, and to simplify finding required information within the website.  We are making the changes incrementally and you will see changes to the website over the next several months.

Market Trends
Over the past few years we have noticed a number of changes in the secondary model railroad market.  This is often seen in the reduced number of high quality models available for resale.  There are several reasons for this, including a reduction in the number of new models being produced, fewer active brass importers, and an increase in the number of pre-owned models changing hands.  As a result, the cost of higher end models in excellent or better condition has been increasing, and many more models require some work to prepare them for sale.  Many of the models that we list are professionally serviced and upgraded to present best value to our customers.  The work that we do includes repairs and upgrades, and in some cases restorations.  We believe that good models should be carefully preserved for future enjoyment.
Additional detail can be found here: Professional model servicing.

Why We Buy Brass Models
Unfortunately over the past few years we lost a number of modelers who contributed significantly to our hobby.  John Glabb was one of those people.  He was one of the most knowledgeable collectors of HO Scale brass models and freely shared his knowledge within the community.  He held that there are two fundamental reasons we search out and purchase brass models: 1) "For what the model is", and 2) "For what the model represents".  What John was telling us was that a model does not need to be a perfect representation of the prototype to be of value to us.  The overall quality of construction, the scarcity of the model, and the model's heritage may be meaningful to us, even if it is not a perfect representation of the intended prototype.  Conversely, the closer the model represents the prototype that we are interested in, in terms of scale dimensions, proper detailing, and other characteristics, the more we may value it.  I suspect we all purchase brass models for both reasons.

Train Shows
We continuously look at how we can best spend our time at ASM to prepare and market the models and related items that we have for sale.  In our experience different types of models are best marketed using different methods.  Our higher value models seem to sell best when listed on the ASM website or in our ASM magazine ads, while our lower value items do well at the scale oriented train shows.  Our current show schedule can be found at "ASM Show Schedule".