Grandt Line Going out of Business

[autocoach]

I don't know if this has been reported before.

 

Unfortunately Grandt Line, the maker of structure and narrow gauge parts has announced they will be going out of business in June. Dave Grandt, the son of Cliff Grandt the founder has himself now decided to retire. 

 

The product line of incredible injection molded parts will be sorely missed.  Only Tichy is the remaining US vendor of injection molded windows with a fairly large offering. 3D printing has not yet caught up the affordable fine quality of the product from skilled injection molding.

 

See http://www.grandtline.com/

 

Rescue attempts are rumored, but investment cost of acquiring the machinery and inventory and probably having to move it from the small industrial court where Grandt Line is now located may significantly impact the profitability of such a venture to the point of making it an improbable venture.  Grandt Line is located in Concord California and (only 3.5 miles from where I live) and the cost of a new lease on any property in the SF Bay area would also impact the finances of a rescue venture.  Moving and new set up costs would also be extremely high even if you just moved it to neighboring Nevada or somewhere in the central valley of California. Peco is not rumored to be waiting in the wings.....

Edited March 22, 2018 by autocoach

[BR60103]

A story:

Cliff had built a locomotive and showed it to John Allen. John was a professional photographer. He took a picture of the loco and blew it up large. He told Cliff, "Any place where you can tell that this is a model is a chance to improve your modelling."

[Regularity]

A story:

Cliff had built a locomotive and showed it to John Allen. John was a professional photographer. He took a picture of the loco and blew it up large. He told Cliff, "Any place where you can tell that this is a model is a chance to improve your modelling."

So, did he “go Proto:whatever”, then?

[Nearholmer]

Well, his 0n3 kits were decidedly proto. Every nut, bolt, rivet, washer, thingumajig reproduced to perfection in 1:48. I built the Porter 0-4-0ST, and motorised it, in about 1985, and it was several zillion years ahead of what the plastic model kit companies were producing over here at the time. And the bits and pieces like window frames and doors were/are exquisite.

 

0n3 was commonly hitting very high levels of fidelity at that date, and continues to do so. Handlaid track using wooden sleepers, with the rail fixed using near-scale spikes? Madness and perfection simultaneously.

 

This isn’t mine (wish I’d been that good a Modeller!), but it ought to convey something of the proto-ness of an ‘Airfix kit’ released in about 1979.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Spitfire2865]

I was unaware of the company up until yesterday.  A great loss indeed.

My surprise when I saw they have some unique 1/2" scale items.  Put in an order via email, hoping to hear a response soon. 

[Krusty]

So, did he “go Proto:whatever”, then?

 

Cliff Grandt was one of the originators of 1/4 AAR modelling – exact replicas of American Association of Railroads wheel profiles and track scaled down to 1:48 scale back in the middle (ish) of the last century. Later morphed into P48.

 

This isn’t mine (wish I’d been that good a Modeller!), but it ought to convey something of the proto-ness of an ‘Airfix kit’ released in about 1979.

It does, of course, help slightly that it's been touched by the hand of God (aka Chuck Doan). 

Edited March 24, 2018 by Krusty

[Horsetan]

Grandt Line also produced some very useful bevel gear sets. This means one of the very few makers of small bevel gears will now be lost forever.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Horsetan

[2ManySpams]

As an update it looks like the Grandt Line range has been taken over by San Juan Details. 

 

Just trying to find a UK distributer...