Have the HO Scale excursion cars lettered Cass Scenic Railroad and Durango & Silverton been discontinued?  They have been out of stock in the web store and most other online sources for many months.  If not discontinued--is there any ETA on the new batch?

Also, is there any hope of there ever being a new production run of HO Shays and Climaxes?  I have multiple Bachmann Shays, but would be glad to buy a new one--especially if the gearing was updated!

Thanks in advance!

I, like millions of other children in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS, so in reality, my love for trains (or, I guess, trolleys back then) probably stemmed from that. 

One of the first things that a viewer sees when watching an episode is, of course, a finely crafted HO scale model of the neighborhood that Mr. Rogers "lives" in.  I realized some years ago when I started model railroading that most of the structures in the town are Bachmann Plasticville kits (others structures that aren't are either IHC or custom built), a few of which remain in production today, I believe.  Here are a couple of examples:

Cape Cod House (Mister Rogers' house!): http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-45131

Split-level house (seen in the first few seconds of the credits):  http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-45213

None of the kits were ever marketed for their fame of having been in the series, and I believe there are THOUSANDS of people out there who have wondered who made the models, and if and where they could buy them.  I have placed a few comment responses to YouTube video comments over the past few months to people wondering about the models, and just thought that I'd bring this fact up to the Bachmann community. 

There is, at the very least, a niche marketing opportunity here, and I've often wondered why Bachmann never partnered up with Family Communications (the show's long time production company, which has recently been re-christened The Fred Rogers Company) and offered the models, in their 'Neighborhood' color appearance, under the 'Mister Rogers' brand.  I realize the legal ramifications, but I would honestly think that the company would be glad to go into business with Bachmann (just like "Thomas and Friends") for a cut of the profits for their organization, in exchange for the use of their logo and endorsement of the product.  Perhaps something could be arranged to offer a model of the "Neighborhood Trolley" as well?  Just a thought.

As a side note, I just found some interesting information regarding a particular structure on the layout, which I thought fellow modelers might appreciate and one that many former 'Mister Rogers' fans will remember.  One of the more unique looking structures in the model town, the "lop-sided" apartment house, is not Bachmann made, but custom built.  The reason for this is the house was built to represent the logo of the series' original broadcast network:  NET (National Educational Television), and was used with the logo superimposed over the structure in the original opening sequence.  When NET folded into PBS in 1970, just two years after the series debuted, the house was remodeled to an orange color, and then was finally repainted to its more infamous incarnation as a red brick structure a few years after that, and remained through the majority of the series.   

_{BTW, I'm posting this in both the HO and Plasticville sections, since it is related to both.}

I, like millions of other children in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS, so in reality, my love for trains (or, I guess, trolleys back then) probably stemmed from that.  

One of the first things that a viewer sees when watching an episode is, of course, a finely crafted HO scale model of the neighborhood that Mr. Rogers "lives" in.  I realized some years ago when I started model railroading that most of the structures in the town are Bachmann Plasticville kits (others structures that aren't are either IHC or custom built), a few of which remain in production today, I believe.  Here are a couple of examples:

Cape Cod House (Mister Rogers' house!): http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-45131

Split-level house (seen in the first few seconds of the credits):  http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-45213

None of the kits were ever marketed for their fame of having been in the series, and I believe there are THOUSANDS of people out there who have wondered who made the models, and if and where they could buy them.  I have placed a few comment responses to YouTube video comments over the past few months to people wondering about the models, and just thought that I'd bring this fact up to the Bachmann community.  

There is, at the very least, a niche marketing opportunity here, and I've often wondered why Bachmann never partnered up with Family Communications (the show's long time production company, which has recently been re-christened The Fred Rogers Company) and offered the models, in their 'Neighborhood' color appearance, under the 'Mister Rogers' brand.  I realize the legal ramifications, but I would honestly think that the company would be glad to go into business with Bachmann (just like "Thomas and Friends") for a cut of the profits for their organization, in exchange for the use of their logo and endorsement of the product.  Perhaps something could be arranged to offer a model of the "Neighborhood Trolley" as well?  Just a thought.

As a side note, I just found some interesting information regarding a particular structure on the layout, which I thought fellow modelers might appreciate and one that many former 'Mister Rogers' fans will remember.  One of the more unique looking structures in the model town, the "lop-sided" apartment house, is not Bachmann made, but custom built.  The reason for this is the house was built to represent the logo of the series' original broadcast network:  NET (National Educational Television), and was used with the logo superimposed over the structure in the original opening sequence.  When NET folded into PBS in 1970, just two years after the series debuted, the house was remodeled to an orange color, and then was finally repainted to its more infamous incarnation as a red brick structure a few years after that, and remained through the majority of the series.  

_{BTW, I'm posting this in both the HO and Plasticville sections, since it is related to both.}

Bach-Man,
Although I know you probably aren't allowed to give out specific numbers, I guess its safe to assume from the fact that almost no one around the 'net has the Cass Scenic Railroad tourist cars in stock that they are a hit?  I am the proud owner of a countless number of them, as everytime I buy from an e-seller I have them throw in one or two.  These really are great, and I have them on my layout with Cass #5, and have even added the tourists to make them look better!

While doing some Christmas "wish-listing", I found on another site a listing for "Bachmann Open Sided Excursion Car w/Seat Cass Scenic HO".  The item is up for pre-order, and is said to have an arrival date of Early December, which I guess means it should be available any day now.  To confirm this, I did a google search and found similar listings on two other sites.  Since none of them include the usually reliable walthers.com nor the official Bachmann site, I was wondering if this is for real or if someone got the wrong information by mistake.  I also saw the Jackson and Sharp excursion cars which are already out, and hope to find those under my tree  .  The Jackson/Sharp cars are kind of similar looking to Cass cars (although not really...they have open sides similar to old fashioned trolley cars and the like), and I thought someone might have gotten confused and listed one of them as Cass Scenic when they really aren't.  Does anyone know anything about this?  If this is true, it would REALLY make my holiday (  )as I have always wanted to have Cass Scenic RR tourist cars to go with my Shays.  (Even if it is delayed or something, a simple picture of what they will look like would be nice!).

PLEASE HELP, BACH MAN!