Description
Protocraft was established in 1994 as a company designed specifically to provide the O scale model railroad enthusiast with accurately scaled components to complete the otherwise fine O scale models available. With new O scale models being brought in every day, hundreds of fine O scale models that were made in both Japan and Korea years ago, and now in China, are to be found readily available at both trade shows and over the internet, there exists a wide range of opportunities and needs for the modeler who desires and appreciates an accurately scaled model. Achieving this goal is now possible with the many finescale components now available. Protocraft’s emphasis is on wheels, but it also provides trucks, diesel conversion kits, steam locomotive tires, the only finescale working coupler available, rail, and many of the tools necessary to accomplish various conversions from O Scale to Finescale, also known as Proto:48. Protocraft has sold over 23,000 Grabowski wheelsets and has over 200 different patterns in finescale dimensions. The principal aim behind Protocraft is always build everything at 1:48 from the prototype drawings, and not only will it look realistic, the parts will work and they will be interchangeable, just as much as parts work and be interchangeable in the real railroads. Protocraft’s most popular Bettendorf truck model has working brakes. Protocraft is not alone in developing and producing finescale components. It has patterns made by well known master craftsman such as Oscar Neubert III and Bill Clouser, tools designed by Paul Martineau, CAD drawings by Carl Jackson, diesel conversion patterns by Pat Mitchell, accurately scaled track components by John Pautz, wheel patterns by Jay Criswell, and many different wheels and stampings designed by Steve Grabowski. Many HO modelers have shifted to a larger scale in order to achieve a more detailed and realistic operating model because it’s much easier to detail, view, and has significantly better operating characteristics. O Scale is the natural choice for these modelers. Protocraft presents a further option - that of 1/4 inch finescale/Proto:48. Compare the O scale truck on the left with the scale dimensioned truck on the right. The absense of the back side of the journal box is indicitive of the O gauge necessity to clear the thick wheels. The accuratly scaled model truck on the right is more than just pleasing to the eye - as an accurate model itself it compliments and finishes the overall model. Protocraft’s mainstay of it’s business is the Grabowski wheel. Designed by Steve Grabowski from actual drawings of the prototype’s manufacturer, Standard Steel of Pennsylvania, then converted to CAD drawings by Carl Jackson, the Protocraft wheel is an exact model of the prototype. Produced on Brown & Sharpe lathes from mild steel (12L14), the production of the wheel is a two-part complicated process, requiring a second collet operation to machine the back side profile. This is a labor intensive process and is the only wheel on the market with full back side and accurate hub detail. The axle, also produced from prototype drawings, is machined on a Swiss Screw Machine.