ARROW HEAD MODELS

About the Model:

The design of every part of this model is driven by dimensional data. There is no part where the designer looked at a photograph and “eye-balled” it. No part of the design is scaled from a photograph. There is no guess work and no derived measurements. We had fabrication prints; we had the actual parts in hand, or we meticulously field measured it.

Arrowhead’s Penn Central Committee Design hopper consists of 187 parts per car. It is the most detailed, part intensive open hopper in HO Scale. We have matched the specific details of the Pullman-Standard built cars, including the obvious details, like: Miner gate appliances, Miner hand brake and brake layout, and less obvious details, like: the combination 1942-design hand brake and 1955-design brake wheel, the unique retaining and release rod configurations, and the Pullman defect card holder.

That’s right: everything down to the correct styles of defect card holders are accurately matched.

We are unique in that we don’t use contract designers domestically or abroad. The individual who leads the research for Arrowhead Models is also the individual who sits behind the computer and does the design. This means that there are no translation errors in the process. There is no gap between the massive research effort and the thousands of design decisions. Because the researcher is the designer, he knows how to research so to no lay compromises in the design path. Because the designer is the researcher, hundreds of research hours hone his eye for the design.

Additional Features:

70 individual injection molded parts per car, including: multi-part Keystone Monoloc hopper door locks, Keystone hopper frames and gate doors, 4 piece Miner 1942 hand brakes (and check out the release lever!) 

10 individual etched brass parts per car, including: gate door L-braces, ABD valve and brake cylinder mounts.

49 individual wire parts per car, including: air lines, release and retaining valve rods, grab irons, train lines, brake lever hangers and more. 

70-ton ASF Ride Control Solid Bearing Trucks, including: the only 21 piece truck! We traveled over 1800 miles to ensure that our trucks didn’t just match the print specifications in 2D–but, our interpretation of that data matches the curf, the draft, the filets and patterned parts of complex sand casting. We spent 3 days adjacent to the prototype doing the actual design on site. No one does product development like Arrowhead. Brake beams to be installed by the modeler; Patents pending.

The Definitive HO Scale Wheelset: In 2018, Arrowhead launched the industry leading wheelset from which a wave of followers have trailed. Design of Arrowhead’s Definitive HO Scale Wheelset follows our brand’s unique investment into informed development–including a site visit to the production facilities of the prototype in Kansas City, KS. See our video (below) to learn more about this project (or just to review).

Additionally, Arrowhead Models is the only brand to offer scale tread wheelsets on all cars! No additional dollars on aftermarket upgrades are needed here. We ask more manufacturers to get on board with this standard so that industry can move forward from precedents established in the 1960s.