LITTLE ENGINES

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RICHK
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:05 pm
Location: Seattle

LITTLE ENGINES

Post by RICHK »

Anyone know where to find the cost of drawings for locomotives from Little Engines Company?
Nothing on the on-line catalog or price list and no reply from inquiry.
Marty_Knox
Posts: 1724
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 6:50 pm
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by Marty_Knox »

I don't think Mike wants to sell you any drawings, since you will just knock them off, then sell them through your Plan Ahead Designs.
BClemens
Posts: 475
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:04 pm
Location: Gloucester, VA (Sassafras)

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by BClemens »

And what does p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m spell? Thief!
Bruce_Mowbray
Posts: 705
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 7:45 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by Bruce_Mowbray »

FWIW,
I have purchased drawings from Little Engines, Railroad Supply, and Allen Locomotives before to see what is entailed in building a locomotive of my choice. To sit down and study the drawings before getting started gave me the opportunity to see the parts individually and figure out a way to make them as well as the tools needed to get the job done. Also, if a company does go under while your in the middle of mega-multi year locomotive build project, I would be sure to have a full set of drawings on hand so that the locomotive could be finished without having to re-engineer the missing parts.

We're not all thieves :wink:
Bruce Mowbray
Springville & Southern RR
TMB Manufacturing & Locomotive Works
BClemens
Posts: 475
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:04 pm
Location: Gloucester, VA (Sassafras)

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by BClemens »

Bruce,
Your approach to this is not, as Marty says: "you will just knock them off, then sell them" and since your motives are to use the drawings for the purpose of building a project locomotive - your use is 'proper'. My ears perked up on this because I had drawings that I had slaved over for months copied and used on a web site . This person fought me that they were 'public domain' because he found them on line, copied them and used them as his backdrop - that is thieving, plagirism and downright dishonest. (stepping off the peachcrate)

BC
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Steggy
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Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by Steggy »

RICHK wrote:Anyone know where to find the cost of drawings for locomotives from Little Engines Company?
Nothing on the on-line catalog or price list and no reply from inquiry.
I can understand why they didn't reply to you—your reputation evidently precedes you.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
michaellynn2
Posts: 79
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:49 am
Location: Richmond VA

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by michaellynn2 »

So are you still fishing for information to sell????? This is for personal gain and not to benefit construction of a locomotive. Mike sells me plans because I am a customer of his castings.
michael george
pkeiser
Posts: 241
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:50 pm

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by pkeiser »

I agree. I smell a rat here. I would not sell you anything unless you are building a locomotive.
www.chaski.com
jcbrock
Posts: 511
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 7:50 pm
Location: Oregon

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by jcbrock »

Interesting intellectual property questions here. If someone is taking prints and redrawing them into DXF or SVG or some other format there's obviously an investment and value add which deserves compensation but I would think some kind of licensing agreement with the originator needs to be there to be fair too. Whether that is the full price of the drawing set or not would be between the licensing parties.

Related question - if you are doing a group build on a project, does each person in the group need to buy a set of drawings to be fair? I say yes. A friend and I are building a pair of Buckwalter Shays, and although he purchased all the castings I bought a set of drawings too as it seems to me that is the only way the designer gets compensated for his efforts. There's little enough money in this hobby for suppliers that we shouldn't be cheating them.
John Brock
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10KPete
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:29 pm
Location: Nordland, WA, USA

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by 10KPete »

jcbrock wrote:There's little enough money in this hobby for suppliers that we shouldn't be cheating them.
Hear, hear!! Any cheaters should be flogged...
Despicable..

Pete
Just tryin'
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Pipescs
Posts: 2194
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:16 pm
Location: Lester Alabama

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by Pipescs »

A friend and I are building a pair of Buckwalter Shays, and although he purchased all the castings I bought a set of drawings too as it seems to me that is the only way the designer gets compensated for his efforts.
You are to be applauded as this is exactly what you should do.

Years ago I built a homebuilt aircraft with a friend. Right in the front of the purchased plans set was a statement that the plans were my license to build one and only one copy of the Aircraft. The plans came with a serial number to assign to the aircraft frame. Nor could I legally sell the plans after completing the aircraft. It was very clear that I had not bought production rights to go into business.
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


Current Projects:

Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
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gwrdriver
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Location: Nashville Tennessee

Re: LITTLE ENGINES

Post by gwrdriver »

Charlie,
In most jurisdictions that holds true for plans for construction projects of any kind, unless otherwise agreed to, and even when not stated is always implied. In the architectural world if you commission (and/or buy) a set of building plans, just as with the Homebuilt the design and construction documents are the intellectual property of the architect/designer and entitle the purchaser to build one single example of the design. That being said, during my career I regularly saw clients, developers typically, attempt to build multiple examples (a restaurant for instance) from one set of drawings. A firm I was with was affected by such an attempt. The Perps were always sued, and the Architect always won, but there was a lot of money hanging in the balance and justified the cost of taking legal action.
GWRdriver
Nashville TN
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