Thanks, Ric. Going through some of my old emails with him, I extracted this:
Don Winter
Such a loss. I only chatted with him a handful of times on the
phone; more via email. A great guy: a model railroad enthusiast
and a bird lover! I bought a number of his kits.
I was just going through some of my old e-mail exchanges with him,
and thought I’d quote a few of his comments - they seem to reflect
his personality, and I don’t think he’d mind:
In reference to some plastic pieces to help the AMS cars roll better:
"They are $1 pair ppd and 110% guaranteed satisfaction. Deduct some
$ if you get a lot like $10 for 12 sets. I toss in a few extras. "
On his drop bottom gondola kit:
"I try not to be a serious person and just enjoy life and thus it is
not in me to fluff something up just to make sales as this is more
the norm in most any endeavor. It has been my “goal” for lack of a
better term, on this project to come up with a car that has that
right compromise of looking good on the track, having few assembly
problems and a low cost within a practical framework. I feel I have
done a better job on this than the passenger cars because I have a
bit more experience and had my own laser to make a lot of
the parts. This car is not only complex but has a jillion parts so my
“solution” was to make choices of omission to lower the cost and
speed up the assembly. It isn’t really going to do much good to
simply duplicate the prototype, charge a lot of money only to see
these kits sit in closets until we all pass on.
I will provide detailed prose (no pictures) instructions, email
support, priority mail for missing or parts you mess up and so forth
so that you can build this car. Never try to repair something that
went wrong. Email me and let me send you a new set of whatever parts
to give it a second try. I will send with any order an extra bag of
these parts that seem to always break or get glued in the wrong
place so you have a second try at some of the tricky things.
I like to ship the kit within a day or two of receiving your check,
but sometimes as with anyone of us there might be a family or bird
situation that requires my attention most of the day, but I ship USPS
priority and self insure so you should receive the car(s) rather
rapidly.
And last, as always, once you receive the kit, if you do not like it
for any reason, you can return it for a full refund including the
shippping both ways. I am not here to cause grief, just fun, I hope!
Thank you for reading, and your past as well as possible present
support."
He liked my results from the drop bottom gondola. (A fun kit!)
(http://www.jbrr.com/html/drop_bottom_gondola.html)
"This is so well done I am going to post the URL on the 1:20.3 list.
The photos will help others who may have bought the kit.
You sure stroked my ego by doing such a nice job building the kit and
the kind words."
He also had some very interesting posts on this group. Check out
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/One-20point3/message/29263
