Maker record
Custom Brass NJ
Custom Brass was an American importer of brass model railway equipment associated with N.J. International. Its documented range included locomotives, passenger cars and cabooses for Maine’s two-foot gauge railways, as well as wooden kits for a boxcar and turntable. Models were built by suppliers in Japan and Korea. The On2 range began in the mid-1970s and included products for the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, a narrow-gauge prototype in Maine.
- Founded
- 1970
- Locations
- New Jersey, USA
The story of Custom Brass NJ
Custom Brass was a product line associated with N.J. International, whose partners were identified as Nick and Jack; the available account gives no certain surname for Nick. Its early products included a Portland Forney and equipment for the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The first listed combine and coaches came from Orion in 1974, followed by locomotives and other rolling stock. Production involved several builders in Japan and Korea, including Orion and later Korean suppliers. The product chronology records locomotives in 1975, passenger and freight equipment through the late 1970s, and further locomotives and a caboose between 1983 and 1985. A 1983 trade publication lists N.J. Custom Brass at a Hicksville, New York address and reports its import of Japanese-made, outside-braced open hoppers in approximately S scale.
