Saw some recent discussion about the Singer Rocketeer model and then saw one on the Denver Craigslist, if anyone here is interested. (I'd never seen one before - cool looking machine)
http://denver.craigslist.org/hsh/2183368151.html

i will take a look

How do they compare to the 301?

they are such neat looking machines.

The listing is gone.

They have the same (or almost the same) motor and slant shank and color scheme.

The 301 is a straight-stitch only machine which has a vertical FW bobbin and droppable feed dogs. It's smooth and quiet and produces nice free-motion quilting.

The 500 is the machine in my avatar at the moment - it has multiple built-in decorative and utility stitches and the ability to add several more with the use of cams. It has a horizontal bobbin and the feed cover raises to defeat the feed dogs for darning and free-motion. (It isn't a very good machine for free-motion quilting because of the bobbin configuration - you'll get a lot of skipped stitches. But you *can* learn how to work it and get acceptable results.)

It was the top of the line in its time and I think that Singer never did really improve on it. It's basically the same machine as a 401, but dressed up in a Jetson's space suit. :)

Mine lives with my daughter, now, but I have 3 503's which are very similar in function. I actually prefer the 403's and 503's to the 401 and 500 because the stitch selector levers aren't prone to gumming up and freezing if the machine sits idle for a while.

Thanks for the info! :)

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-160607-1.htm I just posted more info on the differences between 503 and 500