Old Timers' Reminiscing

[CNE Runner]

Jerry - If that Little Hustler was on eBay last week...you're correct. If it makes it any easier, there were a couple on the week before that came with the original boxes. Come up to Northeastern Alabama and I'll let you play with it (we'll start out with you at the end of the track - wearing a catcher's mask & glove).

Don, Don, Don...you just HAD to remember.

Desertdweller - Perhaps I should consider 'banking' the curves like a NASCAR track (super elevation is 'way too shallow). If the Little Hustler had magnetraction it would probably do loops. Oh...so my mom lectured you as well?

Regards,
Ray

[Desertdweller]

Ray,

No.  She didn't lecture me, but I suspect both our mothers were reading the same play book.

Les

[jward]

ray,
maybe you should add wings to it and mount a jet engine on the roof. and rename the railroad the monks island airport.


just a thought.....

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Desertdweller - Perhaps I should consider 'banking' the curves like a NASCAR track (super elevation is 'way too shallow). If the Little Hustler had magnetraction it would probably do loops. Oh...so my mom lectured you as well?

Ray, if you've got room for a second track, you could get a second Hustler and run a Monk's Island 500 this Memorial Day weekend. 

JBJ

[CNE Runner]

"Monks' Island Approach...this is Porter Hustler 53...squawking 1200...7 miles east...landing VFR with Charlie."

"Hustler 53...Monks' Island Approach...radar contact 6.8 miles east...continue and plan on entering the downwind for runway 2-4. Contact Monks' Tower on 126.3."

"Approach, Hustler 53 will continue and contact Monks on 126.3."

"Monks Tower...Hustler 53".

"Hustler 53...Monks Tower. Sir, please slow your speed to 1-5-0 knots. You are cleared to land runway 2-4."

[Instructor to student pilot: "OK, good communication technique...now remember to keep the nose up in the flare as we don't want to hit the front coupler...again"]

Ray

[Doneldon]

Ray-

Very nice, but are you sure a Hustler can reduce its air speed to just 150 knots?

                                                                                                             -- D

[jward]

ironic that you should do the airport control tower. back in the 1970s, a conrail yardmaster at one of our local yards used to do the same thing over the radio for inbound trains. that is, until the brass caught him and reprimanded him.

[CNE Runner]

That is a shame about the ConRail yardmaster that tried to err on the side of safety.

Don - Yes, the Hustler can slow down to 150 kts. by turning the throttle to OFF (and praying).

FAR (Federal Air Regulation) 91.117 states that no aircraft shall operate in excess of 250 kts. (280 mph) I.S. (indicated airspeed) below 10,000' MSL without permission of Air Traffic Control. This means the Little Hustler can achieve escape velocity as long as it is above 10,000' MSL (above Mean Sea Level). The Monks' Island Railway is seriously considering a siding to the moon.

Ray

[jward]

i think they took exception to him calling the yard tracks runway 5,6,7, etc.

as for monks island, maybe you could paint the coors logo on the side of your brewery, say it's in colorado, and get around the 10k rule. you could also call your hustler the silver bullet.

[ebtnut]

Some other stuff from back in the day.  I made the transistion from HO to O and On3 in the early '70's.  Among the items available at a reasonable price were the O scale kits offered by AHM - the Genoa 4-4-0, the Casey Jones 4-6-0 and the IHB 0-8-0.  There were motorizing kits available for all of them, and you really had to install the motorizing stuff as you were building the kits.  I have the Casey Jones and the IHB, and they still run pretty well.  I have future designs on turning the IHB into a close approximation of a WM H-8 2-8-0.  Also, Atlas had a line of O scale equipment, including a nice F-7, several freight cars and a bobber caboose. 

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Some other stuff from back in the day.  I made the transistion from HO to O and On3 in the early '70's.  Among the items available at a reasonable price were the O scale kits offered by AHM - the Genoa 4-4-0, the Casey Jones 4-6-0 and the IHB 0-8-0.  There were motorizing kits available for all of them, and you really had to install the motorizing stuff as you were building the kits.  I have the Casey Jones and the IHB, and they still run pretty well.  I have future designs on turning the IHB into a close approximation of a WM H-8 2-8-0.  Also, Atlas had a line of O scale equipment, including a nice F-7, several freight cars and a bobber caboose. 

I used to see those kits in hobby shops. Made me think that 2-rail O-scale might be pretty cool.

[2-8-8-4]

At 43, I can remember plenty of things discussed above.

However, the Mantua trains of my youth, after sitting at home for many years, did not run so well anymore and I did not consider it worthwhile to try to repair them as my current motive power and rolling stock are...light years ahead of them.

The only item of rolling stock from "that era" that I retain is a single Mantua trolley, and a plasticville barn that is on the current train layout.

The trolley runs ok on the one or two occasions a year when I run it.

All my other rolling stock and motive power is new within the past 2 years (but it's a modest fleet).

I routinely "trade up" to whatever the most current engines and rolling stock are that I "have to have".

Right now I have one Bachmann Alco 2-6-0, one more in the mail, one Bowser Alco Demo C-628, one Atlas ACL S-2, and 14 freight cars plus 1 passenger car on a modest 81 linear foot HO mainline, with 2 passing sidings.

One 2-8-8-4 is on layaway.

Though I have some fond memories of the trains of years ago, including many brass ones I played with and subsequently traded (before house and kids, and some of the brass cash went into the house), I don't have any wish to go back in time.

Best Regards--

2-8-8-4

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

At 43, I can remember plenty of things discussed above.

However, the Mantua trains of my youth, after sitting at home for many years, did not run so well anymore and I did not consider it worthwhile to try to repair them as my current motive power and rolling stock are...light years ahead of them.

The only item of rolling stock from "that era" that I retain is a single Mantua trolley, and a plasticville barn that is on the current train layout.

The trolley runs ok on the one or two occasions a year when I run it.

All my other rolling stock and motive power is new within the past 2 years (but it's a modest fleet).

I routinely "trade up" to whatever the most current engines and rolling stock are that I "have to have".

Right now I have one Bachmann Alco 2-6-0, one more in the mail, one Bowser Alco Demo C-628, one Atlas ACL S-2, and 14 freight cars plus 1 passenger car on a modest 81 linear foot HO mainline, with 2 passing sidings.

One 2-8-8-4 is on layaway.

Though I have some fond memories of the trains of years ago, including many brass ones I played with and subsequently traded (before house and kids, and some of the brass cash went into the house), I don't have any wish to go back in time.

Best Regards--

2-8-8-4

Thought-provoking comments, 2-8-8-4. Thanks!

I've got eleven years on you come this Sunday, and it strikes me that makes a world of difference in model railroading.

Unless you "inherited" Mantua engines from the early 60s or so, I would guess the Mantua trains of your youth weren't very good to begin with. I can't swear to the exact dates, but I believe by the time you were coming up, the Tyler family had sold off the Mantua/Tyco model train line, and I'd say things weren't very good. This was the time of trains lettered "Clementine" and "Chattanooga." It wasn't until around 1980 that the family bought back the train line and reintroduced the Mantua name, and things began to improve.

I'd also say that if you had brass locomotives to play with as a kid, you were one lucky kid! 

J.B.J.

[2-8-8-4]

The Mantua Tyco trains were very well made up until 1975.  My first trainset (in 1973), which my father traded a worn out Lionel trainset in to purchase, was the Santa Fe C430 freight set, in the red warbonnet scheme correct for the U28CG.  Lewis K. English, Sr.'s train collection still has my father's Lionel train in it, though Mr. English passed earlier this year.  That collection is valued at more than $1,000,000...it's probably being quietly liquidated now.

The pre-1975 Mantua-Tyco stuff ran very well; we also bought some of the older red-box Mantua cars which were still readily available.  I ran the wheels off the stuff.  It lasted, as did the Model Power Austrian-produced Sharknose--one of the first rtr plastic diesels to feature a nice can motor.

The frequent customers of English's Model RR Supply got me into brass in my very late teens and early 20's (very late 1980's).  I bought and traded a lot of it (being somewhat of a perfectionist) and had a lot of fun running all the different brass models with those friends who I met while waiting upon them at the train store.  (As an employee of a distributor, I was able to get the 40% discount off just about anything, and sometimes more.  The discount at that time also extended to brass models that I could reserve).

Today for one reason or another most of us are out of brass.  The one guy at one time had $100,000 in HO brass models...and we played with them all.  It was a lot of fun--doubleheaded articulateds, etc. on 50 car trains.

Now the same guys are playing with plastic hybrids, and engines like the Bachmann EM-1, instead of brass.  It was one thing to own brass when new diesels were only $300 or so each, factory painted..it's quite another thing today.

In fact, I decided to buy the EM-1 because my old friend, the one-time brass heavy hitter, gave it a very favorable review.  Plus, it ran near my father's home town of Butler PA.

Being not rich, I'm selling some Athearn Genesis steamers to buy it...

John

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

John,

It sounds as though you had the good fortune to grow up among a community of model railroaders, and I think it's awesome that you were actually able to work in a train store as a youth. I was pretty much on my own among people for whom model trains were "toys" that were "played with" at Christmas. ...

I remember seeing the English name in ads in Model Railroader. It's kind of sad to think of Mr. English's collection being liquidated, because I'm sure he loved it, but I suppose it's also inevitable.

The pre-1975 Mantua-Tyco stuff ran very well; we also bought some of the older red-box Mantua cars which were still readily available.  I ran the wheels off the stuff. It lasted.

Clearly you have a better "fix" on the dates than I do, but I agree, "It lasted." This is one reason why part of my hobby today is collecting red-box Mantua rolling stock. For me there is also the nostalgia value, as these were the trains of my childhood in the Sixties.

Today for one reason or another most of us are out of brass.  The one guy at one time had $100,000 in HO brass models...and we played with them all.  It was a lot of fun--doubleheaded articulateds, etc. on 50 car trains.

Now the same guys are playing with plastic hybrids, and engines like the Bachmann EM-1, instead of brass.  It was one thing to own brass when new diesels were only $300 or so each, factory painted..it's quite another thing today.

Since my primary interest has always been steam, brass has always seemed to be out of my price range.

In fact, I decided to buy the EM-1 because my old friend, the one-time brass heavy hitter, gave it a very favorable review.  Plus, it ran near my father's home town of Butler PA.

Also a Pennsylvanian here, Lancaster and now Philadelphia, just FYI.

Jeff