Early-Time Kits

[ryeguyisme]

Something else to spend (too much) money on. . .

http://www.sundayriverproductions.com/category.aspx?id=6

http://www.amazon.com/Model-Railroading-John-Allen-Fabulous/dp/0890245592

I wonder if either is available via inter-library loan.

Reportedly the house was not destroyed by the fire, only damaged and later repaired, and is supposed to still be standing today.  Can anyone confirm this?

these are items sought after believe me, worth every penny.

[J3a-614]

Rye's comments about replica locomotives here and in another thread suggest two questions:

How many modelers either have an older model railroad with many of the models we have been discussing still on it, have a model railroad where these older models are still worth having on it, or even have built a new railroad to look and feel like an older one?

And a corollary, suggested by Kalmbach layout planning writer Ian Rice, is what would John Allen do with the new stuff, such as DCC and sound effects, if he were around today?

Ian himself suggested, in a design intended as a tribute to Allen, that one could incorporate things like working landslides and collapsing bridges in addition to the 4% grades.  Hokey it may seem, and I certainly wouldn't do it, but Allen's sense of humor, with magnetic cars, a dinosaur, a fake snake, and a laugh box hooked into a control at Port to rattle the overtaxed operator there would suggest he just might do such things to take the supposedly revenue-challenged G&D to a new level. . .

C&O J3a 614

http://www.piercehaviland.com/rail/railimages/Njstea2.jpg

She's a proper locomotive, painted black, burns West Virginia coal, and doesn't wear skirts so she can show off those Boxpok legs!

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

How many modelers either have an older model railroad with many of the models we have been discussing still on it, have a model railroad where these older models are still worth having on it, or even have built a new railroad to look and feel like an older one?

Well, I can't say that I have anything that's specifically been discussed on this thread, but I do seem to have an awful lot of rolling stock, both locomotives and cars, from the early 1960s--and most of it accumulated only recently, within the past five years--and currently all the railroad buildings on the layout are genuine vintage Revell. How's that?

[J3a-614]

That's one answer!

Another possibility could be a layout specifically meant to recall an older one, something like what some of the tinplaters do when they recreate Lionel display layouts.  A store window display as a nostalgic Christmas piece would be one place--provided you could find a store owner willing to let you put a layout in the window.  The city of Martinsburg, W.Va. used to have a holiday "Model Railroad Showcase" sponsored by the local Main Street organization in which modelers built or placed model railroads in store windows as a way to get some people into town instead of shopping at a mall.  Themes included tinplate, nice HO and N scale jobs, and a regular large-scale North Pole fantasy line that featured Little Debbie tree-shaped cakes for trees and candy canes for logs on flat cars.  This hasn't been done for a while--wish they would bring it back.

Are the Revel kits still available from someone else?

[ebtnut]

Not counting my tinplate trains, my first HO loco was an Athearn F-7 with rubber band drive.  That was followed the the 0-4-2 "Little Monster" (a very apt name, as it turned out) and a Mantua Pacific kit.  A bit later I scratched togeter a few bucks and got a brass Ma & Pa 4-6-0 for $29.95.  Virtually all that old HO stuff is long gone since I moved to On3 about 30 years ago.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Are the Revel kits still available from someone else?

I can't say about the immediate present, but I know that at one time Con-Cor marketed kits that were identical to the old Revell "Trackside Buildings," and I think I remember the small-town passenger station and the farmhouse group, too.

I got my "Trackside Buildings," the passenger station, the farmhouse group, and the barn group, genuine Revell and already assembled--and very nicely, too--on eBay. I found them just by doing a search for "Revell" on the HO page on eBay.

[Doneldon]

ebay often has Central Valley freight kits which were terrific.  They would be equivalent to "craftsman" kits today.  Plus, they included CV trucks.  The down sides are that the CV kits are mostly truss rod types and the kits are pretty spendy due to their rarity and the outstanding trucks.

[J3a-614]

Central Valley trucks were great, and the arch-bar truck they sold was of a shorter wheelbase than normal, which was handy for certain prototypes--but I understand the wheelsets had a serious problem with the insulation decaying over time, resulting in short circuits, so if you have any of these trucks, you'll likely have to change out the wheels.

[J3a-614]

My brain cells keep on getting tickled--in this case with another form of motive power, an early diesel craftsman kit, in metal--the venerable, sadly now gone, Hobbytown of Boston. . .

http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/mrr4.html#hobbytwn

http://dsop.com/pipermail/prr-talk/2009-February/001622.html

A bargain here for those of metal kit persuation:

http://shop.ebay.com/items/hobbytown%20of%20boston?_dmd=1&_sop=12

http://cgi.ebay.com/HOBBYTOWN-OF-BOSTON-ALCO-1600-HP-ROAD-SWITCHER-KIT-LN--_W0QQitemZ130373298107QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20100312?IMSfp=TL100312161011r9078

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hobbytown-of-Boston-HO-EMD-E7-B-Unit-Body-Kit_W0QQitemZ400096502803QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item5d279c2413

Going to have to figure out how to use e-bay. . .

I've never seen anything by another more recent metal diesel builder, but supposedly Tiger Valley Models is still in business, just doesn't have a web site:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=58512

This is included as a reference, in this case primarily for those who may have been able to pick up an older brass engine at a bargain price.

http://brassbackshop.com/index.html

Also for reference, what used to be Pacific Fast Mail's special parts arm:

http://pweb.jps.net/~pia/

This firm used to be Kemtron, I believe, long, long ago--still has at least some parts, too. . .

http://psc1.virtualfocus.com/

At one time the firm (as Kemtron) had a couple of brass kits available in O and HO scales, among them a Wabash 2-6-0.  The kit was inspired by Mel Thornberg's last scratchbuilding series in Model Railroader, and I seem to recall some specialized parts were introduced by Kemtron for this model.  The prototypes gained notoriety as the last Wabash engines in steam, outlasting 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s because a bridge on the line they ran on couldn't take even the lightest diesels on the Wabash roster; one of the last four survives in St. Louis, Mo., at a museum there:

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mogul/?page=wabash

http://transportmuseumassociation.org/images/exhibits/wabash573.jpg

The bid prices here look suspiciously low--or does someone not know what they have?

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3559677

Again, a reference item:

http://daveayers.com/Modeling/DTAM_6.htm

http://daveayers.com/Modeling/images/Brass/2-6-0_Mech.jpg

Bethlehem Car Works apparently has picked up a lot of dies and tooling for former Red Ball parts, including what looks like most, if not all, of the trucks:

http://www.bethlehemcarworks.com/Products/Kit_Bits/index.html#Trucks

Wonder what else will turn up?

[Doneldon]

Central Valley trucks were great, and the arch-bar truck they sold was of a shorter wheelbase than normal, which was handy for certain prototypes--but I understand the wheelsets had a serious problem with the insulation decaying over time, resulting in short circuits, so if you have any of these trucks, you'll likely have to change out the wheels.

I have over 100 sets of these trucks and have never had an insulation problem.

[pdlethbridge]

It was probably decaying because someone used non plastic compatible lubes.

[J3a-614]

Both of you could be right.  This is just something I had heard about, including that this was supposedly the reason CV got out of the truck business.  Wonder what the real story might be?

[Doneldon]

I have had several sets of CV trucks on which the sideframes sort of crystalized and crumbled.  Maybe that's why.

[Jim Banner]

A lot of my old stuff got upgraded over the years.  Plastic buildings from the fifties were modified and painted in the seventies and eighties, fiber tie flex track was torn up and reused for hidden trackage, old Tenshodo "howl & growl" brass locomotives were re powered with Athearn chassis and still form the core of my "heavy haul" fleet.  I still have some buildings scratch built out of cigarette packages on evenings spent on the road, and I haven't smoked for almost 30 years.  I have a few old kits still in their boxes, Varney, Athearn yellow box, and some old MDC when it really did mean Die Casting.  I have a few pre-magnetic Kadee couplers and even some Mantua ones to put on these old cars if I ever build them.

Then there is the old stuff - 50, 60 and 70 year old Lionel and Marx, some of it bought used for my four year old son who just turned 40.  My wife accuses me of being a junk collector.  Looking back over this list, maybe, just maybe, she is right.

Jim

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

My wife accuses me of being a junk collector.  Looking back over this list, maybe, just maybe, she is right.

Jim

One wife's junk is her husband's treasure. ...

To coin a phrase. ...