I once got a John English Pennsy A-5 switcher as part of a trade. It came with it's original frame parts - the cover plate was warped and ready to fall apart. A previous owner had made a brass cover plate which served the purpose.. The driver centers were also shot and I put in driver sets from Mantua. You see the bulging driver centers on a lot of the later run Varney Old Lady and Casey Jones models. I eventually found a person crazier than me who wanted to get the A-5 running. I gladly gave it to him!

I found swapping parts on all those old engines to be a lot of fun.

Varney and old Hobbyline (John English) castings are often brittle. Castings made during the Korean war are especially open to disintegrating. It had to do with the shortage of some metals. Also, as others have offered, climate plays a big part.

Varney hasn't been around since 1960 and Bowser discontinued the kit line a few years ago. There is a company that specializes in parts for old HO engines - maybe someone out there knows the name - I can't remember it.

Good luck in keeping those oldies around. By the way, tinkering with those old kits can become an obsession. I can't tell you how many of the old metal kits I once had. For me tinkering was the fun of the hobby. Buying an engine, sitting it on the track does nothing for me. I get a kick out of guys who complain that couplers are too high or low. I understand that an RTR engine should be RTR but nothing is perfect in this world - except the New York Mets.

Jon - are all the cars the same basic red? Will you weather any of tem?

Super work!

There's a lot of variety for people modelling up to the early sixties.

A jade green NYC box car wouldn't fit into Jonathan's time frame.

Living in Manhattan I often saw plenty of cars from "up north." When I started in HO while in college I purchased one of those grey Athearn CN reefers - I'm sure they sold a lot of them. I know that I had several - all with the same number!

Jon - keep up the splendid work.

does anybody know of other railroads that used doors of  different color to specify what the lading would be?

Aside to Mr. Bachmann - maybe Bachmann could do a limited run of box cars from the post war era - sort of like what Lionel did with their colorful box cars that they did in the fifties. Call them a collector's run and people will snatch them up thinking that they'll be worth the price of a new car in forty years!

Jon - I just love SAL box cars. Back years ago I had brass models of their round top cars. At a train show I actually found an old Athearn metal car - lots of fun to assemble.

I think you need to add a little color to your consists - why not do a CN car with the Maple Leaf heralds. When I was growing up on the west side of Manhattan I used to bike down to the big NYC yard (that no longer exists.) Often there were several CN Maple Leaf cars - some with yellow doors, others with green doors. I know that the colors meant that the cars were for special lading, like newsprint. anyway a CN car with yellow or green door sure would like nice in one of your trains. Oh, and by the way, I also liked the CP cars with the script writing and the slogan, "CP Spans the World. Oh, and I remember the debut of the jade green NYC cars with the cigar band herald. Just some suggestions - keep up the fine work.

I have the Grandt Line On3 C&S model which is similar to D&RGW cars. It dwarfs Bachmann On30 cars. They'll need to find a smaller prototype. You'll find that most of the On3 models are very big next to Bachmann or other On30 cars.

When I started in the hobby I wouldn't have paid attention to things like cabs - all I cared about was getting the trains to run. My brass USRA mike had a slight whine when going forward but nothing in reverse. When it was disassembled for painting a thrust washer was missing. A Kadee washer fixed the problem. The problem with the brass engines is that they didn't pull very much out of the box.

The Bachmann engine looks fine to me - I'm not a bean counter. There were lots of USRA mikes all over the country so the model may sell out rather quickly.

Now Bachmann has to do a USRA pacific.

I can't wait to see Jonathan deconstruct a USRA mike - Hmmm - let me guess - it'll become a B&O loco!

My first brass engine was a PFM/ United USRA mike - I paid the full asking price of $32.50 plus tax (1968 price) . A friend painted it and lettered it for the NYC.  I sold it for $65 when I decided to leave HO (which I never did!)

MDC made a line of old time cars - I remember assembling one of their 36 foot boxcar kits. It has a metal underframe and truss rods. I would think the model was circa 1900.  Ye Olde Huff-n-Puff has a few wooden kits that might fit into a early 1900 era railroad. LaBelle is another line with wooden era kits.

Mantua/Tyco made the General - an all die cast metal beast with tender drive. I can't say much about them as I never owned one.

There are things out there.

marlec - the NMRA is the National Model Railroad Association. It was formed ages ago to promote standards in the industry.  Before the NMRA you couldn't run trains from one company with another without a lot of fuss. The NMRA has standards for weight - e.g. what should a 40 foot HO boxcar weigh to keep it on the track? They have all kinds of standards. They make a track/wheel gauge that many people find indispensable. Other vendors sell these and serious modelers will have at least one. They publish a magazine and have annual meetings that usually include a train ride and visiting other people's layouts. I've been a member since 1972 and have really come to appreciate what the organization does.

Jon - what color are the engineer's shoes? You painted the cab interior - wow.

Westside models went on a decline in the late Seventies because the owner was involved in a divorce. He turned to new Korean builders whose quality couldn't match the Japanese models imported by PFM. PFM later used Korean builders but the quality was much improved. Generally models by Empire Midland and Hallmark were things to avoid unless you were a serious brass guy. Being a Southern Railway fan I bought an Empire Midland Southern 4-8-2. The tender wheels were out of round and out of gauge. Every time I ran it something fell off. I had (and still have) a resistance soldering rig and got lots of practice tinkering with brass engines.

Keep up the good work. Did you color the gauges on the cab back head like the model airplane guys do with cockpit gauges?

Jon - is that the Westside version of this engine? I had one that was manufactured in 1976 and the Westside used a red white and blue box. Sad to say the engine was problematic. The importerss were going to Korea for models and the first few years of Korean stuff had many problems. There were a lot of cold solder joints and my mike had an undersized can motor and it was noisy and fast. Mine came with the optional water bottle auxiliary tender. The frame was too wide on it so the engine needed wide radius turns when running with the auxiliary tender. Since our club at the time had a minimum radius of 4 feet that wasn't a problem

When I started doing my post graduate work I decided that I didn't have time to tinker with the engine so I sold it at one of the Timonium shows. To this day I'm sorry that I sold it. The guy who bought it had a B&O hat and denim engineer's jacket which he said belonged to his dad - a B&O engineer. So I know the engine went to a good home.

Jon - your work inspires people. Whether it's brass or a Bachmann product you always add something.

Jonathan - as usual your works gets an "A." I am wondering just how many 0-6-0s the B&O had on roster - you may have your work cut out for you!

I bought an MDC boxcab when it first came out (many moons ago.) It sounded like a blender crushing ice when it ran. I remember selling it at the Timonium show years ago. I believe that the shay shared mechanical components but never having owned an MDC shay I can't say for sure. Leave the MDC engine for the collectors and tinkerers. For operation go with the Bachmann shay.

Jon - the bridge is great but looks like a tight squeeze. Be sure your engineers get slow orders!

Another well done project.