Vintage Rolling Stock Kits

[MasonJar]

Here are a couple of vintage cars I picked up last summer in the South Simcoe Railway gift shop for $5 each. Both have to be at least 25 years old, since Train Miniature of Illinois was purchased by Walthers in 1985.

Both are hoppers - one from the Allegheny Midland (Tony Koester), and one from the Virginian & Ohio (Allen McClelland). While they are technically too new for my era (based on the lettered dates) I will still run them at the modular club set-ups.

You don't see cases like this very often these days.
[albumimg]2856[/albumimg]

The Hutch's Train price sticker is vintage too! Hutch's (in Burlington, ON) became Trains on Brant, which isn't even on Brant Street anymore...
[albumimg]2857[/albumimg]

Closer look at the plastic box.
[albumimg]2858[/albumimg]

Kit contents.
[albumimg]2859[/albumimg]

Ready to roll
[albumimg]2860[/albumimg]

Both cars on the test track
[albumimg]2862[/albumimg]


I know these cars are relative youngsters compared with some of the stuff out there, but I hope you enjoyed a small side trip down memory lane.


Andrew

[jglfan]

I bought 20 of these back around the early 80's, with data only with plans to decal them for the JGL. I did three of them about 7 or 8 years ago. The trucks perform horribly, and some kits had mismatched styles of truck, a packaging error I suspect. I figure I can use repalcement trucks but just never got back to working on them. I found the three best sets and used them on the cars I decaled. Pete (Sumpter 250) has one and the other two are in service on my layout.

[MasonJar]

I bought 20 of these back around the early 80's, with data only with plans to decal them for the JGL. I did three of them about 7 or 8 years ago. The trucks perform horribly, and some kits had mismatched styles of truck, a packaging error I suspect. I figure I can use repalcement trucks but just never got back to working on them. I found the three best sets and used them on the cars I decaled. Pete (Sumpter 250) has one and the other two are in service on my layout.

I neglected to mention (although you might be able to see it in the pictures) that I upgraded the wheel sets to Proto, and the couplers to Kadee. I found that reaming the journals with the MicroMark "tool" dramatically increased the free-rolling performance of the trucks. Out of the box, they were horrible.

Andrew

[RobertInOntario]

Interesting! They look like neat cars. But I've never seen anything like that in the SSR gift shop... I don't think I've ever seen any MRR products there but then I'm often distracted with my kids and can't look around properly! (However, the gift shop at the Halton County Radial Railway often sells MRR stuff ... mainly Model Power though :-( )

Actually, the couple who used to run the gift shop -- called the Freight Shed, IIRC -- moved their store to Tottenham's main street. This happened a year or so ago. They now operate a trains-related gift shop (toys, souveniers, lots of Thomas stuff, some books) from inside another bookstore called Trains of Thought.

At first, the old SSR gift shop was almost empty but when I visited the railway about a month ago, it was slowly returning into a gift shop again. Not a whole lot of stock, but a few gift-like items, soft drinks, etc. Just curious as to which shop you went to as I'm often on the lookout for older stuff.

Cheers,
Rob

[MasonJar]

Interesting! They look like neat cars. But I've never seen anything like that in the SSR gift shop...

Actually, the couple who used to run the gift shop -- called the Freight Shed I think -- moved their store to Tottenham's main street. This happened about a year or so ago. They now operate a trains-related gift shop (toys, souveniers, lots of Thomas stuff, some books) from inside another bookstore called Trains of Thought.

At first, the old SSR gift shop was almost empty but when I visited the railway about a month ago, it was slowly returning into being a gift shop again. Not a whole lot of stock, but a few gift-like items, soft drinks, etc. Just curious as to which shop you went to as I'm often on the lookout for older stuff.

Cheers,
Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks. Yes - I guess they were purchased at Trains of Thought - I remember the book store part well... At the time, I had assumed that that was the associated gift shop, as the freight shed was empty except for a computer that had some of the "archives" on it. I am glad to hear they are making progress. Now if they'd only get a steamer back in service...!

Andrew

[MasonJar]

I bought 20 of these back around the early 80's, with data only with plans to decal them for the JGL. I did three of them about 7 or 8 years ago. The trucks perform horribly, and some kits had mismatched styles of truck, a packaging error I suspect. I figure I can use repalcement trucks but just never got back to working on them. I found the three best sets and used them on the cars I decaled. Pete (Sumpter 250) has one and the other two are in service on my layout.

I neglected to mention (although you might be able to see it in the pictures) that I upgraded the wheel sets to Proto, and the couplers to Kadee. I found that reaming the journals with the MicroMark "tool" dramatically increased the free-rolling performance of the trucks. Out of the box, they were horrible.

Andrew

Here's the link to the tool I used:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.micromark.com/HO-TRUCK-TUNER,8241.html">http://www.micromark.com/HO-TRUCK-TUNER,8241.html</a><!-- m -->

Andrew

[RobertInOntario]

Interesting! They look like neat cars. But I've never seen anything like that in the SSR gift shop...

Actually, the couple who used to run the gift shop -- called the Freight Shed I think -- moved their store to Tottenham's main street. This happened about a year or so ago. They now operate a trains-related gift shop (toys, souveniers, lots of Thomas stuff, some books) from inside another bookstore called Trains of Thought.

At first, the old SSR gift shop was almost empty but when I visited the railway about a month ago, it was slowly returning into being a gift shop again. Not a whole lot of stock, but a few gift-like items, soft drinks, etc. Just curious as to which shop you went to as I'm often on the lookout for older stuff.

Cheers,
Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks. Yes - I guess they were purchased at Trains of Thought - I remember the book store part well... At the time, I had assumed that that was the associated gift shop, as the freight shed was empty except for a computer that had some of the "archives" on it. I am glad to hear they are making progress. Now if they'd only get a steamer back in service...!

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew! I'll try to have a closer look around the Trains of Thought store next time then. Did they have much in the way of used MRR stuff? Rob

[P5se Camelback]

Wow, Andrew ... I'm somewhat jealous! 8-)

McClelland and Koester and their friends in the "Lichen Belt" were instrumental in my choosing to model a Northeastern Pennsylvania coal hauler, and to develop to the extent of detail that I did (a full three-ring binder plus several LS&W publications) the "freelanced prototype railroad" concept back starting in about 1973 or maybe '74. [I actually carried on a letter-written conversation - including hand-drawn sketches - with Tony Koester about the techniques he used in "Covering a Mountainside with Lichen" over several months time in the mid-to-late '70's ... those letters are currently in poly pages in one of my model railroading binders!]

I had contacted them both about sending them rolling stock (e.g., an LS&W box car of bat billets from the Worth Bat Company in Honesdale, PA being shipped to Hillerich & Bradsby in Louisville, KY to be turned into Louisville Slugger baseball bats) for interchange. But then a job change and a move across the country coupled with heavily increased corporate responsibilities sidelined my model railroading for a number of years.

How cool to have those hoppers! However, should you ever see a box car for either of those roads, let me know!!!

[MasonJar]

Thanks, Andrew! I'll try to have a closer look around the Trains of Thought store next time then. Did they have much in the way of used MRR stuff? Rob

Hi Rob,

I don't know if I was just lucky, or if it's a regular thing. Thinking back on it, it may have been someone's excess (estate maybe?) that was donated for the SSRwy. I seem to recall that they kept the money separate.

If you go out that way, you definitely have to spend some time at John Clark's shop just west on Highway 9. Unbelievable! He's got a train shop and layout, as well as R/C warbirds (in 1/4 scale ), and he even custom makes flint-lock stocks in his workshop. Check it out at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clarkindustries.on.ca/">http://www.clarkindustries.on.ca/</a><!-- m --> Fantastic guy, very personable - try to get at least an hour or so to talk with him. You might call ahead - not sure he keeps regular hours.


Andrew

[MasonJar]

How cool to have those hoppers! However, should you ever see a box car for either of those roads, let me know!!!

Hi biL,

That would be great to see your rolling stock on his layout...!

I will keep my eyes open - one local shop has an extensive "used" section, and regularly buys estates, so you never know. You might even call/email with a wish list, although I am not sure that they keep up such as service (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.larkspurline-trains.com">www.larkspurline-trains.com</a><!-- w -->).

Does it have to be box cars only? Not sure they ever made those in V&O or AM.


Andrew

[P5se Camelback]

I didn't mean to make a big deal ... I was just sitting here reminiscing as I watched this afternoon's "daily deluge."

The only freight load ever discussed was the bat billets from Worth Bat, up in Honesdale, PA, so the only type of car discussed was a box car. I suppose a justification for a hopper from one of those roads could be devised, but my guess is that if you are a coal hauler yourself, the chances of having a hopper load of coal shipped from a mine served by your road in a foreign road's hopper would not have been an everyday occurrance. Maybe from another road in the vicinity, like Lehigh Valley, or Reading would be conceivable, but those two roads have their closest interchange near the western end of Pennsylvania (I extended my original route map to get me out there for justifyable "beyond the basement" interchange.)

On the other hand, it would be fun to have a car lettered for either of those railroads, so I guess I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to own one ... of nearly any type of car ... I have no stock cars or ore cars. My rolling stock has a decided run-of-the-mill "sameness" about it. Lots more of the same, virtually nothing "different," pretty much on purpose.

[MasonJar]

No big deal...! If I see 'em, I see 'em. I don't make it to the store with the estate stuff very much, so it will really be random chance that I see one. If I do, I'll need your mailing address.

Andrew

[e-paw]

That's a great find, congrats. I have been searching for a few of those cars for years myself. Have fun with them.

[P5se Camelback]

If and when the time comes, let me know ... I'll shoot you some dead Presidents and my mailing address.

[cn nutbar]

Hello Andrew and biL---as you know,I have been very lucky in purchasing some of Doctor Wayne's surplus rolling stock---check out this one