The "Good Old Days" of Model Railroading

[Sumpter250]

"Good Old Days"

I guess it depends on whether you are talking about model railroading, or railroad modeling.

That said, for me, the good old days were the construction articles in RMC, and MR. ( my first serious model built from a construction article was Jack Work,s "Coal Mine" Oct., Nov.,Dec. 1959 .
The wood and printed paper sided rolling stock kits.
The early Plastic kits like Varney, and the Athearn wood and steel side kits, and having to go to the Hobby Shop to get trucks and couplers for these kits. Learning how to do scenery without the "Bottle Brush trees", the "Lolipop trees", the "grass mats".....

It was looking at the photos of the Gore and Dapheted, and trying to build a model of one of John Allen's box cars, or flat cars.
It was looking at the world around me, and trying to reproduce it in 1:87 scale.
It was when the model railroad Magazines, were about modeling, and not advertizements for "Megabuck RTR". ( In *this day and age*, one reasonably detailed RTR, HO, passenger car costs more than a full tank of gasoline!!!!!???? REALLY ?????? )

For me, the ""Good Old Days", have been, are now, and always will be, about the "model building" , and not so much about the "railroading" ( defined as: scale RTR trains running in an endless loop, through semi-believable scenery, and "Plasticville buildings".)
For me, it was never about "Toy Trains", and that includes,( however beautifully reproduced - exquisitely detailed - Highly Overpriced ) Ready To Run. It was always, and still is, about the "hobby" of building models. Model barrels, model fences, model trees, model rocks, model "Home Heating Coal Company Building" scratch built with hand scribed Balsa sheet, based on an abandoned business structure in Lindenhurst, L.I. N.Y., with a stub siding off the LIRR. The dimensions were worked out from the length and width, as "paced off", and several hand drawn detail sketches.
   
   
and ........Details......
you name it, a model can be built of it.