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The All Access Pass/Back Issue/Digital Archives Book Club Number 10 for the first week of April will focus on April 1965 Model Railroader

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  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Friday, April 3, 2015 12:54 PM

 They showed both versions in the article - for a while MRC had one in that small form factor that had a transformer and rectifier in it and just plugged right in. The other was the cab control which just had the rheostat and direction switch, and hooked to the Fixed DC terminals on the power pack. Later they had a fancier one - Cab COntrol 55 I think, that was transistorized and had a multi position brake lever as wella s momentum. Also fed from Fixed DC. The one that was a complete pack with the transformer and all was a bit of a new one to me, I didn;t recall seeing that one in the older MRC ads or anything.

                  --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,439 posts
Posted by dknelson on Friday, April 3, 2015 2:57 PM

jecorbett

Toward the back I saw an ad for 20 new Atlas structures. Most of those must not have caught on because there were only a couple I recognized and I don't know if any are still in production. One that I found interesting was the greenhouse. It's a fairly common structure that I don't often see on model railroads. I'm going to see if I can find a place on the layout to put on or two, assuming I can find a kit.

 
The Atlas structures that are advertised in the April '65 issue do not include the old favorites: the lumber yard, the interlocking tower, etc., because they were not "really" Atlas products.  Most and perhaps all of them were to be found in the Faller catalog when that firm finally got American distribution - at significantly higher prices.  
 
The current Walthers catalog shows some Faller Greenhouses https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/272-130213
 
but I can't seem to find the precise model Atlas was offering.  Kibri offers some greenhouses too.
 
Dave Nelson
  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Friday, April 3, 2015 4:29 PM

 Those models moved around so much it isn't funny. Just read an 1985 issue with an Art Current kitbash article based on the AHM Superior Bakery. Which originally was the Revell Enginehouse, which was the basis for several other kits. By the time of the article, it was sold by Con-Cor/Heljan. That famous mine kit that EVERYONE had, in HO AND N - that was based off a Jack Work scratchbuilding article way back in MR. Lots of the early scratchbuilding projects in MR became the basis for commercial kit structures.

 Somewhere I have a 74 or 75 issue of Railroad Modeler which makes a carbarn/station/offices for a trolley line out of the Superior Bakery kits (maybe the Weekly Herald newspaper building too - which was another spinoff of the engine house).

                       --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • 1,138 posts
Posted by MidlandPacific on Friday, April 3, 2015 4:43 PM

At the risk of veering off-topic, those old structure kits make for great kit bashing, and sometimes have surprising origins.  When I moved to Baltimore a decade ago, I used to drive past the now-closed LifeLike factory on my way to the station.   Fast forward to earlier this week, and I was trolling EBay, and saw an old LifeLife structure that looked vaguely familiar - the Hampden firehouse.  I realized as I was looking at it that I drive by it every day on Roland Avenue- plainly someone on the LifeLike design staff found a prototype close at hand, and made good use of it.

http://mprailway.blogspot.com

"The first transition era - wood to steel!"

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