Each Monday I start a new "book club" discussion by focusing on an issue from the past, available to those of us with the new All Access Pass / Digital Archives, or from the MR DVD of a few years ago, and of course anyone with the hard copy of the issue is also welcome to join in. The idea is to provide a bit of a push to really explore an issue from a while ago as if we had just received it at home, and comment on anything that strikes us.
The February 1958 issue was when Paul Larson was editor, and Don Reschenberg, Gordon Odegaard, and Linn Westcott were on the staff. Without meaning to criticize or belittle any current or former staff members of MR I think a good case could be made that that might have been the highpoint in terms of sheer modeling talent on the staff.
Compared to issues from the 1930s and 40s, the modeling, photography, and even some of the advertisements in 1958 have much more in common with what we expect to see today. More of the products in the Trade Topics product reviews would be more likely to find purchasers today for example -- and not just based on the prices either.
The cover photo and a major article in the issue focus on the incredible modeling of Leo Myers who worked in a "live steam" scale of 1" = 1'. It has been a long while since MR featured any live steam size modeling; at one time it would make regular appearances. For its time the photography of the model is also remarkable; we take such things for granted now.
Those with a taste for building things will like this issue: there are articles on how to built a small coal supply company, a neat transfer caboose by Al Kamm Jr. (who at one time was a regular contributor of such articles to MR), and an interesting how-to for a skewed deck truss bridge by Paul Mallery, whose book on bridges and testles from about that same era remains in print and remains good useful information for model bridge builders. Mallery also supplies a useful article on meters.
A regular feature in MR during that time period was the color charts, and this months chart is for a Wabash GP-7 and a Northern Pacific GP-9. You are on your own however trying to mix accurate paints using today's paints and the formulas in the charts which are for Floquil, High Ball, Roundhouse and Stewart-Lundahl paints.
There are some interesting letters to the editor as well. What is above are just a few of the things that struck me about the issue.
Take a look, fellows, and then have at it with your thoughts, reactions, and comments.
Dave Nelson
Interesting that the very first Letter to the Editor is about..."I have no LHS near me"...a common complaint on this forum.
I miss Suydam and PFM.
Interesting the thematic idea of the ads on page 23 and 24. You don't see that today.
This is a great issue to discuss. The first letter in Railway Postoffice doesn't so much complain about a lack of LHS, which he's used to, but to encourage those contacting advertisers to mention their ad was seen in MR. Still a good practice.
The next letter is, well, it is what it is in discussing junior and other new members in clubs, a subject of interest to me. Caution is in order, because of "the difficulty in weeding out -- the serious minded from the brats, the responsible from the irresponsible. It is next to impossible to get rid of a member, junior or senior,once he is accepted, and the hobby has its pests, its lunatic fringe and its assorted charecters -- adult and juvenile. Some of them are frankly tinplaters and don't know it..."
Some things never change... This was apparently prompted by a Dec. MR editorial encouraging clubs to offer junior memberships.
The new category of Recoomended Practice (RP) was announced by the NMRA.
The Al Kamm Jr. RI caboose build is interesting with its open air "dome car like" seating. One of our division members was a good friend of Mr. Kamm's, who was apparenly an EMD employee IIRC. He was also a pioneer narrowgauger.
Sound was around in 1958. All you needed was a turntable...that you put that old schjool tech known as a record on. (pg 66-67)
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Page 2 ad for Mantua car kits. Interesting that they now come with "NMRA" couplers, that is hornhooks, but can be exchanged for Mantua automatics, whatever those were.
More traction stuff, review, article, ads than we find today.
I enjoyed the editorial refuting craftsman kit building disappearing. Other than locomotive kits being almost gone today, it could be the editorial next month.
At 80 pages, it is 20 pages shorter than February 2015.
Enjoy
Paul
I liked the Atlas advertisment - 'Every NOL* and RTR* Railroader Should have this book...'. RTR is pretty well know, but NOL(No Operating Layout) is a term I have not heard! Back in the late 60's when I built my 1st HO layout(as a teenager), it was expected that one have a layout or belong to a club that had a large layout. It seems that 'Armchair' modelers have grown through the years. I have armchair'ed though the years(took 3 years after building a new house to start on a layout).
The coal distributor construction article is I miss in the current issues. With all of the pre-scribed styrene siding material, and Grandt/Tichy windows that are available; building a structure just is not a problem. Back in the 60's the choice of windows was sort of slim, and and the available wood siding material was not as good as the current styrene.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I remember thinking when I finally had space to build a layout, I would use Tru-Track with the milled ties on wood roadbead. When I finally did start building, this type of track was all but gone from the scene. I liked the 1 inch scale live steam set-up by Lee Myers. The live steam side of model railroading has always been a builder's endeavor. I can relate better to this issue than the 1936 issue. This was what was going on in Model Railroading when I was an 8 year old kid!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
What fun. I was 11 at the time and around then got started with a 4'x6' snap-track layout from the blue Atlas booklet. So I imagine this was around when I first bought a MR.
I enjoyed several things. The ad for AHC in downtown Manhattan reminded me of visiting there, if I recall correctly a multi-story store. And this reminds me that I need to look for an Ambroid pickle car on Ebay. And the 1" scale RR was certainly interesting, with 15' radii and a spur that went into the shop in the house. My grandkids would like that.
Of course the ads are fun. The Athearn hustler, etc. And Gilbert's LHS in Gettysburg PA is one I visited when my brother was in college. I got to visit the next version, still in town, on another street, run by a nephew I think, when my grandson and I went RR-ing in that area a couple or years ago. Met one of the original brothers in the back room, whom I no doubt encountered in the 60's. Great memories.
Thanks for hosting this. A nice diversion each week.
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Mid to late 50's is when the products shown are many of the ones I remember having on the layout as a kid. For example, that Scintilla power pack on page 16 - I rmemebr running trains on that. It lasted into the early 70's when the left rheostat went out and we replaced it with an MRC Dualpack. ANd the Tru-Scale houses on page 19 - we had 1 or 2 of those, plus other similar ones, maybe it was all 3 of those.
The first junior members letter - the author is a name that appeared quite frequently in RPO, at least into the 80s. Westfield is a fairly upper class town, probably more so then than now. What i get out of his letter is that things we think are 'new' problems with the kids of today have in fact been going on for more than 50 years.
The cover photo is simply amazing. Granted it's a large scale model (1" scale) but still - amazing level of detail, it truly does look real.
Tommy Gilbert's hobby shop is still around. That would be the nephew I think.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
jrbernier I liked the Atlas advertisment - 'Every NOL* and RTR* Railroader Should have this book...'. RTR is pretty well know, but NOL(No Operating Layout) is a term I have not heard!
I liked the Atlas advertisment - 'Every NOL* and RTR* Railroader Should have this book...'. RTR is pretty well know, but NOL(No Operating Layout) is a term I have not heard!
I'm rather fascinated by the term "model rail" coming up in the older issues. It sounds so goofy.
IRONROOSTER Page 2 ad for Mantua car kits. Interesting that they now come with "NMRA" couplers, that is hornhooks, but can be exchanged for Mantua automatics, whatever those were. Paul
dknelson Paul the Mantua coupler was a hook and loop type but on a flat plain so from the side view it was relatively unobtrusive, compared to the thick Baker hook and loop coupler that was also popular at the time. Dave Nelson
Dave,
Thanks for the info.
I got a kick out of Paul Larson's "At The Throttle". Though I chose my forum moniker for a totally different reason(3rd of five brothers),his description of the middleman in model building fits me pretty well.
Although I was three and a half when this came out,it reminds me very much of the first issues I read(probably very early 60's).Stuff like the PFM brass ads are still eye candy for me.
If any of you have the actual magazine... are you able to see the "3D Shanty" in the ad on page 71?
Mike
I was impressed from the very start with the 1" scale model detail. An estimated 4000 hours is a lot to put into a single model.
I noticed in the ad for the Unimat lathe that the operator was not wearing safety glasses. Just plain dumb!
The skewed bridge article was very informative, but I cringed when I read that card stock was being used. OK, take it easy - there is nothing wrong with card stock, that is until it gets wet.
The introduction to the meter article is hilarious. One full paragraph to explain that the author was going to write about meters that "applied to model railroading". Well duh!
The ad on page 15 for Walthers dwarf signals was pretty enticing. I wonder why they still don't offer them.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Who can describe the Mantua Automatic Couplers? What was Automatic about them? I know that John Allen used the Baker Coupler and sort of understand how that one worked. I had a Tyco train set of about the 1960 vintage and it had the NMRA Horn Hook couplers.
I also see that in this issue the Athearn Hustler loco was advertized. I always thought this to be an interesting and almost affordable little loco for a kid who made some money mowing grass or doing other odd jobs. I never bought one and sort of regret that.
I have been looking through these past issues for reference to a Varney Power Pack, such as the one I had with my first train set and have yet to see one. Has anyone else come across one?
If this works, rather fuzzy pic of a Mantua coupler
The big loop is stationary. The little hook at the back of the loop can lift up slightly. They were automatic in the sense that a kadee is automatic - just push the cars together and they couple. Uncoupling was by means of a ramp that pushed up on a part of the hook that stuck down. Pretty much worked the same as the Baker, or the hook and loop ones still found in England (my bachmann Hogwarts set has this type, as does the old Tri-Ang Rocket set I have - difference being that the hook on those is at the outside edge of the loop, not close to the carbody like Mantua)
I’m curious, does anyone know how the Urlich tractor and trailer units would compare with todays offerings?
dknelson But when carefully assembled and taken care of they look nice -- and more to the point, they offer a generation of heavy trucks that is otherwise not available to the model railroader in HO.
The AC Gilbert company had a ad on page 24. Sadly, after the owners death and sale of the company, they would be no more by 67.
More choices than the 30s and 40s for HO equipment. The magazine and drawings were more sophisticated, note the 4-12-2 was drawning.
MRC had a power pack with 3 throttles. Never seen one before, but then my first HO pack was a Tech II.
The Tri-Pack. I've seen it in the magazines, and in other model railroad books, but I've never seen on in person. Wonder how many they sold.
I have shooting, and AC Gilbert to thank for there being trains around when I was a kid - my Dad won a Gilbert HO train set in a block shoot. It was the little blue industrial engine (still have it somewhere). Before I came along, what was my room was filled with a layout my Mom and Dad built, adding some other stuff like a Tyco 0-6-0T which I still have, and a small 0-4-0, also a tank, not sure which one it was, but I took it to school to display for hobby week, and I got the 0-6-0 back but never the 0-4-0. After I came along, the train was a loop around the tree at Christmas, there is a home movie of my 2 year old self running the train around the tree using the Scintilla power pack I mentioned. Then we moved and built a bigger layout (also only up during the holidays, no room for a permanent one) which grew a little more each year. Around age 8, I had a 2x4 N scale layout which we did have room for so I kept at is all year round. And on it went...
Never had a ho set when I was young.I was fortunate to have Lionel and did have a Gilbert erector set. Wow, that was a great toy to develope imagination and dexterity. It was the set with the ferris wheel and I still have it.
Wonder if todays kids will be looking back and saying, I remember my old Galaxy s 6
Until I was a little older, the trains were only out from about Thanksgiving to New Year, so in between time, my favorite toys were my Erector set and een more so, Legos. And my other favorite 'toy' - a box full of wires, lights, and batteries that I would rig up. Little wonder I already knew what I wanted to study in college even before I got to high school. I also had nearly every flavor of those "150 in one" electronic kits from Radio Shack - the first one had each component on a little plastic block, with 4 spring terminals on each corner, There were plastic clips to hold the blocks together, and then little L shaped metal pieces to link the appropriate spring terminals together to build the circuit. All fun and creative toys, in between my voracious reading appetite. Little wonder I was able to figure out why the train stopped dead halfway around the layout one Saturday morning when my Dad was at work. I had it wired and running when he got home - I was about 5 or 6 at the time. Now days most of that creative spirit is buried under a mountain of video games. No one wants electronic experimenter kits, and I'd swear most of the Legos purchases thes days are by adults (I'm on of them). Erector sets have disappeared, and the days of taking apart discarded appliances is pretty much over as well (oh no, you might get hurt!). There's a very good TED talk on that particular topic.
Look at the ads - the Marklin ones, and a few others - father and son working together on a layout, or the whole family. I don't know how representative that was of the era, as 1958 is 8 years before i was even born. It's the way we did things in our house. It seems sadly less and less representative as the years go on.
I had an Erector set (mine had some sort of missle launch capability but I never used it for that; it had a big honking electric motor that I used to create all manner of toy situations). Legos were before my time but I had a similar set of white plastic bricks that I used with my toy soldiers -- and a windup tank from Marx that could crash through that brick wall. I also like Lincoln Logs, which I think they still make -- I remember the windmill parts in particular [EDITED POST: I might be thinking of Tinker Toys for the windmill] -- and a set that some people might remember: the Kenner set which was an ingenious series of plastic steel beams that could snap together to create building outlines and roadways. It was advertised as being in HO scale. That was a neat and cleverly designed toy. You never built the same thing twice (unless you wanted to)
Scoot back to the end of the Jan 1958's Fleischmann ad. You won't see that in MR nowadays....
Don't know if this helps, but the old Mantua coupler was sorta/kinda like the hook and loop couplers that "Large Scale" trains often come with now, particularly those made in Europe.
dknelson I had an Erector set (mine had some sort of missle launch capability but I never used it for that; it had a big honking electric motor that I used to create all manner of toy situations). Legos were before my time but I had a similar set of white plastic bricks that I used with my toy soldiers -- and a windup tank from Marx that could crash through that brick wall. I also like Lincoln Logs, which I think they still make -- I remember the windmill parts in particular -- and a set that some people might remember: the Kenner set which was an ingenious series of plastic steel beams that could snap together to create building outlines and roadways. It was advertised as being in HO scale. That was a neat and cleverly designed toy. You never built the same thing twice (unless you wanted to) Dave Nelson
I had an Erector set (mine had some sort of missle launch capability but I never used it for that; it had a big honking electric motor that I used to create all manner of toy situations). Legos were before my time but I had a similar set of white plastic bricks that I used with my toy soldiers -- and a windup tank from Marx that could crash through that brick wall. I also like Lincoln Logs, which I think they still make -- I remember the windmill parts in particular -- and a set that some people might remember: the Kenner set which was an ingenious series of plastic steel beams that could snap together to create building outlines and roadways. It was advertised as being in HO scale. That was a neat and cleverly designed toy. You never built the same thing twice (unless you wanted to)
Ah yes, Lincoln logs, I had those, everything was wood except for the roof truss pieces, which were stepped to hold the flat green roof pieces.
Also Tinker Toys, I had those as well.
I had a building set similar to what you describe but I don't remember it being advertised as HO scle, and I think it was actually smaller. At least, if the beams were supposed to represent standard steal I beams, they were definitely too short for HO.
And another I remember, the Mattel Spinwelders - there was this handheld tool which was basically a plastic case around a 6 volt motor, you connected it to a 6V lantern battery. There were these plastic bits, low melting point, that had a cop in one end that fit over the motor shaft. Each one came with plastic I beams and other parts designed to make a certain thing, the one I had mad a Can-Am race car. Pull the trigger, the motor would spin, and you touched the tip of the plastic to the spot you wanted to make a joine and it melted the plastic to form a weld - using plastic cement you could have built these things in an hour or so, but the fun was making a nice bead on you 'welds'. For the car I had, the read wheels had steal weights in them, and there was a key shaped tip for the too you stuck in one wheel hub to spin it up and then let it go. If a body panel broke - just weld it back on!
Oh and a more MRR related thing, this kit structure that came with a bag of plaster and a whole bunch of plastic molds. You molded bricks, for what seemed like hours, and then built up the model brick by brick. Bigger than HO, I'm not sure it was big enough to be O, maybe S.
Dave!
I had one of those Kenner construction sets and I spent countless hours building things with it. Brings back some very fond memories. We had most of the other things that you and Randy mention but the bulk of them I inherited from my older brothers. The Kenner set was bought brand new just for me and I was thrilled to get it.
On the bottom of page 13 is a ad from Kurtz Kraft. I have heard the name before but am wondering what their story was? Can't say I ever saw one of their products in person.
Soo Line fan On the bottom of page 13 is a ad from Kurtz Kraft. I have heard the name before but am wondering what their story was? Can't say I ever saw one of their products in person.
Kurtz Kraft is remembered (by some of us) for two things: they had the first prefab Code 70 flex track (but no turnouts) and they had a line of 40' boxcar kits in plastic that featured separate ladders, separate grab irons etc. -- all in plastic, and thus very much along the line of the Red Caboose/Intermountain/P2K lines of car kits, although the detail was not so fine. The sides, ends, floors, and roofs were all separate pieces and the cars came in a simple plastic bag stapled to a piece of paper, so at the hobby shop the cars hung on a hook. They did not come with trucks, and the couplers were simple dummy knuckle couplers, and the cars were very cheap -- I had the Central of Georgia boxcar in the ad and I paid the list price of 89 cents! Even then that was cheap. What was unusual was that for the most part the car color was in the plastic, not painted, so the cars had a plastic sheen that had to be addressed. I have some vague recollection that ConCor picked up the line and included trucks. Years later the same cars were re issued by Cannonball.
If carefully assembled the cars looked good, but this was back in the "blob of airplane glue" era of plastic assembly and thus the cars were not valued as they should have been -- The guys who could have done a careful craftsman like job with them were disdaining plastic totally, which was an unfortunate bias, and only a few real craftsmen were taking plastic seriously enough to do justice to Kurtz Kraft. Linn Westcott once wrote that the Kurtz Kraft line might actually have suffered because the packaging looked cheap and the prices were cheap and thus it was undervalued.
Every now and then I see an unbuilt Kurtz Kraft kit at a swap meet -- tempted but then I think of the shelves of unbuilt P2K, Intermountain, Tichy, and Silver Streak plastic reeefer kits I have yet to attend to.
One thing caught my eye in the "Next Month In MR" announcement (p. 21) was for an article on making your own GP-9B using an Athearn shell as a starting point.
I'm glad I waited. Athearn will be releasing these this fall... only 57 years later!
Another interesting tidbit: The cartoon on page 62 portends the Penn-Central merger by ten years!
Ed
Ah yes, that's what I was thinking I was forgetting when I made my original post and finally gave up trying to remember - the cartoon and the Penn Central! To be fair though, that and other northeast railroad mergers had been talked about as much as a year BEFORE the cartoon.