After seeing all of the amazing vehicles Frank has been creating, got me to thinking about how long it actually took me in my 58 years, to get around to building some of the kits I have recieved or purchased.
I have two unbuilt kits on the shelf, one is the mule team from the Borax soap company, it still has my Grandpa's name and address on it along with a postage stamp that is of small denomination. The second is the Revell charter fishing boat, both from the very early sixties.
The first kit that I can remember building was a little yellow hot rod with flames on the side called Sad Sack. Did any of you fellow geezers have that one?
So how old is your oldest unbuilt kit? It doesn't have to be railroad related. Many of us got our feet wet building car and plane kits in our youth and as Frank has demonstrated he is not just into trains and RR related kits, though many of us now are.
Also what was your first MRR related kit? I think mine was some auto's for the layout that Dad let me take a crack at. I was very young. The glue blobs probably ended up larger than the wheels. I am at the extreme other end of the patience scale in these later years.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
My first HO kits (1958) were an Athearn C&NW heavy duty flat and a Santa Fe caboose. They had rubber springs in the trucks (instead of coiled steel).
My oldest unbuilt kits are a bunch of Ulrich kits. Some have zinc-rot. But some don't. They're just a waitin'. They likely go back to the '50's.
Ed
I have two LaBelle HOn3 passenger car kits. One is a D&RG Combine (HOn3-21) and the other is a Denver & Ft. Worth Coach (HOn3-20).
I suspect these are circa 1970~1975, but may be a little older. Clues are the MSRP at $12.75; the fact that Labelle was in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; and that they are stamped as follows:
Chester Holley
Model Railroad Specialist
3812-20 S. Himes Ave
Tampa, Fla. 33011
Since there is a Zip Code they are, what?, post-1963?
Would be neat if someone could use that info and "narrow it down" a little better for the date
I was actually checking on what trucks I have for these earlier today.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Brent,
LOL,LOL, I got that 20 Mule team Borax kit, about 1952 as a gift. Never painted the Mules...but sure played with the wagons alot. Was 10yrs old in 52.
About the oldest unbuilt kit I still have....is the one I was going to give You... any other's, I have already stole parts from. LOL.
Thanks for the accolades....Adapt, diversify and conquer...with alot of patience.
Take Care!
Frank
In the garage two boxes collect dust. An F100 fighter kit from the 70s (flew them) and a 66 GTO kit (have a 2nd full sized one) which I guess I found in 90s. I won't tackle them until I master my airbrush some day.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Ulrich metal triple hopper - circa early 70s?
Have a few other Ulrich cars built, and they are pretty nice!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I think my oldest unbuilt kit is an Atlas turnout kit. But I also have two old all metal kits - Roundhouse boxcar and Roundhouse gondola. All of these I bought long after they were made.
The oldest unbuilt kit that I purchased new is a Westwood Maryland & Pennsylvania double coach kit.
First kit I remember building was the USS Arizonia.
First model railroad kits was the Atlas passenger station, Atlas lumberyard, and Atlas signal tower. I built all these for my first layout one after another, but I no longer remember the order.
Enjoy
My oldest unbuilt kit is probably a Silver Streak caboose kit. Combination brass and wood kit. Sort of a Reading type caboose, which is why I bought it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have many of the Trains miniture billboard 40" boxcars purchased in 1969 and later in that era. Just can't get around to building them. Bluebox cars also from the early 1970 era that are not built. Too much work and not sufficient time to build kits.
That would make them at least 45 to 47 years old.
I don't qualify for this thread. Although I have a few unbuilt kits, none is more than ten years old.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
My oldest unbuilt model is a Walthers 5 Unit All Purpose Spine Car I bought in August 2002, and another I bought in October 2003. I hoarded several of these nice kits when they were discontinued and deeply discounted when people mistakenly thought they had no value. I paid as low as $15 for these kits that usually sold for $40. I think I never built them because I ready had matching numbers and I was saving if traffic increased or I decided to sell, which I haven’t.
My wife built the mule team for her father. He actually had two kits, so it became a 40 mule team display.
My oldest unbuilt rr kit is a Varney #2585 Aerotrain observation kit. It is unpainted gray plastic. I have always planned to make a coach out of it as I have a rtr observation and no coaches.
The first rr kit I remember building was a Varney metal sided Fairmount Creamery reefer. Still have it. When you lived in a small town in the 50's with no hobbyshop and a 50¢ a week allowance, you depended on E&H's Iron Horse catalog every month. You probably had to get an allowance advance to send in a $3 order and then you looked every day for the olive drab mail truck.
Ken Vandevoort
If a model passes through here, it is usually built. However, I have an Airfix 4-4-0, schools class, that is unbuilt from 1962. Built, however, I have my Cherokee Valley 2-8-0 made from an Airfix Evening Star and a Fleischmann 2-10-0 mechanism.
Roundhouse old timer 2-6-0 kit and bowser casey jones kit. Not sure how old it is but I am pretty sure it pre dcc as it still use the locomotive shell as a ground.
The oldest model kit that I have and still unbuilt is a Revell Chinook helicopter kit. In the closet for ~30 years.
I don't have any unbuilt rail road kits. I put them all together while recuperating from open heart surgery.
South Penn
I have a couple of old kits but I'm not sure of the exact ages.
One is an Aristo Craft Rotary Snow Plow kit in the original red and yellow box. The kit is plastic so I guess that might suggest a rough date. It has a rubber band drive for the blade. There is a price stamped on the box of $2.95.
Another is a Northeastern Scale Models wood HM-2 Russel Snow Plow, kit #1302, also in its original box. I've only built one wood rolling stock kit so far so the plow will be an interesting exercise.
The third is an Athearn Metal Line HO 50' round roof box car which I bought recently for what looked to be a really great price. Unfortunately it showed up sans doors and ends. It is not in its original box. The seller was good enough to refund my money and told me to keep the kit so I'm not out anything. I'll have to do some research to find out what the doors and ends looked like and whether anything suitable is available. I might start a thread to see if anyone has any pictures.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I have a Thomas O scale single-dome tank car kit I bought off eBay more than ten years ago. I fell in love with the Thomas Consol 'way back in the late '50s when I bought the 1951 through 1958 bound volumes of Model Railroader. At the time, I was a total fan of the then editor, Paul Larson, whose HO Mineral Point & Northern was the stuff of dreams to a teenager. However, the editor he replaced, John Page, was an "O-gauger" and one of his favorite locos was the Thomas Consol. I liked its chunky, old-timey workhouse good looks, so when I decided to go into O scale in the mid-'60s, I tried to purchase a kit through my favorite LHS.
I didn't know it at the time, but James Thomas had died and his wife sold the business to a Texas businessman--and hot metal from a die-casting machine had set fire to the factory, destroying it. I built a chunky little Mogul over an inexpensive Japanese mechanism, instead. Shortly after that, I realized that, barring a financial miracleI was probably going to be an apartment-dweller for the rest of my life and went back into HO.
In my dotage, I went back into O and managed to get my hands on not one but three Consols, one of them still in original condition, so I bought a couple of Thomas bobber cabeese off eBay and decided I wanted a single-dome Thomas tank car to put on display with the engine and caboose. (The MR Trade Topics review of the tank car called it one of the finest kits available in "O gauge," even though it was pricey, $5.75, less trucks.) I paid 68 bucks for mine, but I've never gotten around to building the kit, which is still in its original box. (I have about eight other projects to finish before I can even think about it!) BTW: it really is an excellent kit.
Deano
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Most here have me beat by a long shot. I don't think I have any kits older than the 1980's - most of my remaining kits have either been sold off or I have maybe one box full, most bought in the 1990's or more recently. Enjoy yourselves!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I believe my first kit was the USCG Cutter Campbell kit that I built in the 1950's.
The oldest kit I purchased that is unbuilt is an Ambroid 1-5000 kit of the Southern All Door Boxcar that I purchased in the early 60's. (Kit released in 10/63). My wife picked up an old Mainline Models Vinegar Tank Car kit at a garage sale which dates from I don't know when.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
I still have the Borax 20 mule team I got around 1955. Had to get it through the mail IIRC. Don't recall if product purchase was necessary (probably not), and I think the cost was around a buck. 10 years old at the time.
Gary
The first kit I ever built was an AMT model of a 1940 ford coup; probably dates back to about 1959 or 1960. It was one of those 3 n 1 kits, where you could build it as a stock, custom, or racing/hot rod. AMT came out with many kits like that in that time period.
The oldest kit that I have that is unbuilt is a wooden kit of a barn, HO scale, that I picked up at a silent auction about 4 years ago. I forget who makes it but it looks like it dates back to the mid to late 50's, maybe earlier.
My very first kit was the Red Baron plastic car kit, somewhere around 1970 - 71.
In '73, I got involved in N scale and my first kit then, I believe, was probably a structure of some kind.
My oldest kit that I still currently have is a Smokey Valley GP15, and I do have all the necessary parts to build it. I have built three of these throughout the years and they are a lot of fun. I just have to be in the mood first!
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
I might have an old Train Miniature (the HO steam-era freight car line that Walthers bought years ago and now offers as "Mainline" cars) kit or two from the early/mid 1980's somewhere, but they probably were bought long after that at a RR flea market. I know I have some old structure kits (like 2 Walthers ore docks) and passenger car kits (like Rock Island Rocket streamlined passenger car kits issued as a set by Branchline) from the 1990's that are still waiting for that part of the layout to be completed so they can be built and put in place.
E-L man tomThe oldest kit that I have that is unbuilt is a wooden kit of a barn, HO scale, that I picked up at a silent auction about 4 years ago. I forget who makes it but it looks like it dates back to the mid to late 50's, maybe earlier.
Ayers:
Oh! What an embarrassing can of worms you've opened!
I have the Westwood Ma & Pa Passenger set, an early resin kit for an NKP auto boxcar from Dennis Storzek, and an Ambroid H-12 NKP 50 ton composite hopper.
But the list of REALLY old stuff starts with a Westbrook (remember them?) O scale C&NW flatcar kit. Then it continues to include an HO J.C. Silversides PRR combine, a couple Ulrich hoppers, and Model Hobbies kits for their Company House, stock pens, freight house, and two of their water tank kits. Model Hobbies was a contemporary of Ayers, mentioned above. The original Model Hobbies boxes are collectors' items in their own right.
Most of you won't remember much of this stuff.
Tom
I have a craftsman 300 ton Fairbanks-Morse coaling tower. I bought it back in the early 1980s. I intended it for use on my old layout but I moved before I got around to building it. On the new layout I put in the Walthers concrete coaling tower at my main engine terminal so I have no need for it. I thought about using it on the branchline but it is just too big to be appropriate for a two train a day operation. If I run out of things to do I might get around to building it and if I do would probably replace the Walthers coaling tower. That day if it ever comes is years away.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that a few years back I purchased on e-bay the FSM version of John Allen's engine house. It was a limited edition kit that I believe came out in the early 1980s. I wanted one but had other priorities at the time and never got it. I found out you can find a lot of old FSM kits on e-bay and when I found this one I snapped it up. This one I do intend to build and it is going to be a centerpiece at the terminus of my branchline. I hope to get started on it before the end of the year.
A Walthers HO heavyweight NYC diner I bought circa 1975, so 40 years old. These were primarily wood kits with metal sides, ends, and some detail castings. Think it was less trucks and couplers. Never bought any more because couldn't see where I'd have the time to build them. But that didn't stop me from buying a bunch of Branchline heavyweights some years back. Planning to live to 90 to finish this stuff.
I build 1/25 auto and big truck models, and an HO RR. Someone who knows I build models gave me a box of various smaller airplane models, some balsa and some plastic. Some must be 50+ years old. (As am I) Even if I'm not a plane builder, holding these kits in hand, some still sealed, feels nostalgic. Li'l pieces of model history.
RR Related; On the 'bay, I scored a nice Cary heavy usra mikado boiler. Don't know how old it is, but included all the brass details. When it arrived, to my surprise, the deal also included a Harold Mellor brass cab conversion that looks to be from, what, the early '60s?
That's going on a Mantua 2-8-2 with "Power Drive" I bought new in the '80s. What a sweet smooth running loco, even by today's standards. Dan