Terrible Model Railroading fads/ideas/products that died off?

[arbe1948]

Yes, maybe not a bad idea, but for the expense, limitations, and operation faults:  overheating, noise, and reduced top speeds were noted cut it short.  Introduced by GE in 1963, developments stopped in 1964, and product dumped in 1965.

A good overview of ASTRAC can be read here: 

http://www.dccwiki.com/ASTRAC

[GP-9_Man11786]

There's been quite a bit of back and forth of the X2F coupler. How about its N Scale counterpart, the Rapido coupler?

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

I still recall the Mantua HO hook and hoop couplers.   X2F actually was an improvement. 

[Texas Zepher]

ACY

I don't think anybody has mentioned brass track

Brass track carried the HO element of the hobby for about 50 years. Nickel silver track came out in the early 1960s and almost everyone ignored it until the 1980s when suddenly everyone who had been ignoring it all those years suddenly started yelling brass was bad. ??? Never understood that lack of awareness.

[chutton01]

ACY

I just skimmed through all three pages. Maybe I missed it, but I don't think anybody has mentioned brass track or oversized, knife-edged flanges.

Tom

For oversized flanges, Rivarossi got a quick mention at the top of page 3 (you need to use the correct technical term, 'Pizza Cutter' wheels).

For brass track, and fiber ties for that matter, well IMO that was more due to technological limitations (in terms of affordablity to most people) than anything else - brass was better than steel, and from what I can find Nickel-Silver rail wasn't generally available till the early 1970s. Hey, milled wood Tru-Scale roadbed sections served a purpose, as did grass mats and lichen (cleaned and sterilized), and Plasticville and many other items - there wasn't much (or anything) better available at reasonable prices at that time.

OK, you know where I stand on scale smells (NO!) and Tyco (eh, some items were rather cool, the action items like the gravel unloader, mail unloader, lighted 7-11, piggyback crane (and the one I had - the pipe unloading station), along with colorful liveries and chrome F7s, brought things a bit more interesting for kids (they weren't alone, Lifelike and Lionel had lots of operating accessories as well). I now wish to nominate the silly multi-piece truck kits that Walthers included with it's MOW work train release in the 1980s, which I think were originally Train Minature kits. I had several of the MOW cars, complete junk those truck kits were.  Walthers eventually agreed and replaced them in later kits with 1-piece trucks, but why did Walthers release the kits with those trucks in the first place when they had workable 1-piece trucks they could have used already available.

 

*Including the Lifelike Logging Mill which my parent got me as a kid...and while I liked to play with it, it made absolutely no sense - you loaded the logs in the high bin, the logs rolled onto the log car, you shunt the log car around then back to the same spot, and then dump the logs into the (painted) pond... whatever, it was fun at the time).

[Texas Zepher]

nycmodel

Remember this from 1964? I recall there was an article in MR about that time where someone actually incorporated slot cars into their layout. I doubt that many did.

Aurora Model Motoring.   I created many layout using those.    They were very limiting in the track arragments possible and the cars had more trouble crossing this piece than any other.   Model Motoring quickly gave way to simply slot cars that had no model element to them at all.   Of course I still have my original Bat Mobile that is worth a fortune on the collectors market.

[Texas Zepher]

chutton01

from what I can find Nickel-Silver rail wasn't generally available till the early 1970s.

Atlas produced it on the fiber ties for as long as I can remember.  Had a hugh layout of it on fiber ties about 1963.  Every one just ignored it because it was a tiny bit more expensive and no one had "extra" money in those days for luxuries like that.  Even gave way for me due to the plastic ties (cool) and cheaper price.  Don't remember when they started putting the NS on plastic.

But how about the Atlas "brown" ties that lasted about 3 years.

[vsmith]

What about the old style HO Flex-track that used FELT ties.

I remember that stuff being a major PITA to mess around with. Even having the felt disintegrate if it got too wet when ballasting.

[BRAKIE]

GP-9_Man11786

There's been quite a bit of back and forth of the X2F coupler. How about its N Scale counterpart, the Rapido coupler?

 

My first few years in N I use those couplers.. Terrible at best and while not impossible it made switching a chore.One needed a feather touch on the throttle.

[Milepost 266.2]

Texas Zepher

 

 

chutton01

from what I can find Nickel-Silver rail wasn't generally available till the early 1970s.

 

 

Atlas produced it on the fiber ties for as long as I can remember.  Had a hugh layout of it on fiber ties about 1963.  Every one just ignored it because it was a tiny bit more expensive and no one had "extra" money in those days for luxuries like that.  Even gave way for me due to the plastic ties (cool) and cheaper price.  Don't remember when they started putting the NS on plastic.

 

But how about the Atlas "brown" ties that lasted about 3 years.

 

 

If the original nickel-silver track was still on fiber ties, there was no real reason to pay attention to it.  By the 80's the companies making better track products were producing them in nickel-silver only, right?  Maybe decent quality switches (including curved) were a big part of the switchover?

[Milepost 266.2]

BRAKIE

 

 

GP-9_Man11786

There's been quite a bit of back and forth of the X2F coupler. How about its N Scale counterpart, the Rapido coupler?

 

 

 

 

My first few years in N I use those couplers.. Terrible at best and while not impossible it made switching a chore.One needed a feather touch on the throttle.

 

 

I wonder if it's fair to say the hobby flurished because of X2F/Rapido couplers, or in spite of them?

[archy]

GP-9_Man11786

How about Lone Star's old rubberband drive N Scale locomotives? In all fairness, these did actually give rise to N Scale as we know it.

How about Athern's old rubberband drive HO Scale locomotives? I think some of the cast metal shell Mantua or Varney locos [F3, GP7?] were rubberband drive as well.

Of course, it's when first-generation sub-optimal efforts such as these come along that efforts to build a better mousetrap follow.

 

[archy]

Milepost 266.2

 I wonder if it's fair to say the hobby flurished because of X2F/Rapido couplers, or in spite of them?

 

 

I guess you don't go back to the daus off Mantua ovel-hook couplers in HO. They were at least an improvement on the use of dummy couplers for which the car/loco had to be lifted to be hooked up.

 

I still use dummy couplers [HO narrow gauge, though I'm not exactly an HO modeller] on some ore car blocks and one relief train that's really roundhouse/shops area scenery, along with a seasonal snowplow unit. And of course hook-and-loop couplers still appear on some import G Scale equipment.  

 

http://s1239.photobucket.com/user/3shaygetz/media/IMG_5303-640.jpg.html

[archy]

So far as Lionel, Marx and American Flyer equipment go, the magnetic cattle cars, operating crossing guard flagman and unlimited strings of beer company livery reefers and pickle vat cars come to mind. But that can also be described as a gray dividing line between toy trains and modeling, and those with a superdetailed brewery or pickle processor as an on line industry get a pass. 

 

Milepost 266.2

 

chutton01

Of course, in today's modeling marketplace, no serious manufacturer would ever consider producing freight cars in fantasy corporate liveries...

 

 

 

Those are very Lionel-ish, but hardly as bad as tootsie roll tank cars and Chef Boyardee four bay open hoppers.

 

 

[jecorbett]

G Paine

The "train set" military cars that shot missles, until consumer produce safety comcerns realized that kids could be injured by fast flying objects

(Olfactory Airs was my first choice, but chutton01 beat me too it; some environmental health concers there as well)

 

This was the first one I thought of but I decided to read the other replies before offering it.

The government really are killjoys when it comes to kid's toys. One of my favorite toys were the bow and arrow sets that shot suction cup arrows. Of course it was only a matter of time before the suction cup wore/fell off but the arrows could still fly. Spring loaded dart guns, also with suction cup tips were cool too. And let's not forget the line of toy guns Mattel came out with that had spring loaded cartridges  that fired plastic bullets. You could also put Greenie Stick'em Caps on them and get sound effects as well. I think we had a lot more fun than kids have today with their electronic games.  

[rrinker]

 As for those Athearn rubber band drive locos - many of them they sold both ways, with a rubber band "Hi-Fi" drive and with a traditional gear drive. Now here's the rub - the rubber band drive models had full 8 wheel power pickup. The gear drive versions only picked up from one side of each truck. So while the mechanical running properties of the rubber band drive locos wasn't as good, the electrical characteristics were actually better.

                  --Randy

 

[GP-9_Man11786]

jecorbett

 

 

G Paine

The "train set" military cars that shot missles, until consumer produce safety comcerns realized that kids could be injured by fast flying objects

(Olfactory Airs was my first choice, but chutton01 beat me too it; some environmental health concers there as well)

 

 

 

 

 

G Paine

The "train set" military cars that shot missles, until consumer produce safety comcerns realized that kids could be injured by fast flying objects

(Olfactory Airs was my first choice, but chutton01 beat me too it; some environmental health concers there as well)

 

 

 

This was the first one I thought of but I decided to read the other replies before offering it.

The government really are killjoys when it comes to kid's toys. One of my favorite toys were the bow and arrow sets that shot suction cup arrows. Of course it was only a matter of time before the suction cup wore/fell off but the arrows could still fly. Spring loaded dart guns, also with suction cup tips were cool too. And let's not forget the line of toy guns Mattel came out with that had spring loaded cartridges  that fired plastic bullets. You could also put Greenie Stick'em Caps on them and get sound effects as well. I think we had a lot more fun than kids have today with their electronic games.  

 

And let's not forget lawn darts!

[Da Stumer]

Graham Line

One of the great product failures was Schleicher's "The Model Locomotive Co." or something, which attempted to replicate that Baldwin catalog's mixing and matching of frames and boilers to build a series of small steam engines.

Though the idea was great, poor manufacturing quality doomed the project. Someone, somewhere, probably built a couple of engines successfully.

 

.

 

That is kind of like what mantua did with their steamers. Different boilers, chassis, interchangeable.

[BRAKIE]

Milepost 266.2

I wonder if it's fair to say the hobby flurished because of X2F/Rapido couplers, or in spite of them?

Yes, N Scale has been around for 55 years(started in 1960) and it was several years before the MT coupler was released.

The X2F coupler worked quite well when correctly body mounted.. The bad was the train set truck mounted X2F couplers that most new modelers started with and judges the X2F couplers by. 

Did you know there was metal X2F couplers with a small spring on the back? These springs was similar to today's KD knuckle spring.

BTW..Advanced modelers use a small flat tip screw driver to uncouple cars.. Today we use bamboo skewers to uncouple KD couplers

 

[steemtrayn]

Howard Zane

 

 

chutton01

Would the "Olfactory Airs" layout scents from Mikros around the mid/late '80s be in the running for either silliest and/or lamest?

I guess it was the peak of the Scratch & Sniff era after all...

I liked Olifactory Airs. It added another dimension to the hobby which is now limited to 5..........relief (which is 3 dimensions), sound, and movement. Only when I suggested to Micros to do an outhouse smell, they thought I was nuts.

HZ

 

 

 

 

You'd be nuts to pay for it when you could make it yourself.

[hardcoalcase]

"Biffy" (outhouse) modeling contests sponsored by the NMRA and perhaps others.  

Thank goodness we've outgrown the bathroom humor!

Jim

[tomikawaTT]

Just a brief flash in the pan - COLD STEAM (dry ice) locomotives.  I understand that in operation the stack would ice up like a mint julep glass.

I disagree about a number of the products others have called bad ideas.  Many of them were state of the (not very advanced) art when made by people working out of garages, basements and spare bedrooms.  Advances in technology always leave earlier products lying in the dust.  (1980-ish mobile phone about the size and weight of a brick...)  That doesn't mean that the products were bad THEN, although they appear ludicrous NOW.

About the time the 'sorta like an X2F' coupler made HO toy train sets practical, Japanese RTR manufacturers standardized on a close approximation of the Baker coupler.  I have a small pile of them, removed from freight cars now equipped with Kadees.

I also have one of those much-maligned Mantua Loggers (which actually hauled Gilsonite, not logs.)  The chassis of another is under TTT F101, which looks rather more JNR than Uintah (superstructure inspired by the E10 class 2-10-4T.)

Use of toxic and hazardous materials by model railroaders was much more common before the CPSC and that California sticker made people conscious of the dangers.  There was a nice article (forget which mag) about weathering model timber with dye - aniline dye, toxic as **!!  It was not alone.

When the Talgo truck-mounted couplers appeared they were actually praised by the model press, as a way to get cars around tight radii...

And now a counter-question.  What's (supposed to be) wrong with plastic wheels?

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Geared Steam]

chutton01

*Including the Lifelike Logging Mill which my parent got me as a kid...and while I liked to play with it, it made absolutely no sense - you loaded the logs in the high bin, the logs rolled onto the log car, you shunt the log car around then back to the same spot, and then dump the logs into the (painted) pond... whatever, it was fun at the time).

  

LOL, I had the same conundrum, it didn't make sense but yet........it was fun at 7 years old (and I still have it sitting on a shelf, right beside the Tyco Freight unloading depot.   

 Can you imagine pushing concrete pipes down a ramp? Maybe they should have called it "The Gravel House"

https://youtu.be/hxyw1WZGP58

Of course, you would also need this! 

 

[chutton01]

Geared Steam

LOL, I had the same conundrum, it didn't make sense but yet........it was fun at 7 years old (and I still have it sitting on a shelf, right beside the Tyco Freight unloading depot.   

 Can you imagine pushing concrete pipes down a ramp? Maybe they should have called it "The Gravel House"

Of course, you would also need this! 

Ah, a fellow aficinado of the glorious Tyco way.
I might just know a thing or two about that Tyco Freight Unloading Depot...

This AFAIK is the oldest freight car I own, from my first layout in 1976/77. Motive power was a PRR Tyco 0-4-0 Shifter & Tender, and I'm pretty sure I also had a Blue B&M offset open hopper as that was required by law then (that, or the famed "Hooker" chemical tank car - just the thing to get preteen boys smirking). I think my parents brought the unloader at the same time as the train set, it did work (and the little tractor's blade often did catch on the flatcar as in the video), but my unloader must have been old stock, as it didn't have the painted shrubs and weeds around the concrete base like the Tripod page images shows.

OK, yes, I did upgrade the flat car around the turn of the century as a nod to it's importance in my history; new KD body mounted couplers, new trucks attached by screws to the body, and a new brake wheel & staff (from some other car). Airbrushed the pipes Floquil concrete, and one day I'll add the remaining chains so that 3 chains criss-cross each pipe - I ran out back then, and hey it's not contest quality anyway...

 

[BRAKIE]

chutton01

and hey it's not contest quality anyway...

But,it looks great! I likes.

[Geared Steam]

BRAKIE

 

 

chutton01

and hey it's not contest quality anyway...

 

 

But,it looks great! I likes.

 

I agree with Larry, it looks great.

I also had the 0-4-0 with slope back tender, that got lost over the years. I still have the white Dairyman Milk Car and the red SF caboosearound here somewhere. 

[chutton01]

Geared Steam

BRAKIE

chutton01

and hey it's not contest quality anyway...

But,it looks great! I likes

 I agree with Larry, it looks great.

Thanks guys, one day I'll put some more effort into it - but really, I can't image culverts being shipped (even back in the 1940s) without a lot of wood blocking, which Tyco kind of tries to duplicate, but really can't without defeating the operation of the unloader (which was cool, if a bit slow).
What it does prove is that many Tyco freight cars, with new trucks and couplers, some details (NO filled in stirrup steps - what was Consolidate Foods thinking), and maybe a new paint job, can be made to look good. Many cars, not all.


Final thing I want to add to this thread of silly/bad ideas - cartoonishly drawn shop interiors for certain building kits (notably I'm thinking Heljan here). OK, maybe we can give Plasticville a pass here as they more geared toward the train set crowd, but more advanced building models? Even as a pre-teen I thought it looked ridiculous (those buildings are long gone). They couldn't spring for photographs or better artwork - was 3 color printing beyond their technology level? (OTOH, those poorly drawn cartoon window signs is how I first heard of Cinzano, which I didn't really know what it was in those pre-internet days...)

And for all my praise toward Tyco, the passenger car window silhouettes gets a major FAIL.  Even clear windows and an empty interior would have been less noticible.

[BRAKIE]

One thing I think is worth mentioning as a very bad modeling idea but,was still popular during the 50s...

How many can recall making lead figures in wooden molds? The lead could be bought in square strips at hardware stores or removed from old car batteries then melted and poured into a figure mold.

A lot of those figures you see in photos of the G&D and other layouts of that time was made that way and IIRC there was articles in MR on making these lead figures.

There was no safety involved in making these figures.

[Uncle_Bob]

The Ferro Kid

 

 

rrinker

 Any Stooges fan worth their salt will have the law offices of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe.

 Across town they have a competitor, with the first Howe's brother as a partner: Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe. As a Yes fan AND a Stooges fan I had to do it.

                --Randy

 

 

 

 

 

Another great 3-Stooges law firm was "Cess Poole & Drayne" from a 1947 short.

 

 

Not to mention, the Susquehanna Hat Co from Abbot & Costello.  I bought a box truck decorated for that company for my layout.

Side dump gons marketed as "log cars" back in the '70s.  Mine was forever dumping over in the middle of curves, sending the plastic logs onto another track or onto the floor.  Say hello to a static display!

Also, using a soldering iron to distress freight cars.  While not a product per se, it was a technique that introduced a teenaged me to the wonders of burns from soldering irons and toxic petrochemical fumes if I got too close to the car side and melted the plastic.  

[Uncle_Bob]

I just remembered another: used coffee grounds as scenery material.  If you like bugs (and who doesn't?), this was the technique for you!