Something Vintage This Way Comes...

[wm3798]

I still have a couple of my original pieces.  No locomotives, though.  They mostly got douched out when I decommissioned the layout and couldn't make room for things I was sure I'd never use.  Rolling stock made out a little better.  I had a bunch of A1G (Atlas 1st Generation) cars that I bought at a train show, steam era wood boxes and billboard reefers as I recall, most of which got sold off.  But I kept this one:


Obviously it's not in original condition...  I'll have to dig it out and retrofit it with some Rapido couplers and pizza cutting flanges for old time's sake!

But yeah, after a long career that included probably over 1,000 individual pieces of rolling stock, I can still pick out the old originals when I spot copies at a train show.

Lee

[jbcz]

I have about 6-10 cars and a Minitrix K-4 4-6-2 that I received from a good friend in 1991 that are still in "revenue operation".  The cars were "upgraded" to Microtrains couplers and the 4-6-2 became a kitbashed B&M P4 with a modified Bachmann tender.  The yellow CRANDIC gondola in the background of the P4 is one of my originals.

[nickelplate759]

That P4 is quite the Frankenbash!  Besides the Bachmann tender I see what looks like a scratch built cab, a Minitrix K4s chassis, a Bachmann 4-8-4 pilot, a Kato heavy Mikado boiler, and a smokebox with two parts of a smokebox from Godknowshwere joined together.

Yet somehow it looks GOOD!  I'm impressed!

[Bruce Bird]

First N set was an Atlas 'Transfer' set with a CB&Q MDT 6-wheel switcher, 2 cars and an ATSF caboose painted in a plain red 'transfer' scheme.  The caboose and loco are long gone, but the cars I still have, and they run on the layout.  They even have their own car cards for operation.  One is a steel ice-bunker Morrell reefer, yellow with silver roof and ends.  And the other is the ribbed 2-bay open hopper that Atlas had, in clunky Pennsy lettering.  They will probably be the last cars that I ever own- along with that green WM flatcar with load!

[Bruce Bird]

Tracked them down....

[Doug G.]

Bruce, those must be Z scale couplers on those, right? And your track looks terrific.

Doug

[nkalanaga]

Bruce Bird:  I also have one of those PRR hoppers, same road number (of course!), although I finally retired it a year or so back. 

Mine is weathered, though, the hard way.  Years ago, I brush painted it with Polly-S (not Polly-Scale) black, and lettered it for the BN.  After another ten years or so, I decided that it was so out of place that it had to go.  So, I scraped the new paint off, carefully, and the PRR lettering was still readable. So, another couple decades of service  Along with 40 years of scrapes and dents it actually looks quite natural.  But I don't really need a PRR hopper, so I retired it to make room for a more useful car. 

It's still here, though, if I ever want it.  Maybe someday I'll find a use for it, like with my tank car.

[Doug G.]

And I, of course have one, new in the box, never having been on the track.



Doug

[brokemoto]

Atlas 'Transfer' set And the other is the ribbed 2-bay open hopper that Atlas had, in clunky Pennsy lettering.

Were those made by RoCo for Atlas?   I do not have any Atlas peaked-end hoppers, but I have several C-C.  I wonder if the peaked hopper in the photograph the source of C-C's.  The herald on the Penn hopper does not look as badly botched as it was on the RoCo Penn caboose.  I still have what is left of one in my parts box.  I have seen 1950s HO painted on Penn heralds that looked better than that on the RoCo caboose.


Nice job on the track.

[Doug G.]

Yes, made by RoCo as were many many cars for several importers in the early days. Atlas, AHM, Minitrix (Aurora), Con-Cor, although Con-cor's first cars were Sekisui (Kato). Some of MRC's cars were Roco too.

Con-Cor often began importing certain locomotives and cars after the original importer discontinued their relationship with manufacturers. Atlas and Rivarossi, Atlas and Mehano, for a couple of examples.

Doug

[DKS]

Roco: http://davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/roco.htm

Con-Cor: http://davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/con-cor.htm

Atlas: http://davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/atlas.htm

Rivarossi: http://davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/rivarossi.htm

[up1950s]

Expected to see Yoda somewhere in this thread.

[alhoop]

Minitrix N set bought Dec 1968 from WT Grant.
UP F unit, NH 40' box car,Up 40' flat car, SRR Gondola, UP caboose and track-
no power pack. still have them all, F unit repainted to convert to SRR , never finished.
Same for caboose. F unit has NWSL motor and wheelsets and is still in service as the photo
shows.
FIW I visited the Roco factory in Munich,GE 1980 and they thought  I was a spy, maybe because
of the raincoat I had on.
They showed me  a window display of all the US models they made in N scale at the time but
sure didn't  want me to know what new models they were working on or how many plastic sprues
they had in their dumpsters in back to feed their injection machines.
Al

[Doug G.]

Everybody needs to visit DKS' site. It is fascinating. I have learned things I never knew, even though I have been in N scale from the beginning.

Like my trains, you will!

It's great how so many of us can track our original equipment and what became of it and what modifications were done to it. I modified some of mine but returned it to original later.

Al - Double Naught spy!

Doug

[nkalanaga]

The old Roco tooling was quite good.  Lettering wasn't great, but most N scale in the late 60s and early 70s wasn't any better.

By far the best I found at the time were the early Sekisui (Kato) Con-Cor cars.  I still have one of the 40 ft boxcars in service, basically unaltered, the oldest car I have in its original form.  It's a very nice GN Glacier Green car, with the standing goat and 3-color herald.  The goat and herald were decals, not printed, and far better than anything else of the day.  The only changes I've made were to paint the wheels and add Kadee MT-5 couplers (now MT 1025).  The car looks a little dingy, not bad, but a little, after almost 50 years of handling, exposure to coal and wood stove smoke, and general age.  It's actually one of my best weathering jobs, entirely by accident.

Incidentally, the early PA-1 and smoothside observation, both in GN Empire Builder colors, also had decal heralds.