Something Vintage This Way Comes...

[brokemoto]

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.

There was an O scale (?) modeller who lived in a Maryland suburb of Washington, who stated that he never aged or weathered his equipment.  I forget the guy's name, but he said that when you put together the dust, cigaret smoke and a few other things, the equipment just aged and weathered as time passed, just as did the prototype.

This was some time back, of course; the mention of cigaret smoke would be one clue to that.  I forget who he was, but the photographs of his equipment bore out his statements.

[wm3798]

I believe you are referring to the late, great John Armstrong.

"Some O scale modeler..."  yeah!  We need to teach more history around here!
Lee

[DKS]

"Some O scale modeler..."  yeah!  We need to teach more history around here!

QFT

[nkalanaga]

Brokemoto:  I remember the story, and yes, it was MANY years ago.  I'm not sure it was John Armstrong, as his layout always seemed well-kept to me, but it may have been.  It was an O scale modeler.

For those who don't remember John Armstrong, keep an eye on the banner pictures.  Every now and then a covered hopper lettered for his Canandaigua Southern appears.  He kept his railroad "modern", but even in the 80s was pulling the trains with steam.

[Doug G.]

I never weather my rolling stock either. At one time I weathered a couple of locomotives but then I quit. Buildings, I weather but not rolling stock. No particular reason, I guess. I just don't.

Doug

[Point353]

I believe you are referring to the late, great John Armstrong.
"Some O scale modeler..."  yeah!  We need to teach more history around here!

http://mrv.trains.com/series/video-vault/2016/07/mrvp-video-vault---layout-tour-john-armstrongs-o-scale-canandaigua-southern

[nkalanaga]

I've always loved his "Cementipede", and wondered if it was part of the inspiration for the BN's "Trough Train" articulated coal hopper.

[rickb773]

Back in '68, I was in advanced ROTC and the monthly $50 stipend always enabled a trip to the local hobby shop.
I always kept track of my hobby expenses:



The prices were great back then but keep in mind that when I graduated college 2 years later in 1970 my annual salary (for a good paying job) was $7k.

I still have most of the early Atlas (and Kadee) freight cars, with their Rapido couplers, stored for the memories, but the engines are all long gone.

I can still remember talking my wife into a large purchase of early Kadee cars in the early 70s when they were threatening to leave the market because of cheap foreign manufacturing competition. My freight car collection eventually approached 900 cars and I'm about halfway to getting down to about 300 cars.

[MK]

Wow!  A spreadsheet from 1968, even before VisiCalc! 

[DKS]

Wow!  A spreadsheet from 1968, even before VisiCalc! 

Worth a genuine LOL!

[Point353]

I can still remember talking my wife into a large purchase of early Kadee cars in the early 70s when they were threatening to leave the market because of cheap foreign manufacturing competition.

Weren't the (then) Kadee cars first introduced in 1972?

[rickb773]

Weren't the (then) Kadee cars first introduced in 1972?

You are correct my memory has obviously failed me over the last 50 years.
My first recorded (MS Access database instead of an Excel Spreadsheet) Kadee purchase was in 1978.
An L&N hopper (55070), one of my 411 remaining KD cars.
Therefore the KD threat to exit the market was probably in the 80s.

[learmoia]

You are correct my memory has obviously failed me over the last 50 years.
My first recorded (MS Access database instead of an Excel Spreadsheet) Kadee purchase was in 1978.
An L&N hopper (55070), one of my 411 remaining KD cars.
Therefore the KD threat to exit the market was probably in the 80s.

Was that when they split into 2 companies?..

[nkalanaga]

It was the early 80s, around the time they produced their short-lived freight car kits.  I bought a supply of undecorated cars, and parts, and am still using from that supply, although it's getting a little thin.  They've also introduced more body styles since then, but for PS-1 boxcars I'm still good.

I did have to order more double-door boxcar doors last week, as I used  the last on kitbashed NP centered-door cars.

[Doug G.]

Rick, your list (NOT spreadsheet ) is very cool and mine, if I had kept one, would have looked very similar with a lot of Atlas stuff on it and some of the other brands in lesser quantities. I did have all my MRR stuff in an old database from the nineteen nineties (I forgot what it was named) but it was lost in a computer crash. I have the back-up on a floppy but I haven't attempted to restore from it yet.

Wasn't 1972 in the early seventies? I don't remember Kadee threatening to leave the N scale rolling stock market owing to competition. I must have missed that.

Also, Kadee split into Kadee and Micro Trains in 1990.

Doug