Something Vintage This Way Comes...

[rickb773]

Was that when they split into 2 companies?..

No, long before that.

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 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

I had 2 relatively large KD orders (on KD order forms) from July and August of 1980, so I think that was the timeframe. Peter Poestal (?) of Brooklyn Locomotive Works might have been the one highlighting Kadee's threat to leave the market but I can't confirm that since I just got rid of all his early newsletters (the train bible of the time) last year.

[Actually I have found "large" orders of KD freight cars from February through August of 1980.]

[rickb773]

And now that you have me in full nostalgia mode, I emptied the "museum" drawers:


The 1968 Atlas hopper cars (224x series)


The Atlas 1968 box cars (The GN is an Aurora Postage Stamp car)


More 1968 Atlas cars


The 1968 Atlas cars still in use on my PRSL layout today.
The Vermont & PC box cars were built from box kits (saved you 21 cents each; $1.29 vs. $1.50).


These were my first Kadee car purchases in the (late 70s)

[nkalanaga]

Doug:  At one point, probably in 1980, based on Rick's purchase dates, there were reports that they were getting out of the freight car business.  I don't remember what their reasons were, if they were ever given, or even how accurate the reports were.  That was before the internet, so the only news sources were magazines and hobby shops.  The reports sounded serious enough for me to stock up on undecorated freight car kits.

Rick:  I have one of those Atlas CB&Q hoppers, just recently replaced with a repainted MT steel hopper.  The CB&Q never had anything quite like the Atlas car, but for years that was the best Q steel hopper around.  I also have one with the sides shortened, and repainted CB&Q, which looks a little more appropriate.

I have several of the KD "war emergency" cars, as the Q ran those into the late 70s.  They seem to have finished their service hauling sugar beets in Washington.  In some cases they literally fell apart in service, dumping a load of beets on the main line, and derailing the train.  They weren't in good shape when they arrived, with holes in the sides patched with plywood, cardboard, clumps of straw, or, if they were smaller than a sugar beet, nothing at all.

[wm3798]

There's some pretty large lots of vintage equipment up on ebay presently... no affiliation... apart from the awkward way they're posted, just scanning through the photos is a walk through an N scale museum.

Just do a search for "n scale" and they come up as sponsored links.

Lee

[OldEastRR]

And now that you have me in full nostalgia mode, I emptied the "museum" drawers:


The 1968 Atlas hopper cars (224x series)


The Atlas 1968 box cars (The GN is an Aurora Postage Stamp car)

Ahh, the Peabody hopper with the strange green "x" in the middle of the lettering ... the baby-*****-brown IC box!! If I remember correctly the IC logo was also about 3 scale inches thick. Memories ...
But ... why are you guys saving all this stuff you're never going to use again?
The only reason I don't have stocks of old stuff is because around 1988 I'd had it with N scale. After 20 years of crappy engines that had only "Top speed" and "off" for settings, same old same old cars, crappy track, basically the same assortment of buildings around from the last 10 years I said "chuck it" and I unloaded everything except a string of ConCor ATSF billboard boxcars for display. Right then KATO brought out the U30C  -- I thought it looked cool and bought it only as a loco for my display track.
I tried it out on my club's layout. Blown away by the performance. That loco convinced me that I should give N scale another chance.
As it turned out I sold off all my locos -- the ones considered "good" in N scale at the time -- just as KATO came along and relegated all of them to third-class and their values dropped..

[Doug G.]

Some may argue (not me necessarily) some track, (say Atlas code 80), was better back then what with all the problems they have had fairly recently with some of the Chinese stuff. All those ones built with the very poor gauge issues in the point area, for instance.

The Italian and Austrian switches may have had some issues but they were rather easily corrected.

I keep my old stuff just because I like it and some of it, a lot, actually, I still run.

Doug

[Curtis Kyger]

The spreadsheet shows an Atlas GP40 for $9.99 in 1968 dollars.  That's equal to $72.09 today.  Today you would have a large choice of high quality N-Scale locomotives on the bay for less than $72.00.

[Bruce Bird]

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

Doug

Those are just the regular old MTL N scale couplers.  The track is ME flex, and since it is yard track I think I sprayed it all with a mix of primer red and primer gray spray-bomb cans from Wally World.  It makes for a good place for roster photos.

[Bruce Bird]

OldEastRR: Love that string of 2-bay peaked Atlas hoppers.  Brings back very fond memories!

[rickb773]

But ... why are you guys saving all this stuff you're never going to use again?

Because memories are priceless!

On the rare occasions when you pull out the old cars, the awe of the hobby washes back over you - even though 50+ years have past.
The joy of the hobby floods back just as strongly as when I see a '68 Dodge Charger and remember my college escapades.

[wm3798]

There's a certain rush you get when you open that box of snap track and it feels like the possibilities are endless.
And having years... nay, decades of experience lets you recognize the difference between 9.75" radius and 11" curves almost by touch... and a crazy simple track plan evolves organically on the kitchen table before you.  And those damn simple Rapido couplers...  so ugly, but so ridiculously ingenious!
I caught myself today idly doodling track plans that fly in the face of all I've learned over the years.  Rigid geometry, shameless loopty loops.  My god, even a trolley line! 
Suddenly I understand why Lionels became absurdly collectible and expensive in the 80s.  You reach a certain age, and suddenly you want what you lost, no matter what it costs, no matter whether it has any real quality or value.  You just want it!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to eBay to see about some Bachmann metroliners...
Lee

[Doug G.]

Some great posts. The thrill and wonder comes back just looking at, and especially handling/working with, trains from the long past. I am building a little layout with Rapido track and I never have before. I have never used "staggered" end rail track before. I am waiting for a Rapido "200" B&O F9 to arrive and have bought several Rapido N scale locomotives recently. Rapido is all new to me after 50 years.

I looked up the emblem (the green "X" or "+" ) on the Peabody hoppers and could find NO description but it actually looks like a black lump of coal laying horizontally and red "heat" emanating from it in a ring. Single color printing was a kind of "hallmark" in those days.

Doug

Doug

[peteski]

Speaking of Arnold rapido tracks, here is an ad touting its features.



The track is made from thin steel sheet formed into upside down "U".

[nkalanaga]

I never looked at the track in the ancient Arnold/Rapido set I bought at the local hobby shop several years ago.  Your description sounds like they basically copied Lionel's tinplate track.

I've long thought that the early N should be considered "tinplate", in the same sense as O-gauge tinplate, in relation to the more accurate "scale" models. 

[Doug G.]

About the only thing I really challenge is the accidentally stepping on the track and it "holding up" claim. The shaped tinplate track easily bends.

It was the best looking code 80 N scale track, however. The blackening was/is the difference. It still looks pretty good. And, Rapido's claim of it staying clean, I have found, was valid. I have recently obtained some and the locos run fine on it without cleaning it.

And, I still would have loved to see those machines making that track with the plastic ties being injected around the metal rails, even around the rail joiners.

Doug