Diving Into Forgotten Ancestry

 Back in the late 1980's through the better part of the 1990's I started developing an interest in garden railways. 

If you know anything about model trains in any scale then you know that none of it is what you would call inexpensive, especially garden railroads.

I found a way - cheap battery powered sets, namely New Bright, Echo, and occasionally odd brands. They were all to the same size, Number 1 or G gauge, 45mm twixt the rails. Nobody thought about compatibility, however - none of the track worked across brands, though the cars worked on all (couplers were another issue). 

The whole cheap G gauge explosion was an anomaly that seems to persist to this day, though classic New Bright has vanished (they are concentrating on RC these days). Amazingly, for their price they have proven to be surprisingly hearty and long lived, though this is probably because of the relative deluge of them. The same cannot be said for many of their forebears.

These earlier ones were in a variety of gauges, with the largest concentration being in O gauge, followed by all sorts of odd, random sizes. Surprisingly, HO/OO (16.5mm), or something approximating it, was probably a close second to O.

This isn't to say that the track was compatible. Oftentimes it was just a roadbed through troughs.  The rolling stock, though, fit on regular 16.5mm track. 

I discovered this in 1994 as I played around with a cheap battery powered locomotive my then wife found at the thrift store. My interest was not in keeping it HO gauge, though, but in using the mechanism for a railcar. 

(Image from eBay)

Years later, which is to say now, I discover that the shell had come from a long gone Triang HO/OO 0-4-0T. All the new Hong Kong manufacturer did was to replace the mechanism with a cheaper, six wheeled one. 

(From the Tria Ang In Canada Site)

This is just one of two locomotives that shared similar fates. The Lima 0-4-0T American style saddle tank locomotive experienced the same, becoming a battery operated version of its former self, complete with what appear to be copies of Lima rolling stock  - 

(From the Lima Tribute Site)

(From eBay)

As near as I can tell, both sets vanished from stores in the late 1990's, being replaced by newer toy trains of various quality. 

Another StromBecker Copy - The 40' NYC Pacemaker Boxcar

This one came about when I discovered a fellow train enthusiast selling very inexpensive copies of sides and ends from vintage kits on eBay.  Size was 100% accurate, so I started on it this morning using my own variation on StromBecker's techniques. 

I prefer my roof, by the way.

Anyway, it went faster than I was expecting, especially when you factor in that I was doing other things.

The red for the roof and fascia is Apple Barrel Gloss "Real Red", which has a strange pinkish tone when dry. I have used this on model rockets and know that it seems to change tones as it ages, so we will see what happens. 

Touch up needed, as well as trucks and maybe some details, but I am rather pleased.

Random Thoughts After Plumbing Work

 As I sit here drying myself off (I took care of the bathroom sink problem in the most brutal way possible - vacuum cleaner in blower mode), I'm doing a little research into the history of popular HO scale model trains.

By "popular", I mean mass-produced, inexpensive models. HO (and its predecessor OO) were initially craftsman scales here in the United States. While Europe had all these wonderful companies turning out ready-to-run model trains (well, mostly toy trains, though a good number were excellent models), here in the US it wouldn't be until Lionel decided to step up with their excellent OO equipment in the immediate pre-war period that one could purchase smaller scale RTR. It was short lived, but still.
HO scale (as opposed to HO gauge... which is a huge can of worms) would go on to dominate the industry within a few years after the war, but it would not be until the late 1940's and early 50's that it really gained popularity with average folk of meager means and skills.
And by "skills" I mean "building", "following instructions", and "patience". Some of those early HO scale locomotive kits would try the patience of a saint.
Most of these kits presupposed that the builder already had an amazing set of tools at home, things like tap and dies, drills and drill presses, heavy duty soldering gear.
All this for a model locomotive that in some instances could fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.
And heaven forbid if it was a steam locomotive. Most manufacturers prided themselves with the details they would put into those models, frequently in the form of "valve gear". For the uninitiated, valve gear is the heart of a steam locomotive, what tells it to push and pull the pistons. Whilst the Brits liked to carefully tuck their valve gear away and out of sight on many locomotives (bless them!), that wasn't the case here in the US. Ours was right out in the open, in all its complicated glory.
Now, reduce that to 1/87 and try to build it.
At least other early HO rolling stock kits were easy... usually.
Then the RTR equipment started showing up, and the great unwashed masses cheered hallelujah. Didn't like to lay HO track? You didn't have to! Locomotives? Open the box, set them on the track, and away you go. Rolling stock? Easy peasy.
True, couplers were an issue until at least the early 1960's (for my model train folk out there, snark if you will at the much maligned X2F "hook-horn" coupler, but it did much to standardize the hobby).
Anyway, that was probably a lot to take in for me to get to my point. I am looking for the earliest plastic mass-produced American prototype HO models, and in doing so have made some interesting discoveries.
I expect to blather on about this again soon. I'm still learning.

Building A Gorre & Daphetid 36 Foot Boxcar

 Once I had completed the two StromBecker models I felt I had gained enough experience with the technique to try something I have been wanting to for a long time.

A Gorre & Daphetid boxcar.

This uses a copy of a print from the Gorre & Daphetid site (https://gdlines.org/GDLines/GD_Galleries/Commemoratives/Rolling_Stock/slides/NMRA_CarSides_A-orig.html). Using the StromBecker techniques, plus my own for the roof, I was able to build up a presentable model.

It isn't perfect, though. 

The end grab irons are simply represented by strips of laminated dark grey cardstock. The color for the roof and details is Apple Barrel Barn Red, which is slightly darker than the printed color. I did cut the doors out and mounted them so that they have depth. Wood and additional cardstock was used for details. The truss rods haven't been installed at this point, and like much else on the model are simplified. Finally, the brake wheel is a 6mm clothing snap mounted on a section of florists wire and painted black.

In a couple of weeks I will add the trucks and couplers.

Replicating The Strombecker Refrigerator Car With Recycled Material (Better Than Saying Scrounged)

 The purpose of this little project was to see if I could apply the lessons learned from building the original kit, as well as to test a few techniques using... junk.

Well, maybe not junk per se. The ends, roof, and floor are made from sections of yardsticks (Ace yardsticks are 1/8" thick by 1 1/8" wide, Home Depot ones a shade over 3/16" thick by 1 7/16" wide, and of course both are 36" in length, but you knew that already, I hope). They are fairly soft wood, and make great material.

Oh, and how exactly did the notion of using yardsticks as material enter into my mind in the first place? The blame falls squarely on the classic Kalmbach/Model Railroader book "Easy-To-Build Model Railroad Freight Cars" and the last project in the book. But I seriously digressed, though I do recommend the old book.

I laminated a copy of the printed parts onto a sheet of a favorite material of mine - cereal box cardboard. The adhesive for this was E6000 Latex based spray adhesive. Be easy with this stuff, as it's water based.  The color print was applied to the smooth outer surface of the cardboard. I put the laminated parts under a weight and let it dry.

Using the measurements from the StromBecker parts I built up the core, knowing that the roof and floor would need to be shimmed up, as they used the narrower Ace yardstick. The ends from the Home Depot yardstick simply needed to be trimmed down. 

After these pieces dried, I cut notches into the roof and floor shims where the ends and center support were to go and glued the pieces down to the floor, and added the roof. I used a rubber band to hold it all together. I also put together the center beam for the roof from coffee stirrers (3/16" wide, about 1/24" of an inch thick). 

After the main assembly dried, I added the roof's center beam.

The roof was made from more cereal box cardboard. This time, it was important to check the grain of the material. I wanted the grain to cross the roof to add some rigidity. After double checking the measurements, I cut the piece out and drew on the marks for the roof "ribs", scribed the folding lines using a dead ballpoint pen, shaped the roof, and glued it down. Note that the center line is not peaked but flat. Not prototypical, but it would make adding the roofwalk easier to "fake" a milled roof. The roofwalk was cut from "craft stick" wood, about 1/16" thick, with scribed "planks". The cross roof ribs were made from flat wooden toothpicks. Oversized, perhaps, but the look the part (also, for the rivet counters out there, yes, I know, wrong number of ribs). I also added fishing weights, just four in the end corners, using E6000.

And another problem. 

The scanned copy I made of the sides did not translate well in dimensions. I am unsure why this happens in the translation from Gimp 2.8 for Macintosh to Windows, but it has been a consistent problem. The size difference is normally small, but it is enough to throw everything off. 

To solve the length problem, I used the thickest cardboard I had to add pieces to both ends. I also needed to make new end fascia. 

I made end fascia, and this is where I discovered a mistake - the pitch of the roof was far too steep. I mis-measured the height.

Sigh.

The next morning, after allowing this to dry overnight, I carefully cut along the glued edges of the roof, removed the fascia, and carefully lifted both side. When this was done, I used two coffee stirrers on both sides the shim the edges up. I then trimmed the fascia and added them once more.

After my nerves settled and the glue dried it was time to paint the roof, once more using the Apple Barrel Kelly Green, with the new end fascia painted black.

Now it was time to add the printed sides and ends. Fortunately, the sides only needed marginal trimming, and raising the edges of the roof helped the fit. The ends were perfect, or as close as I was going to get.

One of the other things I did on this model was to cut the roof hatches out from those platforms that they are printed with. Once I had, I blacked their edges and glued them into place.

The finished body compares well enough with the original, though it is a little bit darker in color, an artifact of correcting the image no doubt.

Anyway, now we wait on the trucks and couplers.

Scrounging For Material

 Before I relocated to Ohio from southern Maryland, I was in a quandary when it came to getting parts for projects. 

Sure, way down near Patuxent NAS there were craft stores, but that was a long trip that I really didn't like to make. There was always ordering material, but that seemed silly to me unless I was truly desperate. I don't like to wait. 

Some parts you have no choice but to order, especially for model trains. 

For everything else, though, it just seemed mighty inconvenient that usable material wasn't availabe.

So in 2022 I decided to try using "alternative" materials for my O27 projects.

I scratchbuilt a small flatcar as a test. The base of the body is Readi-Board foam sheet, 3/16" thick. The sides were small strips of basswood scrap. For the post pockets along the side I used thin aluminum cut from a soda can and pressed into shape using a jig with thin bar stock from the local Ace Hardware. The truss rods were made from florist wire, with their "king post" from cut popsicle stick. 

The deck was from a piece of hardboard from a packing crate, left unpainted with planks drawn on. The "rivets" on the ends were small pin heads. Finally, the brake wheel was a small clothing snap mounted on another piece of florist wire. Craft acrylic paint was used.

The arch bar trucks were Lionel. I never got to the point where couplers were added.

It certainly looks the part.

 

When I was a child I was pretty poor. If anything was bought new it most certainly came from a five & dime or other discount stores and usually of poor quality. I learned early to make-do, to scrounge.

Which brings us to the present day.

On the heels of my StromBecker refrigerator car I am already prepping my next project.

A clone of the same refrigerator car.

But, I am making it with "scrounged" material. For instance, the sides are laminated to cardboard recovered from cereal boxes, which in my experience is fairly long lived. I used the recently discovered E6000 non-toxic latex based spray adhesive to mount the print out. The rest I need to decide on as I work on this.

And of course I will share this here.

Building The StromBecker HO Scale Refrigerator Car - Part 1

My first exposure to StromBecker kits was to the stacks of them at my local hobby shop in the early 1970's. How long he had them can only be speculated. I was just ten when I started to be a bit more serious about model railroading, and felt that these extremely simple kits were below me (I longed for Central Valley, Silver Streak, Ambroid, all great and much more complicated kits). 

By the time I decided to look into one, after a disaster with a Central Valley kit, they were all gone, apparently all picked up at the same time.

More than fifty years later I figure it was time to try again.

The wooden parts that represent the body are common between the refrigerator and box car. Whoever had this kit before me had already sanded the roof, but my concern was the possibly eighty year old wood parts themselves. This is pine, and depending upon how long it had dried before being cut would determine if there was any warpage. As it turned out, there was no real warpage but possibly some shrinkage. It wasn't enough to deter me, as I expected that if it was too great I could always shim it up.

Since the Casco glue failed to mix I was left to use its lineal descendant, Elmer's Glue-All, something I have used my entire life. Using the pre-gluing technique (apply glue to parts, stick together, pull apart, allow glue to partially set, reattach pieces) the body's former went together with ease. I used rubber bands to hold it while the glue set.

Once this had set for a few hours it was time to do a little painting. My plan was to paint both the roof and the underside before adding the sides, but instead opted to do just the roof. While the kit was a bit confusing, with the instructions and the printed parts recommending different colors, a little research into Illinois Central 50000 series refrigerator cars mentioned that apparently many used the same shade green as the trim on the sides for the roof. On newer, more accurate kits this color is an olive, but the shade used on the old StromBecker kit was lighter. I found a good match in Apple Barrel Kelly Green. After two thin coats, the project was set aside overnight.

The next day I decided to add some weight to the inside of the car. While I could pick up old cast trucks, it wasn't always a guarantee, so eight small fishing weights were glued to the floor corners using E6000 silicone adhesive.

Next, we moved on to the printed ends and sides. Using an OLFA Snap Utility Knife I carefully cut the sides out first. I should mention that I had done a little measuring of the printed parts before beginning and found that the ends were slightly wider than the with of the body former. Since the details on these was close, I decided that these would overhang the sides. 

After the pieces were cut I used markers for touch up, coloring the edges where needed.

As suspected, the sides were almost 1/8" too long. They'd need to be trimmed 1/16" on both ends.

Once the pieces were trimmed and the edges colored they were carefully glued into position, making sure to push the top against the roof overhang.

Now time to do the ends. These were cut to printed size and their edges blackened.

The ends were glued into position and were a good fit. Since both the sides and the ends dropped slightly below the floor of the car I felt it was a good idea to reinforce those corners with some Elmer's Glue-All. 

The final details for this part of the assembly were the four roof hatches. According to the instructions these fit at the ends of the roof and up against the roofwalk (I have yet to check against drawings of the prototype to check these out). Once more, the edges were colored with a marker.

Once these were colored they were glued into position. 

With this, the basic body is finished. Now, it waits for details, specifically trucks and couplers.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor...

Casco Adhesive was a casein glue that had a great reputation. StromBecker included it in their kits, and it was rather easy to use.

This was probably one of the attractions of the StromBecker kits - pre-shaped parts, a pad of sandpaper, and a little envelope of Casco.

Personally, I never used the stuff before, though I know I saw old tins of the stuff amongst my grandfather's tools and paints. By that time, Casco had been long out of production, having evolved into Elmer's Glue-All, which would eventually do away with the casein and switch to polyvinyl acetate.

But this doesn't mean that Casco was weak glue. It wasn't. It and similar glues were extremely tough, even being used in aircraft construction.

Since this StromBecker kit includes a pack, I have decided to use it. Supposedly it could be stored in powder form indefinitely.

We'll soon find out.

EPILOGUE - 

It didn't work. Sigh...

The Vanishing Craftsman Kit

 There once was a time when you could walk into any hobby shop and find the shelves filled with model train kits of all variety and complexity, the so-called "craftsman kits". Some were rather complete, including rolling gear and couplers with full color printed sides. Other were a little more complex, and so forth. 

When the plastics age began in earnest after the Second World War these kits began to be displaced. By the late 1980's they had pretty much vanished, after all, who wants to sit there and wait for coats of Floquil to dry so you could add trucks and couplers to get a car running when you could pick up a plastic "rattle-the-box" kit and be done in minutes?

This isn't even counting the flourishing ready to run market.

Craftsman kits had their day.

Sadly, I feel that something was lost here. These wood, cardboard, and metal kits may have required skill, but they also imbued the builder with a real sense of accomplishment. Also, they were full of potential for conversion.

Some of these kits are deteriorating to the point of full on decay. Metal fatigue, paper degradation, wood warping, many have past the point of no return. The many that survive in collectible condition only do so because they are stored not in attics or basements but in temperature controlled environments. 

I am unsure they will ever be built.

Here are two sets of scans from three such kits. These scans are to the primary wood and paper components. In both cases, these represent the main bodies of the cars in question, and if one wanted, they could be scaled out and replicated. Potentially poking a bear there amongst collectors, I worry, but these would be reproductions only, if anyone chose to do it. Both are HO.

StromBecker Refrigerator Car

The StromBecker company referred to their simple model kits as "basic trainers", as they were often pre-shaped and had only a few parts. This refrigerator car is one of the more common ones. All of the details are printed, no metal detailing parts were needed. I suppose one could use them if one chose to, but right out of the box with proper care and painting the car would look just fine. StromBecker included wheels on dummy trucks of sorts, but also included directions on how to add proper metal trucks and couplers. With those additions the car could be used on any HO layout.

Megow Two Bay Hopper

While the StromBecker kit may have been a basic trainer, the Megow kits required a bit more finesse. They were far more complicated and usually included hefty metal trucks, stamped ladders and occasionally couplers, and plenty of metal and wood bits to add details and produce a rather attractive model. John Allen, of "Gorre & Daphetid" fame had a version of this kit, a Virginian hopper, that featured prominently in his early published photos. I had a copy of that kit.

While there is only one scan of the instructions and wooden parts, there are two sets of printed sides for a B&O and Pennsylvania car. Sadly, the very delicate embossing that is found on both sets is not evident in the scans, but it might not be too much work to add it. I should add that the wooden floors of both kits were warped, and all of the cast metal parts crumbling.

As for myself, the refrigerator car is in good enough condition to build, and I intend to do so. Expect it to be shared here, naturally.

Tall Rails, Deep Flanges, Cheap Locomotives, & High Hopes

 File this under "Thoughts".

When I started more serious model railroading in the 1980's, I had such glorious plans. Marvelous plans. I wanted wide sweeping tracks, long strings of freight cars headed up by monster late steam. Huge fiddle yards. Mountainous terrain. Bridges. Trestles. 

All perfectly accurate.

And none of it happened, at least in HO scale.

I did make multiple layout designs, a couple for clients, helped build two, made multiple floor layouts, but not once, ever, did I actually build a true home layout of any size. 

Ever.

I did read a lot, though. Studied the heck out of the hobby. What ended up happening was attrition by perfection. Plus a really severe lack of personal stability (sadly).

One of the problems was a love for older, "junk: equipment. 

One of my favorite locomotives was the old Marx 4-6-4 Hudson. 

This locomotive was chock full of inaccuracies. The trucks on the tender were repurposed Blomberg diesel trucks. There really wasn't a lot of detail.

And of course the flanges were deep.

But it could run and pull everything you put behind it. A Hudson, a dedicated passenger locomotive, hauling freight? Marx made it happen (the equally lamented Athearn B&M Pacific could perform likewise).

I did manage a couple of "higher end" (chuckles) locomotives, usually Bachmann, but they were so fragile where gearing was concerned. 

Track was another issue. Brass Code 100 was the order of the day. All of my more serious model railroader friends were screaming at me to go to nickel silver, but since everyone was dumping brass, I could get it cheap. I just had to keep it clean. Beside, my initial layout plans eventually grew smaller.

Forty years later, nothing ever came of it.

I built cars (freight, a couple of passenger cars), modified locomotives, built structures. And nothing ever happened.

Sigh.

It's Kind Of A Weird Story...

 Right before I began finding these cute little semi-toy HO trains, I stumbled upon a strange little auction. 

Apparently, right after the Second World War, a German citizen named Ernst Ganzer began producing kits in the now popular OO scale. 

Let's be clear - OO was the gauge. The scale was all over the place. 

In the US, OO was 1/76. So it was in England, except it ran on 16.5mm track, as it had when it started out there (practical reasons... that should be another post). For sake of comparison, American OO was 19mm betwixt the rails.
16.5mm gauge is most commonly found as HO.

On the continent, OO gauge was apparently more confusing.

Most German manufacturers used 16.5mm gauge, with some manufacturers using 1/90 as the scale.

Enter Herr Ganzer. 

He starts a little company that manufactured cardboard model kits, including rolling stock and a fascinating three rail track system. He named his little endeavor ERGA-Lehrmodell. 

(Sorry - I can't remember the source)

It was an auction for some of these models that got my attention. In addition to being cardstock, they also had stamped and diecast metal parts, though the little steeplecab critter (ain't it cute?!?) is unpowered.

This is where the seed was replanted. The rest was a matter of watering and fertilizing.

Shifting Gears & Gauges

 Sometimes things don't quite work out the way you had planned.

After a roaring start to my O27 layout, it all had to be taken down and eventually abandoned. All the projects, from adding bigger motors to Marx-Tronic Vulcan locomotives to adding Tilt-A-Matic couplers to Lionel diesels, came to an end. 

In late 2023, I ended up moving and taking along the few remaining locomotives and rolling stock pieces, and gave most of it away.

Don't get me wrong, I love trains. I mean, I do have other hobbies like miniature ships and model rockets, but model railroading has always held a soft spot in my heart, coming as I do from a family that was steeped in railroading on my maternal side. 

I also do astronomy, but let me be clear, that is my vocation.

I did keep some smaller pieces, N gauge, and all early stuff. Just a strange fascination with the near toy like quality of Lone Star Treble-O-Lectric and early Arnold Rapido.

Then, it happened. As if by fate.

I began stumbling across HO gauge "toys".

These were not serious model trains. These were... just that. Toys. 

(((RING!))) Universe calling!

So here I am. 

Let's see what happens next.

Changes... Big & Mostly Smaller

 Things don't always go as planned.

Anyway, changes coming.