How did the products offered by A. C. Gilbert compare to those of the other HO manufacturers of that era?
Much depends on just when you speaking of.
Before WWII (1938- ), Gilbert offered an HO scale, diecast, NYC Hudson locomotive RTR for a downright cheap price…around a half to a third of what Varney and Mantua were selling their kit locomotives for! More accurate, custom built locos at the time, like those by Lobaugh, went for ten times as much! They ran pretty well and looked pretty darn good for the time, such that a great many HO layouts of the day included an example of the big Hudson for passanger/fast freight service, along with either a Vanery Dockside, or Mantua Goat, to handle the yard work.
At the same time, Gilbert produced a slightly truncated but otherwise reasonably accurate (for the period) 3 car set of diecast New Haven’s “American Flyer” passenger cars. In addition, there were a number of freight cars in the line. Except for the Hudson, these are all fairly uncommon to locate today.
By the early 1950’s, the Hudson’s detailing/appearance wasn’t really outstanding any more and a number of similarly priced, more realistic, diecast road engines were becoming available from other HO manufacturers. Gilbert did eventually offer an 0-6-0 switcher, a diesel road engine or two and more plastic rolling stock but S-gauge tinplate remained their real strength. Gilbert HO lasted into the 1960’s but never again had a fraction of the appeal that it did for the more serious HO hobbyists before the war.
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