I know well how things evolve and this could be an old topic, but every time new folks visit my pike, the same questions are heard…“Are your freight cars Red Caboose, Intermountain, Kadee, MDC, or Athearn?” No they are mostly from old wood kits like Ambroid, Gloor Craft, Quality Craft, Main Line, Labelle, etc. Actually I’m flattered knowing that I cannot build a wood car to look as fine as a store purchased RTR car. Then I’m asked where may they find these kits as some are indeed interested. I know of only two companies that offer these today…Labelle and American Model Builders/Lasercraft. Are there more? I can only say try eBay or check the many train shows. I have still over 1500 of unbuilt kits that I acquired over the decades and from my store when I sold out in 1975. The new owner had no interest in wood kits so I kept most of my stock.
Personally I love the look of well built wood cars as 98% of my rolling stock is from wood kits or scratch-built from basswood. Apparently others do also as every once in a while I see some come up for auction, and they command very high prices.
Actually when I become really decripit and can no longer get down the stairs to the basement, I plan on building these kits. I’m just “cripit” now. This is my most favorite activity in the hobby. Second would be designing and building structures, and third is acquiring and playing with brass models.
Personally, I too love the wooden kits. I buy some of the old ones at train shows if the price is reasonable. I don’t have anywhere near 1500 unbuilt kits, more like around 200 spread across HO, S, O - about 40 are wood kits.
In my book ANY kit isn’t dead and is fair game. I’m about halfway through an AMB laser-cut caboose kit. While I haven’t put together any of the older wood rolling stock kits yet, I’d definitely be open to trying one.
Come to think of it, I have at least one or two Gloor Craft caboose kits in storage that I should try and tackle. I also have a few Waterlevel Models caboose kits but they are styrene. Kits - albeit simple or complex - are what makes building a roster an enjoyable and rewarding endeavor for me.
At one time, I built wooden kits and scratchbuilt in wood, too, but once I discovered styrene and styrene scratchbuilding materials, the wood stuff was gone.
If I want wood floors in a gondola: styrene strips…
…or a scratchbuilt “wooden” structure: sheet and strip styrene…
…or even “stacked lumber” in a lumber yard: strip styrene…
Scribed wood siding was a great thing in its day, but scribed styrene, especially for rolling stock, is much more prototypical in appearance. Here’s one of my first scratchbuilds, a composite of scribed wood with styrene…
…a car with gaps that wide between the boards would be relegated to “hide service only”, while a weathertight baggage car like this one, converted from an Athearn coach using Evergreen passenger car siding, has years of useful service life left…
Howard, I wouldn’t deign to criticise anyone’s choices or preferences, but for me, styrene is all-round better than wood for modelling wood.
I did, however, use wood (and a lot of it) when I built my house…for that, it was the better choice. [swg]
Your work is magnifcent…thanks for sharing. I also love styrene and have built many cars…both freight add passenger in addition to structures. I have found that with a well built styrene car, when finished, it looks like a plastic car. As mentioned, wood has a certain distinct look and when well built, I think it is the best…Just my opinion!
In selling off out of era stock, I find that wood kits move well in my area. But some wood kits are far better than others, and buyers know which are which.
The owner of a nearby hobby shop (recently closed) got a number of partially-built wooden freight cars as part of an estate lot, and had offered them to me, gratis, as he didn’t know of anyone else who might take them. I knew the deceased only casually, and hadn’t really seen any of his work in-person.
The cars, all 36’ singlesheathed cars similar to Fowler cars, appeared to be scratchbuilt, and rather well-done, too. As I wasn’t interested in them, I gave a couple to a friend who wanted to try finishing them (he’s more of a collector than modeller), and I gave the rest to another friend who’s very “old school”, and very interested in trying to finish them. I also gave both friends some doors - styrene, but representing wood doors.
Both seem to be coming along fine with them, with the older one really enthused about the progress he’s making and with the cars themselves.
He buys many wooden kits at train shows, even though he admits it unlikely that most will ever be built. Instead, he is simply saddened that no one seems to want these kits, and he sees himself as rescuing them from an otherwise ignominious disposal.
I love finding those old wood kit’s , and I also love scratchbuilding stuff with wood.
But, I also use Plastic, Brass, Paper, Glass, whatever is at hand really…
Granit line fitting’s , Kadee truck’s/coupler’s , and the water tank is an old metal Roundhouse tender. The rest of this workcar is Wood and random stuff.
I have some built wood cars built from kits that would give plastic a run for the money but the ones I kept are few. Recently got an OK one, a 1920s container car, would like another one but hard to find one thats well built, i build buildings instead.
I have a couple of AMB Nickel Plate cabooses on the “soon-to-be-done” list.
The laser cut models are the best of both worlds, a craftsman-type kit with the precision-fit of modern day technology. I also have a few Cloor-Craft B&O wood cabooses on the “to-do” list. Maybe some cold, snowy weekend will be the day I get going on it.
I’d like to tackle one of the Ambroid Helium cars that were featured in an MR article by Eric White last year. (12/2017: Building a Vintage Wooden Freight Car Kit)
I’m presently building a laser-cut Lackawanna “concrete” signal tower from N Scale Architect (but mine is HO?) and it is going together beautifully.
Labelle is also Ye old huff & puff and mainline and proubly others that were obsorbed into those companys. Most people don’t know there are a few Truescale kits out there under Campbell, I think the car kits ended up at old huff & puff, but not sure on that.
Now-a-days, building wood car kits is certainly a minority interest in the hobby, likely impacted by two trends:
The dominance of RTR and high quality plastic kits; and the migration of craftsman modelers to resin kits.
Most modeling now is either modern era, or steam-to-diesel transition era, both favored steel cars. Yes there are wood kits for steel cars, but very few of us would go that route unless it was a unique model, along the line of craftsman structure kits.
For me, modeling the early 1900’s, while plastic fills out the roster - it’s really all about wood cars!
Around here they died after the introduction of plastic car kits back in the day and with today’s quality detailed cars I suspect the market for old wooden car kits may be very limited.
