I just got some old MDC Roundhouse kits(a bit of a challenge) and noticed on the box “Building Better Kits Since 1936”, I wonder what a kit looked like in1936?? This made me think, is there a concise history of model railroading as to the innovators, pioneers and manufacturers, their names and companies they formed??
And am I right that H.O. gauge was a spinoff from the larger scale trains of the times?. I’m sort of amazed to see on the MDC kits “since 1936” I didn’t think H.O. was that old. Anyone out there have some facts???
Well…I guess you could call HO a spin off of sorts. All that it means is “Half O”
For a rather complete history of the evolution of our hobby, get a copy of Hal Carsten’s “150 Years of Train Models.”
As to the origins of HO, people like Eric LaNal were dabbling in it as early as the late 1920’s. But it dates from even somewhat earlier in Europe. HO started as pretty much a table-top toy train shortly after WWI (Bing offered them in 1922) and within a decade had become a viable scale (sort of) model. There were several U.S. custom builders offering HO locomotives by 1930. Walthers products date back to 1932 and the first true model railroad hobby shop (in Dunellen, NJ) came just two years later. By the late 1930’s we already see MDC, Varney, and Mantua advertising in MR. And by 1940 HO is rivaling O gauge as the most popular scale, passing it by war’s end.
CNJ831
I think,(just an opinion) Tyco was the forerunner of HO scale model railroading. I can remember going to Dunellen in the early 60’s and getting that awesome Tyco catalog.
In fact, Tyco (Tyler Co.) was initially pretty much the RTR version of Mantua’s products line that appeared in the 1950’s, decades after the establishment of the parent company Mantua. The original Mantua line of locomotives were a combination of brass and cast parts in kit form (1938-1959) but these were progressively replaced by all die cast engine kits beginning in the early 1950’s. The RTR examples of these die cast engines were sold under the Tyco name. When the Tyco name first appeared, HO had already been the dominant scale in the hobby for years. Later, Tyco became known as a cheapened verson of Mantua’s product line, the absolute bottom being reached with the introduction of their “Chattanooga Choo Choo” tender-driven steamer.
The history of Mantua’s ups and downs in the hobby, ending in its recent demise, is one of the great stories in our hobby.
CNJ831
Ah but which version of the Chatanooga Choo-Choo? The later ones stripped off the lead and pilot trucks from the Mikado and made an 0-8-0 out of it!
But is that REALLY worse than a GG-1 with only a pair of 4-wheel diesel trucks under it? [:D]
–Randy
That is what is so nice about the enet guys, if you have a question about practically everything, all you need to do is type your question into the search box and you will find all there is about everything. I started out thinking I knew quite a lot after 65 years on this planet and raising 4 kids and 8 grandkids, but after my association with the many people I have met, and now the enet, I go on knowing less and less about more and more until I know practically everything about nothing!!! But it’s fun rightb guys?
Check this website for the history of HO ( NO, it didn’t start in a cave with Neanderthals playing with a string of HO gauge rocks !!!$%##)
This site http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/id1.html has a short history of TYCO.
Enjoy
Paul