What is the oldest piece of operating rolling stock on your layout? Mine is SHPX 60751, an Athearn covered hopper. I bought it in 1987 in Dallas, TX, when I was getting back into the hobby after an 11-year absence. I bought it at the late, great Bobbye Hall’s, together with 8-9 other cars.
Those cars are long gone, but this one soldiers on, weathered and grafittied; each time it passes in a road freight I am reminded of those early days.
John Longhurst, Winnipeg
I have an American Flyer HO Hudson and the four cars it came with that I got for Christmas in 1957. The chuff piston still works and it now has a decoder for running on DCC.
I have a Rivarossi 2-8-8-2 - that I got for Christmas in 1965. It still runs and I have a few of the cars that came with it and at least 2 of the now have kadee couplers and do run on my layout.
I have a bunch of old cars from Ambroid, Mainline, Central Valley and others from as early as the 1950’s.
Many years ago a friend of mine gave me some of his equipment, books, etc (none of his brass though). He was getting out of the hobby. I didnt really pay attention to what he gave me. I packed it away for a later day.
Recently I broke the stuff out. Im fond of red cabooses. In there was one. Never really thought to look until this year, who made it. When i serviced it i noticed on the bottom is has “Revell Inc” molded into it. Right below that is “1956”.
Never knew! What a suprise… it is older than i am (not by much)! And thus, also is my oldest piece of rolling stock now.
Douglas
I have several of the old metal Athearn freight cars, Varney metal cars and Silver Streak wooden cars that date from the mid-1950’s. They still look good enough to run, as far as I’m concerned.
Tom
I have an eight hatch reefer which I am told is from an Ambroid kit from the 50s or 60s. I picked it up on eBay because I thought it looked interesting. It is fairly well built (not by me).
Dave
This John English Pacific likely dates back to the early '50s, although I got it, used, in 1956. I replaced the original cab with a vestibule type from Kemtron, and the tender shown is scratchbuilt. The valve gear is from Central Valley. It’s currently in the shop awaiting another makeover to give it more of a family-look similar to my other freelance locos:
As for rolling stock, the ones below all date from the same period. Most have been upgraded, and all have newer paint and lettering:
Varney hopper, one of two still in service:
Varney tank car:
Varney all-metal boxcar:
Roundhouse (MDC) all-metal gondola:
Authenticast all-metal depressed centre flatcar:
While all of these cars show their age in photos, they still fit in quite nicely when seen in a train.
Wayne
When 5-6 years old my brother and I got an American Flyer train set for Christmas this would have been 55-56. Alas I have no idea what ever happened to this set as it was given to a younger cousin.
When I was 10 years old I got a Tyco HO train Set and along with that set, was a Varney 0-4-0 Docksider “Little Joe”. When I went into the ARMY in 1969, all my HO stuff went to my nephew. When he found out that I had started building my present HO layout, he gave me the “Little Joe” back, along with 3 Athearn Heavy Weight Standard passenger cars. I was able to add 3 more Athearn Northern Pacific passenger cars to match the Santa Fe set I was given by my nephew. The old cars where repaired, repainted and decaled for the Northern Pacific. The “little Joe” may have been manufactured back in the early/mid 50s. The Athearn Passenger cars are from the early 60s. The Little Joe is still DC; but, will be super detailed, re-motored and given DCC, hopefully before I “Kick”!
This New Haven box car was part of a Tyco train set I purchased for my son in 1971 or 2.
The car is still in use on the BRVRR today.
This was, as I remember, my original Athearn train set.
It was bought in the late 1950s or early 60s. The rubber-band drive GP-9 is now a sound dummy. All the cars have Kadees and metal wheels.
This is a Roundhouse 0-6-0 kit that I built back in the early 1950’s and it still runs. I plan to upgrade with can motor and DCC.
Wayne, I had a John English pacific that I planned to rebuild and detail but yours is outstanding and looks to be of the same high quality workmanship that all of your other models are. Very nice!
-Bob
I built this caboose from an Ambroid 1 in 5000 kit back in 1963.
Still have a AHM C Liner several AHM and Tyco freight cars but they stay in a box.
I have early 1950s metal cars from Varney, Athearn, Model Die Casting and Ulrich that still look good enough to run and do run (all those firms except Ulrich switched to plastic by the mid to late 1950s).
A two bay hopper with wood frame and tin sides and ends of unknown origin may date from the late 1940s, or earlier - but it does not yet run on the layout and may never do so based on my current rate of attending to unbuilt kits and projects.
A string of paper sided reefers was a gift decades ago and I suspect date from the 1940s although the oldest of the bunch may well date from the 1930s because it is plain paper not embossed like the others. All came with Baker couplers, the same kind John Allen used, but have been updated to Kadees and better wheels. Some of them may be from post War Japan since the donor of the cars had served there and had some early Japanese brass that I recall seeing on his layout. I know paper remained a popular medium in Japan for model building. Those cars are actually in running condition and thus qualify as my oldest cars in service.
Some simple Picard reefer body kits in HO and O likely date from the mid 1930s but again they are not in service. They assemble easily with a simple sort of tongue and groove construction that is quite charming. Picard bodies were among the first wood house cars with actual scribed wood sides. In the same box is a supply of embossed paper reefer sides. I assume they are from the 1940s. From time to time Al Kalmbach would publish paper car sides in MR.
Dave Nelson
If locomotives count, mine would be an SCL U36B that I detailed and upgraded from an old Blue Box U33B that my dad bought in the early '80s when I was a kid.
Here it is before:
And after:
When I returned to the hobby it was in HO. Vancouver Hobbies was having a going out of business sale, so I picked this up along with some other stuff knowing I would soon be building a layout. I found out there were six numbers in the series and over the years managed to get all six numbers. It was just to see if I could do it kind of thing as they had been out of production for a while.
It’s not old but it’s the oldest thing on my layout. I still have all my “Lone Star Treble O” from when I was a kid. It is over fifty years old. I keep it because it reminds me of the endless hours spent with dear old Dad.
I have a number of cars dating from the early 70s and can’t really remember which was first at this point. This Monon boxcar was repainted and decaled by me and just recently returned to service after I finally dosed the decals with some Microscale setting solution after 40 years. I’ll just make it officially “first,” given I was living in Inidana when I switched to HO after a brief affair with O-27.
I have far too many Athearn, Varney, Silver Streak and similar metal and/or wood cars from the 50’s and 60’s to even begin a list…
Sheldon
At the Lansing, MI model RR flea market last month I bought a custom decaled Saginaw River Valley 50’ box car that I sold in 1990 when I got out of the hobby. I decaled that car sometime during the 1980s. It is most likey the oldest car I am running.