The car with the propeller on end. MR had ads for it. Could it have been AHM?
Bernd
John himself came to regret the name in his later years, especially as he became more and more interested in serious operations. So silly names, and including the G&D in that, is definitely fair game, since the builder himself felt the same way.
–Randy
Ah yes the Atlas propeller driven “whatever it was” known as the Turbo Express.
http://www.hoseeker.net/AthearnBrochuresAds/TURBORACERFLYER.jpg
I would nominate the combined trainset/slot car sets that pretty much advertised the idea of “Hey kids! Try to beat the train to the crossing.”
I read somewhere, by the way, that essentially none of the “horn hook” couplers used in train sets and sold to the public actually followed the NMRA coupler committee X2F design exactly. For one I believe that the actual X2F had a square surface below the hook that enabled trains to run in reverse. Or at least that was the hope. How and why they came up with a design that had no similarity to a prototype coupler I do not know, but it might be that they were trying to avoid even looking like the then pre-magnetic Kadee.
When a modeler was not busy slathering on the asbestos cement onto his mountains and hills, he was cleaning his wheels with carbon tetrachloride. And using raw mercury in small drilled holes to make the turntable indexing work (I no longer recall the whys behind the mercury but it was a real idea).
Dave Nelson
As one who enjoys rebuilding, painting and redecaling Athearn BBS and old Tyco cars I pick up at the swap meets I attend, I must say that Tyco cars can often be reworked to a higher level (see my recent Soo Line caboose in the photo gallery ).
More to the point: many fads were purposefully marketed as toys, nothing more, perhaps much less. Those pink Lionel engines failed to entice very many girls into the model railroading hobby; “cute” names for model railroads may more accurately reflect a hint of dis- ease with being a railroad aficianado, or desire to present ones hobby as actually being held at arms length when shown to others, perhaps to mitigate criticism that you “play with trains” as a mature adult. Who really knows? Fads are momentary, serve a limited purpose either commercially or socially, but one hopes that the pleasure of model railroading will endure!
Cedarwoodron
Being a life long Marylander who has been in this hobby for 45 years, and who has been in the old Life Like factory, I will tell you that you have it backwards.
Coolers came first - styrofoam tunnels were something they could sell in the winter and make with the same machinery.
Life Foam is still today the largest maufacturer of styrofoam products in the world.
From the tunnels they got into other model train scenery items - grass mats, “grass”, “dirt”, ballast, trees, etc. Their factory was in a part of Baltimore full of wood working industries - sawdust for “grass” and grass mats was readily available - CHEAP.
Then later they bought most of the Varney assets and became one of the first China produced brands - later they hired a young local modeler who had worked in a local train store - who helped them develop the Proto line…
All that from a styrofoam cooler turned upside down with a couple of tunnel portals cut in the ends and some green paint…
Sheldon
As a young modeler I remember reading the construction articles by E. L. Moore in RMC and some in M-R, and he always had a tongue-in-cheek approach to naming his structure projects. He was a prolific builder and author and many of his structures were used to pattern structures that we still use today.
I guess, golly gee whiz, it was a “clever” aspect of the hobby that has not stood the test of time.
Regards, Ed
Off themed train sets, like NASCAR…as bad as pink train sets
Steamers without tender pickup.
Sawdust and RIT used for ground over, but then again, that was all we had.
Atlas under track mounted switch machines, good luck with those!
Posted by Bernd on Wednesday, December 09, 2015 4:44 PM
"The car with the propeller on end. MR had ads for it. Could it have been AHM?
Bernd"
Rail Zeppelin - The prototype
http://www.alspcs.com/rail_zeppelin_03.jpg
The Turbo Express (ad link posted by dknelson) was a toy to take advantage of the slot car craze. More accurate models have been made by others such as Marklin and even Lionel.
Since most of my layout visitors are NOT into trains, I find that putting funny business names on my buildings is a way I can trick these people into being more interested. Once they discover one funny name, they start looking at more and more structures to see what they can find. Before long, they are praising the layout rather than sticking to the “grown man playing with trains” attitude they originally brought with them.
“Switching puzzles” as a method of ‘realisitc operation.’
Thank God they disappeared back in the 80s as professional railroaders became willing to admit they were modelers too. I remember for a couple of years MR getting a fair number of letters saying “We’d never do that way, save brakemen’s walking time, not moves!” And one letter pointing out that by rearranging the track plan all the industries could be worked trailing point, and with two fewer turnouts to boot.
IHC Vanderbilt Tender … think they over done it alittle
I don’t believe anybody has mentiond ASTRAC, “A Giant Step Forward In Model Railroading”
No, not even close as those are great. I wish they still made them as I only have some of the set. The only category they fall into is “no longer produced”.
I don’t see how anyone can even think that. Before the X2F every vendor had their own version of couplers many were “dummies” that had to be manually lifted up and put “over” the next. I guess many here don’t remember those days.
Had it not been for the X2F coupler the HO market would never have taken off like it did in the late 1950s and early 1960s I would put the X2F in the running for a spot on the “7 wonders of the model railroading world”.
You mean there is something wrong with them???
Dave
That might be a bad idea, but it certainly hasn’t died off. Seems we get a new batch of those and an associated thread concerning them each year right here on the forum.
Why? How many animated things that Lionel has produced through the years help attract young people into the hobby?
I really wish those were still around! I would love to add the smell of creosote ties to my layout. To me, few things say “railroad” like the scent of creosote.
Lifoam was making ice chests before life-like was around. They started making train products to keep the factory working in the off season.
Dave, you don’t enjoy ramming your Athearn Genesis engines with slot cars?
Jim