Each Monday I start a new “book club” discussion by focusing on an issue from the past, available to those of us with the new All Access Pass / Digital Archives, or from the MR DVD of a few years ago, and of course anyone with the hard copy of the issue is also welcome to join in. The idea is to provide a bit of a push to really explore an issue from a while ago as if we had just received it at home, and comment on anything that strikes us.
The February 1958 issue was when Paul Larson was editor, and Don Reschenberg, Gordon Odegaard, and Linn Westcott were on the staff. Without meaning to criticize or belittle any current or former staff members of MR I think a good case could be made that that might have been the highpoint in terms of sheer modeling talent on the staff.
Compared to issues from the 1930s and 40s, the modeling, photography, and even some of the advertisements in 1958 have much more in common with what we expect to see today. More of the products in the Trade Topics product reviews would be more likely to find purchasers today for example – and not just based on the prices either.
The cover photo and a major article in the issue focus on the incredible modeling of Leo Myers who worked in a “live steam” scale of 1" = 1’. It has been a long while since MR featured any live steam size modeling; at one time it would make regular appearances. For its time the photography of the model is also remarkable; we take such things for granted now.
Those with a taste for building things will like this issue: there are articles on how to built a small coal supply company, a neat transfer caboose by Al Kamm Jr. (who at one time was a regular contributor of such articles to MR), and an interesting how-to for a skewed deck truss bridge by Paul Mallery, whose book on bridges and testles from about that same era remains in print and remains good useful information for model bridge builders. Mallery also s
This is a great issue to discuss. The first letter in Railway Postoffice doesn’t so much complain about a lack of LHS, which he’s used to, but to encourage those contacting advertisers to mention their ad was seen in MR. Still a good practice.
The next letter is, well, it is what it is in discussing junior and other new members in clubs, a subject of interest to me. Caution is in order, because of “the difficulty in weeding out – the serious minded from the brats, the responsible from the irresponsible. It is next to impossible to get rid of a member, junior or senior,once he is accepted, and the hobby has its pests, its lunatic fringe and its assorted charecters – adult and juvenile. Some of them are frankly tinplaters and don’t know it…”
Some things never change…[;)] This was apparently prompted by a Dec. MR editorial encouraging clubs to offer junior memberships.
The new category of Recoomended Practice (RP) was announced by the NMRA.
The Al Kamm Jr. RI caboose build is interesting with its open air “dome car like” seating. One of our division members was a good friend of Mr. Kamm’s, who was apparenly an EMD employee IIRC. He was also a pioneer narrowgauger.
Sound was around in 1958. All you needed was a turntable…that you put that old schjool tech known as a record on. (pg 66-67)
Page 2 ad for Mantua car kits. Interesting that they now come with “NMRA” couplers, that is hornhooks, but can be exchanged for Mantua automatics, whatever those were.
More traction stuff, review, article, ads than we find today.
I enjoyed the editorial refuting craftsman kit building disappearing. Other than locomotive kits being almost gone today, it could be the editorial next month.
At 80 pages, it is 20 pages shorter than February 2015.
I liked the Atlas advertisment - ‘Every NOL* and RTR* Railroader Should have this book…’. RTR is pretty well know, but NOL(No Operating Layout) is a term I have not heard! Back in the late 60’s when I built my 1st HO layout(as a teenager), it was expected that one have a layout or belong to a club that had a large layout. It seems that ‘Armchair’ modelers have grown through the years. I have armchair’ed though the years(took 3 years after building a new house to start on a layout).
The coal distributor construction article is I miss in the current issues. With all of the pre-scribed styrene siding material, and Grandt/Tichy windows that are available; building a structure just is not a problem. Back in the 60’s the choice of windows was sort of slim, and and the available wood siding material was not as good as the current styrene.
I remember thinking when I finally had space to build a layout, I would use Tru-Track with the milled ties on wood roadbead. When I finally did start building, this type of track was all but gone from the scene. I liked the 1 inch scale live steam set-up by Lee Myers. The live steam side of model railroading has always been a builder’s endeavor. I can relate better to this issue than the 1936 issue. This was what was going on in Model Railroading when I was an 8 year old kid!
What fun. I was 11 at the time and around then got started with a 4’x6’ snap-track layout from the blue Atlas booklet. So I imagine this was around when I first bought a MR.
I enjoyed several things. The ad for AHC in downtown Manhattan reminded me of visiting there, if I recall correctly a multi-story store. And this reminds me that I need to look for an Ambroid pickle car on Ebay. And the 1" scale RR was certainly interesting, with 15’ radii and a spur that went into the shop in the house. My grandkids would like that.
Of course the ads are fun. The Athearn hustler, etc. And Gilbert’s LHS in Gettysburg PA is one I visited when my brother was in college. I got to visit the next version, still in town, on another street, run by a nephew I think, when my grandson and I went RR-ing in that area a couple or years ago. Met one of the original brothers in the back room, whom I no doubt encountered in the 60’s. Great memories.
Thanks for hosting this. A nice diversion each week.
Mid to late 50’s is when the products shown are many of the ones I remember having on the layout as a kid. For example, that Scintilla power pack on page 16 - I rmemebr running trains on that. It lasted into the early 70’s when the left rheostat went out and we replaced it with an MRC Dualpack. ANd the Tru-Scale houses on page 19 - we had 1 or 2 of those, plus other similar ones, maybe it was all 3 of those.
The first junior members letter - the author is a name that appeared quite frequently in RPO, at least into the 80s. Westfield is a fairly upper class town, probably more so then than now. What i get out of his letter is that things we think are ‘new’ problems with the kids of today have in fact been going on for more than 50 years.
The cover photo is simply amazing. Granted it’s a large scale model (1" scale) but still - amazing level of detail, it truly does look real.
Tommy Gilbert’s hobby shop is still around. That would be the nephew I think.
Paul the Mantua coupler was a hook and loop type but on a flat plain so from the side view it was relatively unobtrusive, compared to the thick Baker hook and loop coupler that was also popular at the time.
This is a good place to add that Paul Larson’s article in this issue of Tricks With Kadee Couplers (p 58) deals with the older type of Kadee knuckle coupler - not magnetic types that we know today. But it was an excellent looking coupler for its time.
I got a kick out of Paul Larson’s “At The Throttle”. Though I chose my forum moniker for a totally different reason(3rd of five brothers),his description of the middleman in model building fits me pretty well.
Although I was three and a half when this came out,it reminds me very much of the first issues I read(probably very early 60’s).Stuff like the PFM brass ads are still eye candy for me.
If any of you have the actual magazine… are you able to see the “3D Shanty” in the ad on page 71?
I was impressed from the very start with the 1" scale model detail. An estimated 4000 hours is a lot to put into a single model.
I noticed in the ad for the Unimat lathe that the operator was not wearing safety glasses. Just plain dumb!
The skewed bridge article was very informative, but I cringed when I read that card stock was being used. OK, take it easy - there is nothing wrong with card stock, that is until it gets wet.
The introduction to the meter article is hilarious. One full paragraph to explain that the author was going to write about meters that “applied to model railroading”. Well duh!
The ad on page 15 for Walthers dwarf signals was pretty enticing. I wonder why they still don’t offer them.
I’m curious, does anyone know how the Urlich tractor and trailer units would compare with todays offerings?
In relation to the Greenwich Coal Co article, a thing that confused me, reading the US magazines of this era, was “Strathmore board”, even now I presume it is (was) a brand name for a type of cardboard.
Looking at Al Kamms Transfer caboose it would appear that the ATSF, as discussed recently here, http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/243832.aspx
weren’t the only ones to have this kind of set up.
I gather reading Paul Larsons “At the throttle”, that even then there was angst about the ratio of scratch building materials, “quickie” kits, craftsman kits and RTR. Some things don’t seem to change.
Great thread Dave, though I would
Who can describe the Mantua Automatic Couplers? What was Automatic about them? I know that John Allen used the Baker Coupler and sort of understand how that one worked. I had a Tyco train set of about the 1960 vintage and it had the NMRA Horn Hook couplers.
I also see that in this issue the Athearn Hustler loco was advertized. I always thought this to be an interesting and almost affordable little loco for a kid who made some money mowing grass or doing other odd jobs. I never bought one and sort of regret that.
I have been looking through these past issues for reference to a Varney Power Pack, such as the one I had with my first train set and have yet to see one. Has anyone else come across one?
If this works, rather fuzzy pic of a Mantua coupler
The big loop is stationary. The little hook at the back of the loop can lift up slightly. They were automatic in the sense that a kadee is automatic - just push the cars together and they couple. Uncoupling was by means of a ramp that pushed up on a part of the hook that stuck down. Pretty much worked the same as the Baker, or the hook and loop ones still found in England (my bachmann Hogwarts set has this type, as does the old Tri-Ang Rocket set I have - difference being that the hook on those is at the outside edge of the loop, not close to the carbody like Mantua)
I have several of the old Ulrich metal trucks and truck kits. It is fair to say that the detail level is a bit blunt compared, say, to the beautiful plastic offerings from Athearn and others, as well as CMW metal or plastic. And the all metal construction calls for learning some techniques of assembly that used to be common currency. Often when you see Ulrich trucks at swap meets they have not been treated well and the paint tends to chip from the metal. But when carefully assembled and taken care of they look nice – and more to the point, they offer a generation of heavy trucks that is otherwise not available to the model railroader in HO. That is why I seek them out at swap meets.
Thanks Dave. They certainly would fill a niche for me, not that I expect to ever see one at a swap meet, that said I did purchase an unbuilt Silver Streak boxcar kit a couple of years ago.
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
The Tri-Pack. I’ve seen it in the magazines, and in other model railroad books, but I’ve never seen on in person. Wonder how many they sold.
I have shooting, and AC Gilbert to thank for there being trains around when I was a kid - my Dad won a Gilbert HO train set in a block shoot. It was the little blue industrial engine (still have it somewhere). Before I came along, what was my room was filled with a layout my Mom and Dad built, adding some other stuff like a Tyco 0-6-0T which I still have, and a small 0-4-0, also a tank, not sure which one it was, but I took it to school to display for hobby week, and I got the 0-6-0 back but never the 0-4-0. After I came along, the train was a loop around the tree at Christmas, there is a home movie of my 2 year old self running the train around the tree using the Scintilla power pack I mentioned. Then we moved and built a bigger layout (also only up during the holidays, no room for a permanent one) which grew a little more each year. Around age 8, I had a 2x4 N scale layout which we did have room for so I kept at is all year round. And on it went…
