Back in 1980 I constructed a small N Scale railroad and built a really nice single stall enginehouse kit of wood and metal castings. I suspect that the manufacturer has since gone out of business. Can someone tell me who the manufacturer was? I'm thinking it was Quality Craft Models, but I'm not sure. I can't seem to find any clues on the Internet. The model looked like this plastic AHM HO product: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AHM-BACKWOO...298025?hash=item542d8a6769:g:ChQAAOSwkEVXG-Zk Thank you.
Perhaps it was made by Muir Models or Gloor Craft. Not sure if Period Miniatures made an engine house. Regards, Wolf
I'm pretty sure you are right, that is was a Quality Craft Model. I still have a few of their kits and they have a ConCor label on them. I'll see if I can find one of my old Walthers catalog, and see if it is in there.
It's interesting how things turn. I was looking through my coupler conversion parts tonight and in a moment of serendipity, saw a faded yellowish box full of old trucks and it looked familiar. Sure enough, it's the box from my old engine house kit and it was indeed a Quality Craft kit, Kit No. 206 at $8.95 Ea. Quality Craft kits were produced in Northumberland, PA. SP-Wolf is right in his memory that Quality Craft's HO and N line was later bought by Muir and Gloor Craft. Quality Craft is now a producer of O Scale models. Unfortunately though, my N Scale kit no longer survives in anyone's line.
Set yourself up a permanent search in Ebay and make sure that both "Quality Craft" and "Gloor Craft" are in there along with enginehouse. Sooner or later it will show up if you are patient enough. I've been amazed how many Western Railcraft kits are still out there and they've been just as dead for years. Gloor Craft, by the way, is still in business but I found them in Ohio selling fishing accessories. No more train stuff. Seems to me that that building was in HO by Alexander Scale Models.... but that's a very fuzzy recollection. Anyway, if you've ever done a QC model, you could build the thing off of the instructions sheet if you have a good supply of scratchbuilding materials. The car kits had a lot of castings but the structures we another thing. The kits had full-sized templates to lay the pieces out on.
I very much enjoyed building N Scale structure and rolling stock kits 40 Years ago. I built a Blair Line kit of a house a year ago and it was well engineered and fun to build. I need to see what else is out there in this age. Good idea on the permanent eBay search for my enginehouse kit. I need to see what castings I may still have from my old structure.
That's it exactly Kenneth! Thank you. As I begin to think about retirement, I'm also dreaming about building a new Delaware, Susquehanna & Northern, Version 3.0. This engine house brings back happy memories of version 1.0, which was sized to fit in my '80 Honda Accord hatchback. You can see the engine house in the right front corner.
I've finally replaced just about every kit-built structure on my layout with scratchbuilt, but one that remains and will stay is the Quality/Gloor Craft lumberyard. It was close enough to Babbitts Lumber in Winslow that I can't see the point in changing it. I'm also proud to say that I built every last car kit they ever offered whether I knew what to do with it or not, I just loved making their kits. And I just picked up another all-door boxcar off of Ebay a couple of months ago.
Yes, they offered some really fine car kits didn't they? I built the Railbox (Quality Craft #208), the AT&SF 50' Wooden Reefer (Quality Craft #205) and the the Weyerhaeuser all-door car. At the time, these were prototypes not available otherwise. The only kit I stalled out on was their PRR N5C Caboose (#212) which had brass sides and I just couldn't get the corners bent to nice, crisp 90 Deg. angles. I needed the world's smallest metal brake.