A Blast From The Past More..

All, In keeping with the subject a blast from the past, I Just recently received this link in two of my emails.

A1G-The Atlas N Scale "1st Generation" (c)2001-2013 George J. Irwin - some (c) Doug Gosha

If one cannot find it select A1GLocos/Lone Star OOO items then Go , it should pop right up.. you might be surprised, I know I was.


Tom

 

Just reminds me of the great 'missing car' from that era; an 8-10,000 gal single dome tank car. Not a chemical car, not a beer can, or a triple dome, just a plain-jane single-dome tank suitable from the 40's to the 80's. Only Rapido had one, it was rather high and wierd and took a lot of work to convert to MT's - like replace the entire car bolster. Modelers today that didn't struggle through that era should be amused that we had some of the wonderful oddball cars we did from Atlas and Trix, yet great gaping holes in the boat for a normal car fleet.

 

The greatest collectors N stash I ever found was an entire case of unopened, unpriced Lone Star equipment - original packaging, even with the packing slip - when a local Kresge store closed and liquidated. I remember the stuff being there when I was a kid; this was the plastic-track push sets, not powered, but the cars were the same and so were the locmotive shells. I got the case for a pittance. The packing slip was dated from the 60's.

I'm pretty sure I sold it all to Doug Gosha, pre-Internet! Still had the factory air in it when it left me.

I can only imagine the racket and rumble that stuff would make operating with those wheels and cast metal parts, let alone the motor noise!

 

Which is my website... Doug lost his 'home' online when AOL suddenly pulled the 'Homestead' pages on a Halloween night a few years back (Talk about 'Trick or Treat'!) and I'm happy to host them once again for Doug and everyone.

Every so often I manage an update to the A1G site as I learn or come across something or other. I have, in my head at least, plans for more photos. We'll see what happens this year...

 

Is that you George, from Ellison Park?

Tom Formerly of HAMBURG,NY and webster,NY

 

Thanks for this thread, Tom, and the link to my site. Yes, George has kindly hosted my site since AOL dumped me and everybody else who had sites there.

I once had the layout pictured in the Wards catalog in Russ' post (there's a picture of it on my site). It was made of expanded styrene beads by Life-Like exclusively for Wards/Treble-O-Lectric. In the early seventies, I donated it to a guy who's son wanted to get started in N scale. I wish I still had it but...oh well.. at least it served a good purpose. I still have all the rest of my Treble-O-Lectric stuff, though. It does make a racket but seeing it run is akin to the thrill of watching Lionel trains.

And Randy, it wasn't me who bought all of your Lone Star items although it might have been had I known about it. I have always been mainly interested in the electric stuff, however. It was the peak of Lone Star trains.

Doug

 

Doug, was the layout above a twice-around or two loops? It looks like the former. A derailment in the tunnel might have been interesting.

 

Yes, it was a twice around with the line with the bridge going in and over the other line and coming out at the very back. The whole mountain was a separate piece and easily lifted off in the event of a derailment. In order to make it more integrated into the rest of the layout, however, the instructions advised to attach it with straght pins at four places next to the portals.

In the whole time I had mine, I don't remember any derailments in there. Of course, there were never any switches in there either.

I actually had the opportunity to acquire another one a few years ago from a guy who lived in Kansas City but he wouldn't ship it. I would have had to travel there to pick it up! I tried to talk him into shipping it, describing how the original was packed, but to no avail.

Doug

 

WOW... Randy... that is a blast from the past for me too.
In 1967 I was only 10 yrs. old and had HO scale trains. I remember going to a Kresge store in Silver Springs Md that had the Lone Star Treble-O on clearance for only 9 cents per car and about 25 cents for locomotives. When I looked at them carefully, they were very crude in comparison to the HO stuff I had; and, I was not about to spend my lunch money on them... LOL

 

Back in the 1960's... N scale was considered by some in the 'larger scales' as a passing fad that would probably not last.
Lone Star was apparently one of those early pioneers in N scale that would not succeed and only added fuel to the arguments made by the larger scales.
The fact is that the Lone Star models were really 'toys'... not hobby quality in those days... and they did look like toys.
But... they actually helped to get N scale started even though they failed.
I remember going to a G.C. Murphy department store in Prince Georges Plaza, Hyattsville MD around Christmas time the same year I saw the Lone Star products mentioned in my prior post. I saw an electric N scale set on display with much better looking locomotive and passenger cars in a Santa Fe scheme. The store had gone to great lengths (IMHO) to make a small layout with a mountain and scenery to display the model trains... but... when I asked the attendant in the toys and hobby area to run the train... he said it didn't run. He actually led me back to the HO models stating they were much better and I would be happier getting them. I don't remember exactly what he said was the problem with N scale... but... it seemed like he didn't like the scale and wasn't promoting N scale for the store. I ran across a similar situation one other time at a Toy R Us... I was looking at N scale... remember that I was told that there was very little choices of trains and accessories for the scale... HO would be a much better choice. Of course... I already had HO... so their comments only helped to keep me from switching scales. Chances are that I would have been very unhappy with a change at that time... so perhaps they did me a favor.

 

Wow this takes me back…Got my first n-scale trains in 1968 and they run to this day! Got into n-scale when mom finally relented and said I could have layout. Room in our row home in South Philadelphia was at a premium, so n-scale was an easy choice. Hard part was finding anything made for my favorite road - the READING. Lots of PRR, UP and Santa Fe back then.

I remember going to Kresge's, Murphy's and W.T Grant's and even Woolworth's and Kiddie City looking for additions to the layout. Everyone one of those stores are long gone from around here.

Now north of 250 Locos and almost 2000 cars and still coming home with just one more...

Nick

 

Here's a scanned copy of RailroadModelCraftsman's Collecter Consist... from OCTOBER 2012 PAGES 88 and 89. since moving Eastward I have no idea where my copy of this magazine went to. Oh, how our model railroad items improve as time move on!

Tom

< Pg. 88 <Pg. 89

 

Nick, Bachmann had their F-something or other diesel in Reading paint at that time if I recall correctly. It was in the later yellow /green scheme that never appeared on a Reading covered wagon, but that didn't stop them. They did the GP-whatever in Reading as well, as well as an offset cupola caboose.

I wrote to RMC about the A1G site after that Collector's Consist appeared, but my Incremental Information wasn't acknowledged...