Here is the famous first Atlas N scale catalog and an early flyer. The catalog image was also used on their early frain set boxes: Doug
This is the Rivarossi 50th anniversary publication. listing their entire output from 1945 - 1995, including HO, N, and O scale models: Doug
Probably a good time to sneak in a plug for my Atlas First Generation site... http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g (Yes, I know it's in Doug's signature too...) All 157 pieces of the original Atlas freight and passenger car line are represented!
And I think we both went years trying to get all of them and finally did! The appearance of eBay was THE true enabler. Doug
Along with the AHM TV ad was this one that I'd forgotten about until a friend mentioned it, Tyco's HO Chattanooga Choo Choo:
Wow, it wasn't just little kids that ran trains at 800 mph, they ran them pretty fast in the commercial too!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who read this book when it first came out, but I came across it in a box the other day and laughed a little - was 20yrs before I got around to starting a layout of my own, and it's a completely different world now where questions have answers. I just remember it was before YT or anything particularly interactive was able to be shared on the internet and after reading this 3 or 4x it still barely made sense to me. Forum sites were just beginning to pop up where people discussed things like this, but I remember being confused for a long time about the hows and whys of DCC. The amount of knowledge one has access to now as compared to 2002 is incredible.
@Pfunk 's post reminded me of my copy of Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders, c. 1974. I built a number of the circuits in it, getting in over my head on the SCR throttle and finding salvation from a friendly owner of a local TV repair shop who was a model rail. The book predates integrated circuits, so all are built from discrete semiconductors.
Yes I got that one and a couple others back when I decided to switch over in HO. In 2005. With the same confusion that you mention and no-one would answer except to clam it's much cheaper and easier. I've found it to be opposite.
Two ads from International Models, in NYC, selling Treble-O-Lectric, one from 1963 and the other from 1964. Prices were about twice what Montgomery Ward was asking but you could get several road names in addition to U.P. which was the only livery Wards sold. Peco had just started selling nine millimeter track then and only flex track: And, the first page of the International Models order sheet from 1964:
Back in the early N scale days, there were several smaller venues selling it in addition to the big name vendors. Here are the first pages of mailings from a couple of them: The House of N is from 1968 and N-Gauge of America, 1974. They both actually had pretty extensive lines with products from many manufacturers. Most of these smaller businesses didn't last long. Doug
WAIT! I have to ask. Did you photoshop out your street address or was it really addressed that way back then? Just a name, city and state???? What, were you the mayor of Austin, MN?
