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Indeed, this is a sad turn of events but I suppose not unexpected. It is certainly true that the nature of the commercial end of the hobby has changed dramatically in the last decade or so. There was a time when the companies nearly all were owned and run by people with a deep love for the hobby...

Trainiac - with regards to the width of modules 3, 4, 12 and 13, you will be very disappointed if you build them this narrow. What you'll quickly find is that they are essentially limited to having just running through-tracks on the them, as they are simply too shallow in depth to create either...

Frank - the Bay State Beer decals were from a fella that sells a wide variety of such on eBay. Don't recall his or his outfit's name any more but I think that he's still around there. The Armour reefer is to my knowledge an original Train Miniature but one not often seen. It was an eBay...

I'l throw a couple into the mix. The first is a custom decorated car for Bay State Beer: Then here's one for the Armour Refrigerator Line, advertising their Cloverbloom Butter: And how about this colorful example from Evansville Packing? Although not a billboard reefer, this...

The WS set does have one per. I notice that Bachmann offers two like that in a carded "railroad details" (or something like that) set, as well. I thought SS Ltd used to sell this type of city mailbox individually but didn't find them by calling up the current Walthers catalog. NYW&B

Mark - Westcott chose 1x4's for his L-girders mainly because that was/is a common dimension lumber comes in and by simply cutting the 1x4 in half lengthwise, it gave you the 1x2 (more or less) top-plate for the L-girder. Now a 1x4 L-girder will indeed be more structurally solid than one built...

Curmudgeon, based on your photo, what you have is a Mantua cast boiler from their 4-6-2 Pacific, not their Mikado. Likewise, the tender is the standard Mantua longhaul, 6-axle, tender. If the mechanism is indeed that for a Mikado and everything fits together perfectly with the boiler, then it...

I would point out that there are at least a couple of the railroad details manufacturers who offer both the RPO car's hook and the station's mail pouch mast...complete with bag! CNJ999

Just as Doc Wayne's link indicates, Mantua and Tyco were the same family operation for many years. As I personally recall the situation, from shortly after its appearance Tyco acted largely as the RTR arm of Mantua. Although Mantua did offer its engines RTR, they were more regarded as the...

Dave, at the time of its introduction the Mikado, with its big Pittman DC70 motor and enclosed gearbox, was regarded as just about the best mass produced HO model on the market. However, its exact heritage has always been in question, variously being associated with the LV, NYC and RDG. The...

The diecast Mantua Mikado first appeared in 1949 and for a few years (up through the mid 50's?) had an enclosed gearbox in the drivetrain, which is what I think you've described. The Mikado was followed by the Pacific in 1952 and later by a host of other engines. Of course, these were by no...

I would think that, beyond the enormous cost of equipping a highway system on a layout with vehicles such as these, the whole concept of independently operated vehicles probably represents a totally different/separate hobby from model railroading as we accept it today. Perhaps one might see the...

Wow, all I've got to say is that is one heck of an expensive little toy truck! For that price, you could buy a really nice, large, high-end, HO steam locomotive. :eek: CNJ999

Well...my HO layout is set at 42" to the railheads and if I had it to do over again, I'd make it 48". When the viewer has a "helicopter view" of a layout, it always tends to somewhat detract from any impression of realism. Such a height may not be suitable if the expectation is to share the...

Let's be realistic for a moment. No 30-40 year old model's design is going to begin to compare operationally with something made today. Technology has advanced a great deal over the period - would you really consider it reasonable to buy a used 1970's car, rather than a new 2008, today? The...

The technique that has been occasionally employed for many decades has been a moving endless belt, to which the vehicles were attached. Running straight from one view-blocked point on the layout to another, on reaching the end of its journey it simply passed over a drive cylinder and returned to...

Although many don't wish to acknowledge it, there is an entire segment of the hobby that is simply centered around "collecting" locomotives...in numbers far, far beyond any possible hope of future use on a layout. Many don't have any current layout and little prospect of building one in the...

I would just point out that unless absolutely just laid, asphalt is no where near truly black in color. Asphalt with even a relatively modest age to it is a dark grey hue. CNJ999

Quite early in their development, slot cars were phased into operating together with model trains. They were essentially an accessory appealing to the juvenile hobbyist, not the serious model railroader, since the main objective seemed to be testing how close you could get the cars to cut across...

What's up with the weird changes that suddenly appeared on this site? The URL I'd been using for sometime - which formerly led to specifically modeling railroading subjects - now leads to a horrible mish-mash of model trains, sci-fi models, military models and God knows what else! Obviously...