O scale 1950.....vintage kit build....

I have seen one or more of these kits at the March Meet, Chicago O scale show, but

did not think cucumbers and pickle plants would be original to my modeled region.

There is currently a pickle plant kit in O scale available for these cars to serve. (I think it is of a Wisconsin prototype, so is an industry to set across from a brewey)  I really like to find these old, sometimes pre-WWII model kits....and while I can't now find them quickly, I have tracked down several kits lettered for the Denver and Salt Lake, that I think were made by that famous lady in New York who had the hobby shop prior to and during WWII (passenger coaches and a flat car...maybe a stock car).  I

have thought about starting a couple of threads, asking people to show both their

old O scale rolling stock kits, and another showing old structure kits.

I too love those old kits and cars.  I find myself picking a few up here and there in all kinds of conditions.  I really like the Westbrook cars nad have put a few on late prewar trucks to run and they seem to fit in perfectly to me.

Nice job on your pickle car.  There was also a nice article in late 1940's Model Builder by I think Bob Sherman to scratch build one.  Either way is great.  Add as much detail as you want.

Not as old or interesting as yours, and a LOT more, ah, whimsical (it's lettered for one

of my freelance roads - a VERY short line):

A little more serious: this is an old All-Nation wood-structure/metal ends and sides and kit that I assembled and painted/lettered/weathered more than ten years ago. Another freelance road (actually there were 2 "Alabama Centrals" in history; every state had it's "Central" - one guess which NE road owns the controlling interest in this one.).

I love these old back-in-the-day scale pieces, kits or otherwise. These things show that

3-rail Hi-Railing has been around a long time.

I have a bunch of misc old O-scale car-building parts from that era, but not complete kits. There are various castings for trucks, underframe ribs, brake equipment, car ends, etc. And some bare wood carbody kits by "Picard Novelty Co." Someday I'll try to sort things out to see what I might be able to build with that stuff.

Considering Walthers manufactures and/or carries almost ZERO O scale parts it's amazing the amount of items they made at one time. I pick up parts when I find them......one guy had about 25 packs of Walthers Hi Rail coupler sets for $1 each....bought them all....never know when you will see them again.

I have a few older catalogs......just about anything you need was available.

I don't remember when Walther's got out of O scale, but I remember calling them to

order something out of a then fairly current...I think it was a 197X's edition..O scale catalog, and found they were no longer offering parts I wanted. I was irate.  Then

All Nation picked up many of their offerings, but now, that is gone, I think...(nobody

has taken that over?).  Some of the small parts seem to have gone to Keil-Line.  I remember one of the wood mfrs. that made milled O scale roofs and siding going out of business, too.  Nice to page through the old magazines and check out O scale  kits for locos such as C&O's Mikado, many cabooses and other cars,  and many structures.

I really wish Northeastern would rerun just one time the Streamline roof and floor stock.  Wonder if they would do a private rerun if you bought a minimum amount??? I can make many parts....but these and trucks would be nice to see more readily available.  

AMCDave: You probably know that Micro-Mark in their catalog has basswood streamline passenger car FLOORS, and their catalog doesn't show caboose roofs,

which I just bought some of from them off micromark.com.  I didn't look for

streamline roofs but check that website, unless you are already familiar with it.

I only see Streamline floor in HO scale. I contacted Northeastern at one time and they had no plans to rerun it in O scale. If you find Streamline in O please let me know! Thanks

Northeastern remains in this business and brought everything back into production except the streamline roof ~2006.  They were just looking to see what interest remained in this product line with some on display at the Nat'l NMRA that year and I bought their entire stock at the show.  Might have sent a message,

No idea where All-Nation got their roof sections made or other kit makers, but it seems from my stock in my shop that there were many sources once upon a time.

The pickle car is interesting.  Almost all of the ones that I have seen in the past had quite a few more details on them.  Kit is probably really the older Hawk kit that Walthers absorbed into its product line; Walthers took over a lot of small lines of kits and put them in Walthers boxes......

Hawk is the mfr. I couldn't think of who made the D&SL kits, of which I have some

somewhere.   As for the streamlined O scale roof and floor, I think I misread the MicroMark catalog, as their website does only show HO versions.  I remember getting some notice from Northeastern about not producing O scale wood parts, so assumed they were still gone.  I had wondered if MicroMark was selling off old Northeastern

stock...and since it appears that is not likely, wonder who is making these parts for

MicroMark (Northeastern currently?) and why O scale versions could not be made?

(I can say I never had any luck with Walther's streamlined kit roofs and marrying

them to the sides, and getting them to look like metal, so have avoided their streamline kits....heavyweights....no problem)

Thanks for the info guys......The kit was fun to build.....an insight to 1950 O scale....but it did not seem like a traditional Walthers kit. The sheet metal floor was unlike any Walthers fit....with ZERO frame detail of any kind.

It was not a cheap kit in it's day. $3.95 is written on one end....about $35 today....but with trucks and couplers included not a expensive kit either.

All in all......a interesting look back!

Beats me as to why Northeastern has not brought back the streamlined car roof - everything else came back into production 8 years ago.

What is also not available is the clerestory roof for traction and trolley cars - that's roof is narrower and the proportions somewhat different.  Whenever I spot a section of that roof at a swap meet, it goes home with me.  I need to take a few days to figure out how to make an RTV mold of a sections and start casting these in resin.

I still do not see Streamline floor or roof on the Northeastern website......I can call them if you all say it's made....but if someone could point me to where they are seeing it?? Thanks

They have not brought back that roof.  Yet...........

Or Streamline floor????

If it's not listed, they haven't. I used to just cut floor from basswood stock for cars, but I don't do that much anymore since I build up floors now using stripwood and scribed siding.  Streamlined cars are far in the future on my RR,