Jim Policastro posted:Kenny,
It really was great growing up in NYC as a kid who loved trains in the fifties and early sixties. I made weekly trips on the subway to Manhattan from our apartment in the Bronx just to make the rounds of the train stores. MRE Corp was always the highlight with shelves of brass locos in HO and O and a back room where it seemed they had anything you could possibly need for the layout.
Too bad my main interest was in HO at the time. I hate to think what I missed on the Lionel side of the store. Didn't have much money as a HS kid, so I guess it really didn't matter that much.
As far as the history of the Rail Chief streamliners is concerned, I couldn't find out much. MRE Corp cut back on their big ads just about when those cars probably came out. I'm guessing late 40s around the same time as the AMT cars became available. Being kits, they were probably a few bucks cheaper than the AMT which would have been a big selling point.
Lots of kits in that era came without trucks making them suitable for 2 rail or 3 rail. Several companies made diecast, non-sprung trucks that were available with either scale wheels or large 3 rail flanges.
From your photo, it appears that you have the 2-rail wheelsets with that kit. "Scale" flanges were on the large side back then. The builder would then add body-mounted diecast non-operating scale or tinplate couplers.
Kasiner Hobbies of Rochester New York advertised their streamline kits starting in 1946. I believe it was they who moved and became Herkimer Tool and Model sometime in the early to mid 50s. The Rail Chief cars were probably produced in that same time frame. I'm not sure when the Rail Chief brand was dropped.
Although late to the game, the Lionel cars really moved to the front of the pack with their very detailed plastic ends and reliable trucks that provided interior lighting.
I believe the early Kasiner kit cars had either rough wood or stamped steel ends with little or no detail.
The ends in your RC kits seem nicer too. What do the other side of the ends look like? Do they have cast in detail or are they meant to be just about covered by the foam diaphragms?
It's really fun thumbing through the old magazines even if for nothing other than the ads!
Jim
AMT's first streamlined passenger cars were smothsided models. They came out in the late 40s, were sandcast aluminum and weighed a ton; they were available as coaches and observations. They were painted for PRR (tuscan with gold Pullman lettering) and NYC (gray with Pullman lettering). The Deluxe fluted AMT cars appeared in 1950 and initially had smooth roofs, thick one piece extruded aluminum bodies and a separate underframe. A later change involved making the sides separate parts (the roof had channels that the sides slid into); the cars weighed less, and I'm guessing it was easier to stamp the windows out than the one piece bodies. I have a hunch that the Korean War might have spurred the switch to thin walled sides to save on costs or production restrictions on using aluminum from the government.
A less expensive version of the cars called the Companion Line was introduced that came with corrugated roofs - no time spent polishing the roofs to a shine like the deluxe cars equaled a less expensive car. Initially there were coach, vista dome, and observation cars. When the AMT/Auburn line was sold to Kusan (KMT) it seems as if Kusan went to the corrugated roofs for the cars; the handful of cars I've seen that were set up for Duo-Trac operation (Kusan's 2 rail version of the cars - AMT never offered a 2 rail version of their products) all had corrugated roofs. There's no way to know for sure if KMT used the smooth roofs for their production, or if they just used the less expensive corrugated tops.
