by Tony Cook/photos as noted Clarence Harvey Menteer founded one of the great hobby companies that helped pioneer 1:87/HO scale; however, the manufacturer’s name and identity recognition is a bit of a challenge. Was it Model Die Casting? Was it Roundhouse Products? Yes, to both names. I was aware of this area of confusion for the Model Die Casting-Roundhouse name and had encountered it several times in the past with collectors who would inquire about which name came first or which name is correct. Today, as part of Athearn’s line and owned since the early 2000s by that famed company’s parent H ..read more

by Tony Cook/photos as noted Bernie Paul’s Associated Hobby Manufacturers (AHM) brought to the North American model train market an amazing variety of reproductions (mostly in HO, though the line dabbled in N, O, and HOn2-1/2). The locomotive offerings covered steam, electric, diesels, and even diesel-hydraulic prototypes. Rolling stock in AHM’s line (for the years the line was active) spanned Old-Time offerings to contemporary replicas with freight and passenger cars represented. For many years, AHM’s catalog was a full-line concern with track, electronics, structures, vehicles, figures, and ..read more

by Tony Cook/photos as noted Though extended- or wide-vision cabooses had been in service on North American railroads for many years, it wasn’t until the early 1970s that hobby manufacturers turned their attention to this popular waycar style. A flood of plastic reproductions began arriving from all around the globe and in varying degrees of quality. The prototype wide-vision caboose styles included those built by car builders, like Ohio’s International Car Company, and home shop efforts created by railroads. The reign of this style caboose was approximately a quarter century with its sidelini ..read more

by Tony Lucio/photos by the author Today the word “rare” suffers a burden of overuse among collectors of just about everything. At its core, the concept of “rarity” seeks to be an objective designation: something either is, or is not, rare. But what makes that so? Strangely, an object’s “rarity” is often subjectively judged along a sliding scale, because not all objective aspects are weighed equally. Rarity could be a function of location. Rarity may change over time. Rarity may relate to a minor or major variance. Rarity is not always a mere tally of quantity, because a quantifiable low-produ ..read more

HO Collector’s Fourth Quarter 2023 edition includes a look at a classic TYCO train set… The Crescent Limited from the mid-1960s was one of TYCO’s early chrome-plated passenger car releases and an uncommon one today. The set was pulled by a green Southern Railway 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive that was eye-catching on its own but matched with equally impressive looking chrome with green band Southern Railway streamliners. Tony Lucio shares his set and information on its contents in HO Collector’s Fourth Quarter 2023 edition.   Read this article and more in the Fourth Quarter edition availa ..read more

by Tony Lucio/photos by the author How do you approach repairing or restoring a model train? Just like modeling and collecting, there’s no one correct approach, even for the same individual person. Every situation is a unique combination, where a given model and an owner’s desired intent intersect somewhere within a minefield of possibilities. Here are some familiar scenarios… You want one particular item but have to acquire others as part of a lot. What will you do with them? After acquiring an item you discover a flaw that thwarts your desire. What will you do? You have an item in lesser con ..read more

I suspect I share the same semi-shock that other collectors felt as the news began to sink in that a new F7A was to appear in the Athearn Roundhouse line. The model made a surprise preview debut in early 2023 and generated many questions. When I first saw Athearn’s Product Manager Jon Stackpole holding this F7A and stating it was coming to the line… I was puzzled. Why add an F7 to the entry-level series of offerings, when Athearn owns what is arguably the most famous HO diesel locomotive replica of all? I participated in a live stream event (which you can find on Athearn’s YouTube channel) and ..read more

by Tony Cook/photos by the author Märklin’s announcement of retro appearance releases, mirroring the look of offerings from six decades ago, sparked an interest for me to add some vintage examples from this famous German model train maker to my collection of HO scale. My literature archive included several vintage Märklin catalogs (though not this 1964 publication shared with you in this feature), but I had no examples of the company’s HO models older than the 2000s. After obtaining a copy of the 1964, mentioned by the manufacturer in reference to its coming Dutch State Railways Class-1100 ele ..read more

by Tim Garner Train-Miniature, Wai Shing Ting, and the Roach Ranch In 1979 or 1980, Life-Like purchased the tooling for eight building kits from Train-Miniature. The company’s locomotive and freight car kits went elsewhere (first to a new owner that branded them Train-Miniature of Illinois, Ltd., and by the late 1980s Walthers began returning these models to market under its own brand name). The kits Life-Like purchased were: Three Story Hotel (TM-7058), Small Industrial Plant (TM-7062), Elevated Coal Trestle (TM-7060), and five kits making up Train-Miniature’s Old West Town: General Store or ..read more

by Tony Cook/photos by the author Among the many model trains produced in the 1970s celebrating the 200th anniversary of the United States, Lionel’s HO-scale American Freedom Train offerings must rank high on any collector’s list. The famous toy train manufacturer had previously participated in the 1:87 market from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s. The 1970s series of HO was offered from 1974 through 1977. Lionel returned to this popular hobby scale in the 21st century and continues to support HO with a range of releases, which include a coming series of all-new tooling freight cars due in ..read more