Posted on 03/04/2007 7:53:07 AM PST by Ready4Freddy
Didn't play with 'em (that I recall), but if yall are talking about model cars on racetracks, those have never gone out of style you know. Lots of kids still have 'em. I'm just not sure they're called "slot-cars", at least not here.
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
Historic Texas State Railroad from Rusk, Texas to Palestine, Texas
And a good article:
We didn't have no steeenkin' lights!LOL!
IIRC, the top Duncan model at the time had 4 rhinestones on one side and was made if wood. (Urban legend at the time said that this upset the yo-yo's balance.) In the schoolyard game of "can you top this?" I put a couple of dozen rhinestones on my yo-yo using a center punch and glue. Sparkled like crazy but the sharp edges tore up my fingers!
Ha! That answers the question of "Gee, I wonder why I was pinged for this post?" LOL! Actually, when my sons were young we used to take them to the model train shows in downtown Denver. My husband had what he calls a "Christmas Garden" around the tree every year with a model train so he likes them, too. There is just something fascinating about those tiny towns with all of their detail! I could sit and watch (often multiple) trains move through the big setups for hours! So- R4F- good guess! :-D
I enjoyed watching the trains crashing into each other. Gomez always had the funniest maniacal grin when he crashed his trains.
My friends and I would occasionally pool our resources and come up with a "mixed consist" of windup, battery, and power pack locomotives and rolling stock.
The main objective of each get-together was, naturally, cornfield meets. Or in our case, living room carpet meets.
I had a lot of fun, as long as it was the other kids' locos that were involved.
Here are some useful linguistic tips which will stand you in good stead if you get caught:
1. They're not "toy trains." They're scale model trains.
2. It's not a "toy train layout." It's a scale model rail system.
3. You never "play with your toy trains." You operate your scale model rail system.
4. "Engine" --> locomotive.
5. "Switch" --> turnout.
--From Sid W Sodnagel's Rules of the Scale Road.
Lionel "O" and "O27" and American Flyer were not made to scale. IIRC that started with "HO".
Well now, there is 2 rail O gauge. Detail equal to or better than H(or half) O!
Train modeling can be as expensive or inexpensive as the modeler desires.
You notice in my earlier post I said I helped my to-be-hubby "run his model railroad."
It was done as far back as 1941.
Minton Cronkhite was commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad to construct an automated O-scale railroad for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
It took up about 3000 square feet and was controlled by two racks full of relays. I think the operator could select from two different "programs."
The whole thing was torn apart by Museum management in 1993 and then reassembled after public outcry. It was finally disassembled for good in 2002 and replaced by a computer controlled HO layout.
IIRC, American Flyer was two rail, but it still wasn't to scale. Lionel came out with a Super "O" that had simulated ties that had a thin copper strip on edge down the center. Looked like two rail but was really three.
We had a beautiful set up in our basement which my Dad and I worked on. Lionel O scale. It was a beauty of a set. I remember the milk car it worked very well, and I had a crane car too for all those nasty wrecks. Sigh, sadly my mother gave it all away when I was in stationed in Germany. Have a large HO set now in my garage not going to let that get away.
read later
"O" I am sooo jealous. I got into model trains as an adult and went nutzo with them - HO. I did all kinds of dioramas - different from guys' trains, probably.
If I had a friend who had an orchard of trees, I would make a model of the orchard. I had a model airplane hangar for the one where my friend lived, plus his planes. All kinds of tiny cars and motorocycles to match those of my friends. A windsurfing scene and beach were in another part of the layout, because I liked someone who did that.
Had a NASA set up in one area, with all things space related. Some Matchbox matched scale, and all Hot Wheels trucks matched scale, tho cars didn't - had to buy Euro for the right scale cars. Had all the little people, even topless dancers for a strip club, lol. But I had priests, too.
Obviously had a Christmas village, lots of buildings - especially that funny kit-built one of the IRS building on fire, with flames and smoke. The Liberty Falls sets of houses, buildings and people fit scale and were reasonably priced each Xmas season.
Just about anything I did, or any business I represented, I had either a layout for it, or a box car. Eventually, it got so big that I went to N-scale for a smaller set-up. Then went down to micro so that my doll collection had its own train layout - that was fun.
But, I salivated over O and G-scale and shopped for years with my wish list in mind - just had to get the right house with the right garden for it. Umfortunately, it never happened and just remained a dream.
As I was trying to get a hobby business off the ground, doing 1:6 scale model doll accessories, my world fell apart - I gave my entire multi-$1000 worth of trains to a neighbor, plus some big toy trains for around the Xmas tree, plus the N's. They were put away for their little tiny grandchild (boy) to have some day.
Miss them like crazy.
My Barbies and Kens had their own model trains! And I was an adult when it happened.
My passion started when I bought a little Bachmann TOY train with Puppy Chow proofs-of-purchase for my puppy's first Christmas, to put around the Christmas tree and watch her go nuts trying to catch it.
She couldn't have cared less - but I was hooked.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.