Army Train Question

Sounds like one of Lionel's o gauge sets. LTG :)

Question: As a child I remember an Army Train that my father used to set up. I believe that it was either an "N" or "O" gauge. One distinctive feature was that the engine had a bubble turret with twin machine guns. Can anyone help me to identify the manufacturer, make, model, etc.. -------------------------------------------- If you can supply the time frame that your father set up the trains, it would help with the identity. Lionel did an O gauge army train with a turret back in the World War I period. Lionel and Kusan did several O gauge space and military items in the 1950s-1960s. Marx and other manufacturers did army trains in the 1940s-1950s. Williams did an O gauge military train around 1980. Several HO trains have been manufactured by Tyco, Cox, Bachmann, and others over the years. The only oldre N scale military trains that I can recall are European prototype models.
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

Can you provide more information to help narrow the possible candidates:
About what year did you first see this set up? If the train was your father's when he was a child, about how old might it be?
O (1:48 proportion) and N (1:160 proportion) are vastly different - An O gauge engine would be a little larger than a man's two fists side by side, while N would be just a little larger than a grown man's forefinger. About what size was the train?
Was the track two rail or three rail?
Was the train made of plastic, lithographed sheet metal, or die cast metal?
Was it just the single locomotive with machine gun turret, or was there also a train of other military cars?
Did the engine look like a railroad locomotive with a turret, or more like an army tank on train wheels?

He set up the train in the mid-60's (1964-1966). It ran on 3 rail track and was made of plastic. The engine did look like a railroad locomotive with a turret. I remember several other cars including a rocket launcher and a caboose.
Thank you to Bill and Geezer for the information.
-Rich
Rich Welsh wrote: Question: As a child I remember an Army Train that my father used to set up. I believe that it was either an "N" or "O" gauge. One distinctive feature was that the engine had a bubble turret with twin machine guns. Can anyone help me to identify the manufacturer, make, model, etc.. -------------------------------------------- If you can supply the time frame that your father set up the trains, it would help with the identity. Lionel did an O gauge army train with a turret back in the World War I period. Lionel and Kusan did several O gauge space and military items in the 1950s-1960s. Marx and other manufacturers did army trains in the 1940s-1950s. Williams did an O gauge military train around 1980. Several HO trains have been manufactured by Tyco, Cox, Bachmann, and others over the years. The only oldre N scale military trains that I can recall are European prototype models.
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

-------------------------------------------- If the train was made of stamped steel, it might have been Lionel's World War I Army train. That one had a turret on the "locomotive". I believe an issue of e-Train had an article with pix and an article about the 1950s-1960s military offerings:
e-Train is an outstanding on-line magazine published by Train Collectors Association.
Here's another toy train magazine. Toy Train Revue (T-M Publications):

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

He set up the train in the mid-60's (1964-1966). It ran on 3 rail track and was made of plastic. The engine did look like a railroad locomotive with a turret. I remember several other cars including a rocket launcher and a caboose. -----------------------------------------------------
I believe e-Train has an article about Lionel's 1950s-1960s military trains:
"Lionel's Postwar Space and Military Trains" is an inexpensive book:
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

The primary manufacturers of 3-rail O gauge in the 1960's were Lionel and Marx. Both made military trains, but to my knowledge, neither ever made a plastic locomotive with a machine gun turret. Another smaller manufacturer at that time was Kusan. I am not very familiar with their products, but a quick Google search found this set, appears to have a small bubble turret on the loco - could this be the set you remember? GQ