[O] All Nation and Walthers kits

Being from that era, and having been an O scale modeler during that time, I can say that the Walthers and All Nation kits were competitors. If you mean by "shared history" that they were the same kits marketed by different companies, the answer is no. Walthers made their own kits and All Nation made their own kits. Major parts from one would not easily fit the other. The All Nation kits were also somewhat more coarse than the Walthers kits. You could tell them apart. It was kinda like the difference between an Athearn blue-box freight car and an Accurail car.

Froggy, snipped-for-privacy@thepond.com

Walthers and All-Nation were indeed competitors, and produced different freight car kits -- although I'm somewhat surprised to hear the All-Nation kits referred to as "somewhat more coarse". In fact, most of the All-Nation line of freight cars are still being produced, while the Walthers kits are long gone.

On the other hand, All-Nation and Athearn freight car kits were quite similar in appearance when built -- although there are differences in construction methods, parts and materials.

Passenger car kits are another story . . .

JR Hill

Thanks for your comments!

I'm looking at a Walthers reefer on eBay: 40' Wood Reefer Car Kit GB&W by Walthers - O guage

Not surprising for the times when the kit was produced, the construction of this Walthers kit matches what I thought is the constructon method of All-Nation kits (wood body with printed cardboard sides, less trucks and couplers) -- but it also even seems to match the All-Nation kit right down to the road number on the side of the car!

[Sorry if the question seems obvious to you old-timers - I got my first train set in '71 so All Nation pre-dates my hobby experiences.]

Since the seller doesn't know anything about trains, is it possible that the car is one brand and the box is the other? Since it is an estate, someone else might have put the car in the wrong box.

Also that Walther's box is the new style.

My comments were about the passenger cars. All Nation freight cars were fine. Had plenty of them. Athearn kits too. Everything had fully working prototype couplers by Monarch. No Kadees allowed on the railroad.

Froggy, snipped-for-privacy@thepond.com

Thanks -- I didn't catch that.

All-Nation kits do not have "printed cardboard sides". Specifically, their reefer kits have one-piece scribed wood sides. There were O Scale kits made back in the 40's and 50's that DID have cardboard (and sometimes paper) sides, but I'm not aware that any of them were made by Walthers, All-Nation or Athearn.

The Walthers GB&W car you mention also appears to have wood sides. As it happens, I have a GB&W car that DOES have cardboard sides (car number #9208), but I bought it after it was built and don't know who made the kit..

JR Hill

Mark Mathu writes:

On Thu, 5 May 2005 02:25:45 -0500, "Jim Hill" claims:

I have some of both companies in storage for when another O Scale club is founded on Long Island. The All-Nation kits were and are still very accurate. The Athearn kits were pretty good too, especially the reefers, which had nicely printed sides, even back when HO car sides were being made of cardboard! What I really enjoyed was the separate handrails on the cars of both manufacturers, which were to scale even back then. And boy do I miss the sounds of heavy O Scale freight train wheels clicking over the steel rail joints at our old club.

Cordially, Ken (NY)

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*** And boy do I miss the sounds of heavy O Scale freight train wheels clicking over the steel rail joints ***

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What pleasant memories! This was surely better than digital sound will ever be.

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Salvé>

oooh ! Blasphemy! and against kadees too :) seriously though , what was the difference betwen them and monarch? Sounds interesting! Beowulf

Monarchs are scale couplers that look and work just the same as full-size railroad couplers. There is a cut lever on the car that operates the coupler just exactly the same as on prototype cars. It's much easier to do that sort of thing in 1/4" scale than it is in 3.5mm scale. Monarchs and Kadees will not mate, so when Kadee introduced their O scale coupler, we outlawed them.

Froggy, snipped-for-privacy@thepond.com

Wow, that is cool.

When the "Phoebe Snow" passed by on the old NYSME layout in the Lackawana RR Hoboken ferry terminal you not only heard that wonderful sound, you could *feel* it through the soles of your shoes.

Texas Pete