Protype railroad vehicles

Jan 23, 2008 3 Replies

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Whodunnit 18 years ago

On a prototype railroad mail list a request for pix of railroad trucks and vehicles was posted. Seems all roads had delivery and maintenance vehicles. Found some of the pix rather interesting and this made me think about railroad vehicles on layouts. Perhaps this is an overlooked part of model railroading. I cannot recall on my past layouts or any that I have visited in almost the past 50 years ever seeing a railroad vehicle.

Any thoughts on this or have I just missed what many have added to their layouts?

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P. Roehling 18 years ago

wrote

They've been around for a looooong time.

John Allen had at least two railcars he scratched in the late '40s or early

50s, one HO and one HOn3; Kemtron marketed an oldtime brass railcar (a Thomas Flyer, I think?) back in the 1950s -they still pop up on eBay from time to time- and PSC later offered the same kit as well.

There've been other -and sometimes more modern- railtrucks and etcetera offered by various makes over the years as well: everything from vintage railbusses to the Berlyn rail trucks.

See below for a typical sample:

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Note: being very light, generally having no room for flywheels, and having a limited number of contact points with the rail, just about all of these critters demand very clean track indeed if they're to run smoothly and not stutter they way around your layout.

It's the only reason I don't own a couple.

Pete

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David Nebenzahl 18 years ago

On 1/23/2008 1:21 PM P. Roehling spake thus:

I think the OP was talking about "regular" vehicles--the kinds that run on roads, not rails (they mentioned "delivery and maintenance vehicles").

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P. Roehling 18 years ago

"David Nebenzahl" wrote

Could be, but models of those are even less obscure. Walthers offers quite a few right now, ranging from railroad-owned pickup trucks (P. 723) to semi-tractors and semi-trailers in railroad-owned versions (Pp. 723 & 725) to ground -rather than rail- based MOW equipment such as earthmovers, lowboys, Etc. (All through the "vehicles" section.)

In some cases you might have to paint, kitbash, and decal a bit creatively to get exactly what you want, but they're out there if you want 'em and can cope with Walther's pricing.

Pete

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