Tyco "PRR" caboose in 1964, and other 'tinplate HO' thoughts.

Folks:

Whilst reading one of my '60s back issues, I came across a Mantua ad, and discovered that some models that I had assumed to date from the Consolidated Foods era of Tyco production were actually much older...the May 1964 print ad (for AHC, I think) quite clearly showed a Shifter train set with that odd streamlined "N(-1)^-2" on the tail end, as well as a gondola with pipe load, and a 'flat with skids'...could this be the ubiquitous 'skid flat with [culvert pipe|[truck|crawler] tractors]' that we all know?

That Shifter is interesting, too. Originally, I think, it was mostly a de-Pennsyfied A5, which makes it a hulking brute of an 0-4-0, quite untypical for most railroads, but the model, over the years, has become the standard train-set switcher, with clones and modified versions available from just about everybody...at present, Life-Like and Model Power both have one, and the MP Fatboy is quite a similar engine, despite its tacked-on weirdness. What makes the Mantua/Tyco engine all the better is the variant boilers it had over the years..the original "Generic PRR-Baldwin" style and the later "Generic Alco" style (which even has a sort of Alco builder's plate. :) )

Though I certainly appreciate a well-done, accurate model of a prototype, and just as much a plausible free-lance design, I find I have a sort of odd tinplater's fascination with such things; the history of models, quite apart from their prototype, can be quite interesting...the continuation of Varney molds under Life-Like, and (both according to John Nehrich) Marx dies under Model Power, and Lindberg under Mantua (and now Model Power), and the use of certain cars or color schemes that never seem to go away, like the warbonnet F, MKT stockcar, and cars sold with 200T cranes that are varying degrees of PRR crew&idler flat and Lionel work caboose - and searchlight cars - and exploding cars...:)

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, a box of track and some plans.

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pawlowsk002
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