A-C MODEL COMPANY PHOTOS
the proper depth in the gondolas’ sides for even installation. A bank pin or drill, specified in the review, was need- ed to put a hole in its floor end for the brake staff. Grab irons appear to be a little thicker than staples, common to many cars, freight and passenger alike. Door and window castings were heavy. A LS&I side-bay caboose photo clearly illustrates the above points. Manufac- turers didn’t have the capability then to offer refined roof walks, ladders, doors, windows, grab irons and other items we take for granted. How differ- ent things are today. We were two years into the Korean
War, a time of some restrictions, though not as severe as earlier. Many kits had lithographed paper or metal sides or were made with pressed metal or die-cast. Injection molded plastic and the wealth of detail it offered was still to come. Wood cars such as these offered something not quite as slick as
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
the others, depicting an earlier proto- type era. They required a bit more work than Varney’s tab-together metal cars and needed paint on bare wood like the gondola’s floor.
The plethora of models from domestic and international companies we now take for granted didn’t exist. Hobby manufacture was domestic. It was our age of innocence, fun to look back upon if you were new to the hobby. A.C.’s work train would be unacceptable on a mod- ern hi-tech home or club layout where refined prototype authenticity is upper- most. MR’s reviewer innocently reflect- ed what we all accepted this as natural. It’s who, what and where we were. We didn’t have or know better. A-C also sold “high grade” glue un- der its own name, $.15 a tube, water- proof, transparent, “a cement that real- ly holds” and “made especially for model railroad building.” Do you re- member using it?
THE OVERLAND ROUTE
Union Pacific Railroad by Ross Grenard and John Krause
Travel back to the glory years of steam on the Union
Pacific, as seen through the
beautiful black & white action photography of Ross Grenard, Richard Kindig, Robert Collins, John Krause and others
C60 $12.95 + s&h Order Online At:
www.carstensbookstore.com Carstens Publications, Inc.
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