Model Railroading in the 50s and 60s.


Sometime in 1963, a system called Astrac started appearing in Model Railroader. This was a system designed and manufactured by General Electric. From what I've read in the advertisements, this system was similar to our DCC systems of today. The controller came with two cabs allowing control of two trains on the same track with the models K-2 and K-4; but, you can select from five different trains to control. The system uses five Receivers to control the trains and the receivers have 40 Kilocycles separation between frequencies. I can't be sure; but, think the system used track voltage for power and sent the signals down the track to the receivers. Interesting, considering that whatever type of system this was, it was 30 years ahead of it's time.

I have no memories of this system, does anyone know anything more about it?
 
The things I remember the best or "worst" about modeling in the early 60's was the flex track with fiber ties and locomotive rubber band drives.

Greg
 
You sure hit the nail on the head with that last statement Greg. Never got any flex track with the fiber ties, but the rubber band drives were a laugh. I just threw away a couple of Athearn RDC's that had the runner band drives. I had hoped to come up with some way to convert the to a geared drive but picked up a Proto 1000 RDC and never bothered to convert them as they were a bit out of scale.
 
Around 1962, Mantua stopped advertising as MANTUA and started advertising as TYCO. Mantua/Tyco has always had the back side of the front cover as their main advertisement page. Why they did this is anyone's guess. From a business standpoint, I've always understood doing business under one name to be a better choice!
 
It appears that the latest and greatest turn of events in the mid 1960s is walk around throttles. Looking through 189 issues I have so far, I'm amazed at how what I thought had been new models brought out by a company; or, companies in the 29 years I've been in the hobby are actually models that had been brought to the market years before and discontinued for some years, then brought back to market. Many of the models Alexander Models had produced, had been picked up and produced by someone else. I'm sure this happened time and time again. Now in 1965, layouts are becoming more realistic, I'm seeing less and less spaghetti bowls and more layouts where the track passes through a scene only one time; or, if it does pass through a second time it is at a different levels.
 
Memories are coming back...painted the top of my 4X8 plywood bench work....Kelly Green. That was it for scenery!

Greg
 
For me, I saw and read so few Model Railroaders back then. Other than the June and September issues of 1963, I had looked through so few Model Railroaders, you could say that the magazine probably had very little influence on me, other than the things mentioned. That I was so seriously into model railroading without the magazine's influence shows that the hobby could captivate even without magazines. Yet, I was aware of things like John Allen, Kadee Couplers and how to go about building a model railroad. The fact is, that even at a news stand price of .50 cents per issue back then .50 cents was not easy money to come by! In the ARMY, Model Railroader was available at the PX and I did manage to buy a couple Model Railroaders. In the mid 1970s my cousin and I discussed building a layout. I bought a couple of M.R.s. The layout never got off the ground and I went to Radio Control Airplanes and stuck with that hobby until 1988 when I finally had room to build a layout and my two sons showed and interest.
 
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While I was in the service, model railroad magazines were my only link to the hobby. Had a subscription to both MR and RMC back then. Not much room on a destroyer to have a layout. Traveling through Europe I did take a lot of trains which really helped me keep interest in the hobby.

What really jump started me was when I got stationed at Mare Island in the bay area on temporary instructor duty. I did locate a hobby shop and met a guy who ended up inviting me to come and join an operating session on John Allens Gorre & Daphetid layout. I had followed every article I could find on his railroad and to see it in person was just awesome. After walking all over my tongue, I was suprised at how the layout looked smaller than it appeared in magazine articles. John was quite the character. We struck it off pretty good as on of my hobbies was photography and he was a professional photographer. I was able to attend half a dozen operation sessions before I had to head back to my ship.

I'll never forget these visits and he was a big inspiration to me and a huge help for me in future years when I finally got the room for my own layout.
 
Right now, I can't access the All Time Digital Archive anymore. Something has gone wrong with my account and I am attempting to come to a fix. One minute it worked, the next it didn't. The staffs "canned" suggestions for how to fix, do not fit my situation.
 
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I am surprised! I started my search in April of 1950. In the early 1960s, before N Scale came out, there was a scale called Treble O: or, OOO. I have just completed looking through 1967 and during this year I saw a layout being designed and built for N Scale (the first one I have noticed). However, I never saw mention in Model Railroader of anything to do with Treble O; or, OOO. I remember OOO being discussed at my local hobby shop, so I know there was some interest in this scale back then. Like OO being 1/2 the scale of O scale, Treble O; or, OOO was 1/3rd the scale of O Scale. i think it was developed by a British company named Lone Star Toys. The Treble-O scale was 1/152, where as N Scale is 1/160. So the Treble O was slightly larger than N Scale. I see that Lone Star called their trains "Treble-O-lectric" and I do not recall seeing anything about this scale in Model Railroader!
 
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I am in the late 1960s now and am finding the layouts to be more and more like they are today, not spaghetti bowls of track covering almost every square inch of layout space. There are some interesting statistics shown in the July 1969 Model railroader in the "At the Throttle" editors column by Linn Westcott.

Lynn leads off with stating that the survey results will be more beneficial if we remember that some model railroaders will not respond. However, in 1969, they estimated that the total number of Model Railroaders to be around 140,000 people. Their average age was 33.2 years. The age range of middle 50% years 23-42. Students is 20.8%. Percentage that have completed collage, 44.2%. Average Income $12,906.00 Amount spent on the hobby per year $660.00. Linn went on to estimate the buying power of the 140,000 Model Railroaders and put that number at $66 million dollars.

The next part of his survey results has to do with the percentage of people in the various scales: N Scale 12.7 %, we need to keep in mind that N Scale was still fairly new in 1969. TT Scale .4%. HO with narrow gauge 76.7 %, HO narrow gauge alone 20%. OO Scale .1%. S Scale, 2.3 %. O Scale with Narrow Gauge, 6.8%, O Scale Narrow Gauge alone .7% Other scales, 1%

I find statistics interesting. It would be interesting to know if more current statistics are available, to see how much has changed. My guess is that N Scale will be a higher percentage, at least.
 
There are definitely more recent statistics. I know that I have read them in MR at least a couple of times since I started subscribing in 1990. You'll just have to read faster! You are correct in that "N" has a greater proportion. I believe that the last time I read, there were about 250,000 model railroaders, but the average age was much higher.

Willie
 
Willie, They will jump out at me as I get to them.

I've also noticed advertisements for a company I did business with when I owned my own Tool and Die and Stampings company and that is Microflame Inc. Microflame made miniature Oxy/LP gas torches for the hobbyist.

A very interesting article on the Car Ferry Anabel and car ferry operations was written by John Allen in the January 1970 issue. Once I understood about Ferry operations, I wished that I could have included a ferry on my layout. What a great way to have cars leave and show up on your layout. The ferry would need a schedule for arrival and departure and I think would have added greatly to the operation of my layout. John goes on to explain that Port Harbor was originally intended to have real water in it. However, fooling around with real water in Andrew's Log Pond and Squawbottom Creek, showed him that the increased humidity in the air in the layout room was detrimental to the layout. So, he dropped that idea for Port Harbor. He also stated that because he then went to "Casting Plastic" for the water in the harbor. This dropped Port Harbors water level down 2 inches; or, 14 scale feet. This also meant that the Anabel would have to take cars on her deck as opposed to into the hull as originally intended. I always thought that the Car Ferry Anabel looked too top heavy and now I know why.

Do you have car ferry operations on your layout?
 
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NP2626 said:
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Do you have car ferry operations on your layout?
Click to expand...

Yes, and such a nuisance they are! Always moving cars around at night...

fairies.jpeg
 
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