Model Railroading > Varney

I bought a couple of Varney cars last night, complete with Mantua couplers with the big loop. When did Varney go out of business? I know they were around in the early 1960's, but then I was out of modeling for a while and when I got back into modeling again they were gone.

The last time I find Varney's name advertised in the February 1970 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine.

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ll_varney_feb_70_rs11_ad_rmc.jpg

The next month, March '70, the ad for the Yugoslovian-made RS11 again...but now it's Life-Like...

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ll_mar_70_rs11_ad_rmc.jpg

The early Life-Like HO-scale line is the remains of the Varney line. There is info on the Varney to Life-Like switch in the Greenberg Guide to Varney Trains.

You may also find more Life-Like oldies at my site...

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/lifelikemodeltrainscollectorsresource/index.html

Now that's an interesting bit of history. I never connected Varney and Life-Like for some reason (although I always thought Life-Like used the old Varney dies for their train set freight cars. Now I know why!)

Terrific answers fast. That's what makes this site so great. Thank you Tony Cook.

The famous Varney Dockside switcher lived on even today in a plastic reproduction by Life-like. In fact I have even placed a Life-=Like Dockside shell over an old Varney Dockside underframe with no difficulty. Of cource the old Varney mechanism was better than Life-like's!

A Varney Docksider was my very first HO engine...

Remember the F-2?