Model Railroading > Back when model RR was cool & sophisticated

This cover made laugh.  How times have changed.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

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Its amazing looking through old issues of Model Railroader and Railroad Model craftsmen that the " new technology today" is simply redefined ideas and stuff from years ago and people I think take it for granted that it they think its been newly invented. Done years ago, just have better ways of doing it now. That why I have every issue of MR and a lot of issues of RMC.

Nothing says "Cool" like a bow tie.  :-)

Nerd Alert!

-John

I seem to remember at least one Model Railroader cover shot with a pipe smoker.

TJY

Low cost smoke unit.

People in my church don't dress as well as the gents who would play trains in the basement of the late Ken Shattock...https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4162520,4162852#msg-4162852

Of course I am painting with a broad brush, but advanced health care, various safety issues and civil rights aside, I truly believe that most everything in America was better back then.  Everything moved slower and to my way of thinking, that was a good thing.  Men wore suits & ties and women wore dresses.  Hard working factory workers in America could afford to own a home and provide for their families.  People were respectful of our laws and loved their country.  If you saved a few bucks you could travel coast to coast on magnificent, streamlined trains that rode on tracks that were ribbon smooth.  If you needed another tube of glue or a piece of track, you went to your local hobby shop.  For all we have gained since that magazine cover was printed, we have lost so very, very much.  I wish computers had never been invented.

I hope you are all doing well,

Allen Drucker

I think Allen is on to something here. I pretty much feel the same way. I would add that our entertainment was of a better quality when we got it once a week at the movie theater. Weeknights were for the family, homework, hobbies, group activities such as bowling. Sundays were NOT about football. And, you did not have a device in your pocket that allowed anyone on the planet to interrupt your life at any moment.  The space race was inspiring but I don't think any of us foresaw a quarter of a million objects circling the planet. Ok, I feel better now,  I'm going to the basement and run some trains!

Streamliner Wrote:
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> Of course I am painting with a broad brush, but
> advanced health care, various safety issues and
> civil rights aside, I truly believe that most
> everything in America was better back then.
>  Everything moved slower and to my way of
> thinking, that was a good thing.  Men wore suits
> & ties and women wore dresses.  Hard working
> factory workers in America could afford to own a
> home and provide for their families.  People were
> respectful of our laws and loved their country.
>  If you saved a few bucks you could travel coast
> to coast on magnificent, streamlined trains that
> rode on tracks that were ribbon smooth.  If you
> needed another tube of glue or a piece of track,
> you went to your local hobby shop.  For all we
> have gained since that magazine cover was printed,
> we have lost so very, very much.  I wish
> computers had never been invented.
>
> I hope you are all doing well,
>
> Allen Drucker



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/21 05:03 by pilotblue.

Please set the way-back machine to 1953, please, please, please! 

4451Puff Wrote:
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> People in my church don't dress as well as the
> gents who would play trains in the basement of the
> late Ken
> Shattock...https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/
> read.php?3,4162520,4162852#msg-4162852

I miss those posts from late KeyRouteKen.   He had one of the coolest grandfathers in the world.

BKLYN Wrote:
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> Not if you were a person of color.

I mentioned "civil rights."  That said, I am in complete agreement with what Topfuel posted above.  

pilotblue Wrote:
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> Ok, I feel better now,  I'm going to
> the basement and run some trains!

I'm trying to down to my basement to get the layout to a point I can run trains, but my wife has me out in the backyard every weekend.  This weekend I'll be digging a 75' french drain. But since my wife got a new job and I get home earlier, I have managed to complete the subroadbed all the way to the upper yard and got a bunch of cork down.

Cheers,
Jim


 

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A mid-1950s full-page ad in Model Railroader (staged on John Allen's layout) featured a fat Mexican (identifiable as such by his sombrero) being lynched, hanging from a trestle while other HO figures handle the rope and look on. I can't remember what the ad was for, but can you imagine a time  when such a scene would be deemed not only appropriate but humourous?  The world is in tough shape today for sure, but we have made some progress.

Art House

I am a retired printer. I was an apprentice printer in 1956. It took more people, time, and labor to produce those primitave looking magazines back then than it takes to produce the nice, color filled publications of today, thanks to computers. However, the writing was better in 1956. No spell check needed.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

McClanahan had it going on too, back then.

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aehouse Wrote:
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> A mid-1950s full-page ad in Model Railroader
> (staged on John Allen's layout) featured a fat
> Mexican (identifiable as such by his sombrero)
> being lynched, hanging from a trestle while other
> HO figures handle the rope and look on. I can't
> remember what the ad was for, but can you imagine
> a time  when such a scene would be deemed not
> only appropriate but humourous?  The world is in
> tough shape today for sure, but we have made some
> progress.
>
> Art House

Art to fix your story, It was not a fat Mexican being hanged. The fat Mexican was one of two figures who were the notorious Sorfeetz brothers that lynched a diesel salesman from hangman bridge.
The sad part about these days is everyone has lost thier sense of humor in favor of ammo for their particular cause.

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> McClanahan had it going on too, back then

I have a copy of that book in my collection..