Downhill from 1940? VandenBoom..

Objects in the rear view mirror always look better.  Given that today's model trains outshine the model trains of the past in decoration, operation and detail, the past isn't quite so enviable.

Granted, there was a lot more available in the way of builder's supplies and kits, but the pace of life was a lot slower back then.  Folks didn't have the lack of time or distractions because of things like cable/satellite/internet TV, personal mobility, personal electronics and internet forums.

I keep looking back through 50's and 60's Model Railroaders and marvel at the simplicity of it all.  Even thought of trying to replicate the style if not the substance of one of the old project layouts, but my brain keeps dragging things into the 21st century, complicating matters.

Rusty

I collect older Lobaugh, Scale Craft, and a smattering of Mi-Loco, Rail Craft, Walthers, All-Nation - all from that era, and all more pleasing to me than my PSC brass.  I have yet to run across any Vanden Boom, either catalog or model.  I wonder if I am missing out?

Doubt it.  How much more does either of us really need,

...I went to an old (1940) Vandenboom catalog....

Would be useful if you would scan a few pages and post them up here.

As I indicated on another thread I have two box cars.

Mickey

Objects in the rear view mirror always look better.

The view out past the hood ornament (or motometer for some O scalers ) isn't bad.

We have over 200 different plastic and die cast O scale freight cars to chose from that have been made since the 1990s.  Multiply by all the road names and road numbers and the numbers are in the tens of thousands.

Originally by Colorado hirailer:

 I am not sure how many different (and increasing) Atlas reefers there are now, but VandenBoom offered more that 60 (rough count) O scale reefer kits and built-ups in their fairly common (to be found in shows or on the Bay) catalog.  These appear to include some Atlas has not offered. 

I for one would be interested to see which reefers you are referring to that Atlas O has NOT offered. Better would be to see if those "missing Reefers" ever existed in the first place.

here is a List of 40' and 36' reefers atlas O has oferred for sale:

http://www.toytrains1.com/atlas_reefers.htm

When I read down through mwb's and Bob2's comments, I began to think they just put out a lot of catalogs and then went bust, since I know both gentlemen have been deep into O scale and kits.  (although I had previously thought I had read someone who had actually seen one of their kits)  And then I read sswmickey's comment, which indicates they are not a myth, just a rare and maybe short-lived reality.  Are those two boxcars, in-the-box kits, or built up or?  If they are in the box, I would love to see a photo of one or both.....

I have been hoping somebody in the KC area might remember them, although that

person would have to be in their 80's.

I suspect that much was advertised, but that little was ever actually produced.  Could have had big plans and then everything collapsed, dried up, and blew away before much ever got produced.

Atlas is hardly an reference point for reefers -- they've barely scratched the surface of the host of prototypes that really existed.  I've got a wallpaper photo on my one computer with 2 Erie cars on Fox trucks (Atlas ever make any of those?) and a reefer in front of them that has trucks unlike anything I've ever seen. 

I think most of Atlas reefers are billboard...the one that jumped out of the pages of

the VandenBoom catalog was a Hills Coffee (Indiana) billboard boxcar, the only boxcar on a page of 31 reefers.  (I don't think there is a three rail Hill's car) Kohr's Packing reefer is another I don't recognize, but I don't have all Atlas cars memorized.  This catalog, with a green cover 10 1/4" x 6 1/2", 50 pages, horizontal foremat, lists DL&W, and another, "Lackawanna" reefer, plus five different ATSF reefers, and an MKT one.  It shows just five beer cars though, and no Coors or other western ones.  NONE of the cars in any of the scales appear to be fantasy cars.  I have two of these catalogs, have picked up and looked at others in shows, hoping there was a difference, but they have all been the green 1940 one priced at 25c.  As noted on the other thread about drovers' cabooses, and if one paged through this catalog, or the HO site on the net, it would be realized there are a lot of cars that have not been modeled for three rail.

I wonder if the company did not survive WW2.....

I could ask my friend Bill Paul.  He is actively seeking Vanden Boom.  Or we could ask Art Hayes - he is becoming the foremost collector of older O Scale.

Mildly curious from a historical point.  Then again, if you look in the 40's and early 50's issues of RMC and MR there are ads for many companies that we've never heard of, never seen any from, and then a year of 2 later, poof!  They stopped advertizing.  Even then, this was a good business to go out of business with.....

Somebody is actively seeking VandenBoom?  I can't say I am active, but I would like

to see any kit in their box, and get my hands on their several side door and drover

caboose kits.  I have not SEEN any on the Bay. Does Bill Paul HAVE any VandenBoom?  Is there anybody on here in KC, Mo. who would be curious enough to check out their history?  Address was Broadway at 38th.  The catalog says they specialize in U.P., ATSF, and other western RR's (but had only eastern beer cars, and no western ones).

It is certainly true about ads of flash in the pan model companies.  I tried to track down an HO creosote plant kit advertised once in an old MR issue, with a bad photo..before scratchbuilding mine.  No such luck.

Maybe they did exist?

http://www.trainorders.com/dis...n/read.php?3,2218632

Good Catch Tripleo.  Interesting to see another O scale item from the past and apparently a fairly rare one too.

Butch

Thanks, tripleo.  I can tell the box is lettered Vanden Boom.  In the catalog they don't always credit to anyone but themselves the source (Mfr.) of items shown.  A number of which I suspect to have come from the various O scale/gauge mfrs. who are not mentioned.  (however, some items Pictured in the catalog I have seen nowhere else)

This photo of the box proves that they were at least packaging items as "Vanden Boom', if not producing them and only reselling.  This makes me wonder if they got into a legal hassle for not crediting their sources?

You always have to adjust prices for inflation. My primary hobby is WW2 history and you can't imagine all the vets I've talked to over the years who gripe about how much stuff costs today in comparison to the 40s. I always reminded them that the minimum wage at the end of 1943 was less than 50 cents an hour. That makes some things proportionally cheaper today than they were back then.

Not everything is cheaper now, but you get the idea.

But for the hobby itself, other than the numbers of people in the hobby, you'd have to be utterly blind not to see that the hobby has drastically improved over the years. For example:

• Not everything is a kit anymore
• Far more items are available, from many different countries
• Details are much better than previously on models
• Digital command systems which weren't commonplace just a few years ago
• You don't have to wait several weeks (or months) for something to arrive if you order it and often, you know when exactly its coming with tracking #s
• Far better reference materials than in the past
• You find out when new stuff comes out almost immediately
• Info is easier to obtain as is networking with other modelers to answer your questions

How could anyone look back to the 40s as a better time to be in the hobby, knowing all this?

I didn't see the thread as lamenting the good old days - more like historical curiosity.

I lament the good old days, but what I lament is the demise of general aviation and the move toward dedicated computers for everything.

And maybe the fact that I am always in a traffic jam, in a city that used to have zero traffic jams.  Or that I am conserving water so they can approve another huge development of estate-like condos in the country.

My hobby is older O Scale.  Many of my models pre-date the second world war.  In some ways, the older models are still superior.

I'm not sure in what ways you were thinking, but the fact they're still running 75+ years later comes to my mind

With regard to reefers Atlas has NOT made,  I quickly went through an old stash of

cardboard reefer sides once commonly found in shows, in HO and O, and found three

I thought  were not made.  Two, and Kohr's, I mentioned above, HAD been made...

per two reviews of the linked Master List cited above, one has not!  I need to go through the stash more carefully.

Just to add to the knowledge, after further search, I located two more reefers not made by Atlas, from old sides, plus a 50 foot express reefer, not a billboard, and discovered that there were eight or ten companies once printing these sides.  They, unlike some of the fantasy sides you see on the Bay, where you can get Olde Frothingslosh sides in 28 variations in OO, TT, and N scales, but not in PP or QQ,

look legit to me.

I finally dug my two cars out of hiding and I actually have one SP box car and one PFE reefer.

The sides are painted with brass center sills and Auel trucks and the reefer has paint included.

These are kits in the same vein as Athearn.

mickey