Hello all
4 years before Lionel brought out their NYC Hudson ...Thomas Randall of Chicago offered the Hudson and a string of Pullmans all cast in aluminum kit form in 3/8" scale for standard gauge track.
The 1933 World Fair is considered the big kick off for scale model trains ...O gauge scale yes standard gauge scale no.
In the tinplate world a 400E and string of State Cars can race around on a 42" circle ...same gauge scale Hudson and cars need at least an 8" circle but would like 10' or 12' to look close to realistic.
Scale Standard gauge found very few modelers as the world turned from tinplate to scale ...O scale lead the way ...till HO stole the winning position in 1941.
The Randall kits were not for the weak of heart ...a handful of basic sandcastle aluminum castings left the builder on his own to figure out how to make it run.
Several unbuilt Hudson casting kits remained with the Randall family till the 1970's when Bob Hendricks of LA was able to purchase 8 kits that he did a marvelous job of building into first class works of running art .
2 Hudson kits were purchased by Dunsieth on the east coast one built into Hudson the 2nd modified to a Northern .
The Randall Pullmans were commercially available through Bob Thon till the old molds wore out ...engine mold was missing so only old castings remained.
A set of the Randall Hudson castings made it up to St Louis Park MN ...were in October 1946 Park Railways placed an ad on Model Railroader announcing the new release of Hudson in 3/8" scale for standard gauge . The audience for a standard gauge Hudson in 1946 appears to have been even smaller than in 1933 as no confirmation of any takers of the kits ...till the 1970's with renewed interest Jeff Inge purchased old stock and used Park molds recast 17 Hudson casting kits.
The Park uses the Randall as a pattern ..due to aluminum shrinkage in casting is 1/4" shorter in length .....overall the Park is just a little smaller than the original Randall .
For more information about the Randall and Park please see " Not your daddy's standard gauge " by Arno Baars..edited by Dave Carse
Please see link for video of Randall and Park Hudson's running .
https://youtu.be/Fnlrkq_y6bk
Cheers Carey
