A Million Miles Of Model Railroads 1959. Build a model train layout with father and son 65 years ago
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Model trains in the 1950's and 1960's. Carstens publications released a film to show the benefits and ease of getting into the hobby of HO gauge (HO scale) trains. Back in the 60's magazines showed how to start your train layout. Father and son would load a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the back of the 1959 Pontiac Bonneville station wagon and get the project started. Remember the hobby shops, where the selection of trains was extraordinary? Follow Father and Son building a HO train layout. Great nostalgic model train fun. Some wonderful train layouts are shown. Transferred from 16mm Color film (faded and corrected).
I've actually got all the books shown in this film, and they're still worth reading. I'm also fortunate to own a couple of the really veteran model engines which appear in this film. Great fun, and the film is still true today. Thanks for showing this.
Just got home from my job at the train shop. Been selling and servicing model railways for 60 years.
Great job. We need people like you out there!
A TRUE “DREAM JOB!” 👏 🇺🇸 🚂
Small question: Do the current manufacturer's prices for even the most basic of train set seem a bit excessive? I just saw a Bachman Yard Boss set at a chain store listed at $122.00... and I was flabberghasted!
@ I'll get back to you tomorrow when I can look at some $$ from 1968 or so.
@ Pls know it is a job nonetheless. All jobs have headaches.
I always enjoy seeing these old videos on model railroading. I do wish it was still as popular as it was in the heyday but I will say I enjoy the fact that today I can find inspiration and information in a few key strokes unlike how it was prior to the internet.
That was a long time ago..........inexpensive plywood!!!!!! I recall my first RR was around 1962 and Dad thought the $5 sheet of Ply was horrible!! Thx
This film was produced in 1959. That was the year I was born. 65 years later, I'm still playing with trains and enjoying every minute of it.
I am Also still operating my train models and layout . and I am 77 : )
Me too. Born in 59 and running trains since I was 4 in 1964.
First! I remember this well. My dad built a giant model railroad in our basement in the early 70's. Thanks!
Very cool! Back then, that's what basements were for!
Had both of those "how to" books when I was a kid. Brings back good memories!
as I did as well , I actually still Have them !! after 68 YEARS !
Love that HO gauge. When I was a kid my friend had a Lionel O gauge toy train. I wanted one for my birthday and was initially disappointed when what I got was smaller. Turned out though my HO gauge was more realistic. Eventually built an HO layout with my own kids, though I think I got a lot more into it than they did.
Personally had a 027 Lionel, but there is something to say about the realism of HO.
What year was this? I can imagine many kids being disappointed because they got HO trains not knowing that would be the most popular scale one day lol. I started with HO as a kid and “fell” back into N scale as an adult
@@Casper_626 I got my initial HO set in the mid-'60s.
It's not HO Gauge its HO SCALE running on HO Gauge Track
Totally correct, but it seems the terms are used interchangeably in conversation.
That boy killed me when said "Mr. Wilson"! 1:53
Made me think of Jay North off of "Dennis the Menace"! 📺
Great old video. I was 3 when this video was made and just getting started in the hobby. 😁
That's awesome!
Very interesting. I may be a millennial who has a smartphone and spends most of my time in front of a computer, yet I've always had a passion for trains/railroads and get a thrill out of model railroading, whether it be from building structures/scenery or simply running trains around my own HO scale layout.
Thanks for sharing!
Glad I found this old film--initial photos after the opening shots is of the old B&O museum's model railroad depiction of the Magnolia Cutoff and B&O freight and passenger trains. My brother and I visited the museum when it had not been open for very long (mid 50s from what I remember) and that layout was amazing to me---huge. I've tried to see if there were old videos of the museum's early train layout on TH-cam but only find fairly current museum info. I did visit the museum in 2023 and while their layout in one of the outside display cars is impressive, to me, it pales in comparison to the old one, despite the update in operation technolgies.
Great history. Thanks for sharing.
Boy does that bring back memories! My dad and I got started in model railroading in 1958. I remember seeing this film at our local hobby shop. I still have most of those books-- including McClanahan's Scenery book (which he signed for me when I used to operate on his Dallas layout). We had most all of those structure kits on our layout. Atlas snap track and switch machines! In the ensuing 60+ years, I'm still modeling-- now in Sn3. Films like these opened the gateway for a lot of us now old farts. But then we also had our fathers, uncles and their friends to show us the way. So many boys today have no clue how to use a screwdriver! BUT our local Hobbytown store (sadly, the only game in town) is packed on weekends with young folks doing mainly RC cars and such. So maybe there is still hope! Thanks for posting!
you're welcome!
Stupendo questo video meraviglioso ❤
Splendid Show, for the luv of model railroading
Indeed it is!
All of this reminds me of the first "serious" model RR I built at age 11-12 arounnd 1970. Still at it at age 63 but have actually gone BIGGER up to 3-rail O scale and On30. I DO rewmber the old layout they feature in this that was at the B&O museum in Baltimore MD. My Great-grandfater was one of the engineers on the "Capitol Limited" over the mountain division west of Cumberland MD featured on that layout.
Thanks for sharing.
Brings back such memories and always wanted to see a completed Central Midland from the Six HO Railroads you can build book, pretty sure that's it in the video. When I was a kid pouring over those books (Still have them all) that layout was the holy grail of a home built layout for me...
Toward the middle you can see what looks to be the Granite Gorge and Northern from the same book.
great memories!
Even Aussies like it 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🦘👌
My dad started me in the late 60s and now I am a model railroader like him. Plus I have his brass and wood. Now I have more locomotives than my father all in Southern railway.
Appears that Mr. Wilson's layout came right from the Atlas book "Six HO railroads you can build" as the Central Midland, slightly modified with extra track, with the control panel locations following the instructions. Another layout with all the bridges and the Gilbert ALCO demonstrator locomotive appears to be the Granite Gorge and Northern from the same book. Thanks for uploading, a trip back in time for me.
Glad you liked it.
Hobby affascinante ma che richiede spazio.
Great!
13:57 I'm almost certain I've heard Jeff from I Love Toy Trains say "You bet!" like that. Which is funny, because I wasn't thinking of his voice in connection with this kid's until that very moment.
You Bet!
Imagine anyone under 50 having that kind of attention span today, lol.
We have to change that. They should visit @uTube486 's model train shop.
lol , Not gonna Happen ...
Under 50, I play with trains. Most of them older than me being that I enjoy postwar Lionel’s the most….
@joshuacampbell9990 you're a rare bird.
And some of those accessories and trains are still being made from the old tooling.
I didn't know that the trains from that Era had sound
lol That Didn't That was a recording : )
American Flyer had chuff chuff and smoke. Kept us busy for hours.
@Engineerrick
Lol, I think you are correct,now that I think about it !
I had a steamer that smoked with fluid added, and a chuff sound that was mechanical ! Yes
Been awhile 😁😉
The AF trains I had were in the 1950s ..
They were my very First Train set ..
This is great film, when is the last time you had a car you could haul plywood in, I have a few of those books.
Actually, I do. Its a Hyundai I10, a great little car. My grandson asked once if I'd ever thought of buying a truck, its so handy a utility car. Seriously, I regularly take a 7 foot by 18" layout (it splits in two) and several smaller layouts to local shows in it.
Blue box Tyco Atlas Gilbert Revell the old push button switches still have the books
Leave it to Beaver
Can I get an Amtrak that de-rails itself?
Yes you can. A cheap set and your incompetent track building and operating skills are just the recipe for derailments.
You can practice on that and then wreck a few automobiles...we have faith in yA.
That must be how Amtrak does it
@ lol
@ hahahhah
@@STho205And faith in your need to dish out childish insults👍