When I was young, I had a friend who had Grandparents in West Germany and they'd send him Marklin trains for Christmas. Most everything was made of metal and the quality of their trains was unsurpassed. He had the TEE Train, turntable and roundhouse (as seen below), crane, signals and many other pieces set up on a nice layout with custom built cabinetry all around under the basement stairs. I have a number of old Marklin catalogs and I enjoy looking at them almost as much as the Arnold ones.
To bring this thread back, my old late friend, Emmett DeVaney, had one Marklin HO model of a German prototype gondola sitting on a display track in his living room. The detail was absolutely amazing with everything on the prototype on the model. Emmett had been very active in the Austin, MN Model Railroading Club (HO scale) in the nineteen fifties - sixties. And, to answer my earlier quandary over whether the yellow/red and green/yellow EJ&E boxcars were both available in the Rapido N scale line- they both were. The Yellow/red car started in the 200 series with the metal hook couplers but then received the Rapido standard couplers. Doug
Just caught up on this thread... some really interesting information here. When looking at the blog post for the building kits, I couldn't help wondering whether the kit offered under the most brand names is the "three suburban homes." Currently a Faller item. https://www.eurorailhobbies.com/product.asp?mn=8&ca=21&sc=N&stock=F-232221 Not to be confused with the other "three suburban houses"!!! http://www.hobbylinc.com/model-power-three-suburban-houses-kit-n-scale-model-railroad-building-1502 Arnold might have been just about the only early brand under which at lease one of these was not marketed...
I had the three Model Power houses on my previous layout, really liked them especially the two story. Joe
Interesting. I still can't believe that I never had even one as a kid, with receiving my first N Scale set in 1968 by Arnold Rapido and with the real EJ&E highly visible from my bedroom window. Not Arnold, but I was stoked to have found this J boxcar at a train show in Asheville, NC some twenty years ago. It was a special M-T car produced for the N Scale Collectors 1997 Convention in Chicago. I also found a super nice J coffee mug at the same show, so I'm wondering if they both might have been from an estate.
We're going off topic here, but the MTL Special Run is similar to a regular release that Kadee/Micro-Trains did in November 1981 (Catalog 20340). Can't share a photo since I don't have that car...
Hehe, I have all of those houses. Atlas sold the "Three Suburban Homes" as "Three Ranch Houses" and Atlas sold the "Three Suburban Houses" separately as "Split level House", "Ranch House", and "Country House". Maximizing profits, I guess. The "Three Houses Under Construction" was pretty ubiquitous, too. Doug That is a very cool car, Dan. Doug
Ah yes, the houses under construction. Had them on my layout when I was young as seen here. The third one was elsewhere it seems ....
I found a couple of images on google but I wanted one with the doors closed to post and the one with a closed door is very poor quality. I guess members can go there to see it. Pretty much identical to Dan's posting without the convention notation. EDIT! Never mind, as Emily Latela would say. Doug
