7 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

We were getting into a discussion about vintage HO cars on the French forum FOLM, so thought I'd share a few of my cars with you. I don't think most of these have been covered before, so if they have, sorry...

First, a real French production, from about 1970, Troby. Don't know if you can tell, but these cars are tiny! Very close to real HO probably, about 53mm long and 20mm wide. The car is a Peugeot 404 and the set came with two with chassis, and two extra bodies. Haven't run it yet, but the cars have twin pins, so it was designed more as a road setup than for racing.









A Thunderbird by Marx, ca '64...




Also from '64, a couple of my favorite HO cars, from the Atlas motorized racing kit range, here an Allard and an Indy Racer, which you could build in stock or custom trim. I think Faller was the only other company to make kits in HO.





And this is what they're supposed to look like. Very big news at the time!



They may not look too technically impressive now, but when you see where Atlas started (1961)....



And to close a couple more modern ones, from 1980s-90s I think.... The "Maxx" is by Jim Russell, creator of Russkit, who later became a consultant to a lot of HO slot car companies, and finally started his own.





And a Honda F1 by "Super Circuit", from Japan (Tyco 440 X2 it seems, from the box...)





Don

[Steve Deiters]

Very interesting stuff. Did the Lionel crossover and more so the Atlas TurboExpress ever become offered to the mass market? I've never seen those before.

PdL, it's in your court.

[don.siegel]

Steve,

I'm pretty sure they were both offered, although I doubt they were distributed very widely! I did see one of the Atlas Turbo Express trains on eBay, but that's about it (although I don't usually check out the HO section). Atlas had a regular set out a year later I believe, and Lionel probably not much longer after that.

This is probably a matter for one of our Super-HO experts...

Can't really imagine the Atlas turbo train going very fast, eh?

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Wow, actual HO scale!!

One of my frustrations as a kid was that issue. I remember an article where a group using the vibrators did a lot of custom work to make 1/64 as the scale so that the racers would work. One of my projects long lost was following their lead and doing the Lancia Ferrari on an early T-Jet with all sorts of hand-crafted stuff like wheels on it to make the look.

Sigh.

Thanks again, Don.

Fate

[skeeterbuck]

Don,

I would agree with your comments on the Troby set. Looks like something that you would use with a train setup to add some more action to the schene.

As to the Atlas turbo trains, I believe another US company named Athearn also made something very similar. I looked like a prop -driven diesel engine. The things some people come up with is just amazing.

Thanks for sharing.

Chuck

[don.siegel]

Hi Rocky,

I don't remember being especially frustrated with the scale issue in HO - except for the open wheel cars of course, because they were just so ugly! That article you're referring to was in Model Cars Illustrated, and I think it was the author and his buddy who did that (and if you remember, Greg Holland actually ran into them again, a few years ago, via VSRN and the Web - Don Typond if I remember right, and his sexy right-hand gal Nicole). It was kind of a tempting system, but don't think it ever caught on, and I remember thinking at the time, even then - who needs another scale???

Chuck,

I don't remember Athearn ever coming out with anything like that, but it's possible of course: you mean a straight turbo train, or some kind of car-train hybrid? I think it was Tyco that did a Turbo Train type slot car much later, and that's often confused with this original Turbo Express.

Since we're on the HO kick, here are a couple classics - nothing rare, just the kind of stuff that hundreds of thousands of us grew up with! And also three of the four main milestones in HO: Vib, T-Jet and TycoPro - all that's missing is Aurora's AF/X!





Don

[sportblazer350]

Hi Don,

Very interesting assortment of HO scale cars. I have or may still have all of what you have shown here, except for that odd set.

I really enjoyed racing HO scale when TycoPros and Riggen cars were released in the early 1970s. Hard to control and with lots of top end, the can-motored cars were tiny versions of real 1/24 scale slot cars. And today I have met the designers and builders of Retro brass chassis anglewinders and improved Riggen chassis cars, and man, if they only handled that good back in the early 1970s!

So I picked up the bits and pieces to assemble a new Riggen car that should be smoother and handle better than the originals. Lots of fun to race today, to me, far superior to the ever popular T-Jets. I also like the AFX MagnaTraction cars, good for kids, not too much magnetic traction.

Back when AFX cars were new, my best car was a T-Jet Willys with an AJ's handling pan, slip-on Aj's silicones and AFX rear wheels, AFX O-ring fronts, and hop-up kit parts. That car remained fast for decades! But today's T-Jet tuners have really come a long way with tuning a T-Jet for speed and handling!

Another good car for your thread would be the Cox HO scale car(s), great-looking packaging, too. Still need to add one of those MIB to my HO collection...

[Big E]

Hey Don,

Cool stuff, I've got some of it myself, too.

I guess you realize that the Atlas kit has an Allard LeMans box and inside is the Indy racer kit (in the coveted blue color!). Just happened across this post and that caught my eye.

The Allard was the first thing I ever bought from the original Auto World mail order house back in the '60s, and I was thrilled when it arrived in my mailbox. I still have the car (along with the box and all the extras) and it gets run regularly! I have since picked up the other models over the years, and have yet to score a blue Indy racer body for myself. They where really cool looking when assembled with some paint, decals, and TLC.

Enjoy!!

Ernie