If you’re looking for more hobby history, remember White River Productions’ monthly publication Railroad Model Craftsman offers “Collector Consist” on a quarterly basis in its pages. Editor Otto Vondrak brought back this popular column in 2019 and HO Collector Co-Editor Tony Cook has presented various subjects over the years in this column. Here’s a list of what has been featured, since 2019, in Collector Consist:
June 2019
“The Atlas-Kato Connection” covered the HO-scale diesel locomotives produced by Kato in Japan and sold by Atlas in North America beginning in the early 1980s and continuing into the 1990s.
September 2019
“AHM’s Pioneering Alco C-424” covered this mid-1970s HO effort by Roco for AHM’s catalog. This was the last Roco-made diesel before the company produced the series of EMD prototypes for Atlas beginning in late 1974.
December 2019
“Proto 2000 EMD BL2” tells of the release of Life-Like first Proto 2000 series offering that set a new standard for the hobby following its debut around 1990.
March 2020
“Lionel’s Burlington Northern GP30 in HO Scale” must be the most common of all the 1970s series of Lionel HO and a collector favorite.
June 2020
“Landmark F-Units in HO Scale” covers examples of this famous “bulldog nose” diesel over the years and points out examples of note.
October 2020
“Buyers Balked at a Better Boxcar” tells the tale of Kurtz Kraft’s late 1950s effort as a Pullman-Standard 40-foot boxcar with separate details that should have ignited the hobby… but didn’t.
December 2020
“Some Classic Train Sets” takes a holiday season look a collection of starter set releases from Gilbert, Aurora, AHM, Atlas, Cox, and TYCO in HO, N, and O scales.
March 2021
“Shorty Heavyweights with a Long History” presents the HO-scale plastic passenger car models introduced by Penn Line, later sold by Varney, and finally part of Life-Like’s catalog.
May 2021
“Amtrak’s Iconic F40PH” appeared for the rail passenger carrier’s 50th anniversary and shared the many HO-scale F40PH diesel locomotive produced over the years.
September 2021
“Model Power’s Roco Cabs” documents the Austrian-made Alco FA/FB, Baldwin RF-16 Shark (A and B units), and EMD E7, E8, and E9 A-units sold by Model Power in the early 1970s.
December 2021
“Go West, Athearn!” shows the uncommon cowboy-themed kits sold by Athearn around 1960.