What non-auto model did you get today?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Came across two HO scale resin Funaro & Camerlengo P-202 Erie Stillwell Combine kits, complete, NIB, for $10 each.

These retailed new for $59.99, and are sometimes available online for about the same money.

They're beautiful kits (like all F&C products I've seen), including everything but appropriate scale 36" wheels.

                                                        

 

[Elrodbeckham]

23 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Came across two HO scale resin Funaro & Camerlengo P-202 Erie Stillwell Combine kits, complete, NIB, for $10 each.

These retailed new for $59.99, and are sometimes available online for about the same money.

They're beautiful kits (like all F&C products I've seen), including everything but appropriate scale 36" wheels.

                                                        

 

do you have any bachmann eazy track to trade?

[Ace-Garageguy]

14 minutes ago, Elrodbeckham said:

do you have any bachmann eazy track to trade?

I'll check.  

I got a bunch of sectional track in a mystery box not too long ago, but I'm not sure what it is without digging it out.

[Elrodbeckham]

28 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I'll check.  

I got a bunch of sectional track in a mystery box not too long ago, but I'm not sure what it is without digging it out.

I will send you a pm

[Big Messer]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I have several copies of each different version, including the engine house.

I wasn't aware it was designed by John Allen. I'll have to look into that, as he was one of the significant influences in my life, and I have a s,all fleet of HO rolling stock carrying the Gorre & Daphetid road name.

FWIW when John Allen had pictures of it the first time in Model Railroader he had pigeons (and their droppings) on the roof and it was a major milestone then...

[Brian Austin]

Have you read that the folks that make LaBelle wood rolling stock kits are looking to retire in the relatively near future?

[Ace-Garageguy]

50 minutes ago, Brian Austin said:

Have you read that the folks that make LaBelle wood rolling stock kits are looking to retire in the relatively near future?

This is part of a recent Faceborg post:

"After having owned and operated LaBelle Woodworking since 2001, I have been in the model business longer than the original or subsequent owners, I have decided to call it a day. I will be closing the doors and turning out the lights on LaBelle after 25 years on June 1, 2026. I have posted this as a courtesy to you, my loyal and well received customers, so that there will be no future surprises.

If anyone is interested in getting into the Model Railroad business I am not adverse to selling LaBelle to someone who is interested in purchasing it. I will be entertaining serious offers for LaBelle and the all of the equipment used to make our kits. I would love to sell the business so that the names and products that we produce, such as LaBelle, Silver Streak, Mainline Models, Ye Olde Huff and Puff, OnTrack and Valley Car Shops don’t disappear from the modeling scene.

Please contact me at info@labellemodels.com for further information..."

[Ace-Garageguy]

53 minutes ago, Brian Austin said:

Have you read that the folks that make LaBelle wood rolling stock kits are looking to retire in the relatively near future?

I tried to post a quoted announcement from Facebook, but I'm told the post must be approved first.

[Brian Austin]

I think I saw the same notice on their website.  Apparently I had forgotten they owned several other product lines as well as LaBelle.

[Ace-Garageguy]

10 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

I think I saw the same notice on their website.  Apparently I had forgotten they owned several other product lines as well as LaBelle.

I'll be sad to see them all go. I believe Walthers has acquired several legacy manufacturers, including tooling, over the decades.

I hope somebody steps up and at least saves everything.

My understanding is that assembly of the style of 'craftsman kits' they make isn't terribly popular in today's instant-gratification reality, but once they're gone, they're gone forever.

[Dave Ambrose]

On 12/2/2025 at 9:01 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

I tried to post a quoted announcement from Facebook, but I'm told the post must be approved first.

I approved it. It contained an email address which set off the moderation. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I approved it. It contained an email address which set off the moderation. 

Thanks. I didn't realize that would trigger anything. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 11/26/2025 at 12:22 AM, Big Messer said:

This is a reissue of a two stall enginehouse originally designed by John Allen sometime around the late 40's and reissued like a million times since then as different businesses.

I've been doing some digging. Is this the enginehouse you refer to? 

It's similar in concept and proportions to the Revell/Heljan/etc. kits, but also quite different.

 

[Big Messer]

This is the original one.

Edited 23 hours ago by Big Messer

[Dave Ambrose]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Thanks. I didn't realize that would trigger anything. 

Me neither, but it’s a sensible thing to do. 

[Big Messer]

And a night time view:

and if you check the top of the roof the pigeons are there!.

Edited 22 hours ago by Big Messer

[Ace-Garageguy]

42 minutes ago, Big Messer said:

And a night time view:

...and if you check the top of the roof the pigeons are there!.

 

Geez, he was good.  

[Big Messer]

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole google "gorre & daphetid railroad".

[Ace-Garageguy]

3 minutes ago, Big Messer said:

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole google "gorre & daphetid railroad".

Been there, done that, but not for a while. I have some of the old mags featuring his work (though I don't have the enginehouse issue), but every time I see some of it again, I'm always blown away.

I don't know of anybody who's currently any better. There are some in the ballpark, like Howard Zane, Rod Stewart, a fair number of others, but nobody who's really surpassed John Allen. And considering Allen was working his magic in the late 1940s, that's saying a lot.

[Earl Marischal]

7 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

 

I don't know of anybody who's currently any better. There are some in the ballpark, like Howard Zane, Rod Stewart, a fair number of others, but nobody who's really surpassed John Allen. And considering Allen was working his magic in the late 1940s, that's saying a lot.

We have this in the UK: https://pendonmuseum.com/about/the-vale-scene

steve

[Big Messer]

John Allen was a professional photographer, so each of his scenes and models were done to  complement each other as a whole. Like he scratchbuilt his figures. He just didn't do "a figure", but a tall or short man, a worker doing something specific, women chit-chatting and so on. Check the ones in the pics I posted: each one has a purpose. He was one of the earliest proponents of weathering. And all that at the time when you bought your supplies at the hardware store. Scale items were few and far between (and quite crude).

Edited 2 hours ago by Big Messer
poor English...

[Big Messer]

7 hours ago, Earl Marischal said:

We have this in the UK: https://pendonmuseum.com/about/the-vale-scene

Steve

This is just magic...

[Ace-Garageguy]

9 hours ago, Earl Marischal said:

We have this in the UK: https://pendonmuseum.com/about/the-vale-scene

Thanks. I could look at that for hours. More inspiration...

[Big Messer]

18 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

There are some in the ballpark, like Howard Zane, Rod Stewart, a fair number of others, but nobody who's really surpassed John Allen. And considering Allen was working his magic in the late 1940s, that's saying a lot.

There were others like Cliff Grandt (of lost wax parts fame), Frank Ellison (one of the pioneers of prototype operating), Bill McClanahan, Bob Brown (who helped develop fine scale standards and have at least a couple of great modeling magazines) and so on. Most of the G&D regular operators over the years have/had outstanding layouts themselves. You mentioned Howard Zane. It is me or his modeling looks a lot like Allen's?.

Edited 2 hours ago by Big Messer

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Big Messer said:

There were others like Cliff Grandt (of lost wax parts fame), Frank Ellison (one of the pioneers of prototype operating), Bill McClanahan, Bob Brown (who helped develop fine scale standards and have at least a couple of great modeling magazines) and so on. Most of the G&D regular operators over the years have/had outstanding layouts themselves. You mentioned Howard Zane. It is me or his modeling looks a lot like Allen's?.

I kinda think anyone I'd consider "good" in the hobby would be strongly influenced by John Allen, even if their styles were different.

If I'm remembering correctly, Bill McClanahan developed scenery techniques and wrote a few books, one of which I'm pretty sure I have.

I've been out of the hobby since I was about 15 or 16, not by desire (though I seriously doubt girls at that age would have understood), and it's only the past few years I've been collecting stuff to build a layout, but I've been collecting and reading old model railroad mags since around 2013.

Still, there are huge gaps in my knowledge.

The space I was counting on to finally build a sizable layout will most likely not ever be available, so I'm looking at what some guys have done with small layouts, "shelf" layouts, and modular construction.

Steve Grantham ("Earl Marischal" on the board here) has a very fine smaller layout himself, and has been something of an inspiration to use what space I have wisely, and not get caught up in what could have been.