Forgive the blasphemy, but I just found out my brother likes HO scale subway sets. Even though he knows aboth MTH (He gave me my custom R17 6 train) he prefers the smaller scale. my question is, who makes these sets besides Life Like (ironic name)an dwhere can they be purchased?

quote:

Originally posted by Pelham Express:
Forgive the blasphemy, but I just found out my brother likes HO scale subway sets. Even though he knows aboth MTH (He gave me my custom R17 6 train) he prefers the smaller scale. my question is, who makes these sets besides Life Like (ironic name)an dwhere can they be purchased?

http://www.collect-corner.net/subways.html
http://www.imagesreplicas.com/hosubway.htm
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/l...7.htm?source=froogle

Ridiculously expensive and too toyish for me. Some appear to be custom made - not by a big company...

The Life Like line is actually Walthers now and they make pretty nice subway sets that are accurate and run well. Under the Walthers name several years back they also offered Washington Metro cars and I think Bart cars.

I've actually been trying to locate those metro cars. I had some that i inherited from a friend that passed away, but they havent survived the passage of time (and ca curious cat) do they make them anymore?

The Walthers Metro cars are currently out of production I think. It might worth a check of their website, but I recall them last being issued sometime in the 90's. It's been a while since I bought any new HO, so my memory is faulty.

I've been collecting the life-like/walthers subway sets for a few years now, and i'm only missing one of the earlier sets. be advised the early sets had no end gates, but now the later sets do come with them. it seemed the life-like folks were not die hard, born and bred new yorkers and didn't realize the fact that the subway cars had end gates. in a meeting with life-like execs, [before the walthers buy out], i informed them of this glaring mistake and now they have the end gates. i also own the washington metro and bart cars from walthers, [discontinued], and i have Q car R1-9's and BMT Standards, with underbody details and trucks from Model Traction Supply. Bachman 44 and 70 ton locos can be made into reasonable facsimiles of NYCTA work locos, and some of their old time wooden coaches can be turned into el cars...see photo below



Q Car HO models

on the HO portion of the layout you can see the early life-like subway set without the end gates

HO.........ILLL,never touch the stuff,am allergic to ho.

LOL if u think thats bad, now one of my friends discovered N scale (!!) he had a cute little oval on a table and even a station (I gotta admit, the station was hot) As I watched it though, I almost caught a Godzilla moment... As it was, everytime the dog ran by, the thing derailed. If you got the space, go O...

I had a set of R44 N scales thinking that I would run it on the layout that shared our club space. After they left I got rid of the set They were very nice that was offered by the Red Caboose I believe

before i knew what was ho,i bought a train on ebay and got mad cuz i thought someone pulled a fast one.

I actually have HO and O sets. I also used to have a little cat named Ariel. One christmas I set up the HO Amtrak set, as it took up less space around the tree. Ariel set herself in the middle of the oval, and licked her paws as the train circled her. after a few minutes, she stared at it, then SWAT!! with one slap, she knocked the last car off the track, and the entire 8 car train, engine and all, flipped off the track. I set it back up, and she watched patiently, only to slap it again afte about two minutes. after the third time, I gave up. Out came the R42 "D" set. She watched, intrigued by the bigger toy. Soon as I started it up, she stalked it...Until the horm went off. Ariel broke some sort of record jetting out of the living room. Lesson learned. HO and pets don't mix....

There is one additional inaccuracy with the Life-Like/Walthers cars of which you should be aware. The R17 was the initial car type produced. As subsequent classes were manufactured, the models continued to use the sides of the R17. If you look at photgraphs of prototype R17's, you will notice some of the side windows are of uneven height whereas pictures of R21'and 22's reveal theirs are equal in size. I believe the Life-Like/Walthers cars issued to date all utilize the R17 sides which may be incorrect depending upon the specific car being replicated.

I'm not looking to nitpick as many customers seem to pleased with the models anyway and I commend the manufacturer for bringing this equipment to HO. Still, the detail discrepancy is there so I thought I should mention it.

Best regards,

Bob