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Back in the mid to late 70s, my dad bought a train set for me. It was on a styrofoam base that measured maybe 42" by 42". It has painted mountainish landscaping. It was a simple overlapping circle layout with a tunnel and a bridge. The center was open with a small town of maybe three buildings in it. I beleive it was HO Scale. I have been searching the internet and have'nt had any luck finding out more information about this set. Can you help?
Thanks,
Mike
Boy, I didn't think there were any trainsets in the 70's with styrofoam bases but I could be wrong. Do you remember anything about the locomotives or cars? Anything about what the scenery was made from? It seems to me that Atlas had a short go at RTR trainsets in 70's but the bases were something like really thick cardboard, not styrofoam.
It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure it was styrofoam. It was hilly around the edge where the train ran and flat in the middle where the town was. It had a yellow split level houe and Kentuckty Fried Chicken store and one other building which I can remember. I beleive it had only 4 car. A desiel engine, a caboose and two other cars. I grew up in Dubuque, IA, so I beleive that the most likely place of purchase would have been JCPenny, Sears or Montgomery Ward...
THanks again,
Mike
I remember as a kid Lionel had several styrofoam "o" gauge tunnels, now this is going back a ways..{ i dont want to admit my age..lol} my dad had several he used on both his S, O and HO layout.... Now as for complete layouts I dont know, I would think maybe contacting a toy collector might be a consideration OR perhaps an antique dealer , not for the model persay but the stores old cataloges.. even possibly some 70's model railroading mags as to check there old advertisements...
I had one of those that I would set up for my toddlers to watch at XMas time way back in the day. Came out in the late 70's early 80's??? it was HO, in sections and held together by plastic "dogbones" on the underside. A twice around loop in styrofoam.
I'll hunt and see if I can find any more info about this. It may take a while.
OK, I think I've got some more information on that layout. It was of extruded foam and was made by Life-Like. The KFC kit tipped me off. Life-Like started out as a company making extruded foam ice chests during the summer and was looking for a winter product. They started making foam tunnels like the ones Mingo remembers. They branched out into model trains in the late sixties and had several seasonal train sets that had a Styrofoam base and hooked together like Scoot describes. I don't have any names or pictures for the actual train sets but they were made by Life-Life sometime in the 70's. Interestingly, when Life-Like sold their train business to Walthers in 2005, the remaining company, Lifoam, went back to what it started doing originally - manufacturing extruded foam products Wait long enough and everything old becomes new again.
OH GOD I HOPE YOUR RIGHT UP2...LOL < is looking in the mirror and at some old beat up floor dropped engines.
However, dont know if that would be a good thing at work...lol
