Hello all
Shaw built the Standard Gauge (2 1/8") to proper scale of 3/8" .
The Mini -scale coach shown in the above photo is 17/64ths ....proper scale for O gauge 1 1/4"
Randall cars are cast aluminum , first produced in the late 20's and 30's by Thomas Randall of Chicagoland ... producing a Hudson and 4 passenger cars all castings ..go build them yourself. Scaled roughly at 3/8" advertised to be used on Standard or K gauge .....any one ever hear of K gauge ?
Relic of Evanston, Il produced the Randall cars in conjunction with Thomas Randall's son in the late 70's . They continued to supply castings for the cars now 4 long (28" and 4 short 21" ) with both closed or open ends versions for Bob Thon of Roberts Lines through the 90's when the molds wore out . The engine was never recast as the mold was lost , destroyed, etc sometime in the 30's ..so very few engines were ever cast .
Park trains in 1946 got hold of a Randall Hudson and used it to recast the Hudson with a few modifications ...taking out ads in Model Railroading Oct-Dec 1946 ..... new castings for a Standard Gauge or 3/8" scale engine ..during the race to the smaller gauges ...TT gauge introduced at the same time, did not do well. A few sets of castings may have be sold only a handful remain.
Here is a link to a video of a Randall Hudson pulling 4 of the short cars built to 1 gauge .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3jTS6YKRxkBelow is a photo of the Shaw car compared to a large Randall 28 and a Liberty Lines ( same size as Lionel) State car 21 1/2"
Also photo of Randall with cars , relic flyer , ad for Park train , Randall Hudson compared to Mini-scale Hudson
The Randall Hudson is crude by today's standards .... but for 1929 it was way ahead of the curve . Unfortunately no flyers , ads , paper work has surfaced on Randall during the early years. He may have been part of a large standard gauge layout to be installed at the Century of Progress in Chicago . The initial builder of the layout failed to interest Lionel to sponsor it and used American Flyer as a back up . The Century of Progress was the springboard for O scale with several major railroad sponsored huge layouts seen by millions . The exposure to scale models running turned the tide of toy train world and the death call for standard gauge .
Cheers Carey
Mi-Loco also worked in 3/8" scale ..producing a Hudson and K4....... as pictured in his 1935 catalog ...photo below ..3/8" scale are the big engines ..17/64th's model the small ones...has any ever seen a Mi-Loco piece in 3 /8" ?
- 1st day running.JPG (358.25 KiB) Viewed 6756 times
- castings.jpg (92.4 KiB) Viewed 6756 times
- IMG_0258.JPG (1.66 MiB) Viewed 6756 times
