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 Posted - August 01 2006 : 1:20:42 PM
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A comment or two on the Life Like streamlined coaches and their roots, if for no other reason than to innaugarate this forum:
Owners of the Life Like streamliners who attend swap meets or scan on-line auctions may note their modern acquisitions bear an uncanny similarity to ancient offerings by long-deceased makers, and not without reason.
The streamlined coach line is the progeny of John A. English & Co., Inc. of Morrisville, PA, in the late fifties. Offered as part of Hobbyline--arguably America's first full-line ready-to-run HO train line. Rakes of these terrific ready-to-run streamliners trailed behind Hobbyline's sensational Alco Fs in PRR, Western Pacific, UP, Lehigh Valley and others.
The 8000 series RTR streamliners are sometimes found today--with NMRA or Hobbyline's own unique coupler--sometimes in their individual black and white striped boxes trimmed in yellow, or in terrific master-boxed sets. English Hobbyline bit the dust with astonishing rapidity, patterns for their 4-6-2 Pacific and Alco diesels serving as the foundation for Lionel's post-Rivarossi HO line of the early sixties.
The streamliners didn't languish, however. Hobbyline's neighbor in Boyertown PA, Penn Line, began unleashing their barrage of these selfsame streamliners in a dizzying array of liverys... until their demise and liquidation in '63-64. You'd think that would be the end of it but, as luck would have it, Varney in Miami, Fla., began churning out--you guessed it--the same streamliners in their standard liveries: PRR, SP, and so on.
It is through the acquisition of these ancient toolings, dies and patterns from the moribund Varney, sinced moved from Miami to Philadelphia, that Life Like begins their production of these venerable (and ancient) streamliners.
MagnoliaAcademy
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Posted - August 01 2006 : 1:39:07 PM
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Re: the earlier incarnations of the LL streamliner
As luck would have it those who want to see representative samples of Penn Line's versions of these streamliners can see a terrific example currently being auctioned on eBay as "Five Mint Penn Line Pass Cars". These boxed examples in Sante Fe livery comprise the gamut of streamliner offerings: full dome, astro-dome, baggage and combine, lacking only coach and observation.
At the risk of pushing the topic envelope: I can't help but mention Penn Line's line of heavyweight Pullmans bears an uncanny resemblance to Hobbyline's. Hardly a coincidence.
Mag.Academy
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