I am very pleased to have authored another article on American OO that has been published in April, 2014 issue of The Train Collectors Quarterly. 

“Then and Now: Early American 00 Gauge Models Built by Howard Winther” is a compilation of materials from a series of articles developed for this website, reorganized for better flow and focus on prize winning models by Winther that were featured in early hobby publications, showing how the models look today and giving additional context to the early days of American OO.

The layout of Howard Winther was featured for example in The Modelmaker and in The Model Railroader in 1934, and he won a number of prizes at NYSME events before and during WWII. For some flavor of the content of the article click on the category “Winther” on the sidebar.

I can’t thank enough the sons of Howard Winther for their photography of models such as this one (his first locomotive) and notes on their father. It is great that the Internet can bring together people and make possible an eight page TCA article such as this on these very significant and beautifully built and preserved early American OO models.

Finally, as new readers may find this article based on seeing the TCA article I would offer this on my personal perspective on model trains. The best description I can come up with (or heard) is that I am a “retro-modeler.” In short, while I am working to collect for example all of the different models produced by OO makers such as Nason and Schorr, I actually run American OO on a layout and really enjoy OO the big puzzle of sorting out history as well. Great to see the OO coverage with the TCA, and if old scale model trains are an interest keep coming back to American OO Today for more.