{"id":4197,"date":"2025-08-28T10:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4197"},"modified":"2025-08-29T10:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:16:44","slug":"a-look-at-limco-oo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4197","title":{"rendered":"A look at Limco OO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve had a poor Xerox of their catalog for many years, but Al recently sent me photos of his original of the Limco catalog, and it certainly clears up a few things on this rare line. They produced several rare and interesting models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On pages 60-62 of my book the topic is the Long Island Scale Model Company, also referred to as Limco or LIMCO. They were active from about 1936-38 and advertised regularly in The Model Craftsman<\/em>. The catalog has a red cover with 8 pages of text and photos. They entered the market after Nason, and must have been part of the overall activity in OO scale that Scale-Craft and Lionel saw, convincing them that OO was a good bet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MU car and coach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Their signature model certainly was their PRR MP54 MU coach, pictured as below in the catalog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The photo gives you some sense of the drive setup as well, with a large motor similar to the Mantua Midjet fitting easily. This model has die cast sides and ends, which they must have spent a good sum to produce — reflected in the price, as a complete kit sold for $19.75. According to an inflation calculator online that would be something like $450 today! There will be a follow up post soon with photos of a surviving model, which shows that the ends have port hole windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE: More on the LIMCO MU car here. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe the same sides were utilized for the other two passenger car models in the catalog, a trailer coach for the MU and also a 64′ coach (the MP54 is also 64′ long). I would think that a plain end would better suit the coach version, but only the MU car end is listed in the catalog. To my knowledge no examples of either of these non-powered models have turned up, and hardly any of the MU cars. The production run must have been pretty small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truck produced for the MP54 is the below. This also was available for separate sale and must be very rare. The catalog also indicates they made a die cast 6-wheel truck, but there is no photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The reefer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Also seen in the catalog is this reefer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know that any of these have turned up in a collection, this is really a model worth looking things over to try to find one. Looking at the catalog description, it has a solid block body, a die cast “double girder” underframe, die cast AB brakes, stamped brass ladders, die cast end beams, and a die cast brake wheel. The sides are described as being “PAINTED, SCORED, and LETTERED.” I take that to mean some sort of cardboard side. The only lettering offered was Western Fruit Express. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trucks are the arch bar trucks seen below. There is a photo of a pair of them from my collection in my book, but presently they are misplaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The catalog also offers other parts and supplies, including notably a group of steam locomotive parts for an unspecified model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequent advertising indicates they produced a boxcar <\/strong>of some sort and also a tank car.<\/strong> While examples or details of the boxcar are unknown, there are a few survivors of their brass tank car around, the very first tank car offered for sale in OO. More on that model here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first American OO tank car<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cover of the catalog is below. Something to keep your eyes on the lookout for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had a poor Xerox of their catalog for many years, but Al recently sent me photos of his original of the Limco catalog, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-limco"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/americanootoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LIMCO-cat-close.jpg?fit=1406%2C729&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4218,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions\/4218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}