{"id":637,"date":"2009-08-01T00:49:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-01T00:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2021-06-19T18:17:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T18:17:05","slug":"midlin-history-in-railroad-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"Midlin track, profiled in Railroad Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the OO list the question came up what magazines other than Model Railroader<\/span> had OO info in them. Besides Model Craftsman\/Railroad Model Craftsman <\/span>(which appears to have been somewhat more supportive of minority gauges\u2014there were a couple OO firms that only advertised there) there are at least four other titles to watch for. One of those is Railroad Magazine<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This was not a model railroad magazine but actually had some limited OO related content. Bill Chapin put together a list of 16 different OO scale plans that were published in Railroad Magazine<\/span> between 1940 and 47 (mostly of locomotives), and gave me also a copy of a short article on page 56 of the September, 1940 issue on Midlin track. It has two photos, one of a worker assembling track on a machine that looks like the base of an old fashioned treadle sewing machine, and also a photo of Chemidlin himself. The text reads (the caps are original):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fred J. Chemidlin of Scotch Plains, N.J., Grew Tired of Forcing Home Midget Track Spikes With Long-Nosed Pliers. So He Designed a New Type of Spikeless Track Assembly. Two Parallel Groves Are Cut to Gage Width in a Cross Grained Strip of Wood, and These Grooves Then Receive the Base Web of Specially Designed Rails. As the Strip is Fed into the Machine Shown in Our Lower Illustration, a Knife Cam Splits It into Tie-Width Sections Which Are Mechanically Kicked Apart to Correct Spacing. Top Photo Shows Chemidlin Assembling a Switch by Hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The best copy I have is his Xerox version, hence the low quality of the photo but the text also describes the process pretty vividly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to their products, this line of track was produced from 1939 into the 1950s (with a production break during WWII) and was available in HO, OO, and S gauges. Their standard kits made up 24 or 51 feet of track. The track itself used wood ties with slots that the rail fit in. The blackened brass rail, a version of code 100, had a fin on the bottom that fit in the slots. Two styles of turnout were made (24\u201d radius and 36\u201d radius) along with crossings and crossovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall it was probably the most realistic track produced for use in OO and was a favorite among operators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For more information, see my book. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the OO list the question came up what magazines other than Model Railroader had OO info in them. Besides Model Craftsman\/Railroad Model Craftsman (which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-midlin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/americanootoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Railroad-9-40-Midlincrop.jpg?fit=766%2C478&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","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=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}