Evolution of the Varney 40' Gondola. Update 12/30/19!

UPDATE 12/30/19.
A friend comes through with another clone for comparison.  Jump to the end to see.

One of the interesting aspects of the model railroading hobby is the history of the models themselves.    Tooling for plastic trains is expensive and represents one of the main assets of a model railroad company.  Thus it frequently outlives it's originators.  It may pass through several hands and be modified over a period of decades.   Such is the case for the HO scale 40' Hopper from Varney.  This model and it's descendants and clones are now the frequent filler of bargain bins at train shows, but this was not always the case.

The excellent TCA Western website informs us that in the 1955 Gordon Varney created a new line of plastic trains as seen in thsse 1955 ad (all ads from the HOSeeker website).  At the time it was a very much a state-of-the art, accurate model.  The plastic injection molding enabled rivet detail that was quite advanced for an affordable kit such as this.

Varney

Just 5 years later in 1960 Varney would sell his train business to Sol Kramer of Life-Like.   The line continued to appear under the Varney name for another decade until in 1970 the line was relaunched under the Life-Like brand of ready-to-run cars.    The 1977 catalog below shows it in a yellow UP Livery with what appears to be a plastic gravel load.

Including 10 years of Life-Like production under the Varney name, it was sold by Life-Like for 45 years!

 Two can be seen in this 1998 catalog page.

In 2005. Walthers acquired LifeLike but continued the brand name and many of the products, especially entry-level train sets like this one.

Walthers retired the LifeLike name for train products in 2016.   I've been unable to find the exact contents and dates of of the last few years' train sets and it does not appear in-stock in any form on the Walthers  website.  However it appears that this gondola survived in the Life-Like brand for 11 years under Walthers ownership.

In final tally, this accounts for 61 years of production for the  same gondola!   Further, this doesn't even account for the many copies and knock-offs that have appeared from other companies.  Here's a 1964 ad for "Crown", a sub brand of Mantua that was produced in Hong Kong.  All the cars in here appear to be clones of other company's products.

All this history is informative but here's a brief look at some actual models.  In all pictures, the order is top to bottom from newest to oldest:
-Walthers: Probably dates to early 00's.  Came separately in a Walthers box.
-LifeLike: probably pre-Walthers production
-Crown:  Clone, produced in Hong Kong for Mantua.
-Original Varney Kit. Purchased individually in a Varney Box.  Mismatched coupler covers and KD's are my own addition.

The underframes are particularly interesting.  note that the HK produced Crown is a near-exact copy of the USA made Varney, even down to the sprung metal trucks and plastic rivet coupler box.  The separate under frame on the LifeLike allows for much simplified production, more on that below. The walthers has a nice 2-piece under frame.

The view from the top shows more the simplified Life-Like Tooling.  The Walthers model returns the interior detail but with an obvious injection point in the center.

The side view reveals little beyond the earlier stated similarities.  I've been unable so far to find a historical picture of the Varney scheme on an actual gondola.  The Walthers scheme is more accurate, but I've only seen pictures of it on 50' gondolas.    Note that the Varney has a different road number.  I don't know for sure, but I believe that Varney examples be found in both  the 34079 and 34655 numbers.

At the ends you can see where the Lifelike has blank spots along the bottom edge where the tooling has been modified to do away with body-mounted couplers. The Walthers brings back the cutout for the body mounted couplers and has an added third step for the ladder.

Looking at all the pictures above, the Life-Like example has much to tell us about production and the HO "Toy Train" market.  By the time it was sold under the Life-Like brand, this was no longer considered a "scale model" as much as an entry-level toy train.  Also, unlike the Varney,  it was not being sold as a kit, but rather as ready to run in a windowed box.

Everything about the Life-Like points to this.  What at first look like compromises can also be seen as clever modifications to design a product that can be snapped together quickly in an overseas factory by unskilled labor in a matter of seconds.   

-Originally it would have had snap-in horn-hook couplers and one-piece plastic wheelsets. The Kadee couplers and metal-axled wheels were my addition.
-It has a separate underframe, but that seems to be a function of a more simple tooling process.  The body only has detail on the sides.  Top edge, inside and bottom are completely blank.
-Snap-in trucks instead of screw in.
-"Talgo" truck mounted couplers instead of body mounted coupler boxes with plastic heat rivets.
-Brake gear is a cast detail on the under frame.  No separate brake gear to be glued on the bottom.

These are all strikes against it as far as the modern model railroader is concerned and these features are present across nearly all Life-Like rolling stock (and other entry-level competitors) before the advent of the more advanced LifeLike "Proto" series. However, these efficiencies allowed LifeLike to provide entry level ready-to-run rolling stock at a phenomenally low price for decades.   Lastly, it should be noted that the Life-Like of separate frame allows for -and includes- a separate weight something no previous version made provision for.

By today's standards,  none of these is state of the art, but the Walthers is the clear winner.  however,  I like seeing the ancestry of these kits and the original Varney is no slouch.   Currently I'm in the midst of modernizing my fleet.  I find these 40' Gondolas charming, but they represent a very early and relatively uncommon prototype so I'm also considering chopping and lengthening these to a more useful 50' length.

Hope you enjoyed this bit of HO train history if you have additional or contrary information, please add it in the comments section.  I'm happy to revise this post if necessary.

-Karl

UPDATE, 12/30/2910 : My friend Dave of "Jade Fog Industries" has located another clone of the Varney 40' EJ&E hopper and he has sent us a couple pictures.

From the side it looks identical.

The stamp on the bottom is  HOTCO  which stands for "HO Train Company", reportedly an early import company owned by Bernie Paul, later of AHM and IHC trains.   The bottom has gets interesting in that while the riveted coupler packet is the same, the rest of the underside detail and truck attachment doesn't match any of the others.

Also, while the printing is a clear clone of the Varney, it's as clean as -possibly cleaner than- the others.

So there it is.   One more clone to muddy the waters. If you happen across any other clones don't hesitate to get in touch.

Happy New Year!

-Karl