The Revell HO Index |
As HO firms go, Revell was pretty much a flash in the pan, having only sold HO trains and accessories for 8 years, with very few new products in the last 4 of those years, but it was noteworthy in many ways and left a lasting impression. Even today, Revell buildings grace the layouts of even fine scale builders, though frequently modified or further detailed. Revell actually did a lot of modifications themselves to make a wide variety of buildings available by simply taking an existing model and tweaking it for a totally new structure. The many incarnations of the Revell engine house are prime examples of this. These structures didn't end with Revell, but the molds went on to be manufactured by many other manufacturers. They were also translated, in some cases, into N gauge by Revell themselves during their brief foray into that scale in the late 1960's.
Revell also took note of things that other manufacturers ignored. People were standard equipment with Revell models. Building kits came with inhabitants. Locomotives were driven by visible engineers and firemen and hobos even made it into the cars. All of this contributed to the realism that Revell models captured. Even with its short time of active production, Revell made a lasting contribution to HO model railroading.
In Revell's introductory year, 1956, they introduced an incredibly large number of items including 3 locomotives, and 7 different car types in multiple road names. All the additional items introduced in the succeeding 4 years of active production were pretty much just variations on the initial items with the exception of the 0-4-0 Switcher, which drew heavily on Varney assistance since the owner of Revell at that time also owned Varney. For this reason, you will find "Revell 1956" cast into the bottom of practically all Revell items, even those that were introduced in later years as they used the earlier chassis or body. In a similar manner you may find the catalog number of the first freight car using that body casting on the bottom of the casting. On diesel locomotives it would be the catalog number of the first locomotive of a given type and drive mechanism and it would be on the bottom of the power trucks. This would be true even though the specific car or locomotive has a different catalog number.
This stood for "lower center of Gravity" and indicated that the car had weight added to the model. Revell did this by adding a heavy cast detail part, which included a center beam, lateral supports and truck bolsters, to the bottom of the plastic body casting. The metal casting often had a fishbelly type of center beam which did extend lower than the weights of most other models of the time. Athearn used a metal sheet placed between the car bottom and the plastic bottom detail part, but in kits that was an extra item to add. Mantua used a cast frame which included what underbody details there were. Gilbert used metal frames on some cars, but others were unweighted. Varney plastic cars also appear for the most part to be unweighted. While they may not be the only manufacturer to weight cars, making it standard on all cars was an advance.