@Chuck Sartor posted:I am firmly in the camp it was not homemade. This is from a manufacturer. The station and platform roof fascia are bent from the roof stamping. Those were stamped from a pattern, not cut with tin sheers. It is put together too cleanly to be homemade back in the day. Schuco, or whatever the manufacturer Lionel imported from Germany in the 1900's. I'm sure the true origins will be discovered.
Given the limited nature and quality of the photos, I don't think that one can really say that it is put together too cleanly to be homemade. There were a lot of craftsmen back in the era who had access to many more tools than most of us have today. It certainly appears to be a good job, but it certainly could have been done by someone who worked with metals and had access to tooling.
One additional feature that leads me to believe it is a homemade item, is that the roof, chimney, and building sheet metal have the same corrugated pattern. This would lead me to believe that the individual who made this had limited access to sheet metal or limited funds to purchase such sheet metal.
Another very unusual feature of the building is that the chimney is attached to 2 different sections of the roof. This seems very unusual and I think is a further sign that this is homemade.
Further examination finds that the length of the roof edges on each end vary. I note that the edge of the roof on the end with the chimney is almost the same length as each of the sides, but the bend downward appears to occur at a higher point than the sides, and the edge of the roof on the end without the chimney is noticeably shorter than the sides on that end. This points to the fact that these pieces were not uniformly cut and stamped out by a press.
