Hello Tin-Plate World .
Diamonds may be a girls best friend.....but for my money "Black Diamonds" are where it's at.
Arthur H Hudson took over design and supervision at Ives in 1925 and produced some of the most beautifully proportioned , elegant, handsome, stunning tinplate trains ever to grace the rails .
Arthur designed the 1122 & cars plus it's standard gauge big brother ( 1134) ...and prototype set of cars 22" in length!.. Unfortunately after the 1134 hit the market in early 1928 Ives was bankrupt .... and Hudson's lovely matching cars were never put into production . The bankruptcy forced Ives into the hands of Lionel and Flyer. For 3 years the transitional or "occupation" period of Ives using the best of Flyer and Lionel bodies pulled by Ives engines in stunning colors produced some of the most beautiful standard gauge trains ever made.
If you love Ives consider joining the Ives Society at http://www.ivestrains.org/
they have a marvelous web site that you can spend hours with researching and learning .
Also consider buying the book "Made in the Ives Shops" by Gerald Robinson currently available on ebay to learn more about Ives and Arthur Hudson.
Here we have a 1930 Ives Black Diamond JR .... glossy black cars and red engine sporting gold spoke drivers and rods ! The red engine was to mirror the red 1134 pulling the National Limited , prior years ( 1928&29 ) a black more demure 1122 pulled the set .
I've 
the engine for 10 + years in search of cars...the cars recently came from a gentlemen who had them for 30 years in search of an engine ....the marriage was made ,a bit of cleaning and oil ... and around the track she goes...circling the Black Diamond standard gauge cars ...in search of a 1134.
Cheers Carey
