I took down my two Hafner sets down from the top shelf and got them ready for some track time! First, my prewar Hafner 1010 streamlined steam engine with its questionably-period menagerie of cars. I think that the engine, tender and gondola are from the same set since they have similar wear, but the caboose is probably from some other set.
I bought this along with a box of assorted Hafner on a whim a few years ago. I couldn't get it to run at all until I figured out the secret to success with clockworks-- heavy-handed lubrication of every axle and gear on the whole train!
This engine runs a little stiff, but it does still run!
I also have this neat postwar Hafner set. This is one of the few vintage sets that I own with an original box lid. I don't really care much for train paper but I do like box art when it's something worth looking at.
This set is headed up by a Hafner 2000 locomotive in an interesting black and red livery. I read a TCA website with a page on Hafner trains a while back that suggested that these engines were primarily made in the immediate postwar period, just before the Wyandotte buyout in the early 1950s.
The set included this neat ATSF boxcar with a clever slide-open door. This is one of my favorite Hafner cars, it's really nicely made with some nice lithography. It had a mysterious rattle when I first picked it up, and after some effort I extracted this mysterious wooden block from inside of it. I would like to think that Hafner included some little wooden blocks to tuck into their boxcars, but more likely this is some unrelated toy that a curious kid inserted into the doors many years ago. Anyone else seen these blocks before?
I wound up this set and started it off on the layout. Unfortunately, this engine has a questionable regulator and the bell clapper tends to catch on the Fastrack switches when moving at speed. By the time I remembered this I witnessed the most horrible sight imaginable in the train room: a locomotive plunging to the floor! Thankfully the strategically placed thick carpets protected the lightweight 70-year-old engine from any noticeable harm.
I've been slowly constructing a little layout to run my fat-wheeled Marx and prewar Flyer on. I call it the Lower Deck since, quite naturally, it is tucked underneath my "main" layout. I set the speedy Hafner up down there and cut it loose for a whirl. You can hear the bell clapper striking on some of the track switches as it spins around.
Hope you all have a nice weekend and don't be like my Hafner #2000, keep them all on the rails!
