A Big Thank You to Thom Shepler, for the O Gauge lead figures!

Dave,

  Very nice. You have a nice assortment.

  I could only view the first 4 pictures though.

 Tom

Tom,

   Re-entered the pictures and added a couple more.

PCRR/Dave

Dave,

You did a great job on the painting. Are these all Barclay figures? Also, what did you use for the actual paint? Thanks for all the pictures. 

Tom

Very nice!  

Tom,

   These are original type lead poured O Gauge figures, that we made as children from the 40' thru the late 60's, I do not believe Barclay sells the equipment to make them, they may import some of the Japanese/Chinese knock offs however, I am not really sure.  I use the old Testers model paint, and I also used some of the newer FolkArt metallic paint for the depth you see on a few of the figures.

Norn,

   Thanks buddy, restoring these old features was not as easy as just painting the originals.  Still working on more of the old lead figures even now.

PCRR/Dave

The signalman, signals the on coming Train to stop for the oiler.

The oilers work bib, shows him to be one serious Oiler!  Further painting needs to be done on his stand also. His brown scarf, might need to go red.  The Signalman is complete however, right down to his black signal whistle.

Further work needs to be done on Charlie's Blue Pants & his stand needs to be repainted Green, the big guys face & hat and tie are complete, however his coat needs to be repainted a darker brown, and his stand need to be final painted, the walking business man needs his stand painted, and the thermos in his right hand, needs to be detailed also.  Lots of work still going on to restore these old figures.

3 Final upgraded figures.

Very Nice!   Good Painting Skills Too!

Chief Bob (Retired)

Chief Bob & Tom,

    Thanks much I appreciate the nice comments on the painting skills!  Wish my eyes were better however.  I really like these original poured lead figures, looks like I will be looking for more to restore in the future.

PCRR/Dave

Hi Dave, very nice collection of lead figures.  They add a finishing touch to any vintage/tinplate layout.

I can identify a few for you, some of the others I'm not so familiar with.

You are right that they are not Barclay.  Barclay and Manoil made lead figures here in the USA in the 1920's and 30's, but they were bigger, about 3" tall which is about 1:24 scale.  They fit well with Standard Gauge trains, as they were designed to.

The figures you have are about 2-1/8" or 2-1/4" tall, which is about 1:32 scale, which were originally designed to go with Gauge 1 trains.  They are in between the scales for Standard Gauge and O Gauge, so they can work for either.

Lead railroad figures were also made in 1:48 scale, about 1-1/4" tall, for use with O Gauge sets.

First off, these three are American made solid lead cast, made by the Lincoln Log Company; a conductor in the blue suit #33A, telegraph man #36A, and traveling businessman #38.  I believe there are a total of 6 different figures in this set made by Lincoln Logs, it's fun to look for the others:

This next one is also American made, by the Grey Iron Castings company this is one of a set of several railroad-related figures, and they also made both larger 3", and the smaller 1-1/4" figures. This is the Grey Iron #T1 Traveling Man:

Then the rest of these are British-made, lead cast figures.  They are the same 2-1/4" size, but being European, they are referred to as 54mm figures.

First up is Britains #501 Gentleman Farmer:

Then you have a porter carrying 4 bags, made by Timpo, another English company:

and then one of my favorites, an engineer in overalls with oiling can made by Crescent:

Last but by no means least, you have two figures that you call "clowns".  I did a double take and checked myself a few times, but it appears that what you have here are two of the figure made by Britains and called the #587, "Village Idiot".  These are hollow-cast lead from the 1930's, made in England.  You've hit the jackpot here.  I have looked for one for my collection for years, but have never seen one change hands for under a couple hundred dollars, and sometimes more than twice that.

If you have not gotten around to re-painting these yet, I would strongly advise you not to.  These are rare and valuable.  Google "Britains Village Idiot Figure" and see what you find.

have fun!

david

Nice work, that takes real patience to do such a good job. Real vintage lead figures !  Is there any special prep to help the paint stick best?

Hojack,

    You very well maybe correct, however they look to be the same molds we used as kids, I must have poured a hundred of them, and painted them in a similar manner.  They all came out of Thom's big box and I reworked them for my Christmas layout. Actually the little clown type (Village Idiot) girls were in perfect shape, when I got them, the man in the Tux was restored however.  

HoJack,

   You just got your English (Village Idiot), drop me your home address, I will send one of them to you no charge.  These are Toy cast figures for my Christmas layout, I only need one of them.  If you happen to have some of these Cast O Gauge type figures, I can purchase from you, let know.  I want a bunch more of them, hopefully different than the one's I already own.

PCRR/Dave

Ace,

    The only prep I did was descaling the chipped paint, and washing with Ivory Soap, Air Dried them, and started to paint, some took a couple coats of paint, being in rough shape, some restored right away.  I wish my Camera was a might better, my pictures really do not due them justice.  I do like how they came out in the end.

PCRR/Dave

I remember seeing some old lead figures with badly worn paint. I imagine they should be handled carefully because the soft lead probably makes the paint more prone to damage.

Ace,

    It all depends on the paint you use, the Testors Model Paint does a great job on them, and lasts for a long long time, the trick is to store them properly, when you take them off your layout.  Thom has some fantastic STD Gauge lead figures that he has done incredible detail painting on.  I was very lucky to be granted entrance to his Tin Plate World, and he allowed me to take a few pictures.  Thom also uses the Testors Paint, I made a point to ask him when I visited.

PCRR/Dave

Some of Thom's incredible STD Gauge figures, his detail painting is fantastic!s i

those look great Dave. I have a few of those, although a couple have not fared well over the years, loosing arms.

3 of the final painted lead O Gauge Figures.

Steamer,

David got to admit we were always pretty careful with ours, because we made them and painted them ourselves, don't even know what happened to all those cast figures, including the army men, have no idea where they went. I came home on leave one Christmas and they were all gone, had some pretty cool stuff in that big Tin Plate village box, hope somebody is really enjoying it.

PCRR/Dave 

They look good Dave.

Thom,

   Thanks much, I appreciate everything, I have been looking around for some more Lead O Gauge figures to repaint/restore, can't even believe what they want for them,  If you happen to run across more of them, at a reasonable cost, let me know, please.

PCRR/Dave

PCRR/Dave, nice restoration job on the figures. Glad you were able to obtain them. BTW, who made that "2008 Warm Wishes for the Holidays" boxcar you've added to your Hallmark Toymaker Santa Express train? Lionel, MTH?? Please list its item number? Also is the window scene lighted from within or simply painted on the side of the boxcar? Thanks!

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

  The figures came out pretty darn nice, especially for how old they happen to be.

PCRR/Dave 

 A Railroad Agent explains to the Bobby that the Clowns & Ring Master are Part of the USO Military Train Show.

 

 

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

3 of the final painted lead O Gauge Figures

Those are great-looking vintage figures, Dave. Are these figures that you could buy molds for at the time? The English  "village idiot" and gentleman farmer look like they walked out of an old Victorian cartoon. That one fella looks just like Charlie Chaplin.

 

Thom Shepler is one of the nicest persons you will ever meet.

FIREWOOD,

    The old Lead molds did not include the Brit Gentlemen Farmer, the Village Idiot or Charlie.  They were more like the original Lincoln Log lead figures, and the molds may have been originally sold by the Lincoln Log company back in that era.  We also had other molds like the paper boy, the Hobo, & the old Black Gentleman with his dog, sitting on the bench.  If I remember correctly there were actually 4 different multi molds, and one of them had 5 different WWI soldier.  This mold with the Soldiers came from my Grandfathers era, and had been handed down thru the family, for many generations.  We poured many Lead figures, for our big Christmas O Gauge Train layout, at the Boys Club.  It took a little skill to work the Lead molds correctly, and pour the Molten Lead at just the right time & temperature, to bring out all the different details on the lead molded figures, the great thing was if we messed up, we simply melted them down and re-cast them until we made them perfect.  I see lots of them being sold on e-bay now, that were never poured correctly, and the paint jobs are even worse.  Remember in my era this was a little boys toy, that taught a boy many different fine motor skills, including metal casting, deburing, filing, and painting.  My Father & Grandfather viewed this all as great education for us, including learning to read the written Engineering Instructions, which were most times seriously flawed by the company selling the mold making toys.   So my Father would rewrite them, so we would learn correct Engineering Terminology, even at a grade school age.  Choosing colors was very difficult for me, you see I am color blind in light yellow, which looks White to me and navy blue, which is Black to me.  Even though I can not see either color, I am 90% proficient at identify the colors because of this learning experience.  

PCRR/Dave

OGaugeGuy,

    The 2008 Warm Wishes Box Car is not lighted, although most people think it is.  I swear Angela T, did this Lionel Box Car.  It is the Lionel 25061 Box Car.  I just picked it up from one of our OGR members a couple weeks ago, the original box for this piece of rolling stock is missing.  The graphics on the Box Car are outstanding, just like looking thru a real lighted window.  I was lucky to purchase it from him at a more than reasonable price, because I could not find this Lionel Car anywhere else, at that time.

PCRR/Dave

Dave;

Beautiful work. I guess what impresses me most it the way your skillful painting has brought out so much detail in the original casting e.g. the buttons on the vest of the gentleman with the brown coat. As has been pointed out, with the softness of the lead, I am amazed that the fine detail remained so crisp.

Apples55,

    Paul although the original paint was a mess on the English Gentlemen Farmer, the lead was still perfect, I credit the company who made this and a few of the others, with some great lead pouring work, although I was able to bring out the fine detail with the good Testers paint, my eyes are not what they use to be for very fine work, Thom Shepler's painting skill is much finer than mine, in reality.    

PCRR/Dave

I really like the way the Signalman turned out however!  The depth no the Oiler turned out cool in the end also.