Buy/Make Anything Cool Lately (Tinplate Version)

PD: What a great castle and tunnel for the layout. Thanks for your construction notes as well. Not sure I would ever attempt such a project but it’s fun to know how it was done. Hey what about that engine exiting the tunnel. My guess was either the Lionel “Harry Poter” engine or a Hornsby LMS tank.

Thanks for posting

Don

@Mark S. posted:

This nice Marx Commodore Vanderbilt locomotive followed me home from the local train shop today. It runs great, of course.

Even if it didn't run it would be an attractive art deco display piece

Mark,

I love that short video of your layout and the Marx run-by, plus the track ballasting. Do you have any more photos of your layout you can post? I am always looking for inspiration!

Thanks!

John

Thanks Don...fun project.

The loco is a prewar Marklin 970.

PD

Here is my latest acquisition the large 0/1 Gauge Kibri 48-20 signal bridge. What a monster -- 44 cm long. Fortunately I still had a bit of room on my layout.  But I think it's the end for any further large structures.  Enjoy the photos.  Lew Schneider

@John Smatlak posted:

Russian-made "Moskobel" O gauge diesel locomotive of the 1950's. Quite an interesting piece, and a real brute, weighing in at 6 pounds, 2 oz. Luckily there is a good amount of info on the internet about these, starting with the TCA page:  http://www.tcawestern.org/moskobel.htm (note also the links down at the bottom of that page). After a clean and lube, it runs, although some additional tweaking is needed to get all the wheels to sit squarely on the track (the way the couplers protrude through their slots is giving the idler trucks a bit of "lift" that they don't need), and to take out a little bit of a lean to one side. A short video clip is included, enjoy!

And is that a Ralstoy Allied semi in the last picture?

@Forty Rod posted:

And is that a Ralstoy Allied semi in the last picture?

That is a Grimland  (crazy name for a toy company eh?) Allied van, with the incorrect tractor. Great colors!

Thanks, PD, for the additional info and photos. I had sort of forgotten about paper mache as well. It was used for a lot of tunnels, pre-plastic, and is easy to do and would look right at home on a tinplate layout. Great job!

Thanks, Will, it was a lot of fun while cooped up in the house. I was thinking that the base, with a few modifications, could make a great stand for a small (four-foot or less) artificial Christmas tree.

PD

Ralstoy came out of Nebraska and had a lot of really nice metal tractor-trailer rigs (and possibly tractor and trailers sold separately) for awhile.  Their later stuff looks like painted wood block, nbut is still usable way back.  I'm always on the look out for the early rigs, but will take what I can find.

This is the first I have heard of Ralstoy.  Are the trucks and cars pretty close to O gauge?  Where can I find more information?

Northwoods Flyer

@Greg J. Turinetti I also hadn't heard of them, so I did a search on Ebay and found a lot. Like Forty Rod said, mostly trucks and in the 1950s or 60s.  Details and windows printed on.  Those are pretty reasonable. Seem like they would work with O scale. The few early pieces were pricy.

@Greg J. Turinetti posted:

This is the first I have heard of Ralstoy.  Are the trucks and cars pretty close to O gauge?  Where can I find more information?

Northwoods Flyer

I'm guessing that they are bit small for O gauge, more like S.  The details aren't much to shout about, but they are great for back on the layout a ways or if ....like me.....you are running O-27 Marx toy trains, they will work.  I'm not above running very detailed stuff alongside  something that has a shape sort of like the real thing, and I really like Marx lithograpy and some other painted on details.

I received my restored display and conversation AF piece. It looks great and smells like fresh paint. Ha. I’m prewar focused right now. Mostly unrestored. I have no permanent layout and this is a temporary layout to play with all of this crazy in the interim. Lionel JLC GG1 and a PRSL passenger car in the background.

Wow, that is nice!

PD

I’m pretty excited about a (hopefully) nice prewar Std Lionel No. 8e with the original box in olive green. I purchased it over the weekend. It might arrive before the weekend. Or not. Shipping lately has been problematic. I’ll share some photos when it arrives.

Why wait. Here is what I hope arrives. Fingers crossed!

Wow!  "Comrade Smatlak" what a great toy loco from the Soviet era.  As the "wall began to come down and relationships with the US began to warm, I was privileged to be part of an "official delegation" to the USSR.  We rode from Leningrad to Moscow on a train pulled by an engine very similar to yours (only green with red trim).  Unfortunately for a railfan, railroads were considered "defense systems" and photographs were not allowed.

I was going over some of the items in my collection and I found this guy siting on my shelf, looking rather lonely.  So just for fun I got him out and took some pictures.  Don't be fooled by his red color, although the 114 in his same year did come in red, he was originally orange as is shown on the underside....some young man in the day wanted a red car and Dad or Grandad accommodated that with (old fashioned heavy enamel) paint.  Anyway here he is, just for fun.

Unfortunately the couplers are missing and so is the brakewheel. However,  the trucks are original, are properly (iaw Greenbergs nomenclature) 100 Series Type 5 trucks and he has both his sliding doors.  This car was made between 1915 and 1917.

The neatest thing about this fellow is his underside.  First it shows that the original color of the car was orange ( which is OK as car came in orange from the factory in same years), but the next part is the neat historical part.  The bottom is embossed and (again IAW Greenbergs text on Standard Gauge) Lionel abandoned embossing about 1916.  More importantly it is embossed " Lionel Manufacturing Company" which is a pretty solid dating characteristic.  According to Ron Hollander in "All Aboard", Lionel Mfg Co became the Lionel Corporation on 22 July 1918.  So this clearly sets this fellow at being made sometime from 1915 -1916.

What made this fellow so special to me was that he was a "host" gift to me from a friend of mine from NASA who came to our house for dinner in the 90's.  So here is a toy train, from the earliest days of aviation (both Wright bros were still alive and active in 1917) given to me by an engineer then working on human space travel.  COOL!

Best wishes

Don

A few Mccoy items received Sunday. A Diner, and a TCA TROLLEY. Love them both

Joe Gozzo

New to the stable. MTH Ives 3243R.

Steve

Don, I've always been partial to the Moskabel station

@Robert S. Butler posted:

Don, I've always been partial to the Moskabel station

I passed on one of those at York about 3 years ago because it was missing the sign.  Asking price was about $100 IIRC.  Still kicking myself.

Robert:  WOW! Your posts really amaze me. What a find. OBTW the actual Moscow station was quite something much like US major terminals in the peak of the passenger era and (at least when I was there in 1983) extremely busy. Did you know that the connecting underground subway stations featured crystal chandeliers!!

Don

Don,  Thanks for the compliment.

   Shortly after the cold war thaw one of the sellers at York set up a table with everything Moskabel for sale.  He said he had made connections with someone in Russia who had access to all of the set parts that had not been assembled into sets and were sitting in some warehouse.  I looked over what he had and asked if he had a complete set for sale.  He said he didn't but, except for the original set box,  it would be easy enough to assemble one right there right now...so we did and I came home with a lighter wallet and a heavier car.

Joe,

Is that McCoy Diner you have, the TCA convention version from Seattle?  If so, my wife also has one which she won at the Seattle TCA convention.  Each table at the Banquet had a special McCoy Diner as the major table prize.

We had met the McCoys and toured their “factory” earlier in the convention.  Sherry was quite taken with both the McCoy family and their neat line of trains.  Sherry always made it a point to catch up with Margaret for a chat at  future conventions.  

We both love the look and feel of tinplate and Standard gauge, but I am a lifelong American Flyer S gauger, and we never had enough room to pursue a second, even larger collecting gauge.  Even so, she has never let me forget the that the piece is HER Diner.  

To this day, our entire Standard Gauge collection consists of her Diner and a McCoy convention boxcar that Margaret donated and Sherry “won” in a silent auction at a subsequent toy train convention.

Cheers!

Alan

@Robert S. Butler posted:

Don, I've always been partial to the Moskabel station

The stations translation is "Pioneer".

It's an unlikely marriage but hey, who's perfect. The Bing tower originally came with an airplane on a fulcrum arrangement and vice versa, the Marx zeppelin as well. Having neither piece(s) to complete the items, figured I'd make something whimsical. It came out ok IMO and didn't hurt the tower. The zeppelin was coming apart anyway (one of the reasons I chose it) so soldered a small brass tube so it could swivel on the tower mast. Not quite sure how passengers will disembark but that's left to the imagination 😁

Nice @John H. Shetler!

This beautiful American Flyer Broadway Limited set from 1927 arrived a few days ago.  I don't believe the motor has ever been taken apart since it was initially assembled in 1927.  All 4 tabs holding the body to the frame are present, the original wheels are present with no zinc pest, and the wiring looks to be original.  Unfortunately, it does not run, so I am going to have to service it with new springs, brushes, and any wiring that may need replacement. 

It is a step-up from the set that was in my collection.

NWL

NWL:  What a fabulous set!!  I have some similar coaches / baggage but of course without the "Broadway Limited" logo just car numbers and no matching engine.  Hope you get it running, maybe make a little video to to share what it looks like in motion when you get it going.

Best Regards

Don

@Robert S. Butler posted:

This Marklin schlafwagen was delivered to the passenger car shops at Ophir recently. Now all I need are the correct personenwagen, speisewagen and an appropriate engine to go with it and I'll have another passenger train.

I know a family who found the corosponding set in the attic. Two of these coaches and a 1020 R for only 1200 who are looking for a new owner. whats your email?

@Don McErlean posted:

NWL:  What a fabulous set!!  I have some similar coaches / baggage but of course without the "Broadway Limited" logo just car numbers and no matching engine.  Hope you get it running, maybe make a little video to to share what it looks like in motion when you get it going.

Best Regards

Don

Don,

I also have the variation without the Broadway Limited on the cars .  Oddly, my set without the Broadway Limited lettering came in a setbox that was labeled Empire Express.  Not sure if the cars without the Broadway Limited were a special for Penney's/Empire Express sets or not.  Note the baggage car with the set below is lettered in the upper left corner and the correct baggage car for the Broadway Limited set is unlettered in the upper left corner.  Again, not sure as to the reasoning for the variation.

NWL

NWL  ... American Flyer strikes again !!   I will check my cars and send some pictures to see if we can compare.  Since I just have the cars and no set, its questionable if they were ever a "set" but I will send my data along anyway for your comparison.

Still...beautiful set.  I  bet that the young person who relieved that set in 1927 thought that Santa was the best dude in the world!! I got my first set 20 years after him, at age 3, in 1947.

Don

Berkshire - what's the old saying - when it rains it pours.  I'm actually in the process of negotiating for the remainder of this set so I'll pass but thanks for thinking of me.

I’ve had the red LCT Presidential loco for a while. Now have the cars. Where did I put the engine?

Steve

I get a little forgetful too. Lol. That is sure one pretty layout. I like the look. Nicely done!

NWL :  to continue our discussion of your Broadway Limited set, I gathered up my similar cars and have pictured them below.  My "set" (so the observation car tail sign) says..."Flyer Limited".  Here are the cars I have.

First the 1205 Baggage.  Reads "American Railway Express" at top left and "United States Mail / Railway Post Office" on two lines at lower right.  No train name at all and neither does it say American Flyer anywhere.

Here are the 1306 Pullman and 1207 Observation car. IAW the reference material I have , both date to the same time period of 1925-1927.  They say "American Flyer Lines" over the windows . They have lights so are illuminated with power pickup on the trucks.

Here is the tail sign on the observation car, reading "Flyer Limited".  I do not have an engine and although my memory is not certain on this point, I doubt that I obtained them all at once.  Likely I acquired the coach and obs car at one point and then added the baggage car.  All are "train show" finds (Remember those ).  So I cannot validate that these ever were components of the same set.

Best Regards

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

NWL :  to continue our discussion of your Broadway Limited set, I gathered up my similar cars and have pictured them below.  My "set" (so the observation car tail sign) says..."Flyer Limited".  Here are the cars I have.

First the 1205 Baggage.  Reads "American Railway Express" at top left and "United States Mail / Railway Post Office" on two lines at lower right.  No train name at all and neither does it say American Flyer anywhere.

Here are the 1306 Pullman and 1207 Observation car. IAW the reference material I have , both date to the same time period of 1925-1927.  They say "American Flyer Lines" over the windows . They have lights so are illuminated with power pickup on the trucks.

Here is the tail sign on the observation car, reading "Flyer Limited".  I do not have an engine and although my memory is not certain on this point, I doubt that I obtained them all at once.  Likely I acquired the coach and obs car at one point and then added the baggage car.  All are "train show" finds (Remember those ).  So I cannot validate that these ever were components of the same set.

Best Regards

Don

Don,

Those cars are not the Broadway Limited cars.  The Broadway Limited cars pictured in my 2 posts, both are lettered Pennsylvania above the windows, one set with Broadway Limited below the windows and one set without lettering below the windows.  My cars are also more of a maroon/brown color than yours, which are red. 

The time frame of your cars is likely 1925-1926 and your cars likely came with either a black 1218 engine or a black painted 3011 or 3012 engine.

Those cars would have came as a set, even if you did not acquire them as a set.

NWL

NWL:  Thank you for the response.  Now I know what engine to look for to make up my "set".  Your set (sets) are beautiful what a great find.

Respectfully,  Don

When you buy your train equipment piecemeal you can come up with all kinds of interesting "sets" -

I believe this set is circa 1926

Cars from the Prairie State set: (Cataloged with a clock work steamer)

Here is my version of the Broadway Limited Set

I am still looking for a set of cars like NWL's set with PENNSYLVANIA above the windows a darker (black?) roof and no "Broadway Limited" below the windows.

Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby

Northwoods Flyer

Greg:  Wow, I agree you can have lots of sets.  It looks like my red "set" that I pictured in my response to NWL has the same cars as the one your labeled as "circa 1926" but I don't have a loco.  I also have a similar set to your orange "Seattle" car set , but I am missing the observation car that you pictured.  You mentioned that it came with a clockwork steam loco and here is the set below as I found it with a type 11 clockwork loco but missing the top of the box so I can't confirm that it didn't come with the observation.

Pre-war flyer O'gauge is really fun figuring out what came with what.

Don