The Strange Case of the Unfinished JEP Railroad Empire
About 6 months ago I did a buy-it-now on e-bay and became the latest curator of a boxed JEP train set from the late 1920’s/early 1930’s.
The pictures of the set indicated it was in excellent condition and, as near as I and the seller could tell everything was intact save the set box which was missing one end. As soon as the train arrived, I made it a point to manufacture and install a new box end.
At the time things were a bit hectic on the home front so the train hobby and this set in particular had to be put aside while more pressing issues were addressed. As usually happens, the home front eventually got back to normal and a few weeks ago I finally took the JEP set out to really look it over…and that’s when things really started to get interesting
Let’s start with the set box.
As you can see, from the box sides its original color was rose colored. As you can also see, at sometime in the past the set was stored where it was exposed to sun and the top color faded…but that top has some tales to tell. The top is crisscrossed with rose colored lines and it has a rectangular rose-colored patch on the left side. Two things are obvious – something sat on the left side of the box and blocked the sun’s efforts with respect to fading and someone at some point tied the box together with twine hence the lines and the shadow of the twine bow tie on the right side.
Lifting the lid we find three sheets glued to the underside – one a series of JEP instructions, one instructions for the #5470 locomotive and one with a series of track plans.
Because of what follows it is worth taking a closer look at the track diagram – the key point is the count of straight and curved track – a maximum count of 8 curved and 6 straight – the translation indicates these are some of the patterns you can make with the track in this set.
As I noted, after repairing the end of the box I put it aside so, except for a quick examination of the major components of the set (engine, two cars, rheostat) I left things like the track wrapped until later.
The set came with an additional pair of boxed manual switches and a boxed 90-degree crossover. Their boxes had been carefully crushed so that they would hold the switches and the crossover and also sit on top of the set under the lid and not interfere with anything.
When I got all of the track out and sorted, I found I had a lot more than 6 straight and only 5 curved tracks. I also noted one section of the box had more room than was needed for what curved track there was or would have been.
JEP made it a point to have tie-downs for everything in their set boxes and a close examination of the “roomy” storage section indicated tie-downs for what had to be missing components – more on this in a bit.
The last item in the box was a manila envelope with some papers. I just assumed they were more JEP instructions but when I pulled them out, I found something quite different – a torn and taped piece of writing paper with a letter head and three pieces of paper with track diagrams.
The letterhead is for a Doctor A. D---- with a street address of 109 Cours Emile Zola in Lyon, France.
The three pieces of paper all have the same basic track plan and the crayon writing and diagrams would suggest the dreams of empire of a very young man. The track is color coded and the sections labeled with the letters “C” and “D” most likely short for “courbe” and “droit” – curved and straight. In addition, the switches are labeled with red and green crayon…and when we look at the switches and there respective boxes we find
Hand color coding on the boxes to match the color of the flags on the switches.
But there’s more. One thing I noticed immediately was the careful attention to track detail for all of the track above the 90-degree crossing and, at best, just a vague suggestion of track details below the crossing. I though this lack of precision in what amounted to a young man’s detailed civil engineering plan to be curious to say the least.
So, with my predecessors’ instructions firmly in hand, I set about to rebuild the empire. I knew there would be a problem with curved track but that was a detail I figured I could just ignore. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered the detailed plan was indeed the layout!
In other words, it looks like trackage below the 90-degree crossing was a work in progress which was never completed. (Ignore the two stations – they are my addition to the empire – everything else was in the box)
The keen eyed amongst you will no doubt have noted the outer route between the switches is not JEP track – it’s Lionel. There is enough straight JEP track to take the place of the Lionel straight – the issue is the need for 5 more pieces of JEP banked curve. The reason I didn’t mix the JEP and the Lionel track is the pins on the JEP track are just a little too big to insert into the Lionel track.
Since there had to have been at least 8 curved in the original set it is obvious some of it went missing – most likely when the set box was damaged.
The other thing that is almost certainly missing is a 4-wheel JEP postal car. My JEP reference for the 1929/1930 period indicates sets with the #5470 were three car sets – the good news is I recently found a correct replacement and it is on its way. One can only assume this too was a casualty of the set box damage.
…and one last thing.
The three pieces of paper with the track diagrams are actually tickets to a charity sale at the church of St. Madeleine. A check of Google maps indicates the church is in the neighborhood of 109 Emile Zola…and this is where speculation can run rampant and questions come fast and furious.
Are the charity tickets and the set connected? Was the set perhaps something that was bought at the charity sale or is this just a case of a random assembly of a train set and some paper for a child to map out his dreams? What were the circumstances that appear to have led to a situation of no track below 90 degrees? …and on and on. 1930 was a long time ago and I’m sure I’ll never know.
What I do know is I am going on the hunt for at least 5 more pieces of the correct JEP curved track to complete the young man’s vision and I’m going to build the planned Paris extension (the main station is obviously Lyon – Paris is that station in the background) above the 90-degree crossing using Lionel curved track (the JEP and the Lionel 0-31 are a very close match). I won’t try to run the high voltage engine but I have any number of other trains I’m sure would be interested in making a high speed run between Lyon and Paris.
P.S. In case you were wondering - here's the Google street view of 109 Emile Zola
!!!
I believe it is from 1938 due to the lighter yellow, green window shades on the coach\observation cars, and the black XIIId style trucks. The third picture is of my 1936 power unit to show the color difference. I am a bit confused though, shouldn't it have at least one more 1636 coach? The stack on top has some crazing but is solid. You can see the screw hole used to mount the whistle assembly on earlier models below the porthole windows on the power unit.
