Buy/Make Anything Cool Lately (Tinplate Version)

Today, I made a little headway in the train room. Last month I obtained 4 ea. 19"long pieces of Aluminum Glenn Snyder Standard Gauge Shelving from good friend Steve Eastman. Good friend and neighbor Bob Tomey milled the ends for that perfect fit, after cutting down to 16-3/4".

The manufacturer has been out of stock on Standard Gauge size for several months ,due to current Aluminum Shortages.
However, I was able to purchase Connecting Pins and End Caps. Pins were difficult, as they were much softer than originally thought, so it took some finesse going in and staying.
I have 3"long pins arriving Monday. These will go in at opposite corners with 100 lb Fishing Line tied between. This will prevent a 30lb Locomotive from taking a 7 ft dive to floor, should we have a Earthquake!

Joe Gozzo

I just picked up a bunch of signals, etc. - even more than pictured here

New Marx - prototype and production - I've had the prototype for awhile - the production version is a recent addition.

@Robert S. Butler posted:

New Marx - prototype and production - I've had the prototype for awhile - the production version is a recent addition.

I have to ask, which is the prototype? Right or Left?

Lionelski,

What are those upright "control panels" in your second picture?

I don't know what they do, . . . but I gotta have one!

Mannyrock

  Sorry about that - prototype on the left, production on the right

Two Cool Kühlwagen's

  Quite some time ago I purchased a KBN 8-wheel Kühlwagen. This car was made with and without the litho detail of a polar bear which appeared on the car door.    Other than the polar bear, the litho is relatively plain - the car name "Kühlwagen" on either side of the car door, reporting marks in the lower left hand corner, and an interesting border consisting of an orange and a blue line around the perimeter of the car side.

  Recently, I purchased a 4 wheel Kühlwagen made by Adolf Schuhmann. With the exception of the door litho treatment one's initial impression of the lithography is the two cars are identical

However, a closer inspection shows the lithography of the two cars to be different.

Let's start with the reporting marks.

The most obvious difference is the identification of home-München for Adolf Schuhmann and Augsburg for KBN.  The car numbers are, not surprisingly, different - 1520 and 27001. Both have the same black and white box with its geometric patterns.  The indistinct text above the box is close to identical "Rad", "Lade", "Trag", and "Gew.d W." but Adolf put more effort into making the numbers that followed the text legible.

  If we take a look at the car ends we can see the different locations for the manufacturer logos and we can also note the differences in the border outlines.

  Adolf Schuhmann has a border with an internal orange line and an external blue line whereas KBN has the reverse color combination.  When it comes to the corners of the border design we see Adolf Schuhmann chose to have the jagged design pointing out whereas the KBN design has the jagged portion pointing in.

  It's my understanding (Arne, correct me if I'm wrong) that the two cars were manufactured about the same time (mid to late 1930's).  At this late date, the similarities of litho style and color make me wonder if we aren't looking at an attempt to imitate, without exactly copying, what was determined to be a litho treatment popular with the buying public.  I find the similar but different litho treatment of the cars very interesting.

P.S.  I did a little rummaging around on the internet last night and it looks like, in addition to making their own designs for boxcars, Schuhmann made a number of cars that were close approximations to the litho style of the then current KBN cars so their Kühlwagen was not a one off lookalike. 

@Robert S. Butler posted:

Two Cool Kühlwagen's

  Quite some time ago I purchased a KBN 8-wheel Kühlwagen. This car was made with and without the litho detail of a polar bear which appeared on the car door.    Other than the polar bear, the litho is relatively plain - the car name "Kühlwagen" on either side of the car door, reporting marks in the lower left hand corner, and an interesting border consisting of an orange and a blue line around the perimeter of the car side.

  Recently, I purchased a 4 wheel Kühlwagen made by Adolf Schuhmann. With the exception of the door litho treatment one's initial impression of the lithography is the two cars are identical

However, a closer inspection shows the lithography of the two cars to be different.

Let's start with the reporting marks.

The most obvious difference is the identification of home-München for Adolf Schuhmann and Augsburg for KBN.  The car numbers are, not surprisingly, different - 1520 and 27001. Both have the same black and white box with its geometric patterns.  The indistinct text above the box is close to identical "Rad", "Lade", "Trag", and "Gew.d W." but Adolf put more effort into making the numbers that followed the text legible.

  If we take a look at the car ends we can see the different locations for the manufacturer logos and we can also note the differences in the border outlines.

  Adolf Schuhmann has a border with an internal orange line and an external blue line whereas KBN has the reverse color combination.  When it comes to the corners of the border design we see Adolf Schuhmann chose to have the jagged design pointing out whereas the KBN design has the jagged portion pointing in.

  It's my understanding (Arne, correct me if I'm wrong) that the two cars were manufactured about the same time (mid to late 1930's).  At this late date, the similarities of litho style and color make me wonder if we aren't looking at an attempt to imitate, without exactly copying, what was determined to be a litho treatment popular with the buying public.  I find the similar but different litho treatment of the cars very interesting.

If you look at the corners of the border lines, you will note a different design as well, both on the ends and on the sides.  The squiggly lines have differing designs.  The larger car has lines that go generally inward only, where the smaller car has lines that approximate a corner of the square/rectangle (lines go generally inward and outward forming an approximate square).

Interesting in how close the litho designs are, otherwise.

A couple pieces found at York this past Friday:

Nothing too exciting. I have a Dorfan observation to go with the coach, but its paint is even worse. Perhaps it will make a good candidate(s) for a refurbishment.

PD

Back in June I mentioned my having recently acquired the earliest version of the Bing Kalkwagen which, when added to my other two gave me an interesting lineup of the evolution of that little car - first version - hand painted complete with lime (kalk) dust weathering and operating side door and top hatches.  The second car was also hand painted and hand weathered but the car sides were now just embossed to give the suggestion of a side door and there was a single operating roof hatch on one side.  The third car was all litho complete with lithoed weathering and had just a single operating roof hatch.

I posted this lineup

Recently I purchased a small group of Bing cars.  Included in the group was a Kalkwagen that looked to be nothing more than a slightly later version of the middle car.  The middle car couplers are circa 1908 whereas the car in the group had couplers circa 1912.  The painted finish looked to be a combination of hand and spray painting.  Since my main interest was in the other cars I didn't give the Kalkwagen too much thought.  However, that changed after it arrived.

New Arrival

When you put the two cars side-by-side it is easy to see the differences

The overall painting of the new arrival is much smoother than the ca. 1908 car and the paint stippling to simulate lime dust has given way to a light over spray of paint.  However the big surprise is the treatment of the car roof hatches.

As you can see both sides of the later car open and are hinged to a piece of wire which runs the length of the car and is soldered to either end.  So, instead of getting a duplicate of an existing car I wound up with an unexpected variation.

  By the way - it looks like a number of the German toy train manufacturers weathered their Kalkwagens.  I've found pictures of weathered Fandor cars and Adolf Schuhmann made sure his Kalkwagen lithography included lime dust.

Adolf Schuhmann Kalkwagen

  If you go in search of pictures of real Kalkwagens it is easy to see why - even cars that appear to be otherwise new construction are thoroughly coated with dust.

A fleet enlargement of Dorfan Std freights arrived in the past week. 7 total.

Steve

Greetings comrades!

Here is my York find (actually had arranged it in advance)...  Soviet set - wanted one for years and finally got it.  Mostly in VG to E condition, everything is there except for the instruction manual, the crate label, and a few of the individual boxes.  Transformer looks like new - it would be really cool to use it, but I'm not that brave (or stupid).  I briefly put the engine on the track, and it runs.

Restored lumber loads and tie-downs to two Flyer flats, courtesy of Joe Mania:

My new old Ultra Rare variation LMAO backyard Chromed 265E showed up.  Was a little grungy but was able to give it a little rub with a rag and some Mothers Mag wheel polish and nothing more than a spray of tuner cleaner on E unit and it seems to run good.  It'll get a bit more cleaning but not bad so far.  I will run it with a set of Chrome 2613/4/5 Chrome cars with it and put the 618/619 with a correct 1935 Black 265E and 261TX.

Wow, Dennis, that is really sharp. When you say "backyard", I presume it went to a shop for a pro plating job?

I have no idea where it got plated.  IT has a restored Tinplate TCA sticker on it.  It's not perfect by any stretch. There are yellow shadows in a few areas, reccesses and corners etc.

Well, the loco looks brilliant in the photos. TCA restore, lol.

@Dennis Holler posted:

I have no idea where it got plated.  IT has a restored Tinplate TCA sticker on it.  It's not perfect by any stretch. There are yellow shadows in a few areas, reccesses and corners etc.

Dennis,

  Very nice pick-up...The bigger issue is how do you possibly have room to run it with so many other locomotives, trains and all of your parts?

Tom

@PRR8976 posted:

Dennis,

  Very nice pick-up...The bigger issue is how do you possibly have room to run it with so many other locomotives, trains and all of your parts?

Tom

Well, I do have a constant mess to deal with..... so It isn't easy lol

A tough to find all-original blue AFMCo. No. 4010 Wide Gauge tank car was added recently to the Flyer fleet. A sharp, correctly stamped OB was included in the acquisition. Also, a nice No. 4367 Shasta w/OB to pull my Wide Gauge freights was added. Except for being re-wheeled, it is all original and runs very well, including the reverse, headlights, and bell.

Bob