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Nothing as exotic as all this neat stuff but did buy a few things yesterday in West Virginia at a small shop full of "Good old Boys".  A guy had a Lionel logging set, box looked new but from the Michigan era, I think. Had a steam tank engine, a Forney with 3 dumping log cars & caboose. I wanted it but he wanted to sell more so I ended up getting two pretty nice Lionel 2034s. After I hit them with  CDC solvent they run good. Still have to clean them & lube. No sure what I will do with them. The Forney looks new, has smoke and a"whistle" plus traction tires-a first for me. I have some funky On3 freight cars with Lionel trucks on them and maybe an old passenger car on the rear as a caboose. I got a nice red caboose with the set. Went to a much bigger antique mall and bought two pre-war Lionel Standard gauge signals. One a semaphore. WE  ate a good meal at a Cracker Barrel anticipating a nap when we got home but that didn't happen. A water line by the oil furnace sprung a leak spraying water all over.  It is an oil-fired boiler and a hot water heating system. Called  plumber who came right away and it was fixed in 30 mins. Amazing. The young man knew what he was doing.

  Logging and Michigan was once like bread and butter. 

Not being defensive, but very much curious Jim; likely just a fluke of words that can be read various ways but... Is there anything wrong with items from Mich.?  (" it is what it is ", good or bad...just curious if it is bad for a reason.)

(I finally removed that tender from my 4x9.  Now it's running on a carpet central (thanks again )

And once Michigan was pretty much clear-cut, they went North and West.

I figured it was an origin ID, but had to ask. 

Gramps worked some of the remaining camps in the summers as a teen in Canada and Mich UP from 1926 till about 31 or 32 when he landed a full time steel mill job "down south" here in Detroit where he was schooled.

samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I thought the figures were Bob McCoy and Bob Jr. I can't find any online reference to back me up right now. I think it is a western style, long overcoat, not a lab coat. The farming and western themes match some of the other McCoy train themes. The characters can certainly be described as whimsical!

George

George S posted:
Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I thought the figures were Bob McCoy and Bob Jr. I can't find any online reference to back me up right now. I think it is a western style, long overcoat, not a lab coat. The farming and western themes match some of the other McCoy train themes. The characters can certainly be described as whimsical!

George

In the book From A Chicken Coop to Model Trains, it says the #45 hand cars were made from 1980 to 84, then again in 1987. The figures were all hand painted, so no two were exactly alike. No reference to the figures being patterned after anyone.

Steve

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:
George S posted:
Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I thought the figures were Bob McCoy and Bob Jr. I can't find any online reference to back me up right now. I think it is a western style, long overcoat, not a lab coat. The farming and western themes match some of the other McCoy train themes. The characters can certainly be described as whimsical!

George

In the book From A Chicken Coop to Model Trains, it says the #45 hand cars were made from 1980 to 84, then again in 1987. The figures were all hand painted, so no two were exactly alike. No reference to the figures being patterned after anyone.

Steve

Knew I could rely on you Steve! TCA Western says something similar. Not sure where I saw the reference to one of the figures being Bob McCoy.

George

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:
George S posted:
Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I thought the figures were Bob McCoy and Bob Jr. I can't find any online reference to back me up right now. I think it is a western style, long overcoat, not a lab coat. The farming and western themes match some of the other McCoy train themes. The characters can certainly be described as whimsical!

George

In the book From A Chicken Coop to Model Trains, it says the #45 hand cars were made from 1980 to 84, then again in 1987. The figures were all hand painted, so no two were exactly alike. No reference to the figures being patterned after anyone.

Steve

Steve,

Arno had several of these hand cars in his collection and you are absolutely correct, no two were painted the same.  As I recall, not all the figures were the same either.

Bob Nelson

Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I get it, not very "train" related I guess for the two guys but they are fun to watch, the coat looks like an old west style coat but it has a purpose to cover the hinge in his hips. The passenger is drinking milk, eating a sandwich and has a banana in his lunch box. His head goes back and forth as it goes around the track. I'll try to get some better pictures this weekend

navy.seal posted:
Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:
George S posted:
Adriatic posted:
samdjr74 posted:

I bought this little guy as a Christmas present to me. It's one of two McCoy pieces I really want to get my hands on, the other is the Wapid Wabbit

Best part is, it runs great! Just needed a little lube

 

A very cool piece. I like the figures though I find them curiously "random". Like there is a story to go with it I don't know about... like what's the passenger got... milk and crackers? And whats up with the "lab coat"? ... A pharmacist and a guy with milk of magnesia? Nice whimsy, but the figures seem almost out of place to me.

I think a cowboy hat on the standing figure might have me thinking western trenchcoat, but I only see lab coat right now.  (not sayin' I'm not jealouse )

I thought the figures were Bob McCoy and Bob Jr. I can't find any online reference to back me up right now. I think it is a western style, long overcoat, not a lab coat. The farming and western themes match some of the other McCoy train themes. The characters can certainly be described as whimsical!

George

In the book From A Chicken Coop to Model Trains, it says the #45 hand cars were made from 1980 to 84, then again in 1987. The figures were all hand painted, so no two were exactly alike. No reference to the figures being patterned after anyone.

Steve

Steve,

Arno had several of these hand cars in his collection and you are absolutely correct, no two were painted the same.  As I recall, not all the figures were the same either.

Bob Nelson

Funny thing is years ago I was talking to Arno about them. He told me they were always a little "quirky". When I got this one the front wheels were seized up from rust and the motor smoked. A little lube fixed it but I can see it as somewhat fragile.

Last edited by samdjr74
Robert S. Butler posted:

DMESTAN - your set is a Rainbow.  The 1927 version did not come with an observation.  As for an exact match with respect to car lithography - I wouldn't worry too much about that.  I've seen a number of boxed Rainbow sets over the years. Sometimes the litho treatment of the cars in the box match the catalog cut and sometimes they don't.

Catalog cut for 1927

1927_Rainbow_Set

 For example - the set below was boxed and the set label was "Rainbow".  The car frames were consistent with the 1927 time frame but except for the engine and the fact that one of the passenger cars is blue (wrong window configuration - according to the catalog) and the other does share the window treatment and the color orange with the other car you would have to squint pretty hard to convince yourself that the catalog and the box contents are the match.

 

Thanks for the info Robert!

So do you think this is a 1927 set? 

Don

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