Do we have any Clockwork(wind up) tinplate fans here? Lets see your CW trains

How about these 3? A Marklin "Stephenson" circa 1920, a Bing for Bassett Lowke GWR Sydney, circa 1904, and a Carette Peckett saddle tank circa 1910, all O gauge.

Cheers, Mark

Mark,

I answer with a Märklin Bowen Cooke ca 1915

a Bing for BL City of  Bath ca1912

a Bing for BL LSWR M7 ca 1907

and I raise you a Bing for BL Caledonian Dunalistair ca 1912

Cheers

Roland

Droool!  

rdigilio posted:

Mark,

I answer with a Märklin Bowen Cooke ca 1915

 

a Bing for BL City of  Bath ca1912

 

a Bing for BL LSWR M7 ca 1907

 

and I raise you a Bing for BL Caledonian Dunalistair ca 1912

Cheers

Roland

Wow- love that Bing for BL Caledonian Dunalistair

Thanks John,

I looked for that one for a long time!

Roland

Station Masters has a Midland Railway "Johnson Spinner" 4-2-2 clockwork.  I know that one is a rare one to find, and its salty price wise, but a really neat looking early clockwork.  

https://thestationmastersrooms...2fTinplate+Clockwork

That's a cool hand you've got there Roland! Here's a Gauge 1 Sydney, gauge 1 Märklin Flying Scotsman, a Carette Vulcain compound in O, and a gauge 1 M7. 😄

You guys are getting into some thin air with these beautiful models.  Wow!  

bigmark75f posted:

Mark! I would love to see the clockwork mechanisms on these two locomotives. What beautiful machines. I bet that Flying Scotsman can pull quite the train. 

I've been enjoying this thread and like so many other workers  I am now finding myself with at least a month's worth of time on my hands snd so thought I would try my first post here. 

American Flyer Zephyr..

Wow Big Mark, way to up the ante with the beautiful Vauclain and the Ga 1 Märklin Scotsman. The only larger Locos I have are a Bing Precursor Tank in Ga I and a Bing Bowen Cooke in Ga II.

ok so this is the seldom seen Bing for BL NBR Short Precursor

and a very scarce NER Bing for BL 0-4-4 Tank loco

and the Märklin LNWR Experiment

Cheers

Roland

I need a bib for my drool over these rare and beyond my means models!!   If I had some of those O gauge ones, I will do away with the gauge 1 track on my outdoor railway and retrack with gargraves and built a line to be operated by clockwork. The outdoor raised line has 10' diameter curves and 40' long straights.  Plenty of room for a multi station clockwork railway.  And the temptation is strong, but I would have to sell my gauge 1 live steamer and track to afford a scale change and pickup more gauge 0 motive power/rolling stock.  

There are some amazing "Rocking Horse Poo" models showing up

Thaks so much for sharing ... I am with Artfull on this one ... I have to rehydrate after every reading of this thread

rdigilio posted:

Wow Big Mark, way to up the ante with the beautiful Vauclain and the Ga 1 Märklin Scotsman. The only larger Locos I have are a Bing Precursor Tank in Ga I and a Bing Bowen Cooke in Ga II.

ok so this is the seldom seen Bing for BL NBR Short Precursor

and a very scarce NER Bing for BL 0-4-4 Tank loco

and the Märklin LNWR Experiment

Cheers

Roland

Very nice Roland, a friend has a NBR short precursor tank like yours, in fact I recall he has something like 6 different pre grouping versions, including the hard to find ones like the NBR, Caledonian etc. Your NER "M7" is off the scale though! I've seen a fewe gauge 1 examples, I actually missed one a couple of years back, annoyingly, but I've never seen another O gauge example. The Marklin Experiment is a lovely loco too, I know a couple of friends who have LNWR examples, but I've just got the LMS version, shown here at an event with a friends LNWR.

And here's my Experiment with my Bowen Cooke tank, photographed at the same event.

Here's a few more "little springs" to accompany the "big springs" of the clockwork world that Mark and Rolland showed us yesterday.

From top to bottom, left to right we have Vedes by Bing, Issmayer, KBN, and American Flyer

For fun today here are a Märklin,a Bing for B-L (ca1913), a lithographed Carette for B-L (ca 1911) and the Enameled Carette for B-L (ca 1907) It is interesting to note the early Carette is closer in size to the Märklin and is a similar colour (we are talking English trains here ) to the Carette Gauge III Sterling Single. The Bing and Litho Carette are very similar in size & livery.

I had to paste the Carette enameled loco from a different shelf so it may be slightly larger then real life , but not by much,

Cheers

Roland

Another American Flyer back on the rails today:

I don't know how much extra time I'll be able to get in the shop during this social distancing time - I'm working from home, but the past week has been very hectic with work - hopefully I can get some repairs knocked out.  A mainspring arrived in the mail today, so I took some time out to install it, and as a result this little AF project ran down the track for the first time today.  It needed a bit of motor work, including new side plates:

I'm doing what I can to keep the clockwork trains running.  There is a certain Dorfan clockwork that is still lurking on my workbench as well... 

WindupGuy posted:

Another American Flyer back on the rails today:

I don't know how much extra time I'll be able to get in the shop during this social distancing time - I'm working from home, but the past week has been very hectic with work - hopefully I can get some repairs knocked out.  A mainspring arrived in the mail today, so I took some time out to install it, and as a result this little AF project ran down the track for the first time today.  It needed a bit of motor work, including new side plates:

I'm doing what I can to keep the clockwork trains running.  There is a certain Dorfan clockwork that is still lurking on my workbench as well... 

Something vaguely familiar about that.

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

WindupGuy posted:

There is a certain Dorfan clockwork that is still lurking on my workbench as well... 

Something vaguely familiar about that.

I thought that might ring a bell for you...

Well, the pictures that have been posted so far in this thread really do take my breath away.  I have never seen locomotives of these types much less be able to collect any.  So I will fall back to the mundane and just put out "what I got!"  Here is a little Marx "Joy Line" wind up loco from the mid-thirties I expect.  This one has a 3 car passenger consist but it also came with a freight consist with such cars (as labeled on the car) as the "Hobo Rest" boxcar and the "Venice" gondola.  What a hoot!  At least with these you can never lose the key

Well...Keep Winding

Don McErlean

Don McErlean posted:

Well, the pictures that have been posted so far in this thread really do take my breath away.  I have never seen locomotives of these types much less be able to collect any.  So I will fall back to the mundane and just put out "what I got!"  Here is a little Marx "Joy Line" wind up loco from the mid-thirties I expect.  This one has a 3 car passenger consist but it also came with a freight consist with such cars (as labeled on the car) as the "Hobo Rest" boxcar and the "Venice" gondola.  What a hoot!  At least with these you can never lose the key

 

Well...Keep Winding

Don McErlean

A nice loco Don. It may be smaller but is nothing but mundane - especially if it when viewed through the eyes of a 5 year old during the depression - not even the real flying Scotsman would have looked so grand 👍

I concur @Jamie Thompson

The big boys although now made of "Unobtainium" to a lot of us , were " Do not Touch !" to many kids of the era I am betting LOL!

And just like them we have to drool from a distance in many cases even now . Thats why I like this hobby, there are so many facets and directions one can take collecting these object d'art that it caters for all

Each and every one was someones pride and joy , which is why I dont mind collecting "roughies" and toy-like variants as much as highly prized ones . They all gave smiles And the toys that were loved and used the most show the battle scars and wear them proudly .

Even when a kiddy's Dad could not afford a "real" train set I bet the smile on his face was wide unwrapping something as simple as ...

I don't have any shelf queens except a 403 switcher , All my "toys " my kids have been able to run depending on age , I like things that need fixing , if they ( the kids ) get to play with them they may grow up loving them and keeping my "stuff" when I'm gone. I'll buy stuff just for them after fixing  it up , if damaged I'll refix it. Thats the beauty of it , keep it going , let youngsters play with it ,to enjoy it like most of us as kids , I still have my Lionel 202 set I got when 8 years old. Here's a Hafner 1010 I fixed up for my grand daughter she calls it Barnie , and there are others. 

How many of you folks acually repair items other than clean and lube ? I know some are very good at detailing , but can they do a "Sir James" the windup guy on them. Whats the use of having a 63 corrvet in the garage if you never drive it ? 

Anyone care to differ !

Fellows you are right!  Sometimes as a collector I forget these were TOYS and Fatman’s right each one was someone’s pride and joy. The mid-thirties were tough times and I bet that little joy line set did bring joy.  Jamie Thompson thank you for the comment on my Joy Line loco. 2-2-Twain guy WOW!  If the blue loco is the “after” on that Hafner it’s just super!  Great work!

Stay safe safe and healthy every one 

Best Regards

Don McErlean 

2-2-twainguy posted:

How many of you folks acually repair items other than clean and lube ? I know some are very good at detailing , but can they do a "Sir James" the windup guy on them. Whats the use of having a 63 corrvet in the garage if you never drive it ? 

Anyone care to differ !

I've had people contact me that are attempting their own windup train repairs, so I know there are some other kindred spirits out there.  Hopefully, threads like this will help draw other fans of mechanical trains out of the woodwork, including those who like to tinker on the mechanisms.

Those of you that know me are aware that I really like to run my windup trains!  But to be fair, I do have some shelf queens (not to mention more "future projects" than I'll ever get done).  There are some locomotives that are in my collection because of their historical significance and not their operational ability.  For instance, I am a huge fan of the Marx Commodore Vanderbilt.  I have examples of the earliest mechanical CV's with the swing-peg with the wheel governed motor.  Those motors are notorious for their poor operation due to the design of the governor and issues with zinc pest.  I do my best to make them operational, but as a practical matter, the wheel governed Marx rarely see the rails.  They just aren't going to run great without modifying the mechanism, and I want to keep them original.  

Regardless, I do my best to make my locomotives operational.  For the rarer of the breed, I attempt to keep them as original as possible.  However, sometimes I like to explore the limits of what can be done with windup trains, and have built motors for more pulling power or long distance operation...

So many projects, so little time... 

James , I like your reply , Some have some very very nice units and highly collectable and rare , I was talking about the, shall we say almost common stuff. I gotta try that Hafner windup repair of yours.

Mike

Mike, we are on the same page.  I have quite a few common locomotives - mostly Marx - that I bought just to run.  I would say my engine with the most miles on it would be a plain-Jane Marx 833 with a late model riser-gear motor that I installed.  It is one of my train show locomotives that sees constant operation during our local meet, and more operation on my layout the rest of the year.  As of now, the only problem it has had is a broken die-cast mainspring hub... they are under a lot of stress, and occasionally fail.  I machined a new mainspring hub out of yellow brass a few years ago, and the motor has been running without any problems since then.

The broken mainspring hub.  It failed in the journal area that rotates in the sideplate:

I have been keeping an eye on the drive axle pinion gear, as it is showing quite a bit of wear.  I plan to run it to failure, and then I have an idea for a good, durable repair on it.  

This is my portable windup layout, with a typical windup train display of mine at our local train show.  The 833 is the locomotive on the inside loop with the freight train, and the outside loop is occupied by a Marx CV in passenger service:

My Marx M 10000 looks like it had a rough life but it really flys down the track

Very nice compact display , I also have a windup red CV passenger set , at times engine pulls a Xmas set I made up for the kids. A UP M10005 with a reversing motor. And others. I've got 2 Hafner motors to repair and find cast drivers !

Mike

Marx also made a very small windup M10000 that would run on a channel track

Mark S. posted:

My Marx M 10000 looks like it had a rough life but it really flys down the track

Heh-Heh I dont feel so bad posting my rough M10000 now

Two versions of the Hafner M10000. The blue version has single axle cars that connect together to make an articulated train, and also has a battery powered headlight. 

The red train has individual two axle cars that couple together.

Both have a bell that dings as the clapper hangs down below and bounces along the ties. The blue set came boxed with a figure eight track set up with banked curves. My O gauge track runs  completely around the outer walls of my 25'x30' basement and these trains can make a complete circle on one winding.

I have plenty of USA and especially British and Continental clockwork which you can find on my website ---www.myworldoftrains.shutterfly.com.

I'm trying to attach a video of my layout taken a few years ago.  If it works I'll post up to date shots which include several new stations.

Lew Schneider

Guys:  This is really turning out to be a hot thread and the pictures are really amazing.  Windupguy - great lay out and collection.  Steamwolf - I admit to being jealous, where did you find the green / yellow "Bogota " type cars, they are really neat.  I have the red and blue but no green.  MarkS - welcome and the AF Zepher is neat.  We with had a number of M1000's from several manufacturers but the Hafner ones in the box were new to me, never saw them before...Thanks for posting.

Finally, as I reviewed the posting of JHZ53 i spotted what looked like an M-O goods set (id of the loco was hard, it could also be a type 20 or close) Know it has to be post '48 as it has BR livery on the tender.  What struck me is that I have a very similar M-1 Goods Set with the 3435 tender instead of the BR livery making it perhaps late 40's (48 or so).  It is very similar to the one in JHZ53's picture except my open top wagons are imprinted with "Pre-Nationalization" livery (LMS & LNE).  Anyway here are some pictures.

Well I guess I have to go back to distancing myself from everyone...not that they mind!

Don McErlean

Not clockwork but spring powered, and not for track but the floor...Elenee Toys American Freedom Train from the postwar 1940's.  Spiral rod turns gear on rear axle as spring pulls it back in.

Mark S. posted:

Not clockwork but spring powered, and not for track but the floor...Elenee Toys American Freedom Train from the postwar 1940's.  Spiral rod turns gear on rear axle as spring pulls it back in.

 

Elenee made a second version too. The Comet

Haven't a clue what happened with the photos in my last reply, but here they are again. And it isn't all rare, high end stuff at Carne Towers, here's a Mettoy Eton with 2 matching Pullman cars.And finally, my accumulated herd of 1920s type Hornby No1 tank locos, acquired over the course of more than 25 years. A couple of cheeky electric interlopers hiding among them, but can't redo the photo without them right now!

Cheers, Mark

Don McErlean posted:

<SNIP> Steamwolf - I admit to being jealous, where did you find the green / yellow "Bogota " type cars, they are really neat.  I have the red and blue but no green.  <SNIP>

Don McErlean

Don, an eBay user "garmarx" had them, along with one of the two Seaboard clockwork FM diesels. I'm still sour that another bidder sniped the Seaboard caboose. I've purchased several unique things from him in the past including that loco and some other freight cars. He's a super good dude and always packs stuff very well. 

Steamwolf:  Thanks for the tip.  I will see if I can find "garmax" on the Bay.   I am waiting on 2 E-bay packages at the moment.  One an AF Prewar passenger set where I won an auction (meaning I likely paid too much)  and the other a French Hornby clockwork set (just engine, tender and one passenger coach + a modest amount of track but still in the box ) where we bargained to a final price but no auction.  I liked this seller because not only was his price reasonable but he was willing to bargain and he offered free shipping.  That should be at my place in about a week.  Will post pictures when it arrives. 

Again thanks for the comeback on the coaches

Don McErlean

Don McErlean posted:

<SNIP>

Don McErlean

Yeah! No problem. He's got a pile of new marx up right now.

I hear you on the 'paid too much' thing, happens to me all the time. What really chafes my dish is the stupid global shipping program... but that belongs someplace else, there are a modicum of adequate sellers on there still.

Tin! Windup! There! Now my post is relevant!