@Robert S. Butler posted:These were just sitting on the living room floor when I came down from upstairs this morning so I figured I should at least take a picture of them and send it along before putting them back where they belong.
Wow what a lineup! I love the Empire Express box can locomotive!
Jamie: STUNNING!
RSB: Is your floor always replete with such treasures? There is a SAFETY factor involved here, BOTH for the trains, and the senior owner! Caution is the byword!
@Jamie Thompson posted:@FRENCHTRAINS Thanks for showing us your French Hornby No2 Locos. They are very special locos indeed. All the best in finding the green NORD loco - I hope you find one soon!
Thanks @Jamie Thompson, with some time and luck all is possible.... But finding one of those Ron Fox would be great also, I have never seen one in France and they could be a perfect match with Hornby... you have a nice selection of those rare locos.
Very best, Daniel
NJCJOE: Our TCA Museum never fails to impress us! THANKS for sharing those impressive photos! Art Poole TCA 91-33599
The TCA museum is a wonderful place to visit, there is so many to look at. I have been there near ten years ago but the new standard gauge layout will be a major thing to look at for a next trip when the situation will return to normal after the Covid episode..... Daniel
Daniel: Yes, and stay SAFE! :-)
Tinplate Art - most of my train sets are well behaved and stay in their boxes where they belong but every now and then a few of them decide they've had enough and they sneak out during the night and party in the living room and leave me to clean up in the morning...it's just one those tinplate train facts of life...
Jamie / Daniel : Thank you both so much for the information on the HRCA and HRCAA I am currently trying to join at least one of them. I really appreciate your taking the time to give me the information. Also, Daniel, what great std gauge sets, really liked Std Gauge (or Wide Gauge as our AF friends would say) but I simply ran out of space to show or operate them except occasionally at Christmas around the tree. I enjoy what I have but have not tried to add to the collection at all in recent years. OOOPs I forgot a Lionel 211 flat car that my brother found for me at an Ohio train show. This thing, standard gauge from 1926-27, is my only "series 200" car and is about a foot long. The rest of my Lionel SG is 800 series cars and somewhat smaller. ! I can't imagine how large a full set of these cars would be, but I would have to set them up in the back yard (or garden).
Jamie I am really enjoying your pictures of your clockwork layout. Thanks for posting. I have a small "collection" of Hornby both the UK Hornby and the French Hornby and really like what you are doing for your layout. As a clockwork layout, I have thought some about doing something similar, a small layout where I could run the Hornby and I have some Distler clockwork as well as some from American Flyer and Marx. Who knows, maybe some day.
Best regards to all
Don
Well just to conclude my Saturday afternoon of posting, how about some "HAFNER"....its been awhile since I posted any of these so here are two tankers just to finish up today...(or say..."tanks a lot!" Oh boy is that bad!).
The first is what I believe to be the older and more common, the silver, black, & red Hafner 1010 tanker. Hafner often numbered his cars and engines 1010 because (it is said) that was the address of the factory on the street in Chicago. Who knows. He did bring out the 1010 loco in 1938 and produced it up through the late 40's although Hafner products are very hard to date. So this car could have been used to accompany any freight set from 1938 on to about 1949-1950.
Around 1950 Hafner changed the lithography on the engines and cars and produced the 2000 series engine. There is a video on the internet claiming to show a "1950 Hafner Freight Set" in operation and the consist contains this orange car. I believe that this car in this new color was made from 1950-51 up until Hafner sold out to Wyandotte toys in 1956. In fact it may indeed have been used for a short time after, because Wyandotte just used up old stock that they acquired in the sale until it ran out. However these post sale cars are usually stamped Wyandotte - Hafner and this car carries no such markings. So it is likely to have been made 1950-1951 up until about 1956.
You will note that both cars have what appear to be two black holes to the left and right of the ladder about 3 rungs down from the dome. These are not physical holes but just circles or big dots in the lithography. Candidly I have no idea what they are supposed to represent and they appear on both cars in the same place. Mystery for sure.
Well anyway, just thought these guys were fun to post, hope you like them. If anyone has any further data on these cars please let me know. I have looked at the various web sites, especially Western Division TCA and they have some nice pictures but few dates.
Regards, Don
Here are some photos of tinplate happenings on my pike.
I sold the little crane recently. Apparently it was relatively rare and inly made one year. Someone said the roof was repainted, but it looked original to me with the expected patina and no sign of disassembly or over paint, even though the smokestack is normally black.
George
Well this deciding not to buy stuff is working out well for me ..... 
Sooooo my british guy hits me with ... A French Hornby rake at a price that cannot be argued with ... Buying Ban Compromised ! 
Loco and ( Backwards ) tender 
Matchy matchy carriages ... ( with differing amounts of roof fade )
Leading to an all up rake of ...
Come to Papa~ !!!
ALL: NICE treasures! THANKS for sharing! :-)
Here are a couple older pictures from around the layout and some more recent ones as well.
Impressive Dennis, all those boxcars.... that's a dream for me....
For the weekend here is my model of the lionel M10000 City of Portland in silver, less common than the yellow and brown model, it is a little scratched but I will keep it in used condition, I prefer some patina to a brand new shiny model.
Have a great weekend, Daniel
Again a few news in the collection.
Karl Bub house 1621, made 1928-1939
Karl Bub coach with automatic coupler from set 949, made 1925-1928
Adolf Schuhmann coach 840/2, made around 1935
And working this week on a Karl Bub signalbridge 734 /5 E, made 1910-1924. A complete restoration.
Arne
And working this week on a Karl Bub signalbridge 734 /5 E, made 1910-1924. A complete restoration.
Well done on the restoration! Great to see rusty tinplate getting a new lease on life 👍 Look forward to seeing the completed restoration
Cheers Jamie
Here is a pic with the Dept 56 Halloween Rickety Railroad Station added!
Working on my work trade with Don Kelly. Filling three Lionel 512 gondolas for his Christmas Train. 2 of the 3 are still in-progress.
@Jim Z posted:
Chris,
I love the cover photo of the 840 power station.
i think it is the most spectacular of the Lionel pre war structures.
My power station is by T Reproductions. I did not use the platform in order to fit it into a tight space.
Jim Z
Chris L and Jim Z , here is my 840 entry. With all the other structure colors in the 'Industry area' on my Standard Gauge Upstairs Layout, I'm glad I went with the Red/White version. Mine is by MTH.
@jhz563 posted:Homework (It was him, not Conner, nice try though!)
BEAUTIES! Love the yellow, blue and pink tins, too. I need to find those three.
Cannot remember if I shared pic(s) recently of the still-a-work-in-progress American Flyer O Gauge area (I lovingly refer to it as American Flyer Litho-Land) on the new layout... please forgive me if I'm being redundant. A few new items have been added recently.
Way back - probably around 1980 or so, a TCA member published an article in the Quarterly about small American Flyer Stations. I had just become interested in the stations and the information provided was a welcome addition to my then meager store of knowledge concerning the stations.
The author provided pictures of the various stations along with their names. One of the pictures was of the small Glen Ellyn station which, as we know today, was Hafner and not American Flyer. At the fall York meet for the same year I found a complete "American Flyer" station set with the Glen Ellyn station. Other than a rubber stamped 1100 on the box side there was no other identification.
It was only after the passage of several years and my accumulation of additional knowledge about American Flyer stations that I came to realize the author had made a mistake with regards to the Glen Ellyn station. This wasn't a problem. Rather it was fun to discover I had something different and something which, for me, has proven to be unique in that I've never seen another one of these sets (now watch - half of the posters to this thread will come back with pictures of mountains of these sets in their respective collections ).
#1100 Hafner Station Set
Box contents - note the semaphore on the straight post is part of the station and is held in place by a hole in the station roof
Hafner station with semaphore attached
Robert: THANK YOU for posting the Hafner 1100 Station Set...not only is it beautiful to see but it has helped me in what you will think an unusual way. I have the crossing gate and the "Danger" cross buck and have for years wondered who made them (I can't recall how I got them but likely just picked them up "under the table" at some train show ) but now due to your posting I can identify them as Hafner!!. Thanks !
Don
@Robert S. Butler Found as far away as Australia ... a matchy matchy Hafner Glen Ellyn
(Well apart from a green roof , different years mebbe?)
Nothing New to add today sadly 
Fatman, based on what I've seen it looks like Hafner changed the colors of the litho brick and stone sides, roof enamel color, and perhaps even base colors (I say perhaps because I have seen some green bases but I couldn't decide if they were original or repaints). However, I haven't seen anything that would suggest a timeline for these changes.
To your station - I have one like it too - less the semaphore. It is obvious from the wear marks on the extreme right hand side of the station that it did have a semaphore at one time but it was long gone by the time I found it.
Love the interior detail on that exquisite Schuhmann coach! Also those wonderful small Flyer stations and accessories. Especially like the colors on the one from "down under".
@Carey TeaRose posted:Cannot remember if I shared pic(s) recently of the still-a-work-in-progress American Flyer O Gauge area (I lovingly refer to it as American Flyer Litho-Land) on the new layout... please forgive me if I'm being redundant. A few new items have been added recently.
Those are some very, very nice buildings and accessories- it looks like AF Litho-Land will turn out great!
Your last picture piqued my interest. Do you know who made the five figures in the green box? Also- what size are they, roughly? If I recall correctly, it wasn’t until Postwar that Gilbert AF had Comet Metal Products/Authenticast Products figures for them that were marketed as American Flyer
@Arne posted:And a unknown indicator for Australia
With Adelaide, Mildura, Albury, Bendigo, Frankston, Geelong, Flinders St
Arne
That piece is charming. Looks like it's made from an Altoid tin. Could even be homemade?
Edit: Further reading down the thread brought me to Jamie's description. I guess I was partially right in that it is from a repurposed tin.
I guess I haven't been on the Forum much because I had about 4 pages to catch up on. Beautiful stuff all around- what a treat to see. Thanks everyone for your great photos and videos.
I have to agree with everyone though that the cake goes to JMK's Leipzig station and the entire scene he has created around it. That was just WOW!
A rare sighting. 3 boxed Atlas Tool Co houses. These will be on my table at this Saturday’s meet. Also will have a few unboxed ones.
Steve
Steve: What vintage are those NICE metal buildings?
@Tinplate Art posted:Steve: What vintage are those NICE buildings? What material construction?
Postwar. I emailed Atlas trying to get more info and they have no records going back that far, early to mid 50’s as a guess. They are all tin shells with plastic windows and doors.
Steve
THANKS! That would be my guess. :-)
A couple of weeks back I posted my Brimtoy Royal Scot Locomotive and tender ....
As fate would have it today I managed to find his brother in a Brimtoy Britannia Locomotive and tender from the same era .. again gorgeous lithography hiding a cheap as chips clockwork mechanism 
And Comparison shot of the two
ROYAL SCOT
BRITTANIA
Fatman: What fabulous engines. The lithography is spectacular...I note the difference between the "splasher" design of the Royal Scot vs the more common (in the US) horizontal walkway design of the Britannia.
Steve Eastman - first of all...you are having a "Train Show" ! There has not been one of those in Texas since last January. Shows cancelled as far away as La in our TCA division. Next, from your discussion I am assuming that the houses are painted metal, is that correct? I was struck at the similarity to the Plasticville "Cape Cod" design even the color schemes seem similar, i know that the red/white and blue/white scheme was offered in plasticville not sure of the green. By the way to help in your dating, I agree with the 1950's. These "Cape Cod" houses were built by the hundreds specifically for returning veterans at the close of WWII / Korean war (one of which was my parents one and only owned house from 1953 - 1978 and the site of my first layout!).
Me - I have scored a pair of 529 Pullmans, 1926-1932, in the olive green / green roof livery I will post pictures when they arrive. I do have an appropriate 252 loco to go with them but I am still looking for the 530 observation.
Don
@Don McErlean posted:Fatman: What fabulous engines. The lithography is spectacular...I note the difference between the "splasher" design of the Royal Scot vs the more common (in the US) horizontal walkway design of the Britannia.
Steve Eastman - first of all...you are having a "Train Show" ! There has not been one of those in Texas since last January. Shows cancelled as far away as La in our TCA division. Next, from your discussion I am assuming that the houses are painted metal, is that correct? I was struck at the similarity to the Plasticville "Cape Cod" design even the color schemes seem similar, i know that the red/white and blue/white scheme was offered in plasticville not sure of the green. By the way to help in your dating, I agree with the 1950's. These "Cape Cod" houses were built by the hundreds specifically for returning veterans at the close of WWII / Korean war (one of which was my parents one and only owned house from 1953 - 1978 and the site of my first layout!).
Me - I have scored a pair of 529 Pullmans, 1926-1932, in the olive green / green roof livery I will post pictures when they arrive. I do have an appropriate 252 loco to go with them but I am still looking for the 530 observation.
Don
Don, the houses are painted steel with plastic doors and windows. Similar in size to Plasticville.
Steve
Steve: Thank you , I have never seen houses like that before. Just proves that no matter how long you are involved in this hobby there is a "universe" of things you have not seen.
Regards, Don
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