Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

When you click on the topic Photo and Video Albums, then scroll down to this thread you should see at the bottom Last Reply or First Unread post.  If you click on the thread title it will start at the beginning.  Give it a try.

OK Tinplate fans, I could not resist the temptation to post some more tank cars...I am an admitted "tank-a-holic" and have collected quite a mixed brew over the years.  Here are some more of mine...Fatman put the Hornby out and I have some of that but the other manufacturers are really neat, I had never seen many of them before.   Super display Fatman!

So here are 3 more American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) and a Dorfan for your review.

First the A.F.Lines enameled "Air Service" tanker # 3018 (number does not appear on the car) from 1934-1935

The small lithographed American Flyer # 1228 "Sinclair" 2 dome from 1937

The 8 wheel, enameled, American Flyer, Texaco 2 dome #231 from 1939 (number does not appear on the car).

Now the odd ball out, a Dorfan "Indian Refining Co" single dome tanker.  I don't have an exact date but Dorfan started making trains in the US in 1924 and by 1933 all production had stopped and by 1934 the company was out of business.  Thus the most likely date for this car is sometime in the 1920's.

Well there you are, a few more tankers for your viewing.  Best Wishes

Don

Hello.

I have an idea of what country these track switches are from but does anyone know the exact manufacturer? (Bub? Fandor?..)

Am also offering these for trade or sale (in appropriate section) if interested. I have no use for them.

Ariel (El Gaucho)

Many years ago I was lucky enough to win an auction lot from Germany that brought me many (50 gallon box) varied o-gauge track pieces to help me get started with my small o-gauge tinplate collection.

Here are a couple of my favorites (will take photos of others soon)

Its amazing how well they’ve been taken care off (for their age)

Ariel (el Gaucho)

@Elgaucho posted:

Hello.

I have an idea of what country these track switches are from but does anyone know the exact manufacturer? (Bub? Fandor?..)

Am also offering these for trade or sale (in appropriate section) if interested. I have no use for them.

Ariel (El Gaucho)

Was made by Karl Bub, the catalog  No is 89, this is the later model, which was made since the later 20s till to the 30s.

The early No 89 looks different, but has the same handle.

Arne

@Elgaucho posted:

Many years ago I was lucky enough to win an auction lot from Germany that brought me many (50 gallon box) varied o-gauge track pieces to help me get started with my small o-gauge tinplate collection.

Here are a couple of my favorites (will take photos of others soon)

Its amazing how well they’ve been taken care off (for their age)

Ariel (el Gaucho)

Great Bing switches, here 2 other.

Arne

@Arne posted:

Great Bing switches, here 2 other.

Arne

Arne, thank you for the Bub clarification(I guessed right!)

I love your additional Bing switches! Especially that three-way(triangular one) I saw that for sale a while back and kicked myself for not getting it. If you know of another for sale, let me know!

Ariel

Here is one of my favorite ones.

Roland

Those are some wonderful examples of antique track - nice to see I'm not the only person who can't resist picking up interesting track items! 

Here are a couple of O gauge items in my collection - a nice wye:

I bought this three-way switch as a basket case.  Soldered it back together and added a home-made switch stand.  I painted it black to keep it from rusting; maybe someday I'll get around to stripping the paint off and re-plating it:

American Flyer switch that allowed clockwork trains to pass in a trailing point direction from either the straight or curved legs.  The page from the 1928 catalog shows both types of switches for wind-up trains:

Finally, a boxed set of Lionel mechanical train switches:

Here is one of my favorite Flyer switches.  It is c. 1914

It does not show up well in the above picture, but the switch is embossed with the company name

NWL

Love the variety! Plus the boxed and catalog ref!

Here’s a couple more from my shelves.

Ariel

I received my SGMA 2021 caboose at the meeting Friday morning. Very pleased, it’s very nice, the color really pops and the custom decorations look great. Thanks guys!

Back to switches...  Here is a set of early American Flyer lighted manual switches and the associated catalog artwork.  I believe these are c. 1924.

A close-up of the light

The catalog artwork

NWL

For the latest round of acknowledging other members of the freight car family I thought it might be worthwhile to

Take a Gander at Tinplate Gondolas

As it is gondola times here are some,

Bing,

Marklin,

JEP,

And french HORNBY,

Daniel

One of my York finds was something I have been hunting for a couple of years: a whistling, WORKING, wind-up Marx set!

Here's a closer look at the business end of the set. It's a Marx Mercury locomotive, probably postwar judging by the blackened drivers and the plastic wheels on the tender.

I took the mechanism out to give it a good cleaning. Like most Marxies, there's 2 screws and 1 tab to pull out. I was a bit nervous doing this since these particular motors are difficult to find in complete working order. I thought it was in good shape when I first looked at it and was pleasantly surprised to find I was correct.

Here's the mechanism as it came fresh out of the locomotive. You can see the wind chamber on the right along with the geared assembly that opens and closes it to produce the whistle tone.

Here's another picture after a thorough rubdown with WD40 and some fresh train oil on all the gears and bearings. Looks sharp now!

Despite being a somewhat uncommon locomotive, this is a duplicate in my collection. The whistling Merc that I attempted to rebuild last year appears to be exactly identical, albeit in worse shape with a badly broken motor (I hope to be able to rebuild it someday but it needs a LOT of replacement parts). It amuses me to observe that I have 2 uncommon Mercuries that are identical yet all 3 of my black clockwork Vanderbilts, which are in my experience the most common of all Marx windups, have slightly different mechanisms. Ah, the joys of collecting Marx!

Here's a closer look at the cars that came with the new Mercury. I'm not sure if these are all original, especially the tank car which has tinplate wheels instead of plastic ones. The tender does seem correct since the other Mercury I have came with the same type of gray-striped NYC rivet tender.

I am absolutely thrilled to have a working, whistling Marx clockwork in my collection. Here's a video of the set running so you can see and hear for yourself!

Gondolas....

Here are some Flyer examples

c. 1910

c. 1912

c. 1916

c. 1917

c. 1918

1920s

c. 1931

NWL

OK here are some of my gondola's, although some have some unique configurations.

American Flyer #1129 container car, uncatalogued, Ca 1936

Hornby Type 51, Cement Wagon 1957-1969

Distler model 231 made between 1953-1957

Fandor (OOPs got in another tanker, snuck that in!)  both produced between 1912-1918 (import stopped with WWI)

French Hornby post war 1950's.

Hornby postwar 1949-1954

Lionel 2812X (X=lower height couplers) 1941-42

Marx 7" series #80982 1955-1961

Well happy "tinplate" Sunday everyone.  Best Wishes

Great photos Robert, Daniel, NWL super display of gondola cars.  Great posts all

Don

You guys have some amazing collections.  A car made in 1910.  That’s 132 years old!  

@William 1 posted:

You guys have some amazing collections.  A car made in 1910.  That’s 132 years old!  

Apparently Math was not one of your stronger subjects.

2022 - 1910 = 112

Don’t know how I goofed that up.  I was having a pint in the pub at the time and admiring your models on my phone.  90 + 22 = 112.  I stand corrected.  (Gotta stop chatting up those cute bartenders and get more serious about toy trains).   Just kidding.  Pretty amazing that you have that in your collection.  I like it!

@William 1 posted:

Don’t know how I goofed that up.  I was having a pint in the pub at the time and admiring your models on my phone.  90 + 22 = 112.  I stand corrected.  (Gotta stop chatting up those cute bartenders and get more serious about toy trains).   Just kidding.  Pretty amazing that you have that in your collection.  I like it!

Ha! Thats an interesting “side question”:

Q: Where are folks usually at(psychically) when answering or adding material to this thread”?

My answer: at work(taking a break to think trains) a quiet spot away from my young ones(ie-bathroom) patio(also away from kids) or midnight!(once everyone else is asleep) lol

Ariel

Here are some sand car/gondola variations from the Lionel-Ives transition era:

Northwoods Flyer

Greg

One of my favorites, the early Ives 25 locomotive. She’s a bit worn, but believe it or not the motor runs quite well for being 113 years old.

                                                   Trainfam

Oh, one more thing before I go,

here is a video of an Ives 3200 loco pulling a nice set of blue baggage and Yale cars.

link to my YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCjhLWSvurWo3i03TBnCL6pg

                                                    Trainfam

Trainfam:  What great classics!  Thanks for posting.

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Trainfam:  What great classics!  Thanks for posting.

Don

No problem Don, glad you enjoyed the posts.

                                                 Trainfam

@Elgaucho posted:

Many years ago I was lucky enough to win an auction lot from Germany that brought me many (50 gallon box) varied o-gauge track pieces to help me get started with my small o-gauge tinplate collection.

Here are a couple of my favorites (will take photos of others soon)

Its amazing how well they’ve been taken care off (for their age)

Ariel (el Gaucho)

Very nice condition. Gebruder Bing-Nuremburg (GBN). The Brothers (Gebruder) Bing of Germany. 

Thought I'd share pics of my birthday present for this year:  a nicely restored #45.  No competition for it on the Evil Auction Site (TM), so I picked it up very reasonably.  A great addition to my SG collection.

The lighting dulls the shine a bit, so the gloss and the brass don't quite live up to the real thing.  Whoever restored it took great care, it seems.

Nice.  Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Nothing new for me ... its almost becoming tragic LOL

So here's a consolation photo of my partner in crime ... Tuco The WonderParrot !

Hi Tuco, nice to see your picture.

I just returned at home with a little attic find.....  A French Station from around 1920 made by FV for JdP.

There is some missing parts, a telegraph pole on the roof and three signs hanging on the center roof and each sides and some poles.  All of this can be done but there missing paint also which is sad, i do not know yet what I am going to do with it. A partial repaint certainly, have to think about it....

Daniel

Thanks, guys!

New today. A bridge with stairs and lamp posts made by Kraus Fandor. No 2152/18 made only 1931 - 1934.

Arne

Greetings Friends

Time for a quiz.  My latest purchase has been put on to the "Biller Layout".  Now there are

four different stations from four different German prewar manufacturers.  Can you identify them?  Lew Schneider

Wow what a menagerie of subjects today!  Palallin - first Happy Birthday!!  Best wishes hope you had a great day.  You know Lionel (ever clever) sold the #45 as both Standard Gauge and O Gauge.  The only difference was the section of straight track that you got with the item when new.  Later they eliminated providing the track and just offered the same item to both.  Fatman  - nice to see "Tuco" certainly is a pretty colorful fellow (girl?).  Daniel - great find, not to be too concerned with the paint, after all the station is over a century old we should just be glad it still exists.  Arnie - that is one beautiful bridge, the lights and the bold truss pattern certainly make it unique.  lewrail - Sorry I loved the "Biller layout" but have no clue as to the manufacturer of the stations.  I looked through my references on Carette, Ismayer and Bub and could find no matches as most of the stations pictured appeared older in architectural style so I am out of options to guess.

Best wishes all

Don

Don,

Bub is on the left, station No 1665, made 1928-1939. Front C...... (not Carette), back D......, right K......

Arne

I picked the area of 3 rail tinplate best of chosen available areas, but I wanted to reach you guys. So here it is as continued.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...4#161349519431064294

@Don McErlean posted:

Wow what a menagerie of subjects today!  Palallin - first Happy Birthday!!  Best wishes hope you had a great day.  You know Lionel (ever clever) sold the #45 as both Standard Gauge and O Gauge.  The only difference was the section of straight track that you got with the item when new.  Later they eliminated providing the track and just offered the same item to both.

Thanks, Don!  Yes, the #45 and the #045, which were consolidated into the #45N.  I don't think any of the #45Ns had the lattice post.

Possibly because I have a real aesthetic appreciation of trusses and lace girders, the lattice poles of all kinds appeal to me, and so I had to have this earliest version of the Gateman.  Next, telegraph poles, crossing signs, etc, all based on that form.  I think they will sorta tie the displays together.

Thanks for the clarification Palallin, I had forgotten about the change from "lace" to "solid" support for the crossing sign as a factor in dating the #45.  I can see why you like the lace support it does provide more visual interest.  You know, I have some Hornby signals and they (likely due to cost just like Lionel) switched from lace supports to solid, in their case it is mostly a pre war / post war change.

Well I wanted to continue something we had on this thread back at the beginning of the year.  I posted on 1/14 and 2/27 some thoughts and pictures on the Marx FM metal diesels especially the "B" units which were much more scarce than the A. I had pictures of my Monon AA unit and my recent find, at the time, of both the 4 wheel and 8 wheel versions of the Monon B .

Robert S. Butler showed his ABA Kansas City Southern and Steve Eastman his Seaboard ABA.  That would make up the entire offering from Marx, just 3 railroads.  So today, I wanted to show MY most recent find, an AB (electric) version of the Marx KCS FM metal diesel unit.

This one is the 8 wheel B and it has a auto coupler on the rear, hence it was likely designed to be used in an AB configuration.  I actually found that somewhat odd as I thought it was often offered with 6" or 7" cars neither of which ever used the "Pickle Fork" coupler.  I found however that the 4 wheel B unit came with a plastic knuckle coupler on the rear which would match with later 6" or 7" cars.    Both 4 and 8 wheel B's were made during the same time period, 1957-1960, following the A unit which was inaugurated in 1956.  So I guess, Mr. Marx's scheme was the 4 wheel went with the 4 wheel cars while the 8 wheel could pull the more elaborate 8 wheel cars.

Well regardless of coupler configuration, here is my new KCS FM diesel.

Best wishes to all

Don