Paint and lettering
Ebay and Berea show purchases for the 600 group
cars. Looking for more cars in the series-it's a good thing that they are small as shelf space is limited. Fendermain
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looks great...I feel your pain...those Prewar cars are additive.
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Thanks Steamer...I know...I think it's the vibrant colors.
and since that pic was taken over a year ago...I added more shelves, and all are double tracked
Yep....Looking things over for display modification. Fendermain
box of some rough tinplate
started the transformation
I mainly got this lot for the baggage car to go with the 2600 cars I got from Dennis Holler. It's actually a 602, and is a tad shorter than the 2600s, but after seeing what nice 2615s go for, and not finding any rough ones, the 602 will work fine for me.
The other cars are four wheel cars that someone bent the sides over for a crude four wheel truck conversion.I'll use regular 1600 series frames and do my own conversions. Started on the 803. I had a spare 2620 frame, cut the hole for the dump area.
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great af station 
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I did a little "soft" restoration this weekend.
About 4 weeks ago I bought the first version of the AF #104 station on the 'bay. It came with the heavily taped, partial remains of its box.
I thought the box was worth trying to save primarily because of the interesting label on one end (more on this in a moment).
"Fortunately" the tape holding the box together was of the heavy plastic variety so I sat down with my wife's hair drier set on high heat and played the stream of hot air over one of the tape ends. In time the adhesive softened and allowed me to pull the tape away from the box/other tape without incurring any additional damage to the box cardboard. The whole process took about 2 hours. As I removed sections of the tape, the box, which was also in sections, began to fall apart (as expected). When I was finished I had a nearly complete box (puzzle) less the fold over flaps for the top.
One long side of the box was "complete" but in several pieces. I laid the pieces down on a flat surface and carefully applied archival cloth tape to the side that would be the inner surface of the assembled box.
Reassembled puzzle side.
There were two pieces of box missing, one on the label side and one on one side of the box. I cut .040 picture mounting cardboard to match the shapes of the missing pieces and then I carefully reassembled the box, one side at a time, using more archival cloth tape. Finally, I used a combination of hot glue and archival tape to assemble the box and I added some tape to the box edge seams for additional strength.
Box Label Side with repair piece of cardboard
The overall condition of the original box, even after re-assembly is fragile so rather than trying to make replacement box top flaps I made a simple slide on box top out of more .040 mounting cardboard.
So, for my efforts, I now have a half-way reasonable original box and a very nice example of the first version of the #104 station to put in it.
As noted above, the main reason for all of the effort is the box label. The first version of the #104 was just the second version of the #96 with the addition of an outside light. An examination of the box label indicates the original label was for a #96. It would appear that when it came time to box and ship this example of #104 there were no appropriately labeled boxes ready so they just took a #104 label and slapped it on over the #96. If you look closely at the box end you can see the outline of the #96 label underneath the #104 label and you can make out a piece of illustration of the base of the #96 station peeking out from the bottom edge of the #104 label.
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just showed up this morning. Made a best offer on da bay. Sellers pics.
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I finally got an 840 Power Station. I wanted on for a long time. It’s a T Reproduction without a sign. It has a few nicks, chips and scratches but looks good overall.
Ibid this week on a Monday auction without the benefit of sniping and finally got a price I was willing to pay.
George
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Steamer - so cool !! Get it running but DO NOT repaint it. Nice weathered look as is.
Jim normally I would agree, but at sometime the engine had a repaint...over the lenses,the number boards. The paint is cracking,has runs in it, so a repaint it will get. I tore the engine down, and did some quick cleaning, and oiling, and with a little hesitation it runs like a Prewar Lionel should.
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just about finished with the 803. Got the holes cut in the doner frame for the Latch couplers and brake stand, and a trip to the paint shop.
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I’m not an savant restorer, but it’s amazing how bad some of these early attempts are!
Go Dave!
George
Bought this passenger platform at a train show. The seller thought it was homemade, but the posts are castings. The two terminals on the end of the platform power a small light in the roof. Any guesses as to its origin?
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My first thought was Flyer....but I'm not sure. I like it though.
WindupGuy posted:Bought this passenger platform at a train show. The seller thought it was homemade, but the posts are castings. The two terminals on the end of the platform power a small light in the roof. Any guesses as to its origin?
For some reason Thomas Industries is coming to mind but could not find it in my catalog.
Steve
For many years I've had my eye out for an original tender for the my Erector Hudson (which were originally sold in the 1930's both with and without a tender), and finally located a very nice one at a reasonable price. It came as part of a complete engine-tender-box of extra parts set. Although cosmetically the engine is not as nice as the one I had in my collection (some minor rust on the rods and other plated parts, the smokebox painted black and someone rather crudely painted "Union Pacific" on it), I was pleased to find that the drive elements for the engine were intact. The set box also contained the track, two of the Erector P58 low-voltage motors and also lengths of the "ladder" drive chain. The motor mounting brackets were not there, but this being Erector you can always build things from pieces. Several hours of fitting and tweaking later (including trying different lengths of chain), I got it running. The key to running it on its display track (which is wider than standard gauge by the way) are the pair of "LS" "jacks" that are included; these are basically standoffs that lift only the driving wheels just a bit off the rails. The middle set of drivers is geared off the driveshaft from the motor, the driving rods do the rest.
As seen in the photos, the Erector Hudson is massive; the engine and tender together are about 4 feet long. I put a Lionel "O" gauge 773 Hudson in the photos for scale. Enjoy.
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John Smatlak posted:
John, that is really cool. Congrats on finding that tender too.
Jim O'C posted:beachhead2 posted:John Smatlak posted:
John, that is really cool. Congrats on finding that tender too.
I spy a Spanish Coelho de Sousa tram up on the shelf.....
Good eye! I picked it up on Ebay last year.
Russian-made "Moskobel" O gauge diesel locomotive of the 1950's. Quite an interesting piece, and a real brute, weighing in at 6 pounds, 2 oz. Luckily there is a good amount of info on the internet about these, starting with the TCA page: http://www.tcawestern.org/moskobel.htm (note also the links down at the bottom of that page). After a clean and lube, it runs, although some additional tweaking is needed to get all the wheels to sit squarely on the track (the way the couplers protrude through their slots is giving the idler trucks a bit of "lift" that they don't need), and to take out a little bit of a lean to one side. A short video clip is included, enjoy!
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nice find Comrade.....
I just picked this up last weekend at Allentown, a Cohen 1912 Special. Runs great, looks great, awesome locomotive. It's only negative point is as one time a past owner drilled a hole in the roof for a pantograph. I need to fix that one day. Not being a master metal smith I would need to send it out or find a replacement roof.
I just purchased a 3 car set (restored) to go behind it, so I think it will look great under the tree this year 
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Very nice !
Well I think I have the hopper from the mth 10-3010 tinplate Hudson set, but I honestly am not 100% sure. I would love if someone could confirm for me, as I can’t find a clear picture of the set. Of course it didn’t come with a box☹️.
It is clearly stamped mth on the bottom and has the longer slide shoes of earlier tinplate traditions rolling stock. It also has a nyc badge instead of mth or Lionel. It’s in great shape. Any help in making a positive id appreciated.
Have a good evening everybody,
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The last cog in my large1938 freights with type X couplers.
Steve
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I picked up this lovely beauty at the last show I went to. I also got the orange set for a steal and a bag of af prewar cars for 5 bucks.
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I made some repairs to my Dorfan crane. I repaired the broken gear teeth on the spool gear and repaired the broken leg. I also created more permanent shims for the motor and painted them red.
JB Weld came to the rescue for both. The leg is solid now.
The gear repair was fascinating. I researched how to do this. I am no machinist. I used a brass rod and drilled a hole for the two broken teeth. JB Weld was used to glue the rod into the hole. Then, JB Weld was used to form the gear teeth. A little Dremel machining was needed at the end to get the right fit and finish. Parts for this crane are hard to come by, so I had to be creative. She works great now!
George
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George S posted:I made some repairs to my Dorfan crane. I repaired the broken gear teeth on the spool gear and repaired the broken leg. I also created more permanent shims for the motor and painted them red.
JB Weld came to the rescue for both. The leg is solid now.
The gear repair was fascinating. I researched how to do this. I am no machinist. I used a brass rod and drilled a hole for the two broken teeth. JB Weld was used to glue the rod into the hole. Then, JB Weld was used to form the gear teeth. A little Dremel machining was needed at the end to get the right fit and finish. Parts for this crane are hard to come by, so I had to be creative. She works great now!
George
George S....I am totally impressed with the crane and even more with your repairs. Fendermain
A few weeks back I got a clockwork Bing electric outline shell / frame because it was cheap and neat looking. It had no wheels/drive and someone had added a headlight to the shell. Over the holiday I converted it into an electric-powered unit by combining it with an item from the junk box- a Lionel 150 chassis and motor. The two fit together quite nicely- no additional holes required, just some longer screws to reach from the shell to the Lionel frame. I tried it out this evening with a set of Dorfan passenger cars- some photos and a video attached.
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Since switching to tinplate trains I have been redoing the layout to reflect the "less than scale" nature of old toy trains. This included swapping out all the scale vehicles for old toys, and some homemade vehicles built to look like toys. Here is my latest. A new tow truck...
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Brian Liesberg posted:
Very cool.
