Postwar Paradise

Great way to start a morning...

I think the turbine was one of the smoothest running engines Lionel ever produced. It is a good puller also. Thanks for posting that video.

Fendermain posted:

Great video and topic Arnold. My 682 turbine does not smoke as well as yours..I need to work on it.  Here are my 2383 Santa Fe F3s. There is something about the sound of heavy postwar engines and tubular sectional track. Oh, and don't forget the ozone smell. First video..hope it works.

 

Fendermain

Fendermain, loved your video, 2383 and layout! Would love to see more of your layout! Arnold

My 681 Turbine pulls 5 K-Line PRR "Fleet of Modernism" passenger cars on one of my Christmas layouts. It smokes like crazy.

Nice.  Can't beat the Turbine. so smooth running 

Fendermain posted:

Arnold, here are 2 short videos of other areas. My server won't allow longer ones. Just to add...I think your sign off mantra is the best and true for a lot of us.

Fendermain

Terrific videos and layout, Fendermain. I love everything about your layout. Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks also to Bob, Tncentrr, Joe and Christopher for sharing your enthusiasm for these Postwar gems.

My sign off mantra is a lyric in a song I wrote entitled Who Am I (Rollin' By). I made a video to go with the song, and I posted a YouTube link for it on this Forum. I think you folks would enjoy this video/song. To see and hear it, search on this Forum for "Phil Klopp and Model Train Song," which I posted in November 2017. I believe you will find the link there.

You can also access the video/song on YouTube. Simply go on YouTube, type my name, Arnold Cribari, in the search box, and click on Who Am I (Rollin' By). If you do this, I would love to get your honest feedback.

Arnold

Great stuff !   I too am a post-war fan.  

Great postwar / toytrain layouts above. Thanks for posting, guys!

Of Postwar paradise &  passions, Arnold and Fendermain, you guys are enablers of the best kind, lol.  I had a chockful of postwar layout in early 2005., sold everything and went O scale 2 rail.  Now rebuilding simplifying the past layout,  missed the color, sound and smell of it all. Postwar Lionel  is Always a pleasure and a time machine of past thrills.

As in the past, thank you once again. Fantastic videos!

Leroof.

Thanks to all for the positive words.  Leroof keep us updated on your rebuild as it progresses.  I bet it will be great.        Fendermain

Arnold, while on the topic of postwar Pennsy paradise, don't forget the GG 1 on parade on your layout. Looking forward to that installment as well.

leroof.

Hey Fendermain, I intend to share it. Progress is slow but next up is an over head working catenary for my electrics, one or more sidings and a couple of working accessories, followed by some choice plasticville from the great era. I have a few light towers I have plans for too. .Seeing your video and Arnold's  make motivation.

i have to find some decent heaters for the concrete refrigerator I call my basement. It's starting to get cold up here in Maine. What I may do is move the three tables upstairs for winter this time around. I may never go back to the dungeon! Lol. I do store the trains upstairs where it's a normal temperature. 

They share the same room as my couple of fenders ( a telly and a strat ). 

Thanks for your comments.

Leroof posted:

Hey Fendermain, I intend to share it. Progress is slow but next up is an over head working catenary for my electrics, one or more sidings and a couple of working accessories, followed by some choice plasticville from the great era. I have a few light towers I have plans for too. .Seeing your video and Arnold's  make motivation.

i have to find some decent heaters for the concrete refrigerator I call my basement. It's starting to get cold up here in Maine. What I may do is move the three tables upstairs for winter this time around. I may never go back to the dungeon! Lol. I do store the trains upstairs where it's a normal temperature. 

They share the same room as my couple of fenders ( a telly and a strat ). 

Thanks for your comments.

Leroof,  I remember your overhead power from another thread...great work.  We just had a local estate sale with a bunch of nice plasticville...no room for it unfortunately.  Cold here too..not Maine cold..NW Ohio.  I was just spankin the telly plank earlier.  Two of my boys came over...jam session.  I was using an 1x12 combo amp I made last year out of 100 y/o barn wood.  1950s hammond organ reverb amp converted to guitar amp...basically an 18 watt marshall. I made the cabinet not the amp.

Fendermain

This is for Leroof, my Brunswick Green Postwar Pennsy GG1:

Here is the same Postwar GG1 running at the other end of the layout:

Doesn't that GG1 look great pulling Postwar extruded aluminum passenger cars?

Of course, the ultimate is to see it running from operating overhead catenary. Arnold

Arnold,  lovely GG1 and passenger car videos. I just saw your model train song video and enjoyed it very much as well.  I am a musician of sorts myself...playing guitar for over half a century.  Man...that sounds ancient.  Anyway...great job.   Fendermain

Arnold!  A great big personal Thank you for the GG 1 videos. Yeah, they look Mighty Great with the extruded aluminun passenger cars! But really, EVERTHING looks great on your layout!  I like the loop excursion around your Yankee stadium. I can imagine lucky passengers looking for a Mickey Mantle at home plate!"hey, did you see that???"    

     I own a 2332 in black, a 2340 green with stripes , and a stripe less  brown 2360 that was given to me by a colleague years ago. The 2332 and 2340 were bought in your neighborhood back in the day at  Westchester toy and train show at the civic center. Did you ever attend the Tibbetts brook show back then?  Those were the days. 

     When I get my catenary up I will send moving images of GG 1's and NH EP 5 under wire.

Oh yeah fendermain, the Hammond organ amp transplant! I have heard of this done. Like the frankenstinian "it's alive, IT'S  ALIVE" tonal thing. I get the 18 watt Marshall side of the tonal world. Chunky thick, tonalbliss! 

I once had A vintage 1969 British origin Plexi Marshall Popular model #1930,  10 watt  valve with two greenback 10's . A mini blues breaker it was nicknamed.  I would play my 54 black beauty and my 59 LP jr through it.  Just killer response. what was I thinking getting rid of that stuff? You can always find the train you let go but.....so much for old wood. Somethings you just have to win powerball to replace! No I did not win. But my wish list is still for some selective old wood.

Doesn't matter how cold it is in NW Ohio, let the tubes glow warm.

So, you remember my live catenary?  Well my buddy who the layout was sold to did not like it, did not run electrics, so the towers recently  came back to me! Excited to clean them up after 13 years of storage. Some will need repair.  Seeing that the former layout I sold has been resurrected as the new replacement rebuilt to smaller diemensions I will add the overhead power to at least two of the tables. 

Moving images will arrive when up and running. Need to put down the tele first.

your boys play too? Awesome.

good weekend to all. 

Especially Arnold and Fendermain. In postwar we trust.

Sometimes I think I will sell all of my trains, plus the O scale stuff I have  to try and replace the old electric guitar equipment I once owned. But, alas the monetary value of loved postwar trains does not begin to even get close to the monetary appreciation of postwar Gibson and Fender wood. Oh well, I like the smell of ozone machinery more than old hot amplifier cabinets! I once had an old amp that caught fire! This has never happened with PW trains. However, it's well understood but discouraging that old amp transformers die way before ZW's and AC power brethren.

leroof, dreaming again.

Question:  Arnold, Are your loops tubular  031?  Mine are and it's plenty exciting to run PW fast and furious. Last layout I had the outside  031 curves were  banked with great success.

Fendermain, I look at your videos and like Arnold's, the more I look, the more I see.  Your prewar stuff on the layout is equally as exciting as the postwar displayed. I think I may have remarked at one time that it's a pleasure to see a fisished colorful layout with both eras depicted. Mega cool.

now where is the guitar room? 

Leroof posted:

Fendermain, I look at your videos and like Arnold's, the more I look, the more I see.  Your prewar stuff on the layout is equally as exciting as the postwar displayed. I think I may have remarked at one time that it's a pleasure to see a fisished colorful layout with both eras depicted. Mega cool.

now where is the guitar room? 

Leroof   Just got these from the postman today..separate sales.  Prewar 2224W tender...these are all metal and somewhat expensive in this condition.  Matched with postwar 2035...appeared unused for decades.  Clean up, touch up, lube up..rocking.  A little over 40$ for the engine.  My prewar/postwar conundrum continues.   Fendermain

Fendermain, 2224W and 2034, beautiful pair of pre/post war machinery! N I C E .

thx for the photo. I can almost hear them working the rails.

Leroof posted:

Oh yeah fendermain, the Hammond organ amp transplant! I have heard of this done. Like the frankenstinian "it's alive, IT'S  ALIVE" tonal thing. I get the 18 watt Marshall side of the tonal world. Chunky thick, tonalbliss! 

I once had A vintage 1969 British origin Plexi Marshall Popular model #1930,  10 watt  valve with two greenback 10's . A mini blues breaker it was nicknamed.  I would play my 54 black beauty and my 59 LP jr through it.  Just killer response. what was I thinking getting rid of that stuff? You can always find the train you let go but.....so much for old wood. Somethings you just have to win powerball to replace! No I did not win. But my wish list is still for some selective old wood.

Doesn't matter how cold it is in NW Ohio, let the tubes glow warm.

So, you remember my live catenary?  Well my buddy who the layout was sold to did not like it, did not run electrics, so the towers recently  came back to me! Excited to clean them up after 13 years of storage. Some will need repair.  Seeing that the former layout I sold has been resurrected as the new replacement rebuilt to smaller diemensions I will add the overhead power to at least two of the tables. 

Moving images will arrive when up and running. Need to put down the tele first.

your boys play too? Awesome.

good weekend to all. 

Especially Arnold and Fendermain. In postwar we trust.

 

Leroof   I have 3 boys and they all play.  We do one gig a year...pool party in the country.  So I used the JOHN-Q...that's the amp. Open it up with a tele and stand back..upper mid bliss...EL 84 smoking goodness. We have visited the southwest a lot..hence the grill cloth  Pedals..we don't need no stinking pedals...just use volume and tone controls on the tele.  Fendermain

We don't need no stinking pedals! Ain't it the truth with that killer rig. 

Hey, the "REV" would love that amp. That is the Reverand B. Gibbons.

You know I don't own a pedal other than in my car!

thanks for sharing. Now I feel like riffing.

i dig the old barn wood. Great heaps of open for tone business porosity

Could make a good plankercaster too.

JOHN-Q....ahhh I love the smell of  EL 84's in the morning!

Leroof posted:

Oh yeah fendermain, the Hammond organ amp transplant! I have heard of this done. Like the frankenstinian "it's alive, IT'S  ALIVE" tonal thing. I get the 18 watt Marshall side of the tonal world. Chunky thick, tonalbliss! 

I once had A vintage 1969 British origin Plexi Marshall Popular model #1930,  10 watt  valve with two greenback 10's . A mini blues breaker it was nicknamed.  I would play my 54 black beauty and my 59 LP jr through it.  Just killer response. what was I thinking getting rid of that stuff? You can always find the train you let go but.....so much for old wood. Somethings you just have to win powerball to replace! No I did not win. But my wish list is still for some selective old wood.

Doesn't matter how cold it is in NW Ohio, let the tubes glow warm.

So, you remember my live catenary?  Well my buddy who the layout was sold to did not like it, did not run electrics, so the towers recently  came back to me! Excited to clean them up after 13 years of storage. Some will need repair.  Seeing that the former layout I sold has been resurrected as the new replacement rebuilt to smaller diemensions I will add the overhead power to at least two of the tables. 

Moving images will arrive when up and running. Need to put down the tele first.

your boys play too? Awesome.

good weekend to all. 

Especially Arnold and Fendermain. In postwar we trust.

 

Didn't realize there were that many other musicians on here! Full time musician here!

Arnold, it looks like post war paradise has morphed a bit into postwar era guitars and amps!  Oh well post war paradise or passions one in the same.

back to the fabulous  GG 1 running top speeds on your layout, did you spring down the trailing trucks?  I know there i a way to do this that I have read about here on this forum. I am somewhat intimidated by taking my GG 1 apart and doing the spring thing.  My train doctor passed on this year.  

On Another topic:How about sharing a thrilling New Haven EP 5 video on your pike?  I have a mini toggle switch in the battery compartment of mine to utilize overhead power. Soon to be rebuilt.

i never get tired of seeing your PW time machine travel footage!

another question: does Westchester toy and train Christmas show still happen?

thanks and have a great weekend.

Speaking of GG1s running under live catenary, I would like to post this here, at the risk of being a show off, as it has been posted some time ago.  But as I said, since the subject of live catenary has come up, I'll post it again, here.  My layout is small, 3' x12'.  There are O31 curves at each end.  They made the building of the catenary interesting at those places.  

https://youtu.be/Jk8NN1yikTo

https://youtu.be/Pr3zgdBpkvA

I have lots of post war all boxed up. Never run it anymore but I still love seeing layouts from that period. Don

Now if there was a train in this picture...that would be Paradise. Don

Wonderful seeing the PW layouts and trains.

Fenderman, seeing your 397 reminded me I replaced the broken belt on my childhood 397 a week ago; but, I work slow-=-the receipt for the rplacement belt was dated 2015!!!  Works like a champ now and will get its prominent place this Christmas; the 3469 dump car is ready to go.

Pingman posted:

Wonderful seeing the PW layouts and trains.

Fenderman, seeing your 397 reminded me I replaced the broken belt on my childhood 397 a week ago; but, I work slow-=-the receipt for the rplacement belt was dated 2015!!!  Works like a champ now and will get its prominent place this Christmas; the 3469 dump car is ready to go.

Pingman.   It's really great that you have some of your childhood train stuff.  I foolishly let mine go when I was about 20.  397s are fun...mine needs a tune up.   Fendermain

Dan Padova posted:

Speaking of GG1s running under live catenary, I would like to post this here, at the risk of being a show off, as it has been posted some time ago.  But as I said, since the subject of live catenary has come up, I'll post it again, here.  My layout is small, 3' x12'.  There are O31 curves at each end.  They made the building of the catenary interesting at those places.  

https://youtu.be/Jk8NN1yikTo

https://youtu.be/Pr3zgdBpkvA

Spectacular operating overhead catenary, Dan. Congratulations on building it!

Leroof posted:

Arnold, it looks like post war paradise has morphed a bit into postwar era guitars and amps!  Oh well post war paradise or passions one in the same.

back to the fabulous  GG 1 running top speeds on your layout, did you spring down the trailing trucks?  I know there i a way to do this that I have read about here on this forum. I am somewhat intimidated by taking my GG 1 apart and doing the spring thing.  My train doctor passed on this year.  

On Another topic:How about sharing a thrilling New Haven EP 5 video on your pike?  I have a mini toggle switch in the battery compartment of mine to utilize overhead power. Soon to be rebuilt.

i never get tired of seeing your PW time machine travel footage!

another question: does Westchester toy and train Christmas show still happen?

thanks and have a great weekend.

 

 

Leroof, I love your enthusiasm for this topic.

Yes, Westchester Toy and Train Show at the County Center in White Plains is scheduled for Sunday, December 9th. I believe George Tebolt, a great train parts dealer, has retired. I miss him.

Will post my Postwar NH EP5 making a Yankee Stadium run in a few minutes. Arnold

Lionel Postwar New Haven EP5. Turn the sound up and enjoy:

Arnold 

Bravo    Arnold....Great show!!!    Fendermain

Leroof posted:

Question:  Arnold, Are your loops tubular  031?  Mine are and it's plenty exciting to run PW fast and furious. Last layout I had the outside  031 curves were  banked with great success.

 

Yes, Leroof, all of my loops are tubular 031, and none are banked.

When I built the layout 20 or so years ago, my teenage kids, who liked the trains, wanted to also use the modest-sized basement playroom to play board games and do other things with their friends. The layout doesn't completely dominate the room. There is an old sectional couch and there used to be a small TV for my kids in that playroom.  I opted for a long and narrow layout that runs along backdropped walls, with 031 reverse loops for continuous operation.

It gives the impression that the trains are going places, including leaving the playroom, tunneling through a wall partition and traveling around Yankee Stadium and the George Washing Machine Bridge (LOL), and returning through the tunnel to the playroom, etc., etc.

I share this because there may be other Forum members with similar family and space issues. There are creative ways to resolve those issues and still have a great time building a layout and running trains. Arnold