Railroadiana Items In Your Collection

A little something for the narrow gauge enthusiasts.  For some reason my 92-year old mother had these (Portland) Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad tickets tucked away in her dining room buffet, so I naturally snagged them.  They are interesting because one says "Founding Member" and the other says "Very Important Person".  I wonder if my parents contributed to the railroad's initial startup and got these as a result?  They were friends with the couple whom I believed owned the building where the cars are stored and I see that the husband signed one of them.   I got to ride this short narrow gauge railroad with my parents and extended family in 1995 and hope to get back soon before they move inland and further north to Gray.

Too bad. It's presently at a great location.  Anybody been a "guest engineer" on their 23-ton switcher?

http://mainenarrowgauge.org - Maine Narrow Gauge RR Co. and Museum

Tomlinson Run Railroad

First of all, NJCJOE is definitely the railroadiana collectibles champ, no contest!    I do own my own railroad depot on the  former Graham County Rail Road in Western North Carolina, and also a pre-WW I solid oak  ticket box complete with ten metal chutes and ceramic balls. It has a rolltop cover with a lock, and has a number of original tickets in the dispensing chutes! The tracks were removed in 1987, but the abutments for the bridge over Bear Creek are still on my property. The depot is known as Bear Creek Junction and that it how it reads on my deed.

Tinplate Art posted:

First of all, NJCJOE is definitely the railroadiana collectibles champ, no contest!   

 

.......Says the guy that owns a depot and RR land.

That's pretty modest

 

   .(....."I do own my own railroad depot on the  former Graham County Rail Road. in Western North Carolina, and also a pre-WW I solid oak  ticket box complete with ten metal chutes and ceramic balls. It has a rolltop cover with a lock, and has a number of original tickets in the dispensing chutes! The tracks were removed in 1987, but the abutments for the bridge over Bear Creek are still on my property. The depot is known as Bear Creek Junction and that it how it reads on my deed.")

TomlinsonRunRR posted:

A little something for the narrow gauge enthusiasts.  For some reason my 92-year old mother had these (Portland) Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad tickets tucked away in her dining room buffet, so I naturally snagged them.  They are interesting because one says "Founding Member" and the other says "Very Important Person".  I wonder if my parents contributed to the railroad's initial startup and got these as a result?  They were friends with the couple whom I believed owned the building where the cars are stored and I see that the husband signed one of them.   I got to ride this short narrow gauge railroad with my parents and extended family in 1995 and hope to get back soon before they move inland and further north to Gray.

Too bad. It's presently at a great location.  Anybody been a "guest engineer" on their 23-ton switcher?

http://mainenarrowgauge.org - Maine Narrow Gauge RR Co. and Museum

Tomlinson Run Railroad

 

Ahh, The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum. I was lucky to be there in the 1990's and got a grand tour of the equipment. Great little steam locomotives. 

I picked up this boxcar seal from the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway a few years ago. That narrow gauge line ran from 1895 to 1933, finally abandoned in 1936. More recently, approximately 2 miles of track have been restored with the non-profit Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum which operates near Alna, Maine.

Tom 

Not meaning to leave out the Pennsy...

Tom 

Here are some photos of the restoration of my Reading station bench. This came from the Manville, NJ station. My father-in-law's friend had it. His grandfather got it from the station in 1959.

Neat bench, love that!

Here is a picture of the bench in front of the original station.

That's a very cool station photo.

I'd want to find or even make a lamp like that for near the bench too 

I bought the same style of bench, sans-armrests, many years ago, and fixed it up. But it was stolen off my porch one day while I was at work.

I hate thieves with good taste

Reason number 116 to have children:

Can be used to help increase your duty free liquor shipped back to the US!

Check this 1950s era Railway Express Agency brochure I just picked up. Each member of the family (adults and children) were allowed up to 5 bottles of liquor each! You did have to be either 18 or 21 to receive the package (depending on what state you lived in). 

Attached are scans of bother sides of the brochure. Nice prices too!

Finally got around to polishing my PRR bell. The bell was originally installed on an E6 Atlantic and was later moved to a B6 switcher. This is what it looked like before I started.

This is what it looked like after I finished the sanding process.

After the final polishing she was back to being shiny.

And here it it is clear coated and back in the repainted stand.

Joe,

 Very nice. How does it sound? I bet pretty sweet.

Tom 

Joe, nice bell and bench. I found this in pieces in the woods behind my sister in law's house two towns south of here. I don't know its history, but I plan to replace the wood and repaint it. It will sit outside the switchman shanty in the Ashley Minors' Memorial Park. 

MNCW posted:

Joe,

 Very nice. How does it sound? I bet pretty sweet.

Tom 

Makes an awesome sound. 

Joe, great looking bell.  Did you use a buffing wheel on a drill?  We're most bells used by RR companies brass

I first sanded the bell with various grades of sandpaper, 220 to 1000 gtit, with a DA sander. I then buffed it with a angle grinder with a buffing wheel attached. I used three different buffing wheels with three grades of buffing compound.

Most steam bells were made of brass/bronze. There were some made of steel during the war due to the shortage of brass.

This is probably one of the more esoteric pieces of memorabilia I have. On the left is a Western Cullen Hayes electronic highway crossing bell, and on the right is a battered Lionel #154 Automatic Road Crossing Signal that I've had for 60 years or so. The crossing bell is marked W-C-H 110-A-16, and operates on 6 volts DC. I don't know what amperage it draws. The friend I got it from operated it using a 6 volt garden tractor battery. I plan on mounting it under the layout and operating it in conjunction with the Lionel crossing signal. (It always bugged me that the Lionel signal didn't have its own ringer, unlike the #155 I have.) I'll need to figure out the circuitry for that. 

Alternatively, my wife said I could wire it into the doorbell circuit, but our current doorbell drives the cats wild as it is, so I don't think that would be wise. 

This is a switch light I found in York years ago, I never saw too many stainless steel lights.

An EMD fuel injector for a 567 engine, possibly from a GP7 circa 1952, but the 645 versions looked similar.

Over-stamped letters probably indicate a rebuilt version with newer components. Lots of these were spares/surplus in 1980 when I got it.

NJCJOE posted:

This railroad company property marker is not in my collection but I wish it was.

 

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Just rip it out of the ground. I'm sure they'd care for a little while and then forget about it.