Sentimental Oddities - show and tell.

What some might consider an abomination, an O-gauge Stephen Girard set:

A West Virginia friend had sent me a Lionel 248 that someone had nicely tarted up in SG colors. While it looked good dragging a string of the eight-wheel 607/608 coaches in factory SG, I wanted a pair of 629/630 four-wheelers for it. Finally found a pair of bodies at a local meet that someone had stripped to bare metal. Unfortunately they'd soldered in the window inserts, so repaint was done by careful masking (used Wood rattle-cans, SG slightly off from the loco). A few peel-n-stick decals and we had the baby set. Runs great, always gets a few laughs while tearing around the layout.

PD

nothing wrong with that, I've done an O Gauge Lionel Black Diamond Set

And my own Blue Comet

and a green set as well.

I built these two O gauge locos to look like prewar engines to pull my small collection of prewar AF and AF-based tinplate trains. Both locos are Marx powered. The electric outline one is made of wood and PVC pipe pieces and the steamer is a highly modified Marx 999. The freight cars in the second picture started as an AF coach and baggage car a few years older than the red cars shown. These were absolute rust buckets. The coach ended up as the diner in the background of the first picture, the frame is the gondola. A styrene roof was built to turn the baggage car into a boxcar. New "litho" was drawn on my computer and printed on photo paper.

Always liked your rendition of the electric outline, Andy.

I have several items that I have inherited from my father-in-law (post war and Williams Reproduction) and brother (Marx), and all the ones I've kept have sentimental value to me; they were trains we ran together.  

The one that would classify as a Tin Plate oddity is a Lionel Prop Driven (actually wind up) Motor Car my brother would run around his small Marx layout.  We had fun with this one.  I plan to run it again soon.

pd posted:

What some might consider an abomination, an O-gauge Stephen Girard set:

A West Virginia friend had sent me a Lionel 248 that someone had nicely tarted up in SG colors. While it looked good dragging a string of the eight-wheel 607/608 coaches in factory SG, I wanted a pair of 629/630 four-wheelers for it. Finally found a pair of bodies at a local meet that someone had stripped to bare metal. Unfortunately they'd soldered in the window inserts, so repaint was done by careful masking (used Wood rattle-cans, SG slightly off from the loco). A few peel-n-stick decals and we had the baby set. Runs great, always gets a few laughs while tearing around the layout.V

 

PD

Great work PD on the repaint.  Especially since you had to mask the inserts. Your patience paid off! 👍

CAPPilot posted:

I have several items that I have inherited from my father-in-law (post war and Williams Reproduction) and brother (Marx), and all the ones I've kept have sentimental value to me; they were trains we ran together.  

The one that would classify as a Tin Plate oddity is a Lionel Prop Driven (actually wind up) Motor Car my brother would run around his small Marx layout.  We had fun with this one.  I plan to run it again soon.

Thanks for the post. I love the Lionel Zepplin. I love how the prop is driven On theseto.

When a friend or relative is no longer with us.. running one of their trains sure brings back memories of the good times. 

handyandy posted:

I built these two O gauge locos to look like prewar engines to pull my small collection of prewar AF and AF-based tinplate trains. Both locos are Marx powered. The electric outline one is made of wood and PVC pipe pieces and the steamer is a highly modified Marx 999. The freight cars in the second picture started as an AF coach and baggage car a few years older than the red cars shown. These were absolute rust buckets. The coach ended up as the diner in the background of the first picture, the frame is the gondola. A styrene roof was built to turn the baggage car into a boxcar. New "litho" was drawn on my computer and printed on photo paper.

G

Great work on the scratchbuilds. At a glance one would never pic that it wasn’t a period piece. They would be great fun to have running on the layout.

I think for my most sentimental oddity I have to depart momentarily from O gauge to HO

( Stone the Heretic!!! )

I am a big fan of ingenuity and sheer brilliance when it comes to faffing about with things , and my little live steam offering below is definately a great example of both ...

Sometime in the 1930's to 50's a man in the UK took on the challenge of creating a live steam HO locomotive and I was lucky enough to become its guardian into the future ...

Its a little wee masterpiece of engineering to pack all that into a loco less than 3 3/4  inches long and 3 inches from rail to chimneytop !

The wire you see out the back  is wound with wicking material and can be fitted into a brass sleeve reservoir for spirit , or into a small tender behind with a spirit reservoir ...

Fatman posted:

I think for my most sentimental oddity I have to depart momentarily from O gauge to HO

( Stone the Heretic!!! )

I am a big fan of ingenuity and sheer brilliance when it comes to faffing about with things , and my little live steam offering below is definately a great example of both ...

Sometime in the 1930's to 50's a man in the UK took on the challenge of creating a live steam HO locomotive and I was lucky enough to become its guardian into the future ...

Its a little wee masterpiece of engineering to pack all that into a loco less than 3 3/4  inches long and 3 inches from rail to chimneytop !

The wire you see out the back  is wound with wicking material and can be fitted into a brass sleeve reservoir for spirit , or into a small tender behind with a spirit reservoir ...

Now that is cool!

Is the man HO or O? He looks O scale to me with an HO EMD diesel power truck as the base. The whole thing reminds me of some of the early On30 little geared lokey things people used to build in that scale/gauge.

I've mentioned the Freeport  Milk Products car on this forum before and it is definitely one of my sentimental oddities - the base car is an American Flyer NYC reefer (example on left) which was hand painted and lettered.  It looks like the Flyer car was new when it was over painted. The Freeport graphics are correct for the real car and, given the probable time of the hand painting, I think the colors for the hand painted car are prototypical as well.

I bought this one from the infamous online auction... I don't know anything about it except it is an O gauge clockwork locomotive that was obviously built from scratch (except for gears).  It needed a small tweak to the governor, but now it runs just fine.  Wish I knew who built it - they are most certainly a kindred spirit!

picked these up at an antique shop a couple years ago.

and this at an estate sale

I have two of these B&O class O-58 gondolas (the other is #345006) built by Tommy Arnold in July 1939:

Note that they are really an early form of pig flat, not really gondolas; but, because they had sides, the B&O classed them as gondolas.

I also that have a 65' mill gondola B&O #450417 class O-60 built by Arnold in 1936. The only change that I have made to them is changing out the trucks to Athearn two-rail trucks and soon to be installed Intermountain metal wheelsets.

The hand-lettering in quite impressive to me; something not seen too often anymore. That has kept me from re-painting the cars, although a touch-up job might be alright.

They are sentimental to me as they are a direct connection with "old-school" modeling and now-departed people and clubs.

@handyandy  He is a strapping O Gauge Driver , I think he looks the part

The Chassis I admit to not knowing exactly what it is , but due to the bakelite "waffle" bottom and plain slot engineering screw assembly it looks reasonably early , I have had suggestions of early Trix but I cant confirm myself .

Another sentimental loco to me is my lovely British Marx ...

It is just as much the story behind it as the unit itself ... I contacted an Irish seller about another loco he had listed on that worldwide aucton site , and our back and forth emails turned out that the bloke in question had acquired quite a few items upon his Uncles passing , and some of them from the pictures he sent to me were not cheap! I ended up getting that original loco ( which was a Biller modifed so it could run on Biller track AND normal O gauge ... very clever) at a very fair price .

So there I was faced with a rather large dilemma LOL! Some guy I didnt really know with thousands of £'s of items who was probably quite happy to accept a pittance for them , but sadly ( for me ) my "good guy " gene kicked in . I also didnt have a shedload of cash available to make him much of an offer anyway so that made the "Good Guy" gene a little more easy to swallow ...

To give you an idea he had 1900's Bings , Plancks, Carettes, Maerklins, early Rossignol, J deP, ... pretty much every desirable european marque between 1900-1940 ... as well as a few later units like this 50's British Marx .

So I spent a fair bit of time researching and giving him some estimates of values and hinting to him that he might be better served selling the collection thru a more upmarket auction house ...

I didnt have a shedload of desriable trains from him, but I did have a good nights sleep

So time goes on and a month or two later I get a package in the mail I dont remember ordering to be picked up at the Post Office ... and inside is this little fellow , with a note thanking me for my help and that he remembered me saying I had the electric version of the British Marx but had not been able to find a clockwork version ! and he was happy to fill that gap no charge .... So yeah .. as far as sentimental , that one might just top the list ...

Steamer posted:

nothing wrong with that, I've done an O Gauge Lionel Black Diamond Set

 

And my own Blue Comet

and a green set as well.

 

Nice work. Great colour choice really highlights there beauty. Love em!

Fatman posted:

I think for my most sentimental oddity I have to depart momentarily from O gauge to HO

( Stone the Heretic!!! )

I am a big fan of ingenuity and sheer brilliance when it comes to faffing about with things , and my little live steam offering below is definately a great example of both ...

Sometime in the 1930's to 50's a man in the UK took on the challenge of creating a live steam HO locomotive and I was lucky enough to become its guardian into the future ...

Its a little wee masterpiece of engineering to pack all that into a loco less than 3 3/4  inches long and 3 inches from rail to chimneytop !

The wire you see out the back  is wound with wicking material and can be fitted into a brass sleeve reservoir for spirit , or into a small tender behind with a spirit reservoir ...

What a gem! It’s so hard to scale down live steam as one can not scale down the actual water molecules which causes all sorts of unforeseen problems. I’m sure the builder had the patience of a saint. That truly is a loco to treasure.

Fatman posted:

@handyandy  He is a strapping O Gauge Driver , I think he looks the part

The Chassis I admit to not knowing exactly what it is , but due to the bakelite "waffle" bottom and plain slot engineering screw assembly it looks reasonably early , I have had suggestions of early Trix but I cant confirm myself .

Another sentimental loco to me is my lovely British Marx ...

It is just as much the story behind it as the unit itself ... I contacted an Irish seller about another loco he had listed on that worldwide aucton site , and our back and forth emails turned out that the bloke in question had acquired quite a few items upon his Uncles passing , and some of them from the pictures he sent to me were not cheap! I ended up getting that original loco ( which was a Biller modifed so it could run on Biller track AND normal O gauge ... very clever) at a very fair price .

So there I was faced with a rather large dilemma LOL! Some guy I didnt really know with thousands of £'s of items who was probably quite happy to accept a pittance for them , but sadly ( for me ) my "good guy " gene kicked in . I also didnt have a shedload of cash available to make him much of an offer anyway so that made the "Good Guy" gene a little more easy to swallow ...

To give you an idea he had 1900's Bings , Plancks, Carettes, Maerklins, early Rossignol, J deP, ... pretty much every desirable european marque between 1900-1940 ... as well as a few later units like this 50's British Marx .

So I spent a fair bit of time researching and giving him some estimates of values and hinting to him that he might be better served selling the collection thru a more upmarket auction house ...

I didnt have a shedload of desriable trains from him, but I did have a good nights sleep

 

So time goes on and a month or two later I get a package in the mail I dont remember ordering to be picked up at the Post Office ... and inside is this little fellow , with a note thanking me for my help and that he remembered me saying I had the electric version of the British Marx but had not been able to find a clockwork version ! and he was happy to fill that gap no charge .... So yeah .. as far as sentimental , that one might just top the list ...

 

I love the litho on British Marx. You truly deserved the engine. It’s guys like you that give this hobby a good name! 

PRRMP54 posted:

I have two of these B&O class O-58 gondolas (the other is #345006) built by Tommy Arnold in July 1939:

Note that they are really an early form of pig flat, not really gondolas; but, because they had sides, the B&O classed them as gondolas.

I also that have a 65' mill gondola B&O #450417 class O-60 built by Arnold in 1936. The only change that I have made to them is changing out the trucks to Athearn two-rail trucks and soon to be installed Intermountain metal wheelsets.

The hand-lettering in quite impressive to me; something not seen too often anymore. That has kept me from re-painting the cars, although a touch-up job might be alright.

They are sentimental to me as they are a direct connection with "old-school" modeling and now-departed people and clubs.

What a treasure. I’m glad you have the history behind this masterpiece. The hand lettering sure is impressive. From a time when skill and craftsmanship gave birth to the industry we have to say. 

Here’s a picture of my crossing gate that I got as a birthday present sometime in the 1960s. I clearly remember the trip to downtown Philadelphia with my Dad on a bus where he bought the signal for me at Nicholas Smith, It resides on a shelf in my office and I look at it often and remember that wonderful day!

stangtrain posted:

Here’s a picture of my crossing gate that I got as a birthday present sometime in the 1960s. I clearly remember the trip to downtown Philadelphia with my Dad on a bus where he bought the signal for me at Nicholas Smith, It resides on a shelf in my office and I look at it often and remember that wonderful day!

What a memory to treasure! You have looked after it well. Looks like new!