Tail End Tuesday

Well, here is an elderly statesmen for you.  She is American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) from 1938 The #3172 Observation.

Here is her sister, the #3171 Pullman

I acquired these still in both their internal and external cartons.  3 Pullman's and an Observation.  This is the external set carton.

Happy Tuesday!

Don

@Sitka- your passenger car is certainly a mystery.  The key identifiers are that it has 5 3-part windows on a side and 1 or 2 doors depending on if the car is a Pullman or an observation.   3 pairs of cars used this body (identical body)...603/604, 607/608 and 609/611 (yes 611 the 610 number was assigned to another car- why? who knows...).  Only the 611 came factory painted in blue which is what it looks like the color of your car is however it is different from the "stock" 611 in other ways.  The roof of the blue 611 is aluminum and the trim color is silver not cream.  In addition it appears your car has a fish belly but the 611 did not have either a fish belly or air tanks.  It also normally came without journal covers but in one small variation it did come with Ni covers.  The trim was a single piece stamping added to the sides of the car when assembled it was pre-painted a contrasting color to the body. Cream trim was common, just not with blue cars (red and orange mostly).  The car body could have been repainted or the trim pieces (pre painted cream) could have been added.  All possible.

So was this of any help...I doubt it I am sure you had this information before.  Its about all I can do from the picture.

Don

@MELGAR posted:

Conrail 1411 is a K-Line model.

MELGAR

Very nice Mel thanks for sharing

@Sitka posted:

Happy Halloween Have a Good Tail End, A Lionel pre-war observation car anyone know the number and year? God Speed!

Happy Halloween to you too

@Don McErlean posted:

Well, here is an elderly statesmen for you.  She is American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) from 1938 The #3172 Observation.

Here is her sister, the #3171 Pullman

I acquired these still in both their internal and external cartons.  3 Pullman's and an Observation.  This is the external set carton.

Happy Tuesday!

Don

Wow that’s a oldie Don.

My Milwaukee Road Sky Top Observation car

A pair of Lionel Bobbers.....

MTH PRR A5

Well here it is , T.E.T. and I can't believe that I am starting us off...I was working in the yard outside cleaning up acorns that are dropping like mad from our oak trees (not a problem except when they fall in the pool) and so very delayed.  Its now 10:21 here in central Texas so I better get to it...  So here is a little grouping for today.

The American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) #1127 caboose, uncatalogued from 1936-1937

The Hafner, long size, "streamliner" caboose from 1937-1951

The Marx, plastic, bay window, "Allstate" caboose from 1958-1959

Best Wishes

Don

WTG Don! Have a good TET all. Cattle going to the market.

@Don McErlean posted:

The Marx, plastic, bay window, "Allstate" caboose from 1958-1959

Best Wishes

Don

@Don McErlean.  Your photo of the plastic Marx trains reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother.  He was an avid pre-WWII Marx collector, but did continue with Marx post-war tin-plate to expand his collection.  One day in the late 80s at a train show we looked at some early plastic Marx from 1952.  He said he would never buy a plastic one and would never forgive Marx from ending tin-plate production.

When he was fighting cancer a few years ago, he started selling or giving away his collection.  In the collection was a lot of plastic Marx and I asked him about that.  He said he liked them; they were fun, inexpensive, and good for train show running.  That was a big change of heart.  Anyway, somewhere in my basement are a lot of 35mm slides of his trains.  I need to find them and post them.

Here is a Lionel model that I did get from my brother (yes, he had Lionel but not much).

@CAPPilot- First of all...I hope you are paying close attention to the advice of your doc's and are concentration on getting better.  Next, THANK YOU for your story on your brother and Marx...You know Marx was an interesting company in many ways.  They never stopped making TOY trains, although they did also produce many more realistic trains, especially in plastic.  Yet some of the last trains Marx produced before folding up their train business were the 4 wheel 6" tinplate cars they had been making since about 1935. Marx also produced some "scale" tinplate, starting in about 1940 they designed an entire line of "S" scale but "0" gauge trains designed to be pulled by their die cast 999 and 333 engines.  These were true S scale and at the time, some flyer fans used AF trucks to convert them to S gauge. The interesting thing is that they were all tinplate.  Lithographed beautifully and still pretty collectable today.  They peaked in availability in about 148 and were gone by the middle 50's.  As you said, around 1952 Marx initiated the plastic freights.

I found (and still do) that the plastic cars were colorful, reasonably realistic, rugged for play value and (especially in the 1970's when my train collecting budget was very limited) inexpensive.  So I would have agreed with your brother about "train show" cars to run.

That Lionel "aerotrain" I think they called it,  is unique and there was at least one prototype of such a train although not very successful. You definatley need to get out those 35mm slides and let us "Crazy Marx" guys on the forum see some of them.

Thanks for sharing some of your brother's train legacy with us.

Best Wishes

Don

Here's my backend Tuesday!

@Don McErlean posted:

The American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) #1127 caboose, uncatalogued from 1936-1937

The Hafner, long size, "streamliner" caboose from 1937-1951

The Marx, plastic, bay window, "Allstate" caboose from 1958-1959

Best Wishes

Don

Don, your extensive collection never fails to amaze me. Very impressive!

Gene

@Genemed—Gene thank you for the compliment. I am glad you enjoy the pictures. I know it’s fun for me to post them.

Regards

Din

Here my rear for this fine Tuesday!  The backend of a box truck.  

Haven't posted for TET for awhile, but here's an unassuming K-Line N5B ex-PRR cabin car in CR livery:

She flickered like a candle when I got her as part of a "safety award" set that was produced by K-Line for Conrail Shared Assets Operations employees soon after the bulk CR was split up between CSX and NS in 1999. Needless to say, this little cabin car was not K-Line's best work. Here she is in a recent SWSAT video, flickering away:

I really like this cabin car though, so I set about fixing her up. First, I replaced the K-Line wheel sets with some extra heavier Weaver sets I had on hand and installed Lionel collector plates on both trucks:

Then, I used 225g of brass bar weights to essentially double her weight to roughly equal that of a higher-quality MTH or Lionel caboose:

Aaaand, here she is, flicker-free even over the "dead spot" in my operating track section:

Some my favorites from my collections.

For some reason I forgot to post the rest, lol. Getting old.

Premier WM VO1000

@Bill Swatos posted:

Haven't posted for TET for awhile, but here's an unassuming K-Line N5B ex-PRR cabin car in CR livery:

She flickered like a candle when I got her as part of a "safety award" set that was produced by K-Line for Conrail Shared Assets Operations employees soon after the bulk CR was split up between CSX and NS in 1999. Needless to say, this little cabin car was not K-Line's best work. Here she is in a recent SWSAT video, flickering away:

I really like this cabin car though, so I set about fixing her up. First, I replaced the K-Line wheel sets with some extra heavier Weaver sets I had on hand and installed Lionel collector plates on both trucks:

Then, I used 225g of brass bar weights to essentially double her weight to roughly equal that of a higher-quality MTH or Lionel caboose:

Aaaand, here she is, flicker-free even over the "dead spot" in my operating track section:

Bill great job on the caboose A job well done!

GGD coach with a new look.

Boston & Maine "Minuteman" heavyweight passenger car #1 (by MTH - PS1 era) ran at the Tail End of a train pulled by B&M F2 diesel locomotive #4257 (by Atlas O) on my 12'-by-8' layout.

MELGAR

A spot of prewar tail end action, courtesy of the NYC office: 

Mitch

Have a good Tuesday all

It's Tuesday and the party is at the tail end of the California Zephyr Silver Horizon Observation car in the, "Tail End Cocktail Lounge". The bartender in the white shirt is keeping the martini's with a twist flowing! May the Tail End of your Tuesday story be a happy one! ;-)

Going to school on Mitch...here is a bunch of prewar tail ends but from American Flyer

AF 1120 from 1929

American Flyer Lines (car u-numbered) from about 1928

A

American Flyer #3172 from 1930-1932

AF # 1207 from 1925-26

AF train 301 from about 1930

@Don McErlean posted:

Going to school on Mitch...here is a bunch of prewar tail ends but from American Flyer

AF 1120 from 1929

American Flyer Lines (car u-numbered) from about 1928

A

American Flyer #3172 from 1930-1932

AF # 1207 from 1925-26

AF train 301 from about 1930

Don, great classic ends of the rear! American Flyer Lines (car u-numbered) from about 1928 has had a rough life, but considering how long it's been around, amazing!

Here's my rears for what is left of this fine Tuesday!   Cleaning up a derailment.

@Sitka posted:

Bill great job on the caboose A job well done!

Thanks, Mark! I hope others here can use the ideas on their "candlelight" cabooses/cabin cars.

@WesternPacific2217- Hey thanks for your comment.  You are right about the un-numbered car from 1928 but somehow a condition like that makes me think that some young person really played with and enjoyed their train.  I like to imagine them having a really good time at Christmas or maybe their Birthday.

Regards

Don

Have a good TET all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's my rear for this fine Tuesday!   Burrrr .... it's cold outside!

Happy TET

Here is my custom observation to simulate the NHI RR open air car.

Well hello T.E.T. fans on the week of Thanksgiving...Happy Holiday to you all!!  Today I have something a little bit unusual (I never really use the word "rare" with Marx) It is a caboose, catalogued one year only, 1956.  It is the Union Pacific #3824 Bay Window caboose, catalogue number 05556/1.  WHY, you ask,  the "/1"?  Because for some reason Marx also in 1956 catalogued a U.P. work caboose with the same number on the car...why do that?  Maybe to save money on the stamp, who knows, but catalogue number 05556 was the work caboose and 05556/1 was the Bay Window caboose both in 1956.  The Bay Window only lasted one year so after 1956 the duplication didn't matter and the work caboose returned in 1962.

So here is my "new" #3824 U.P. Bay Window caboose.  Now the first thing all Marx followers will notice is that there are 2 parts missing from the roof: the smokestack and the radio antenna.  These highly vulnerable plastic pars simply mount into holes in the roof and are easily lost or broken.  No fear friends, replacement parts are readily available and are already on their way to my home.

Unusual for Marx, the two ends of the frame stamping are different.  Since this is stamped as one piece including railings and the ladder or no ladder on the other end it means creating a different tool for this stamping just to make the 2 ends different.  This was true on every Marx Bay Window...ladder on one end, no ladder on the other.  Why? again no firm answer except my suspicion it had to do with cost as production cost was a constant Marx watch item.

Well that's it for me today, tomorrow is "MEAL PREPARATION DAY" at our house and it means I have to make myself available for support, running errands to the store, etc...so posting anything for the next 2 days is going to be unlikely.  I hope everyone has the very best Thanksgiving.  Lets remember those families that may be less fortunate and our Military members who are far from home.

God Bless

Don

A K-Line extended-vision cabin car:

to go with my MTH Schnabel car:

It’s Tuesday again already lol.

I ran New York Central wood caboose #19877 behind NYC Alco RS-3 locomotive #8223 last week. It is an MTH Premier model delivered in July 2023.

MELGAR

Lionel New York Central RS11

It’s Tuesday again new UP vision caboose for my VL big boy #4014. 2326450