Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

Here is one from the layout.

NWL

Tinplate at home, some Lionel Standard Gauge...

From the archives:

Lionel 258 with a drag of 800-series freights.

I think I reached ( for me anyway) a bit of a milestone in my forbidden love of all things clockwork trainish.... Normally I subject you lot to a bit of an essay with whatever relevant stuff I "think" I "know" about it lol, but today I present a guessing game instead !

I know very well what it is ... and I honestly never thought I would own one in matters of scarcity and $$$'s but I was very lucky to find it here in Australia of all places ..

Sooooooo what I am yapping about .... This Minty Fresh beauty ... ( if you ignore the slight bump on a front buffer ... it will bend back   )

First to correctly identify it gets a Fatman Hug (tm)

Chris,

I love the cover photo of the 840 power station.

i think it is the most spectacular of the Lionel pre war structures.

My power station is by T Reproductions. I did not use the platform in order to fit it into a tight space.

Jim Z

The first customers have arrived at the station cafe.

@Jim Z posted:

Chris,

I love the cover phot of the 840 power station.

i think it is the most spectacular of the Lionel pre war structures.

My power station is by T Reproductions. I did not use the platform in order to fit it into a tight space.

Jim Z

 

Thanks Jim the 840 is the center piece of my layout.    I love the way you have the street laid out in front of yours with the street lights and cars well done! 

FATMAN: Super exquisite engine and NICE find! JKE: LOVE those figures and the table! Do you have a waiter figure? DANIEL: NICE standard gauge assortment!

GUYS and LADIES: Keep 'em coming!  :-)

DANIEL: Your apple green 408E is one of my favorite SG engines. I had an MTH one and currently have an MTH dark green twin-BAL powered one. It is pulling two MTH 214R reefers and an LCT 217 caboose in the video below. All my SG are shiny new repros!

I'm sure folks have seen these pictures before but...

Marty: NICE matching consist!

@Fatman posted:

I think I reached ( for me anyway) a bit of a milestone in my forbidden love of all things clockwork trainish.... Normally I subject you lot to a bit of an essay with whatever relevant stuff I "think" I "know" about it lol, but today I present a guessing game instead !

I know very well what it is ... and I honestly never thought I would own one in matters of scarcity and $$$'s but I was very lucky to find it here in Australia of all places ..

Sooooooo what I am yapping about .... This Minty Fresh beauty ... ( if you ignore the slight bump on a front buffer ... it will bend back   )

First to correctly identify it gets a Fatman Hug (tm)

That's a great one @Fatman ..... I think it is a Van Riemsdjik loco no ?  I wish I could have an opportunity to find one but maybe I won this one no ?

@Tinplate Art posted:

DANIEL: Your apple green 408E is one of my favorite SG engines. I had an MTH one and currently have an MTH dark green twin-BAL powered one. It is pulling two MTH 214R reefers and an LCT 217 caboose in the video below. All my SG are shiny new repros!

The 408E is also one of my prefered loco Art, with the 402 it can pull all you want to couple to it. Even if I prefer original one with some scratches the new shiny ones are very nice to see . I have recently bought a Lionel 200 trolley, very pleased with it .

Daniel

VERY NICE Lionel Classics trolley with a very accurate repro motor! Do you also have the matching trailer?

Variations on a B&O theme

American Flyer

Bing

Ives

Marx

RSB: VERY nice variations! ALL nice, but the AF is my favorite! :-)

PD: I am a fan of the Lionel 258 and yours looks great! THANKS for sharing!

RSB,

You forgot one!

NWL

@FRENCHTRAINS posted:

That's a great one @Fatman ..... I think it is a Van Riemsdjik loco no ?  I wish I could have an opportunity to find one but maybe I won this one no ?

100% Correct Daniel!

Its one of only 600 manufactured by John Van Riemsdijk between 1946 and 1948. Riemsdijk after the war saw that other manufacturers were churning out the cheaper models into the recovering marketplace and was convinced that there would be a market for clockwork loco's of much higher quality like those that were prevalent before the war , so utilising a Basset-lowke type drive he set his engineering mind to work and mated the high quality mechanism with a user variable certrifugal governer , which gave an ability to run the locomotive at slower speeds without losing the torque of the motor or sacrificing the run down of the mechanism in effect the modern birth of the controlled clockwork motor ! ( in regard to model railways ) A Similar concept was invented and implimented before the war in 1928 by Walker-Fenn utilising a gramophone governor bolted onto a Marklin chassis but it was a costly piece!  ... sadly in the post war boom electricity was becoming more and more available and it was now truly the time of the electric locomotive which somewhat took the winds out of the sails of these brilliant clockwork beauties ...

He made a lot of tinplate trams and over 1000 0-6-0 locomotives and they show up from time to time , but the 4-4-4 is much less common to appear , so snagging this one was amazing for me ..

His products were sold mainly thru upmarket stores such as Walkers-Holtzapffel and Gamages in London ( thus they are often called Walkers-Riemdijk's )

Van Riemsdijk was an incredibly interesting fellow from what I read of him , born in 1924 ,He spent a lot of his childhood traveling all across Europe on trains with his father , he joined the Royal Navy, and in WWII in recognition of his inventor side and encyclopedic knowledge of Europe he was signed up by the UK's SOE (Special Operations Executive) and among many things designed and made Clockwork "Moo-Horns" which were included in airdrops to the French Resistance to enable them to find the packages in total darkness... Mooing every few minutes .. Ze Germans never caught on ! and what a great excuse for being out at night ...looking for a lost cow! "Moooooo! " Oh its over there !  LOL!

He also invented a Steam Powered radio so the resistance didn't need electricity to contact the Brits !

He sold his clockwork business in 1956 and took up a position at the National Science Museum ( UK ) ... and he went on to pretty much source collate and set up the UK National Railway Museum

Oh and he made Gorgeous Locos like this one ...

And here is my W&H V Reimsdijk in the much more common 0-6-0 wheel arrangement.  There was also a 4-6-0 which is not easy to find. The Flyer LNWR luggage van now resides in the collection of a very good friend.

@Fatman posted:

...Its one of only 600 manufactured by John Van Riemsdijk between 1946 and 1948... (etc.)

Thanks for sharing the details.  It's always interesting to read about the smaller makers.

Whenever I read something like this, the following thoughts come to mind - a) thankfully, someone still knows this stuff and is willing to share it, b) is this information well-documented, stored, and made available such that people can find it in the future, and c) will anyone care?

I have a computer folder on controlled clockwork locomotives that I'd be happy to share with interested parties.

Lew

lewrail - thanks for the morning laugh - I needed that.  The "joke" is strictly my doing - I did a quick read of your post and what registered was "I have computer controlled clockwork locomotives...."   

  Needless to say, that gave me pause so, of course, I went back and read it properly...thinking about my mis-read I must admit I kind of like the way it turned out - what comes to mind is the idea that if one had computer controlled clockwork locomotives one would probably have to have a mechanical computer like Babbage's Difference Engine to control them. 

I'm perfectly capable of making strange typo mistakes. Fortunately I seemed

to have typed it correctly --- this time.  Thanks  Robert

@Tinplate Art posted:

PD: I am a fan of the Lionel 258 and yours looks great! THANKS for sharing!

Thanks Art. While I enjoy my Flyer steamers, the 258 stands as my favorite:

Nicely refurbished, I love listening to that thing clink-n-clank around the layout.

Paul

A few news in the collection.

AS Adolf Schuhmann coaches from the late 30s.

Brimtoy No 300 train in a uncommon orange colour.

Bub 1045/0 car made 1927-1928

Bub indicator made 1931-1933

Arne

PD: The Lionel 258 is a "baby" 384, another favorite of mine. ARNE: Your Bub cars and that very nice destination sign are my favs!

Fatman /lewrail :  Wow, Van Riemsdjik a maker of trains that I had not heard of before.  You guys and Arne with Adolf Schuhmann have identified two makers that are new to me for sure.  This forum is the only place that this knowledge gets shared, thank you all.  Frenchtrains, great Standard Gauge display.  TinplateArt - like you I love the 258, they seem rugged yet have the classic tinplate look at the same time.  Thanks for the pictures.

As an aside, Fatman...wife and I have been watching an Australian mystery TV show called the " Mysteries of Dr. Blake" set in the late 50's early 60's in Victoria, Australia.  In the episode the other night the culprit was found (a lady) whose small child left a clue at the scene...a Hornby MO steam engine!  He puts the engine with the tender still in the boy's possession and wha-la has a suspect. 

Well we are about to head home to Texas from the East Coast and I am anxious to study a Bing tank car (Peerless Tank Lines) that I scored on e-bay but had shipped home.  Will post pictures later in the month...

Don

And here is a photo of the Walkers & Holtzapfel 4-6-0 tank locomotive.  I was the underbidder at a hammer price of 380 pounds--when the pound was worth a lot more than now. Hey Don and Fatman, we also watch Dr. Blake. Lew

A signal or three. Don

It should be noted that John Van Riemsdjik is also famous for his collaboration with the late founder of Fulgurex, Count Antonio Giansanti-Coluzzi and Aster for the design of many of their famous high quality gauge one live steam models including the incredible Big Boy and the more pedestrian, yet delightful, LGB/Aster Frank S. He was at least as famous for the Aster live steam program as for his clockwork patents.

The live steam Schools Class 4-4-0 loco was Van Riemsdijk's first design for Aster at the bequest of his friend, Count Coluzzi, the noted European manufacturer and collector of high-end model trains.

Fulgurex, by means of Tenshodo and other precision model manufacturers, produced some very high quality models including the well known Swiss Crocodile. The Count had some brass engines made by the Korean firm of Samhongsa, which also once famously produced trains for MTH. Count Coluzzi had an enviable  collection of high-end European model trains in several gauges, many of which are documented in a coffee table style book entitled The Trains on the Avenue De Rumine (Random House, 1983) which was the Count's actual address in Lausanne, Switzerland. This handsome tome contains 3000 color photographs of some of the world's finest model trains.

To sum up, John Van Riemsdijk and Count Antonio Giansanti Coluzzi were two very important men in the international history of model trains, whether mechanical, steam or electrical propulsion.

@Robert S. Butler posted:

lewrail - thanks for the morning laugh - I needed that.  The "joke" is strictly my doing - I did a quick read of your post and what registered was "I have computer controlled clockwork locomotives...."   

  Needless to say, that gave me pause so, of course, I went back and read it properly...thinking about my mis-read I must admit I kind of like the way it turned out - what comes to mind is the idea that if one had computer controlled clockwork locomotives one would probably have to have a mechanical computer like Babbage's Difference Engine to control them. 

James Pakarek has a radio controlled clockwork.

Steve

Thanks for all the information Tinplate Art...the forum is one of the few places that folks like me can increase their knowledge of the model / toy train hobby.  lewrail the picture of the Walkers & Holtzhaphel 0-6-0 was really interesting and again lists a manufacturer I had not heard of before...and to think the data came from another Dr. Blake fan !!

Thanks to all for posting  - I will be back home in a week or so and hopefully will be able to post some of the tinplate that has arrived from e-bay over the last 2 months.

Don