Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

I don't have much in the way of figurines in my collection , and the 4 I do have all came as part of other items I have scored lol .. that said they probably now deserve an airing in the thread and maybe some kind folk here will be able to put a name and or date to them

First up I bought a Triang Minic ambulance that came with the figures seen with it ...

And many years ago I bought a completly bespoke HO scale Steam engine ... and YES it runs .. Tiny but a BEAST lol ...the fellow who made it in the dim dark past in the UK was a very clever man ... the wire out the back is actually the wick for the flame in the boiler ... originally it had a wee tender which contained spirit the wick was encased in an indian rubber tube which plugged into the tender body to draw fuel via gravity and  capilliary action .. sadly it was lost to time , but the principle still works ... I test fired it with a length of silicone tubing slid over the old rubber and bent up to hold the spirit in a vertical manner behind the loco .

I think the pensive "operator" of this strange beast with his jaunty hat and pipe actually makes it !

I imagine in his former life he was perhaps intended as a farmer leaning on a fence watching his sheep dogs do their business .. but hes a perfect locoman now!

That thing is awesome. Made my day seeing that

.

@Fatman posted:

First up I bought a Triang Minic ambulance that came with the figures seen with it ...

And many years ago I bought a completly bespoke HO scale Steam engine ... and YES it runs ..

That HO steam engine is amazing. You certainly have eclectic taste. I enjoy your wide range of collecting interests....you’ve certainly shown me many facets of this hobby, manufacturers and their goods, that I never knew existed. Keep up the hunt and bringing joy to yourself and the many others following this thread.

Thanks for the kind words Rich and Gerry ...

And in keeping with the eclectic description applied , my man in the Netherlands has purchased a new Seki locomotive he found and has decided to part fund it by gracefully letting go of a couple of Stella Tinplate Clockwork trains we found and he bought a few weeks ago

Lucky for him , super lucky for me !

Stella is a little known Czechoslovakian toy manufacturer these days but in the past it was a grand manufacturer of many items . Based in the small town of Krnsko , which even today has a population of a little over 500 ... but back in 1890 Josef Kotek started a small workshop that made childrens rifles , toys and gardening tools .... succeeding their father 10 years later Ladislav and Frantisek Kotek built the business into a larger factory , and showing just how important "Toys" can be the family built a chapel over a spring in the top of the mountainside overlooking Krnsko, and used his success in business to set up fresh water resources to each house in Vystrykov and even sewerage .. in fact this system was in place right up until 1970 when it was finally replaced by a state run system ... in time they even created hydroelectricity and steam sawmills in the district in the 1920's ... The Kotek family truly believed in "Paying it forward " and were highly regarded ... all from " "toys"

In the second world war the factory was stripped by the Germans and turned over to arms production and building aircraft components .. after the war the factory reverted back to making some toys , and these trains were one of them .... they also continued making childrens rifles and weapons .. in fact the reknowned CZ air rifles was their product

Much more interesting history on this firm can be found here

https://translate.google.com/t...osti/ladislav-kotek/

As you will see however there is no mention of toy trains lol .. but yes , yes they made them , and here is the proof ... they are Post war C. late 40's early 50's .

Now the astute member here will see that there are indeed two different locos in the above photos .. I am reserving the complete one ( with siderods and cylinders etc) and all three carriages  but if you want the other incomplete loco ( which still runs fine I am told) , keep an eye out on German eBay as it might end up there at a very low starting price !

Dont say you weren't tipped off LOL!!

Fatman:  THANK YOU for the information on Stella and the background on the firm.  As you might guess, out here on the "frontier" I had never heard of Stella and was fascinated by the history and pictures of your new train.  Thanks a lot again for the information

Don

Never rains but it pours !

My man in the Nedderlands has been tempting me with such goodies ....

Soooo adding to the next shipment is ...

Some Fleischmann tankers .. one with brake cab one without ...

And a Passenger coach and baggage car ... again Fleischmann

Plus a couple of early post war HWN's ... open wagon and a baggage missing a set of wheels ( I have some here as spares )

However locally I made an amazing find on a clockwork motor made by Robilt , a firm here which made tin trains after WWII and are probably one of the major collecting marques in Australia ... although this motor has little to do with trains, but certainly could be put to use powering accesories ...

The seller listed this motor as Meccano ... but it wasnt

The South Australian firm of Ezy-Bilt manufactured a Meccano/Erector type set after the war and into the mid 50's ... They contracted Robilt to supply motors for an "advanced" accessory , I do not know how many were built , but I suspect not too many as they would have been rather costly in the day , and with Hornby etc being available most stores would have carried them for purchase noticibly cheaper I would think ... so it is "Sort of " a copy of a Hornby No2 Reversing Clockwork motor , but as you can see production of them never got past the "Hand Assembled " phase using aluminium C-tube peened over as rivets

Hornby

Robilt .. as you can see ... VERRRRRRY different ! on the hornby all the controll arms are inside the plates .. on the Robilt it is all controlled from outside the plates .

The most amazing thing is it has the ORIGINAL key!  .. and yes its the same they used for their trains .. and rare as rocking horse poo .. because most get lost , or misplaced , thrown out or forgotten about .... Very few Robilt locos ever come with an original key on the second hand market .

And some days the stars just align ... because not 2 hours after I scored that motor .... a listing for 8 toy keys for $25 with shipping included came up ... and my eyes looked immediately to the top left big key ...

They looked at it for 1.2 seconds before my fingers told them to nick off and slammed the Buy it Now !  LOL!

Yep you guessed it ANOTHER Robilt key ... which is worth about 8 times the bid alone ... Sometimes a little bit of magic pops into your day ... and THIS was a good one .. a great one even

So my humble beat up little Robilt loco .. now has a key as well !

Oh and stay tuned folks !!! .. because Fatman and his trusty companion Dutchboy are working on another history lesson and acquisition as I type ... no spoiler just yet (cough Tippco..Cough) , but the minute the deal is done .....

These early Marklin gauge 1 cars have perforated cast iron wheels and Type 3 loop and hook couplers, ca. 1903. The video shows them pulled by the No. 11111 Marklin Storchenbein re-issue of 1999, modified from clockwork to DC power.

Fatman:  Again, you identify a builder, which you mention was very popular in Australia,especially among collectors..."Robilt" which I had never heard of before...thank you for your continuing flow of information on brands and manufacturers that are very uncommon here in the US.  Here are a couple of complementary cars to the German makes.

In the category of how much many German makes resemble each other, here is a Bub tanker from 1934-39,

Here is another HWN Red Baggage Car from the 1950's

Best wishes and thanks again for the mention and description of Robilt.

Don

@Fatman  @Don McErlean

I really like those tank cars with the little brakeman cab.

Sounds like you had a good day FM.  It pays to have a sharp eye.

Thanks again for the kind words fellows

@G-Man24 I think a love of history and a thirst for knowledge drives my "eye" a little ... every now and then something I see gives me a little tingle at the back of my neck , and it usually turns out to be the force to make me turn over every rock I can find until I get at least some idea of what it is I am looking at ...Not uncoincidental that tingle often alerts me to the "rocking horse poo" finds ...

@Don McErlean and all ... Aussie had a few train manufacturers in O gauge , and quite a few cottage industry exercises over the years , we might have been a small country population wise , but we have always punched above our weight when it comes to "Having a go " but the three bigger concerns that took off in Australia after WWII  were Ferris , Robilt , and Maurlyn . There were many other smaller concerns over the years and it is thought there were over 30 different concerns from after WWI to the late 60's ... I admit to not being very Aussie centric on these smaller concerns , mainly because the vast majority of those toys are in collectors hands these days and my wallet simply cant compete We also had live steam with brands like Scorpion and Renown . Most of these manufacturers had a dual business and the "toys" were just a sideline to bring in some extra bucks in times of prosperity . Maurlyn made many pressed metal items for industry ( and a fair share of pressed steel cars and trucks ) Ferris was an electrical company making radios and other electronics , Robilt was making machinery and indeed continued to do after the Train side of things died in the 60's .

But Robilt , O Gauge House , Maurlyn and Ferris were the "Big Boys " in the boom years

I have several Maurlyn's and some Robilt that I am proud to have , but yet to score a Ferris ... The Ferris offerings are easily identifiable and have prominent branding , so its very rare to find someone advertising it as unknown and collectors find them easily ( and expensively lol )

So here is My Aussie Contingent ... its very important to realise that quite often these toys had no primer or basecoat applied , and us Aussie kids are rough on our toys , so pristine is VERY rare indeed .. In fact the Maurlyn ones were made out of pressed Aluminium , and scratched and bent easily .

Robilt wagons and track ( see what I mean about rough lol )

Robilt tender .. this is in REALLY good original condition , you can see the original hand pinstripes and waterslides are still pretty ok ... normally these flake off over time and little fingers .

Underneath of the Robilt 0-4-0 loco you have seen up there ^^^ in the thread ... A quality mechanism very heavy duty , like I said machinery was Robilts first priority .. They didn't scrimp when it came to sideplate thickness, gears and cogs!

Robilt also did other locomotives like a 4-4-0 but they are really hard to find , also in electric versions as well as clockwork  ( as did Maurlyn, Ferris were electric from the get go )

I dont have any Robilt electric ( one day ) but I do have a controller/transformer

Here is one of my Maurlyns ... this one is missing its front bogie assembly and needs some straightening up front

And with its tender and carriage

However all is not lost as I have two other loco's which can complete it

And another spare set , which is one of the first production , crudely painted in reality from the factory ( and a little worse for wear cosmetically )

As I said I dont have any Ferris ( yet) but I will include a set taken from the National Museum for reference

A very brief history can be found here

https://www.nma.gov.au/explore...cdonald-model-trains it also mentions Bruce McDonalds book "Spring Spark and Steam " which is a history of Australian Model Trains ... I am yet to get one but it comes highly recommended and it is on my " Must Get " list , but you all know how I love a bargain lol so keep hoping to find it cheep!

FM is this Meccano No2 motor in your collection? It's pretty neat. I'm a sucker for that old crackle finish paint,  you could spray that stuff on a discarded pizza box and I would buy it !

I ,like the  others, look forward to your posts. Such an eclectic array I always see something new (old) and interesting. When there are no new posts I go back and look at old posts. That's the good thing about being a newb to the forum there is a whole archive of posts I have yet to read.

Most time  I don't even know what I'm looking at,  but being a former machinist I take great pleasure in studying the way things were made and imagining what it must have been like to work in those old factories. I'm far more impressed with those ancient stampings and castings that came from hand made tooling and line shaft driven machinery than I am with a modern offering produced with modern manufacturing techniques. Those old toys have a soul to them.

Oh and earlier I hinted at a "Big Find" coming from Europe with the help of Dutchboy , Fatmans trusty companion!

Well he came thru with the goods !

Not so much "train " orientated but falling in my other wheelhouse of vintage kinetic motors , I have shared the Hess Dynamobil before but will include a pic again for reference here ... These items were made in the early 1900's to 30's as an alternative to having your kid head off into the sitting room with a bottle of alcohol and a box of matches to play with a steam engine lol ... much less chance of burning your house to the ground!

They are basicaly a highly geared weighty flywheel which when spun up to speed used the stored inertia to drive steam accessories for a good minute or two after you spun it up ... plus they make a satisfying grrrrrrRRRRRRRRRR.. WHOOOOOOOOOoooooo as they cycle up and wind down

Hess dynamobil

You wind the crank , get it spinning as hard as you can then you can cut in the pulley drive with the lever to transfer the energy to any toy that can be operated by a spring belt ...Magic ! I have a little Carette windmill I power with it .

So Kinda?? Train related as it could sit on any layout lol ...

So to the big reveal !!!

OK ...so Hess went the way of many German toy companies in Nuremburg with the rise of the Nazi's , falling foul of Hitlers "Nuremburg " laws which, when enacted, basically made the German Jewish population stateless by removing their rights as citizens , which in turn meant they could no longer own and operate business's properly compared to "German" citizens ... Hess folded in 1937 and Tipp & Co bought out the tooling etc in a fire sale ...

Tipp & Co then released their own version of the Dynamobil .. the Tippmobil ( how original lol )

Advertised in their 1937 catalogue , but when war was looming, Tipp & Co as the poster child for good little German Toy  Manufacturers then concentrated on making toys of German War vehicles , and the Tippmobil was forgotten ... Thats probably a bit harsh on Messers Tipp & Co as there were indeed one of Germany's finest tin toy makers long before the war .

Ladies and Gennermannnns I preeeeesent to youuuuu..

The Tippmobil!

Mega HUGE props to Dutchboy for finding this on a local Netherlands buy and sell site and alerting me to its existence ... as this was a huge find for me , and the seller did not know its history either and lets just say it was purchased for 1/10th of the only other one I have seen for sale ..errr currently on ebay

A mark of the man I am proud to call my friend is that HE found it , alerted me , purchased it for me with money I transferred to him at exactly the advertised price , and will ship it to me along with the other stuff I have bought from him when we have a full box ... He could have sooo easily bought it , marked it up 500% and then said "Look what I have got ! " knowing full well I would be interested still ( he Bought me a Hess one in the same manner ) A true Gentleman and a friend .

https://www.hesstintoys.com/dyna9.html  I became aware of the Tipp & Co variant thru my research on Hess Dynamobils which pointed me to this marvelous site

Thank you DutchBoy ! ( he must remain completely anonymous due to his work , but he gets full credit as best I can )

In the early 80’s the Canadian Division of TTOS began issuing one STD Gauge club car per year made by McCoy. Also available was a beautiful 4-4-0 steamer of which only about 65 were produced. Here are photos of them.

Steve

@G-Man24  You Caught me lol .. I have exactly the same motor with all the paperwork box and key in my collection but was lazy and used a web pic lol!

We were cross posting as I was dropping that behemoth of a post above

I also have 3 of the smaller Magic motors from meccano .. like you the appeal of these things is in the ingenuity and craftsman ship shown in older toys and items ... Mass produced means cheap which is great , but it does not feed the soul

Meccano early on 1920-24 I think by memory used motors made by Marklin in Germany to power their sets .

Early Meccano motors

a catalogue of later meccano motors

@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

In the early 80’s the Canadian Division of TTOS began issuing one STD Gauge club car per year made by McCoy. Also available was a beautiful 4-4-0 steamer of which only about 65 were produced. Here are photos of them.

Steve

This is a beautiful train! Thank you for sharing!

No new find this week, just take some time to run an all original JEP train from around 1955. The famous CC loco was in her time the world fastest loco. Sorry for the tracks which are MTH ones....

There will be some new things next week du to a recent buy of goodies....

Have a nice weekend,  Daniel

Greetings friends,

Just had my second Covid 19 vaccine shot with no ill effects.  Luck seems to be with me. And to top it off, just received a Kibri 48-2 large Stellewerke with electric signals.  The seller is also a great craftsman and made a replacement roof which looks great.  Take a look at the photos and see the contrast with the equally big Hornby signal gantry.

Lew Schneider

Great shots of the layout, Lew. What's the small green building on an orange base just behind the Hornby signal bridge in the third photo? Looks interesting. Nice looking luffa trees, too!

PD

Hi everyone...Lewrail I admit to being jealous, not because of your layout (which is fabulous) but because you have apparently cracked the code on getting the vaccine.  Wife and I , both in our 70's, have been told we are on the waiting list to start and we are around # 30,000! Why?  - NO MEDICINE is arriving in our area.

OK so we just have to stay indoors longer - which means more train time so there is a silver lining somewhere (LOL).  Anyway Lewrail, great signal bridge and the prewar Hornby signal bridge is fabulous.  Daniel, love the JEP train, carpet or not !

Today I am posting a little out of my normal range (Lionel, AF, and Marx) to show some of the "fun" size trains I recently acquired.  These are from METTOY in the United Kingdon and are from the early postwar era, 1949-1954 (or so).  The station is the # 5617 and was made with this lithography from 1949 until (about) 1954 - at least that is where I lose any picture of it in the catalog pictures that I have.

Here is the METTOY "Joytown" station and platform. This was issued post war for the first time in 1949 and the station was the same as the prewar version BUT the lithography was entirely new. 

Here a METTOY freight train passes by.  The rolling stock pictured also dates from 1949-1951 (note the blue car is not original just a convenient load).  These are about the size of Hornby M0 rolling stock - O gauge but rather small in size.  You will note that I have not pictured a METTOY engine, that is because at this point such motive power still eludes me...but I am hunting!

Here is a close up of the lithograph design on the post war 5617 station.  This is a bit of a strange story.  The pre-war 5617 was physically the same but the lithograph design was much more "normal" it showed contemporary people in normal dress and the center was depicted as a pass through with contemporary automobiles in the background as if on the far side of the station.  This design stopped in 1939-40 as toy production stopped for the war effort.  The 5617 did not re-appear until 1949 and then when it did, it came with the (as illustrated below) the somewhat bizarre - almost cartoon like people populating the station.  No reason is known, except I suppose they felt it increased market appeal.  In fact I really like it, to me it contributes to the charm.

Well Happy weekend everyone.

Don

@Don McErlean  Nice pickups !

Your Joytown station is missing his roof lol ! ...Poor fellow

Suggested Motive power for your rake? Mettoy or Brimtoy are fairly interchangeable..

Mettory A4 coronation series ?

Or it you want to go UBER fancy ...Mettoy Schools Class ...

But most likely culprit for hauling your freight .. a standard Brimtoy loco and tender

Or if you want to step into early post war you could try and find a Battle of Britain Hurricane Loco

You could evengo a Jaunty little red number ... Chad Valley

Or spoil yourself with a battery powered Chad Valley Merlin Loco

Lots of choices LOL!!! ( Why I like the toy trains .. so much mix and matchy !  )

@FRENCHTRAINS posted:

Tinplate accessories from JEP, stations are all original and have been produced during a long time from the end of the twenties for the small ones to the end of JEP in 1964; there is just some color variations.

My favorite one is the biggest and all the lead people are French manufactured from MDM. Unfortunately JEP has never made those accessories in comparison with Hornby France or Great Britain who have made a lot of them.

have a nice weekend,  Daniel

Sorry to jump back to an earlier contribution but I'm catching up on a week's worth of posts today. Thanks for sharing these photos Daniel. By a coincidence, earlier today I noticed this JEP 5343 for sale on the Bay.

Fatman:  what a great post. Now I know what I might be hunting for in the way of motive power. Yes I knew the roof was using but I just couldn’t pass up that lithography on the station house. Seller I purchased from had one with a roof but wanted 3x the price, too rich for this guy so I keep hunting.

Thank you for all the pictures and info

Best Regards

Don

@O Gauge Guy posted:

Sorry to jump back to an earlier contribution but I'm catching up on a week's worth of posts today. Thanks for sharing these photos Daniel. By a coincidence, earlier today I noticed this JEP 5343 for sale on the Bay.

It is a very nice model in great condition, with the die cast guards on the sides an a light yellow color it dates from the last years of JEP, 1960-64.   Not common and very sought after....

Daniel

Hi Don

Got my vaccines because I'll be 86 in April.  Massachusetts opened up shots for over 75 in early February.

pd  Good spotting. That cute station is the Dorfan 425 which was also produced by Fandor as the 2042. Completely restored. Wrong color.Replaced windows. Still think it looks great.  Trees are Hornby.

Lew

Hot freight moving through Lionelville this afternoon

@asmith1440 posted:

Hot freight moving through Lionelville this afternoon

Love it. What is the motive power? Is this recent production?

On a related note, I want to double head two prewar locos that don't respond to the same voltage. My 262E needs more voltage than my 252 to get moving at least. Will one be dragging the other or is this ok?

Thanks Lew. I'd never seen a Dorfan 425 before, a sharp little piece. Congrats on the vaccine, BTW.

PD

Bought this Rich Art Fire Station on the auction site a few weeks back.  Finally got its new home on the layout finished this weekend was able to get it installed.  Now I just need to find some firefighters to staff it.



Thanks,
Tom

@vettekid68 posted:

Bought this Rich Art Fire Station on the auction site a few weeks back.  Finally got its new home on the layout finished this weekend was able to get it installed.  Now I just need to find some firefighters to staff it.



Thanks,
Tom

Glad it got a new home. I do still have the rare figures that they sold at the same time.

Steve

Thank you for offering up for sale Steve, it is a really neat piece.  I wasn't even aware they made figures to go with it, I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

Thanks,
Tom

@vettekid68 posted:

Thank you for offering up for sale Steve, it is a really neat piece.  I wasn't even aware they made figures to go with it, I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

Thanks,
Tom

I'll have to dig them out and take pictures. There were two sets, one with firefighter figures and another with people holding a trampoline and a lady that jumped onto it.

Steve

@vettekid68 posted:

Bought this Rich Art Fire Station on the auction site a few weeks back.  Finally got its new home on the layout finished this weekend was able to get it installed.  Now I just need to find some firefighters to staff it.



Thanks,
Tom

Here are the figure sets.

Hey Fatman:

Just catching up on the threads and saw the one you posted on the 26th Feb about the Australian made tinplate/toy trains. I also live in Australia, but on the other side of our big brown country, on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

My father bought me a brand new Ferris electric train toward the end of the 1950's, to the best of my recollection. I was about 7 or 8 years old, and he bought it to add to my Swiss Buco train set he also bought brand new some years earlier. These are the trains of my childhood and I have kept them safe and well all of these years.

Here are a couple of photos of the Ferris loco and tender in their original box. The picture on the top of the box is a little worse for wear, but then again, so is its owner!!!

Here is the loco and the tender pulling a small Hornby freight/passenger consist on my Buco layout.

Some close-ups of the loco and the tender. It is one of the few sets Ferris made where the open-frame motor and E unit solenoid for switching between forward and reverse (there's no neutral) were built into the tender, to drive the tender wheels via a worm and transfer gears. The steam loco just "free-wheels" in front of the tender, and is coupled via a solid footplate (still the original footplate). I've had to replace the original rubber traction tyres on the drive wheels with "O" rings......they work a treat!!!!

I have replaced the original pick-up spoons with Buco spoons, as I needed to move the pick-up spacing further apart so the loco/tender would not stall going through my Buco switches/turn-outs. I have kept the original spoons, and stored them in a plastic bag in the loco box.

The loco and tender still run just great, and switch between forward and reverse every time. That open framed motor is incredibly strong and can pull a stump out, even after all of these years!!!

Hope you enjoy.

Peter......Buco Australia.

Thanks Peter @Buco  I hadn't seen the tender drive version up close and personal  ... but it makes excellent sense as it is really a variation of their electric Suburban-type locomotives .... with a bogie drive rather than messing about with conventional locomotive configurations ... Its definately a showpiece you have there and , as we say in Australia  " Built like a brick shytehouse "  ( well not exactly that word , but it might get past the filter LOL! )

There are photos of the same drive used in their F53 Diesels in the ink below at Binns rd  and from memory the Interurban versions were the same bogie drive ... very swish for the time!

https://www.binnsroad.co.uk/ra...ys/ferris/index.html

big thumbs up from the bloke down south !

Hello Peter @ Buco:  As much as I love seeing tinplate trains and buildings;  I must ask, where did you find those wooden houses?  Did you make these?  Look great. Can you post a few pictures of these or any other you might have.  Thanks so much.

Hi waynew:

Thanks for the kind words about the timber railway stations on my layout. These wooden buildings are from the 1950's, and were made by the same Swiss company (Bucherer) that made my Buco tinplate trains, to replicate train stations in Switzerland.

There are several types of these buildings, and they were available as ready-built and painted structures, or you could order them in kit form, and glue and nail them together, and then paint them yourself.

I have 6 different ready-built structures on my layout, however the various Buco catalogs list 13 different wooden buildings to collect. All I know is when they come up for sale on either E-bay or on the Ricardo (Swiss) auction sites, they demand BIG money ($500.00 Aus +).

I will take the camera out to the garage later today and get you some photos.

Peter......Buco Australia.

Hey Fatman:

Thanks for the additional info on the various Ferris trains you could get back in the 1950's. I didn't know about the freight wagons, that was a real surprise!!!!, and the track and points as well!!!!

I have a R/H set of these same manual points in my collection. My father got them for me (second-hand) about the same time he bought the new Ferris train set. Didn't know who made them until just now!!! Thank you.

I also had, at one stage a couple of years ago, the suburban rail car set - one powered carriage that had the same bogie drive gears as on my tender, and one non-powered carriage that just had the free-wheeling trucks found at the back of the tender. Good use of parts by Ferris to keep the costs down.

I sold the set to an avid Ferris train collector here in Queensland.......I was happy and he was happy.

I also bought another Ferris loco off E-bay. This one had the same electric motor and E-unit, but they were fitted inside the body of the loco by Ferris. The motor drove the loco wheels via idler gears .....it was a "basket case" and not working. I was able to restore it back to full operation by re-wiring it, and installing a replacement Ferris E-unit. I have a bag full of these E-units I picked-up many years ago, just to keep for spare parts in case.

The small "domed bump" on the L/H side of my loco's body is there to cover a hole in the boiler for the screw cap of the brush mount of the motor. The motor was installed vertically (on its side) in this particular version of the loco, with the top brush screw cap protruding through the side of the boiler. This tinplate "dome" wasn't installed on this model, so as to provide access to the brush screw cap. Once again, a great way to keep manufacturing costs down, just use the same tooling for both variants.

Thanks again Fatman for the reference doc's.

By the way.......I thought you lived in Western Australia??????

Peter....Buco Australia.

Nah Pete @Buco  I am on the Vic/NSW border area about 25 k's south of the Murray in a little town no-one has ever heard of ( lol ) .. Population ... 8 ! ... we officially have more dogs than people! And as I like dogs more than most people it is very fortuitous to be here LOL!

Morning waynew:

Here are some photos of the timber buildings on my Buco layout I promised you.

These are two of the major railway stations produced by Buco. I have placed them side-by-side on my layout to give an extended platform area.

The first station is named "Neuchatel"

The second station is named "Brienz". Both stations have internal lighting that is connected to the external stand-alone Buco lamp stands at each end and in front of the platform (photo 1).

Small isolated "Island Platform" with simple "V" shaped roof.

Small points/switch operators hut. The "deluxe" version had a small signal bell stand on the front L/H corner.

The "Maggi Mill" with the wooden paddle wheel that actually turns via the pulley at the front. A spring belt connects it to a small electric motor that is mounted under the bench-top.

In all instances, the roofs hinge or lift off to access the internal lighting.

The slewing crane for freight loads that actually works. It has a rope brake attached to the winding crank handle to stop the heavy loads just dropping to the floor when the crank handle is released.

Finally, the Buco billboard (plastic). This is a modern release manufactured by the new Buco Spur O GmbH company in 2019. I purchased 2 of these billboards, and they stand at each end of the double station.

Hope you enjoy, and let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about my Buco O gauge collection/layout.

Peter  (Buco Australia)

@Buco posted:

Morning waynew:

Here are some photos of the timber buildings on my Buco layout I promised you.

These are two of the major railway stations produced by Buco. I have placed them side-by-side on my layout to give an extended platform area.

Peter  (Buco Australia)

Those items all look great!! I never heard of Buco before.   Did they also make the track? - I never saw O gauge tinplate rails quite like what you are showing here.  Also, what can you tell us about those flat cars with lumber loads?