Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

Greg: Thanks for adding to the party...that "Monday morning" special is a hoot!  OK just to keep the party going, here are a couple of Marx semaphores.

On the left, the Marx 311, likely prewar or possibly both pre and early post war.  This is all metal, actuated via a rod linkage to the base just like the AF ones we pictured earlier. Note the blade shape at the end with a "pointing finger" shape.   When it is put in the "proceed" position, the red "lens" disappears into a metal envelope at the top and is completely hidden.  When "stop" is signaled the green "lens" disappears into a lower metal envelope and is fully hidden.  This makes the signal unambiguous even though its not lit.  Clever design.  Very likely made from the 1930's to 1940's and perhaps again in the 1950's.  If it did re-issue post war, it very likely did not last long as plastic was emerging as the key material and that was cheaper and easier to work with.

The one on the right, is a Marx 063 I believe, almost certainly post war, and it has no activation linkage at all you just move the blade with your fingers.  It is all plastic , does have the added detail of the ladder and it is much closer to scale size and shape...but it's not tinplate!  It may have been sold as a separate piece but was also part of a multi-piece "accessory set" that included other plastic pieces.  My guess is that the plastic piece was available from the 1950's through the 1960's.

OK...that about cleans me out of signals !  Happy and healthy weekend everyone.

Don

Wow great contributions from all this weekend!

My submission is again one of the components from my 1925 Scenic Railway. At first glance it appears just another 120 tunnel, however this one has the uncommon steel inner liner . The liner consists of two straight walls and a curved roof section which that are soldered or spot welded into place.

Greenberg guide describes the 120 Tunnel as follows:

Standard or O Gauge 1922-1927. Steel construction painted waterfall passing under a 3-1/4" fence, white two story house  with maroon roof, no chimney. 17" x 12" x 10-1/2". No reference is made of a  variations with a steel liner unless it appears in a later publication than the one I have.

This  liner adds a significant amount of heft and strength to a normally somewhat flexible tunnel. It is thought to be one of the early versions.  Shortly after Lionel must have decided it was an unnecessary expense or additional step and apparently eliminated it from the manufacturing process .

@Fatman posted:

This time its a neat little Esso tanker from the Mid-50's coming from Denmark shortly

Fatman you struck a double-cord with this posting. A) I'm of Danish heritage and B) I spent virtually my entire career working for Esso/Exxon.

In fact the building shown on these 1940s postcards is the very same building I worked in for 30 years and it looked exactly the same when I left. The refinery and service rail yard loaded with tankers was right across the street.

That's not me in the inset...I'm much better looking 

Congrats on another great find, love the colors on that car.

Tak for de venlige ord Gerry

Some really great Signals showing up on the thread recently , and as you might have gathered the Musee du Gros Homme ( actually that sounds really bad in French hey ?  ... ermmm....the Fatman Museum , much betterer !!)

Ok the Fatman Museum ( lol) gravitates mainly towards locomotives and some running stock but it pretty light on trackside accessories but it does have a few ... none of which I have researched too much so I will put them here with the disclaimer that I know eff all about them And anything I say about them could be 100% true or incredibly wrong ... let the cards fall where they may!

I will preface everything with " I just bought it cos I liked it , and I was probably buying something much bigger and heavier and the seller also had these so I threw them in to make the most of postage )

Ok .. a "no idea" set of telephone poles .. I liked them cos they were large and in charge and looked rather skillfully made ?

A couple of German signals one electric ( sold to me as Bing , but I feel the seller had the same amount of knowledge as me about them Could be anything ? )

This next one was sold to me as "Hornby" .. but I am very much sure it isnt .. it does follow the form of the No2 Hornby Signal, but the signal arms say european to me ?

A couple of "somethings"

And a group I got just for the "Pfeifen! " ( whistle)

Thoughts? Postulations? Vague murmurings welcome!

@Fatman posted:

Ok .. a "no idea" set of telephone poles .. I liked them cos they were large and in charge and looked rather skillfully made ?

Thoughts? Postulations? Vague murmurings welcome!

@Fatman did you check out the sticker on the bottom of the telephone poles?

Agree with the great looking signals and semaphores recently posted.

@Fatman -

You said: "Thoughts? Postulations? Vague murmurings welcome!"

I got a "BEAUTY EH!!" ( I am not sure to which category that might belong ) Great Find!!

Great signals Fatman...the telephone poles are a mystery to me as are many of the other signals.  However, the one you pictured that you said had been sold to you as Hornby I believe may actually be Hornby.  Specifically the No2 or 2E Junction Signal.  Made from 1923 until 1939 and then re-emerging after the war in 1953.  Always some detail differences over the years but fundamentally the same.  Your has the "lattice work" main  and secondary supports which are indicative of pre-war versions.  For comparison , I will attach my post war No 2 signal here:  Note similarity with the actuation levers at the base, the ladder, and the base.  My support posts are not "lattice" which is true of the post war versions.  Anyway there seem to be similarities but who can be certain.

Great signals anyway and thanks for posting.

Don

@Don McErlean yep the form and lattice work does look very Hornby however the signal arms are of a type I have never seen on UK hornby at least ... However in researching this now I have come across the most excellent site at http://www.meccano-hornby.co.u...ano_magazine_30.html  Which is an incredible resource of ALL the Hornby Meccano publications from the early days !!!

For instance the Hornby signal you refer to is catalogued on p60 of the 1930 Meccano magazine

http://www.meccano-hornby.co.u...gazine/1930/3001.pdf

But as you can see different arms and different base configurations to my example

I have a work in progress hypothesis tho ???

Marklin in the early 20's partnered with Hornby to produce the clockwork motors for inclusion in the very first Meccano sets ... So there is a precedent set for intercompany co-operation... I wonder if perhaps when introducing the new Hornby trains if Frank Hornby also got Marklin to make some signal accesories as well ... if that is the case then perhaps Marklin made a few variations themselves for their own domestic market??? There is actual thought that Hornby also had a helping hand from Bing as some very early Hornby's ( The Tinprinted Train) had more than a passing resemblence to their Germanic brothers

It doesnt seem beyond the realm of possibility and WOULD explain the European arms and much larger base of this example? No proof of this at all .. yet ... but its an option worth investigating I think?

@Rich Wiemann  LOL!!! yep they are price stickers from where my man in the UK got them ... they are apparently "German" tho ...

Fatman:  Yes I agree, your option of a combination type product where Hornby and another manufacturer would combine to make the total item makes much sense.  We know for example that Bing made lineside accessories for a number of the early American trains (especially Hafner - who didn't make their own until 1930).  I also agree that when I looked up the Junction Signal, the arms did not look like anything Hornby that was illustrated in the reference...so maybe Marklin participated.  Fun the speculate and investigate in any case.

Best wishes

Don

@Fatman posted:

A couple of German signals one electric ( sold to me as Bing , but I feel the seller had the same amount of knowledge as me about them Could be anything ? )

This next one was sold to me as "Hornby" .. but I am very much sure it isnt .. it does follow the form of the No2 Hornby Signal, but the signal arms say european to me ?

A couple of "somethings"

And a group I got just for the "Pfeifen! " ( whistle)

Thoughts? Postulations? Vague murmurings welcome!

Fatman, as follows:

Picture 1: left Distler 140/1 (1938-1940), right Keim

Picture 2: Bing 12/5128 (1927-1932)

Picture 3: left Adolf Schuhmann, right Distler, both wrong baseplates.

Picture 4: Sign "Pfeifen" Karl Bub 144 (1931-1937)

Arne

A few news in the collection

Bing 10/6112 made 1925-1928

Bing 528/26

Bing 10241 dining car made 1911-1922

Bing 10242 sleeping car made 1911-1922

Bing 10243  made 1911-1922

This 3 cars are printed inside too.

Arne

Just when I thought I could add no more large stations to my layout, an item on German Ebay

spoke to me.  Here it is-- the Kibri 52-43 made in 1935 only.  I had to take my Kibri 52-4 off the

layout and move my Cabo freight station into its place. 

Enjoy.  Lew Schneider

Really love the Bing food & drink refreshment stand Arne. Thanks for sharing the dating info. It seems quite a sizeable piece more matched in scale to std. gauge/spur 1 rather than O. I'm tempted by one for sale at the moment on ebay.de, but the price is more than I can justify.

Thank You @Arne  !!!!

And total WOW @ everything Bing in your follow up post .. beautiful tinware indeed!

Loving the Kibri @lewrail

I am in awe of both you guys with your collections and knowledge sharing .

Wondering if you ( or anyone )  could help me out please with the identity of this signal also ... I left it out of my post up there lol

I originally thought it to be of UK origin due to the arm style .. but the litho rock print base is like some Euro offerings too ?

Fatman,

OK, let me teach you. Some manufacturer had used different battery boxes on the bottom.

Sometimes only the box without battery holder too.

Here a few examples:

Karl Bub, sliding switch on the side

Heinrich Fischer, handle on top

Adolf Schuhmann and Beckh, small handle on the side

Tipp & Co, handle on top

Distler, handle on front side

Arne

Great tutorial @Arne thank you again !

This post comes with the title " The things you do! "

So I am looking on ePay Australia and the following piques my interest ...

Ooh ! What could they be???....at this moment the world is full of possibilities ! ( and a black chequered tablecloth!)

OK clickity click brings me to ...

OK so I admit ... there is a slight hint of disappointment 2 very common late 50's Hornby's , but not a bad pre-war Great Western wagon.. and I started to feel a bit sorry for the poor Jep missing its double bogies ... so yeah this is probably worth the entry price of a measly $20 (Aud) .... but no "treasure" .. sigh...

Then Clickety click again and.... How does this stuff get to Australia?? ... yes folks .. The Money Shot!!!

The nondescript black rectangle at the top gets flicked over and ... ( angelic Chorus ) "AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Whhhaaaaaaa...???

How the heck did THAT get here ???  pre-war JdeP Switch Post building in amazing condition !

lol Bid.. mine (unopposed) ... happy

@Fatman posted:

That piece looks like it just got pulled from the original box for the first time. Love the graphics. Great score.

Tinplate friends:  First - Arnie the "Drink and Refreshment" stand by Bing is wonderful.  The "Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul observation also by Bing is equally great, obviously given the RR and the train name "Columbia" intended for the US market.  The Bing 1024...X series cars were also really great to see.  Great finds.  Oh and thanks for the illustrations on the battery boxes for the various signals you showed, that kind of data is so hard to find except from folks like you.  Thank you.   Lewrail - one great station for sure.

Fatman...you have pulled it out again!! The switch post is really neat and something I have not seen before.  It is relatively thin, so I am assuming it was intended to fit between two close tracks or against a wall.  OBTW - the crimson and cream Hornby No 31 coach from 1956 came in two versions only and was available until around 1965.   The one I posted a few weeks ago was the 1st/3rd coach (sometimes referred to as the 1st /2nd coach but without any change in marking since on the "1" was on the car) .  What you have is the only other version made in the 030 series of coaches,  the Brake/3rd version. 

So what do I have for today. Well I am going to continue my current quest regarding signals and warnings.  I recently acquired two Lionel 068 Warning Signs...one (more expensive) that is nearly Excellent even close to LN (tough to really hit this quality in pre-war stuff) the other is a little worse for wear with a bit of surface rust and missing paint on the base.  The 068 was made from 1925 through the end of the pre-war period until 1942 with no listed variations in the signal except it was offered in various colors (principally pea green as shown, olive, and orange). 

So here they are:  In both cases, the signal base and support is green enamel and the pole is a square "lattice work" support .  The Sign itself is brass with black block lettering.  They are both rubber stamped "#068 Lionel" in black stamping under the base.   The base is about 2" square and the total height of the sign is about 6 1/2 " to the top of the pole.   You can see that the one on the right, the cheaper version, has a bit of paint missing, some surface rust on the base and is missing its "cap" on top of the support.  However it was  1/4 th the price at auction ($3 vs $13) !

Well have a great weekend everyone and a Blessed Easter.

Don

I'm spreading out my accessories from the Scenic Railway and posting them one at a time so I can stay in the game here lol...

A Lionel #57 Main and Broadway street lamp with die cast base, rolled sheet metal post and celluloid bulb enclosure, ca. 1922-42. The 4 trapezoidal shaped vents on the bottom side allow some of the light to cast downward on the base and is a pretty neat feature on a darkened layout.

Greetings friends,

Didn't I say that I was going to hold off for awhile on toy train purchases?  But what do you do when the phone rings and the net result are 3 beauties.  The first is the Marklin 1040 bahnwaterhaus missing the bell, the second is the large JEP station, and the third is a fascinating Doll Windmill with Miller and Donkey. Enjoy.

Lew Schneider

Actually there is many signals of all kind here.... so here are my AF ones, I do not have many of them as they are not an easy find in France...

Daniel

Not too exciting for many , but I managed to score another Wells O London ( Brimtoy fore-runner) Golden Eagle 2509 loco ... I have several variations on the theme but this was my first BLUE one ! Only the Yellow to complete the set now !

Broke my cardinal rule however and paid three times the loco cost in shipping ( my UK guy is on a break for a few months as he is building and moving house ... how rude ! ) Loco was VERY cheep tho

And scored a load of Bing banked 3-rail from the Dutch connection for cheep!

I smell a new period correct Euro 4x8 layout in my future

@Fatman posted:

I smell a new period correct Euro 4x8 layout in my future

Don't know if this was popular Down Under, but it's the first thing that came to mind...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQFxmAdyKcg

One thing you will learn with being around me is .... Patience lol

For one thing the Bing tracks will probably still be in Europe at least a few months from now ... then they will probably take another month or more to get here and then spend a year being a floor test track ... thennnnn who knows lol

But it will be 4 x 8 compliant in all stages

@Fatman posted:

One thing you will learn with being around me is .... Patience lol

For one thing the Bing tracks will probably still be in Europe at least a few months from now ... then they will probably take another month or more to get here and then spend a year being a floor test track ... thennnnn who knows lol

But it will be 4 x 8 compliant in all stages

Won't it be 1.2192 x 2.4384 meters?

Looking forward to it.

Dont make me get out the Laser measurer!

Fatman, I think you need a table as large as this one for your Euro layout.

Auf Schloss Burg - eine Historische Eisenbahn von Märklin in der Spur 0 - Nostalgie Pur! - YouTube

@O Gauge Guy  I am gonna need a BIGGER house !

Very cool video tho !

@Fatman posted:

Not too exciting for many , but I managed to score another Wells O London ( Brimtoy fore-runner) Golden Eagle 2509 loco ... I have several variations on the theme but this was my first BLUE one ! Only the Yellow to complete the set now !

...

Very cool.  As usual you are sharing something I had never seen before. The lithography on that engine is really nice.

Thanks @jhz563  The same loco came in a few variants of colour and of wheel arrangements most were 0-4-0 but there were 2-4-0 and a 4-4-0 as well

Other 0-4-0's I have

Silver

Red

Carriages and tender for the red set

And a cheeky Silverlink set

This particular range of Loco's was an evolving thing for Wells and they did King George variants as well in 4-4-0 as well as a Mickey Mouse set ( No I dont have either ... yet lol ) as well as other forms in Brimtoy and Mettoy versions ... one of the "Nicer" toy trains around in my eyes

Here is the Mickey Mouse one ( Photo lifted from the Michael D Foster Auction thru Vectis in the UK ) and yep its the pinnacle of this range .. I doubt I will ever see one in the flesh , but I never give up hope !

That set went for 420£ at auction last year so with buyers premium over 500£'s

@Fatman posted:

@O Gauge Guy  I am gonna need a BIGGER house !

Very cool video tho !

...and you would lose your membership in the prestigious 48 Club!

@G-Man24 posted:

I'm spreading out my accessories from the Scenic Railway and posting them one at a time so I can stay in the game here lol...

A Lionel #57 Main and Broadway street lamp with die cast base, rolled sheet metal post and celluloid bulb enclosure, ca. 1922-42. The 4 trapezoidal shaped vents on the bottom side allow some of the light to cast downward on the base and is a pretty neat feature on a darkened layout.

The #57 lamp post has an interesting connection with American Flyer.

Lionel must have sold them to American Flyer and they were marketed as the #2013

This kind of collaboration between toy train companies fascinates me.

Northwoods Flyer

Greg

Can anyone give more details on the Doll et cie Windmill I posted.  It's catalogue reference number is 743.  Still don't know when it was first made and how long it appeared in their catalogs.  Thanks.  Lew Schneider

Wow Fatman, another super loco.  Great find...the "Mickey Set" has a lot of parallels to the Lionel set of the same vintage, even down to Mickey shoveling coal on the tender.  Loco is very different but cars and tender very similar.  G-man 24 great accessory, that "Broadway" street market is a Lionel classic and I for one never knew it also was offered by AF.  Greg picture but my question is...who made the oscilating ball or circular warning signals?  I have never seen those before. Daniel what a great array of signals...thanks for sharing.  Lewrail those finds are really super, the windmill and his donkey engine really brought on a smile on my part.  Thanks for posting

Don

Don,

I assume you are inquiring about these signals on Greg's layout

They were made by American Flyer.  Note there are many color combinations, but the earliest signals have operating rods (top photo, one on right) and the later versions do not have the operating rods.

NWL

@Greg J. Turinetti posted:

The #57 lamp post has an interesting connection with American Flyer.

Lionel must have sold them to American Flyer and they were marketed as the #2013

This kind of collaboration between toy train companies fascinates me.

Northwoods Flyer

Greg

Very interesting Greg. Looks to be identical except for the print on the lamp enclosure. The Flyer print is a different font and  looks like it may have been heat pressed into the celluloid. That would do a better job of keeping it from wearing off.

@FRENCHTRAINS posted:

Actually there is many signals of all kind here.... so here are my AF ones, I do not have many of them as they are not an easy find in France...

Daniel

I always liked that water tower.

That American Flyer water tank sure looks like Bing. Perhaps it was made by Bing for Flyer in the same way that Bing stations wound up in early Flyer catalogs.

Lew

@lewrail posted:

That American Flyer water tank sure looks like Bing. Perhaps it was made by Bing for Flyer in the same way that Bing stations wound up in early Flyer catalogs.

Lew

The Flyer water tank may look like the Bing tank at first glance, but when compared side by side, the construction is completely different. See link, as this has been covered here before.

https://ogrforum.com/...-tank-set-variations

The first Ives set I ever bought, June 2005. The seller was some guy named Dave Mcentarfer😜. Still have the papers and photos from eBay.

Steve