My found of the week is a Karl Bub train set.
No. 480/5 around 1924. The train is excellent. The box is not the best, but the picture is nearly perfect.
Arne
The Germans are very good at variations...For example there's the famous Brahms piece - Variations on a Theme by Haydn
...and what we have here - Bing - Variations on a Paint Theme with Enamel. 
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And now for something different. The Marklin 2523 mountain tunnel. For now it has a relatively cheap castle tower. I may end up with something more interesting. Stay tuned. Lew
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Wife’s not pleased with the new location, but it will have to do until I can add a stronger shelf in the garage.
Steve
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@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:Wife’s not pleased with the new location, but it will have to do until I can add a stronger shelf in the garage.
Steve
She wants you to move the painting? I can see her point, as it detracts from the real artwork. 
@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:Wife’s not pleased with the new location, but it will have to do until I can add a stronger shelf in the garage.
Steve
Did you steal that from Rob English? I saw one of those on his layout a few weeks ago. It ran nice, but he could not run anything else at the same time, due to the wide cornering of the engine.
NWL
@Nation Wide Lines posted:Did you steal that from Rob English? I saw one of those on his layout a few weeks ago. It ran nice, but he could not run anything else at the same time, due to the wide cornering of the engine.
NWL
Waterman made these to order. My guess is Robs has slight differences from mine.
Steve
Howdy Folks!
Well a couple of fun things today ... both I have been looking for a long time ( one much longer than the other)
Now I must preface this with NEITHER of them are O Gauge ... but both are definitely tinplate and vintage !
First is a rather nice real life London and North East Railway interior signal lamp , yep the parrafin/oil lamp used inside signals up until electrification ...
Now obviously its copped a bit of restoration and a coat of bronze paint but very well done and possibly by the railway itself ?
Second off the rank is a little something I have been constantly searching for , for quite a few years ... You see ages ago I was lucky enough to find the two different versions of the Technofix Rangierenbahn set #240...
this is the green one , there is also a red version
and finally this week I managed to find a full set of tracks for it .. in Portugal of all places!
And here is a fun fact ... did you know that all Portuguese Postmen drive Bugatti Veyrons?
They must because thats about the ONLY reason why they would want to charge 50 euro shipping for these three thin bits of tin not much bigger than your average ruler or perhaps an 18"scale , and weighing less than 100grams Luckily I asked Dutchboy! to make the purchase for me and post to the Netherlands was only 22 euro !
So finally I have the track for my poor neglected locos ....
Nothing new, just waiting for a next purchase.... JEP stations from the fifties.
Have a nice weekend, Daniel
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Hi Daniel,
Another postwar JEP Gare, but a different color. It is also illuminated. Lew
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Hello Lew,
Nice station, and less common has the one I showed. It is the last model with die cast handrails, last model made by JEP near the end in 1960.
All my best wishes, Daniel
What's that old saying - "Third time is the charm?" ...
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As promised here is the castle tower (replica) for the Marklin 2523 tunnel. Enjoy. Lew Schneider
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That looks great @lewrail 
While I am here ... congratulations to the mystery buyer just now of the only USA built Hornby loco I have ever seen for sale ... I will try not to be bitter lol , but that was my Moby Dick ... but deeper pockets ( and that ****able Global Shipping Program extortion ) won the day ...
I bow to thee , well done sir .. well done ! A truly hard to find thing, treasure it well it deserves a good home !
( in the world of so many "rare" locos being listed all the time .. this one truly deserves the badge !)
(picture stolen from ebay listing )
Not to worry Fatman. These guys sometimes show up on UK Ebay though not often.
If it's any consolation the locomotive is missing one set of rods and the headlight. It also has an incorrect tender. Note that French Hornby made a very similar 2528 tender. For the record here is the complete Hornby USA inventory operating on my layout. Hard to believe they made two different passenger sets and one freight set.
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This weeks video from the club:
Scott Smith
I went to Strasburg last weekend with my wife to ride behind the 611, and afterwards, we stopped in the Toy Train Museum and while there I took a few movies of the outstanding automated Standard Gauge layout.
Thanks to everyone who keeps it running, its truly fantastic!
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Addendum for Fatman. That Hornby USA loco was also missing its handrails.
Lew
Great stuf everyone! You just missed seeing me there by a week ha @Craignor ! Great vids/pics- TBH I don't collect or operate standard gauge so I've never been around it besides at shows- it was neat seeing those behemoths in action! Hope you had a good time!
@Robert S. Butler what a nice Jep Station! May I ask what year? It doesn't have the lithography that I'd expect from a prewar JEP piece. Either way- love the arrangement of the 3 doors up front- just diffferent than an American litho station in a good way. @lewrail man that is an awesome Marklin tunnel- holy.... thank you for sharing. Also- very nice layout you have set-up!
SteveFromPA - I don't know for sure but based on Frenchtrains comment concerning lewrail's station I would assume it is post-war.
My friends from La Belle France say that JEP station is circa 1960.
Lew
The JEP stations presented by Lew and Robert are post war, those ones where made from1959 to 1964. They differ from the previous models only by a lighter yellow color on the walls and die cast barriers on each side? The older ones are more yellow and the barriers are in stamped metal.
Here is a picture of the last model of the famous JEP "Golden Arrow" made in 1948-49 with the period JEP stations and lamp posts.
Daniel
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Hi Daniel,
Did the prewar Gares have interior lighting? I don't think so.
Lew
Hi Lew, pre and post war JEP stations where made with and without lighting units. Most comon lighting is two 20v bulbs and it also existed one with a direct lightning bulb of 110v, not comon and I have never seen one... Lionel has done the same thing for the 122-24 station.
PS, Your tunnel is extremely nice, great piece.
Daniel
Thanks Guys .. yep the hunt goes on ! and I certainly noted all the issues you described with the loco in question, which was a small factor in not mortgaging the farm for it !
But yeah the fact it was for sale at all was the attraction , like I said in 5 years of actively hunting one that was the first I had ever come across
Keep a close eye on yours Lew ... I may or may not have engaged a cat burglar 
... LOL!
Well tinplate friends, today I have an item that is not either particularly rare or valuable except through the "back story". Recently, purely by chance, my wife and I reunited with a couple with whom we had shared a married student apartment block back in University over 50 years ago and had not seen since. Even more amazing we discovered that we actually were living less than a 2 hr drive apart, so we began a "Zoom" relationship and finally got to meet again. Turns out, he was trying to sell his son's Lionel trains from the 1950's and so brought them to our house for me to evaluate. What fun, we worked most of the afternoon evaluating some neat, but mostly common (in the 1950's sense) , Lionel's from the post war era. In appreciation, he honored me with this item as a gift which though not rare I did not have in my collection. So now, it not only is a nice add to my Lionel's but it commemorates this reunion and our friendship.
Here it is...the Lionel 154 Highway Crossing Signal. Made from 1940 through the end of the original Lionel company in 1969. Its two red lights flash with the passing of a train, controlled either by a special lock on or an isolated track. This one is all stamped or cast steel, no plastic anywhere, so its to the older side of the production run. By the MPC era, this entire thing was primarily plastic.
So that is my humble story for today. Nothing close to the magnificent trains of Arne, Daniel, and Robert Butler but a piece with an interesting sense of personal history.
Best wishes
Don
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Hello Don,
Collecting is not a question of price and rarity, I have many modest pieces in the collection but I prefer posting the nicest ones....
I know that is a great pleasure when you have something with a known origin, especially when it comes from a close friend.
All my best wishes, Daniel
Thank you Daniel.
best wishes. Don
I will echo Daniel's sentiments 100% !
You might have gathered by now ( with all my rabbiting on ) that quite often what appeals to me is the richness of the tale a piece paints , I was not chasing the mythical USA made Hornby this week because of its commercial worth, if that was the case it would have come home with me, as at some point , if inclined, I could have turned around and commercialised on it even at the price it eventually sold for ,but I dont "accumulate to speculate" ...for me its the story that particular white whale ( or in fact any toy ) tells ... In that case , the attempt by Frank Hornby to establish the brand in the USA and the failure due to spectacularly bad timing ( Great Depression) The FM collection is built on history and stories far more than $'s
Collecting is whatever you make it
I can 100% understand that such a piece such as your Highway Crossing Signal could sit at the pinnacle of the "McErlean Managerie " because it is rich in history and personal connection and although you can try and put a commercial value on such things, that value pales in terms of its real significance
See how I just took two whole paragraphs to basically say what Dan summed up in a neat tiny sentence ? Thats rabbiting folks ! Thanks for putting up with it 
Thank you Farman I really appreciate your thoughts.
Don
Well, yesterday I got the bug to unpack my Hellgate. It had been packed away in its original box for at least 15 to 20 years. It is now being positional on original layout and will be elevated approx. 15".
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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner !
Super find this week with a quick no questions asked Buy it Now on the UK ePay website
Was most amused as the new set this week was advertised as a "Playa" O Gauge Clockwork Train set ...
Naturally my thoughts went to reproduction(?) especially looking at the condition of the set , but after some due dilligence I confirmed that this was indeed a 1958-ish Paya 839-2 clockwork set !
I dont know what has happened with this set because its pretty much "Mint in Box " and appears to be 100% zincpest free , which sets it well above many Paya offerings out there ... The only thing missing is the in box platform for the key and key itself .
The 839-2 set is one of the lower end toy like models of Paya introduced as the economic replacement for the gorgeous Fantasma models ... in true Paya style the sets were based around a basic combination and the elaborateness of inclusions determined the price point .
The 839-2 is not the bottom of the rung but close ( lol )
Pretty happy with this one
@Don McErlean posted:Thank you Farman I really appreciate your thoughts.
Don
In this typo I am rather glad you left out the "T" Don 
Fartman!!! nannna nannaaa naaannnna nnnaaaaanaaaaaa FartMan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofn8-3SWd8M <--- only go there if you have a puerile sense oh humour
( you have been warned )
@Fatman posted:Winner Winner Chicken Dinner !
Super find this week with a quick no questions asked Buy it Now on the UK ePay website
Was most amused as the new set this week was advertised as a "Playa" O Gauge Clockwork Train set ...
Naturally my thoughts went to reproduction(?) espescially looking at the condition of the set , but after some due dilligence I confirmed that this was indeed a 1958-ish Paya 839-2 clockwork set !
You were the lucky beneficiary of a sloppy (or ill-informed) description. I'm always amazed by the lack of proofreading, especially when money is at stake.
@Mallard4468 posted:You were the lucky beneficiary of a sloppy (or ill-informed) description. I'm always amazed by the lack of proofreading, especially when money is at stake.
To be fair to the seller, if he wasnt educated on the more "obscure" brands of tin toy makers like Paya , he is dealing with a trademark that can be kinda confusing
I can see where he could get Playa out of it
And yep I was lucky to grab it , but the luck came from having an awful lot of dedicated searches spitting me out emails every day LOL So even tho Playa wasnt one of them it caught the attention of a couple regardless .
Float like a butterfly sting like a bee
Nice catch @Fatman many times sellers don't have the right knowledge of their stuff so some good deals may happen. I just had a similar opportunity in Germany on Ebay with two lamp posts described as Lionel from 1926. If the date is not bad they are definitely something else....
The first one is an IVES model, not yet received but seems in good condition, I am not sure about the paint is right or not, and the two bulbs have a more Marklin or Bing look but maybe someone knows better than me. Finding IVES pieces in the old Europe is rare so not too bad and for half the price of a simple Lionel one from the same period even if I would have preferred a Lionel one....
The second one is an American Flyer model, as the previous one not sure about the paint but for me it looks nice... even if more common than the IVES model.
Have a nice weekend, Daniel
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Hi Fatman,
If you put the L back into Paya you can go to the BEACH.
Eagerly awaiting two Hornby items just acquired in auction. Here they are. Lew
Lew
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