I agree with NWL those trains look like Hafner. Below is the Hafner freight set without the boxcar.
Lovely Collection @Arne 
My finds have slowed down to an absolute crawl lately so I am forced to dig into the archive just to participate and keep this thread rolling 
I dont have a lot of Fischer but I do have a Gauge 1 consist floating about
( most would have seen it , but I really feel my slackness has me missing out lately .. so repost ! lol )
I am in the same situation as @Fatman , nothing new for the moment as I spend some time trying to classify what i have accumulated since many years and decide what I want to keep..... mainly everything, and what I could sell.....mainly nothing....
So a little original JdP train from around 1925 founded many years ago to keep the thread in activity..
Have a nice weekend, Daniel
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@StevefromPA- Thanks for your comment on my "Gatekeeper's House" and yes the lithography (less the writing) seems quite good. I don't know if I have a place on the layout at the moment, its mostly track these days for running trains and modest scenery. I have to consider where it might fit. In the meantime I have it in my den/office on my desk (being selfish 
) Thanks again for your comments.
Don
@Robert S. Butler- great Hafner consist, thanks for posting. @Fatman-the Gauge 1 Fisher consist is great, not seen too many of those here in US. Thanks for posting @FRENCHTRAINS -Beautiful JEP trains and station. OBTW - your philosophy on keeping and selling matches mine exactly ! Unfortunatley at 7Bes8 years old, I am facing the question...what do I do with the trains? I have no family members interested in them so eventually they have to go somewhere...question for another day.
Best wishes tinplate folks, glad we are back.
@Robert S. Butler - forgot to mention, I just got my October Train Collectors Quarterly and found another of your pictures was selected as the cover. Congratulations on a terrific picture and being selected as the cover.
Don
Thanks Don, the cover is a bit of a curiosity - I'm not sure why but it is the same cover as the one for October 2019.
Well Robert when something is good its good forever! Great picture for sure.
Don
@Robert S. Butler posted:Thanks Don, the cover is a bit of a curiosity - I'm not sure why but it is the same cover as the one for October 2019.
In speaking with Mark Boyd, the reason for re-using the same cover photo was the fact that they went with a new printer for the TCA Quarterly and it is for comparison purposes for the new versus the old.
NWL
Daniel, congratulations on the well deserved retirement. I hope to be heading in that direction in a little less than two years. I really look forward to more time with my trains, especially doing more research and layout building.
Well, on the topic of layout building, while recently visiting a dear friend in Europe he helped to connect me with these really nice Marklin signals, most in their original boxes. While unwrapping some of them, my heart almost skipped a beat as I could see they had been boxed for a very long time and were extremely well cared for.
Finally, the passenger coach is a Hermann two rail Eurofirma express coach for my two rail layout “Georgenstadt.”
All the best,
Miketg
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Thanks very much Mike, it is finally time for hobbies.
Your Marklin signals are really nice and representative of Marklin quality.
Very Best, Daniel
Afternoon Miketg:
Lovely signals.....but just a little clarification....if you will allow.
Your second photo of the "stop/go" signal is not Marklin, but infact a signal from Buco - Bucherer manufactured in Switzerland in the early 1950's, before they went into liquidation in 1957. Your particular signal has been "rotated" on its base so that the wire connections are at right angles to the globes, where-as the original signal had the wires running parallel, so the other set of signals (distant) could be wired in series.
I have taken some photos of this particular signal in operation on my layout, as well as depicted in the 1952 Buco catalogue, and one I have (among many) in the original box it came in. The catalogue also shows how these signals could be all wired in series to holt and hold a train on the layout using the "interruptor" center rail sections, and a special switch box.
Peter......Buco Australia
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Peter,
Thank you for the clarification. This is quite informative and helpful. When I took the signal out of the box, I had a feeling it was something different but was not quite sure.
I have always admired your posts and have some friends in Europe who have some very nice Buco pieces in their collections. You can never beat Swiss quality!
Again, thank you for the clarification!
All the best,
Miketg
This week a Distler station is arrived. Here together with 2 other.
All 3 with the same baseplate
Made by Heinrich Fischer in the 20s
Made by Distler in the 30s
And made by Distler in the 30s.
And a train from Joustra was also included in the purchase. It´s from a monorail, but is small, more like S gauge.
Arne
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@Arne- Fantastic stations, beautiful lithography and very interesting that the base plates were the same. Thanks for posting. The monorail from Joustra was also very interesting, is it electric or clockwork? I see what might be electrical contacts on one of the two cars but can't be sure.
Thought I might try to keep our thread going with a VERY humble offering but interesting in its own way. This little house or cab or cabin does not directly come from a train maker but is very close. It was part of an "Erector Set" a toy introduced by A.C. Gilbert of American Flyer fame in 1913 (way before he took over American Flyer from William Coleman in 1939). It was likely provided to represent an operators cab or shelter for a bridge or a crane that you created with other Erector pieces. This idea of making items from Erector pieces to use with your trains continued throughout the duration of the company.
This is about 2" square at the base and while small, the doors / windows are clearly represented in "O" scale (the door being about 6-7 scale ft high for example). The opposite sides and ends are the same.
Here is the side view, showing the "Erector" trademark (note line connecting the "R" and the "T")
I did post this on "Buy Anything Cool Today" as well since I purchased it today for $5 at a local "antique" store however it is lithographed tinplate manufactured by A.C. Gilbert one of the most famous names in U.S. toy trains.
Best Wishes
Don
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The Joustra Monorail is clockwork. That´s no electrical contacts, they are rollers that run on a single rail.
Arne
The Erector shacks are versitile little buildings. Here it is mounted on a Flyer light tower.
You can also find it used as a bridge keepers shack on the top of girder bridges.
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
@Arne- thanks for the data on the Joustra monorail. Now looking at the underside closely I can see how that works.
@Greg J. Turinetti- Neat picture Greg, I agree I think the little Erector house will find a suitable place on my layout.
Best wishes everyone
Don
I apologize if this is not the right thread for this question, but it seems those on here might be most qualified to answer. I recently took the California Zephyr to visit the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (with a side trip to see a new grandbaby: tough competition there). I was bowled over by the whole museum and recommend it unreservedly. However, one of the tinplate displays stuck another needle in my arm. Does anyone know anything about this "life size" replica of the No. 57 (I think) street light? I want one! I want one! Waaah!
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@Golden Prairie Railroad posted:I apologize if this is not the right thread for this question, but it seems those on here might be most qualified to answer. I recently took the California Zephyr to visit the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (with a side trip to see a new grandbaby: tough competition there). I was bowled over by the whole museum and recommend it unreservedly. However, one of the tinplate displays stuck another needle in my arm. Does anyone know anything about this "life size" replica of the No. 57 (I think) street light? I want one! I want one! Waaah!
I enjoyed seeing the life-sized lamp when I visited the museum during the 2011 TCA Convention in Sacramento. I would suspect you would have to have someone make a life sized version for you, if you want one.
@Golden Prairie Railroad posted:I apologize if this is not the right thread for this question, but it seems those on here might be most qualified to answer. I recently took the California Zephyr to visit the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (with a side trip to see a new grandbaby: tough competition there). I was bowled over by the whole museum and recommend it unreservedly. However, one of the tinplate displays stuck another needle in my arm. Does anyone know anything about this "life size" replica of the No. 57 (I think) street light? I want one! I want one! Waaah!
That's very cool. Looks like a convincing paint job. Guessing that it's made of wood??
Not also the #126 station behind it.
Williams loco 381E and Lionel Classic state set, always nice to run,
Have a nice weekend, Daniel
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Wow .. its been a couple of months since I last had any suprises show up !
Today isnt a surprise however , more a plan coming together ... A couple of months ago I would have posted some Hornby loco bodies I picked up ( to refresh your memories here they are again 
)
I grabbed these simply because they were in quite a nice condition ( and yes there is a boiler front for the one missing it ) with the plan one day to hopefully find a couple of mechanisms for them ... Well this week those mechs will be coming to be courtesy of a fellow Aussie ( Nick) who when cleaning out his closet found some pre-war Hornby manual reversing mechs in need of some love ...
So out of those four we should get both units up and running with a little luck ... The good news is , the one body unit without the steam chests at the front (#5508) is a factory omission and quite a bit rarer than the normal unit with siderods and steam chest , assuming it was a special order made to sell at a cheaper price point thru a retailer .
So two more pre-war Hornby's to live again !
@Fatman - Looks like a couple of good projects for this winter (or summer in your case). I'll be interested to see them once you've gotten the bits sorted and reassembled.
PD
@FRENCHTRAINS - Daniel, great set for sure. I also noticed in the picture what seems to be a life sized (or perhaps real) locomotive head lamp in the background. Do you have any history on that?
@Fatman - looks like you have some work cut out for you to bring back some of those Hornby locos. However the shells seem in beautiful shape. Your comment on the steam chest omission was really interesting. Did Hornby actually make custom modifications for a particular retailer? Lionel and Marx made all kinds of substitutions to sets and some to loco's and rolling stock. Marx in particular would either add or remove side rods to bring the price down or boost the perceived value.
@Arne- beautiful passenger cars. I looked in my only reference covering Issmayer and Bub and did see some similar cars but in a yellow / red livery in the 1928 Bub catalog. Would these cars have been one of the many shared items between Issmayer and Bub?
Best wishes and thanks for the postings
Don
a lot of the Issmayer and Bub models are very similar but never the same. Both had copied the ideas from the other.
Arne
@Don McErlean , in 1932 on Hornby offered a "revised body Style" of the No.0 locomotives ( colloquially called "Longsplashers", referring to the longer one piece splash guards over the wheels ) and in 1937-9 they also made some without the steam chests , possibly as a cost cutting measure to appeal to more cash strapped buyers ?
UK retailers were a funny bunch and some of the emerging "supermarket" chains would only stock some things like toys if they were "unbranded" , Gamages was one such retailer .. In this way Meccano was able to make some money from these chains without technically undercutting their existing dealerships . Note the description in this post war train ad
Meccano actually produced a set with no Hornby branding at all under the name " British Express"
@Fatman posted:@Don McErlean , in 1932 on Hornby offered a "revised body Style" of the No.0 locomotives ( colloquially called "Longsplashers", referring to the longer one piece splash guards over the wheels ) and in 1937-9 they also made some without the steam chests , possibly as a cost cutting measure to appeal to more cash strapped buyers ?
UK retailers were a funny bunch and some of the emerging "supermarket" chains would only stock some things like toys if they were "unbranded" , Gamages was one such retailer .. In this way Meccano was able to make some money from these chains without technically undercutting their existing dealerships . Note the description in this post war train ad
Meccano actually produced a set with no Hornby branding at all under the name " British Express"
Was Gamages a supermarket chain? I thought they were more of a department store, or am I just getting confused by differences in how our two countries say things? I know that Gamages also marketed trains that American Flyer built for the British market, which were lithographed as British Flyer trains. American Flyer produced these trains around 1920 or so, per advertisements of the day. The unusual thing about the British Flyer engines is that they were specifically marketed for the British market as they featured non-American boiler designs.
NWL
@Nation Wide LinesYep Department store sorry ! ... ( I just used the market reference as in "Chain Store" for American friends lol even tho Gamages was mainly the Holborn store but they also opened a Oxford St frontage as well in 1930 or so )
My bad
I so seriously want those cast beauties you pictured , but they are hard beasties to find !
Arne, Fatman,and NWL -great information guys. Thank you your posts were really informative. I have a Marx set labeled on the box for Gamages but it’s postwar perhaps as late as the 60’s.
best wishes
Don
@Don McErlean posted:@FRENCHTRAINS - Daniel, great set for sure. I also noticed in the picture what seems to be a life sized (or perhaps real) locomotive head lamp in the background. Do you have any history on that?
Hello Don,
Sorry I am a little late. The railway lantern on the picture is a real one, it is a tail lantern and it is missing the red glass that I need to replace. It dates from the 40's and i have no more history about it.
All my best wishes, Daniel
Daniel- that is really neat. What a great collectible. Thanks for responding .
Best wishes
Don
While I was looking on the computer for pictures to add, I just realised that I may be considered as an addict to Lionel stations.... and that I am in need of a 126 one.... they are hard to find in France but maybe in a near future I could add one...
Have a nice weekend and try to post something old or new.... Daniel
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Solid Trains
Like many of us my first introduction to the world of trains beyond the 4 x 8 foot plywood prairie or the living room broadloom frontier was the Bantam paperback Model Railroading featuring the world of Lionel trains. I poured over that book and spent endless hours reading and re-reading sections, looking at the blueprints of all of those possible railroad empires, and studying the various pictures.
As it turned out, my favorite pictures, which I returned to time and again, were the railroad empire pictures on pages 18, 97 and 125 of the 4th edition. Of the group, the one that never ceased to amaze me was the one on page 18.
It wasn't the scenery so much as the train in the picture and the text which said "Model railroaders who accumulate equipment throughout the years often wind up with "solid trains" of coal cars, "reefers" and others. Shown above is a "solid train" of cattle cars...."
At that point in my life, it was a very big deal to have just one hopper, reefer, or cattle car. The idea that someday I might actually have a solid train of any of these items was more than I thought would ever be possible.
As we all know, time passes, you grow up, and, if the passion for trains continues through the years, there is a very good chance you will eventually have enough cars to make up a solid train...so here I am, a long way from that young boy who marveled at the picture of the solid train of cattle cars...and various and sundry solid trains are a fact of life on my railroad empire.
Here are five of them - solid consists of boxcars, loaded flatcars, and reefers. They are also solid tinplate and solid Marx.
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Robert,
Your collection and photos never cease to amaze me. Well done.
What about a solid consist of American Flyer coal hoppers?
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
Here's a solid unit train of mine from a few years back.
Two K-Line 333 Marx clones double headed and 79 cattle cars.
@RoyBoy posted:Here's a solid unit train of mine from a few years back.
Two K-Line 333 Marx clones double headed and 79 cattle cars.
That's the longest tinplate train I've ever seen.
Long time between drinks for me lately !
But finally scored something shareworthy
One of these has been on my "lookout for " list for a long time , and found via a casual conversation with a friend who piped up with " I have something odd ? been in the cupboard for years , I think my dad found it ages ago"
When I saw it I was a tad " Shut your mouth ! " LOL!!! .... It was something I found one of ,many years ago, and was ghosted by the seller on a trading site , and had not seen another one since .
Its a diecast handcar , from the early 1950's , made by DCMT in England ( the casting firm for Crescent models) and uses the body from their Harry Hayseed Tricky Tractor atop an O gauge size handcar platform ... The body is linked via crankshaft to the axle and he rocks back and forth as it rolls along ... I have seen mention of it as " The Harry Hayseed Tricky Track Van " but have not been able to find much about it , and not even seen it advertised or catalogued . It has couplings to connect to "Something" but I know not what ? Possibly it could have been meant to be dragged by the Harry Hayseed Tractor, but given the violent back and forth of it with rotation in use , I cant see how it would have worked ?
But another missing hole in the collection is now filled
Is this thread dying ??? For me it is a great one and always great to look at tinplate pictures.
Not really tinplate, more brass plate, a great loco made by RV Zero in France of one of the last steam engine in service on tracks in the suburbs of Paris, a 141 TB locotender made to drive trains in forward and reverse with a special car at the opposite side of the train to control. The real one is still preserved and run excursion trains in summer.
Merry Christmas everyone, Daniel
