PRR8976 (Tom)... THANK YOU ! Thinking STEF would be an unknown acronym I had not tried to "Google" it * and hence had not found the link you provided. I found the history fascinating and the fact that STEF had been in fact a part of and owned by SNCF for over 50 years! Thanks very much. The company really provides an excellent historical introduction on the web site you provided.
* OK I admit it, at 77 years old, I sometimes don't think of modern solutions to research like the internet. 
!
Don,
I am lucky what I find sometimes. 
Tom (the 61.5 year old Googler)
Tom ... Way to go shipmate! Don
Hello @Don McErlean , pretty nice car, and finding one in Australia, on @Fatman territory that is definitely something special... it would have more easy to buy one in France and so much less dangerous...
Now you have to find the BB loco, common piece here and not expensive. If you need help you can ask, not a problem for me.
If you enjoy trains from France here is a strange looking one made by BLZ just after the second world war, very successful even if this engine is more Pennsy looking than any French model.... No idea why and how the manufacturers took inspiration from a GGI, it is even shorter than the Lionel model...There is several color variations, most common one is the green model. Here all my models are running on carpet central with original BLZ cars.
Very best, Daniel
@FRENCHTRAINSS: Daniel, I would most appreciate any help you might give in me finding that BB locomotive. As best I can observe from your picture the engine appears to be the OBB loco in dark green livery with the 20 volt motor. It would not have to be perfect but I would want to operate it. I would certainly welcome your help as their advertisement here on e-bay is very scarce. Thank you for your offer.
Don
@FRENCHTRAINS I forgot to mention that BLZ locomotive does look remarkably like the GG1, especially one of the early ones that was called "old rivets" which was made before the streamlined shell was welded and in fact on this one engine it was riveted. It would be interesting to know what prototype BLZ was modeling on the engines in your collection. I .don't recall any French prototype that resembled a GG1.
Best Wishes
Don
I feel that I have been letting the side down a lot the last few weeks and will probably be doing so for another few weeks still .. apart from the broken foot issue , as luck would have it I went to have a poo the other weekend and it loved me so much it just wouldnt go away ... no matter what I tried it just sat there mocking me LOL!!! 
Old fashioned kinda, sorta, off grid living here .. so after vigourously attempting to rectify it myself for several HORRIFIC hours I waved the white flag, thus the poor Septic Man came and worked tirelessly for a few hours with his big sucker truck and pressurized hoses ( yep it was THAT bad ) ....any trainy wainy budget went right out the window and halfway into the next state over !
But I did manage to score one little item for mega low bucks this week that might interest some of you ...
I have had a three-wheeler version of a Lutz-Hielscher steam car for a while now , but I found his fancier brother , the 4-wheel Steam Coach and snaffled him up ...
They look very basic ( and they are ! lol ) but at the time they cost a pretty penny and are made out of laser cut Stainless so were pretty high tech in the day I guess
Live steam with a tiny wobbler piston
pretty awesome, dare I ask how much?
You May @beardog49 simply because it was a ridiculous find ... I laid out the immense sum of $39AUD Buy it now and $12AUD postage .... about $36USD 
It actually came from the same ePay seller I bought the three wheeler off 6 or so months ago ... We were talking about it in a group and I knew the seller ( at the time ) had another 3-wheeler listed at the time I bought mine so I popped in to see if it was still there ... it wasnt .. but THIS one was ! ... needless to say my finger hit the button in 0.001 seconds to make it mine as well ... sadly no more listed except one in France that the seller wants 418 EURO for it !!! ( they were spendy at the time , but not THAT spendy ! )
@Fatman posted:I feel that I have been letting the side down a lot the last few weeks and will probably be doing so for another few weeks still .. apart from the broken foot issue , as luck would have it I went to have a poo the other weekend and it loved me so much it just wouldnt go away ... no matter what I tried it just sat there mocking me LOL!!!
Old fashioned kinda, sorta, off grid living here .. so after vigourously attempting to rectify it myself for several HORRIFIC hours I waved the white flag, thus the poor Septic Man came and worked tirelessly for a few hours with his big sucker truck and pressurized hoses ( yep it was THAT bad ) ....any trainy wainy budget went right out the window and halfway into the next state over !
But I did manage to score one little item for mega low bucks this week that might interest some of you ...
I have had a three-wheeler version of a Lutz-Hielscher steam car for a while now , but I found his fancier brother , the 4-wheel Steam Coach and snaffled him up ...
Great find at a great price. I'm always amazed by the stuff you find. Thanks for sharing.
And if you want a laugh regarding your other "situation", search for Red Green Show Winston Rothschild and watch a few scenes. Here's one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXzGt7ryoYk
I am sorry, but I am confused.
You mentioned that the carriage was made from lazar cut stainless, pretty high tech in the day .
But, wasn't lazar cutting just invented in the 1970s or so? That was just yesterday for most of us on this board. :-O
Mannyrock
Correct @Mannyrock these are from the 2000's to 2010
The examples came from a specialty technical company that was formed when Heilscher visited a steam factory in the late 60's and fell in love with them to the extent he used his engineering background to start making models as technical examples of old time technology ...
Not a lot on the web in English but a short synopsis here
https://www.mysidewheeler.com/hielscher.htm
Interestingly the family has kept the youtube channel after Hielschers demise with lots of examples of this clever mans work preserved for future generations ... He loved making small things .. anyone with a heap of money could buy big steam engines 
https://www.youtube.com/c/Lutz...irlingmotoren/videos
He also made beautiful scale reproductions of steam trains and traction engines, but the business was just as much about clever tiny toys
In "normal" train circles he is probably most known for his Wuppertal monorails
https://www.monorails.org/tMspages/CPWuppModelRR.html
An Idea of his BIGGER models
Decided to do a video this weekend. I just repaired the 447 and it is now running great! I was having a problem with the armature overheating to the point that after a few minutes one could not touch the brush tubes without getting burned. I pulled a wheel and swapped armatures and that did the trick. After getting the original armature out, I discovered it was coated in grease/oil and was unlike the used one that I put in, which was clean and shiny. It ran great with the newly swapped armature, no overheating.
So here is a 1939 American Flyer 447 Hudson with 3 chrome streamline cars, a 1938 American Flyer 1680 Hudson with 4 red streamline cars, and a 1931 American Flyer 3109 engine with 3 freight cars. Unfortunately, I did not have a set on the Standard Gauge loop, so nothing is running on the outside loop.
NWL
Video from Sunday afternoon.
Scott Smith
I bought this Gondola with LCLs and the chains on Ebay it came this week. Fundamentally all is in good shape, except someone in the home was a big smoker, I could smell it when I opened the package, and it all had a brown tint. I could see in the EBay picture it was dirty and expected to have to do a little work.
After a few hours of wiping it all down with soapy water, rinsing with clean water, drying, and a rub down with some liquid car wax, it’s like new again! (And no more smell)
EBay photo:
After the clean up:
Having some fun and showing off😀:
Well hello everyone...I am going to wander a bit to the side of the tinplate trains today, follow Fatman's lead a little bit. This offering is definitely tinplate and its from the wonderful era of the 1950-1960's of superb Japanese tinplate toys. This would be a little large for O gauge but not by much. I found it virtually new in the box so I just had to have it, you know boys - "trucks and trains" !
Here is the cardboard box, really in remarkable shape for its age and not really dried out. The manufacturer is Craigsten of Japan.
Here is a better look at the box top.
Here is the truck, about 12-14 " in length and about 4 " high. The lever with the blue knob is how you dump the bin.
Rear quarter view.
Here he is with the side dump bin tipped for unloading. He has a friction type motor powering the front wheels of the cab
Well I hope you enjoy this truck, l know its not trains but I thought you might like to see it anyway.
Don
Lovely video, NWL; the layout and trains are just wonderful to see running. Thanks.
Hard to have something new each weekend, so as I am cleaning dust on my trains, I just took some pictures of my favorite Lionel Standard gauge steam engines. I know they are common ones for you in USA but there is certainly not many of those in France.....
Have a great weekend, Daniel
Daniel - what a fabulous collection of standard gauge steamers, how you put that together in Europe is amazing because they must be even more rare there than in the US and they are far from common over here.
Craig - great video the new gondola looks great.
Have a good week everyone
Don
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
