An old freight station from MARKLIN in O gauge, around 1910. the roof has been repainted, not great so a future restoration job to do. Lead railway staff is British from the thirties, Britain or Johillco.
Have a nice weekend, Daniel
@Jim Kelly-Evans posted:"Flats" on my layout..I don't know who made them or when.
I have a couple of flats on my layout too!
Don't know who made them, but the figures are recognizable.
INDEED! VERY nice! :-)
I just posted some interesting JEP photos on the O Gauge tinplate forum. Am I allowed
to put the same photos into this week's Tinplate Photos and Videos--Chris?
lewrail - just run the pictures through Photoshop and flip them - they will provide a completely different view and everyone will be amazed at the apparent similarities and differences between the two posts. 
...seriously, just go ahead. I'm sure no one will mind.
The Head Scratcher Special.
I purchased this single American Flyer Ambassador Passenger car many moons ago. I was interested in the car because of the yellow rubber stamped message on the underside. It is illegible, but, at the time, both the seller and I assumed it was the "Sold As Shopworn" notice Flyer would put on items that either were assembly line rejects/ used items/ etc. For whatever reason I didn't get around to putting the car on display in my train room and it sat in one of my storage boxes for several years.
Time passed and I acquired a couple other American Flyer items clearly marked with the rubber stamp "Sold As Shopworn." A few months ago I pulled this car out of storage and looked at the illegible rubber stamp notice again.
Car underside with rubber stamped notice (left hand side)
Whatever the message is, it is too long for the phrase "Sold as Shopworn".
I mulled this over for awhile and then, for the first time ever, I set it on the track.
As you can see the car is a tad unlevel. An examination of the wear on the pickup roller indicates the car did see a fair amount of running at some point (the wear on the roller is deep and off center) so it was not a shelf queen. I thought possibly something had been added or changed after manufacture (the obvious item being a replacement of the left hand truck) but there is no indication of after market additions, changes, or modifications. Since the car appears to be as built I'm guessing the rubber stamp is some kind of notification of rejection and since it is illegible I'll let your imagination run wild as to what it actually says.
Addendum - 22 August 2020: This morning I checked the "Sold As Shopworn" rubber stamp on the bottom of an AF station I have. In addition to "Sold As Shopworn" the rubber stamp has, in smaller font, the words "American Flyer Mfg Co." below the shopworn notice. The dimensions of the station rubber stamp and the the rubber stamp on the underside of the car are almost the same. The only issue are the round dots at either end of the last line on the car. If those are just some sort of artifact of the actual rubber stamp then the stamp on the bottom of the car may just be, in fact, the the shopworn label.
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Here are some photos I posted earlier on the Tinplate Forum site which I hope will be of interest. They show the beautiful JEP CC-7001 20V DC electric pulling a train of JEP tinplate coaches. After taking the photos I suddenly discovered that my two Hungarian Mint Company coaches labeled MAV and PV were virtually the same size. You can see them at the end of my train in one of my display cabinets. MAV is the Hungarian National Railway and PV was the name of the toy train. Enjoy.
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Been a quiet week or so for me ... but in the "Why is this here in Australia?" file comes my latest little addition .... a nice little Hafner Glen Ellyn Station with semaphore in quite good nick for age methinks?
Am I right in thinking mid to late 1930's?
Fat man; great station. Hafner is a favorite of mine. I have the same station but no semaphore ( station made both ways) Dating Hafner is hard only one thing for sure if station marked Hafner and not Hafner Wyandotte its pre ‘57.
BillT what a great train. MTH did a super job of re-creating the original Lionel version that is completely out of reach both cost wise and availability to most of us. Thanks for posting.
I am not a huge fan of fully restored trains but when this poor loco appeared on the French Craigslist and, as it was just a one hour drive, I had to see it and .... buy it of course. As it was a bargain price that is fine.
So this engine is a gauge one live steam model by BING. it dates from 1925-30 and is just fresh from the attic. Some minor parts are missing, handrails along the boiler, front coupler and tender draw bar but despite his appearance it is not so bad, still work with compressed air. It is extremely dirty, kept in oil sheet of cloth since a very long time which has preserved the main parts. That poor piece has never been cleaned during her life and has been used intensively but it will be salvage. With it the complete set of cars and an oval of tracks. The cars have been repainted...maybe destroyed but i will look at this later.
Now keep it with that wonderful weathering or restore, I think restored will be better....
And a picture from the 1930 catalog
Daniel
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Hello everyone...Frenchtrains I have no idea where or how you find these amazing pieces but it is really interesting, Gauge 1 and live steam, Wow what a piece! Thank you for sharing. You know you mentioned ... restore or not? ... just a thought, I like to leave my finds (none as unique as yours) with some scars and play wear...it gives them a patina that indicates they were loved and played with. Maybe just clean it up and add the missing parts and then let it show off its age and wear.
I am continuing my quest to complete a full set of Marx early production from 1934-35 which was the first year of Marx 6" cars and the first offerings of Marx Trains after he took over Gerard Model Works. The big identifier for these cars is the short wheelbase, silver lithographed black frame, and in the very first versions, the "JOY LINE" coupler. I posted earlier my 241/246 Bogota / Montclair coaches and this summer I managed to find the 552 Gondola, 553 Tank, 817 Refrigerator Car, 694 caboose, and 1935 Dark Green Mail/Baggage Car. I was really pleased to recently find the 1678 NP Hopper. This car brings me up to 8/13 cars in the series. Still missing the 201 Observation, 547 Red Baggage, 550 Crane, and 559 Floodlight plus the (very rare and expensive) 551 Tender. All these cars, with the Joy Line Coupler are referred to as Series 1, 6" cars, and were made in 1934- 35 only. So the quest continues, but here is my Early Gondola. Note the short wheelbase and the silver lithographed black frame.
This picture shows the tell tale Joy Line coupler, note large round hole plus tab and not the traditional tab / slot coupler that came along with Series 2 cars about a year later.
Well 86 years old and still functioning... maybe there's hope for me! 
Don
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@FRENCHTRAINS Daniel what a wonderful find ! She is truly a majestic old girl , and so encouraging after all this time and neglect she will still turn over with air !
Normally I am personally 100% against restoration of old tinplate , but in cases like yours where there is no real visible trace of the manufacturers finish to be found , then the case for a restoration certainly has more weight , because you are not really replacing original with new , you are replacing "nothing" with something perhaps? It would probably be worth more to the general collectibles market if left untouched , but you will always find there is someone on the secondary market that likes "Pretty" ... I very much suspect tho that it will not be looking for a new home for a long long time , and that then says to me that whatever you choose to do is the right decision
If it were mine I would leave it though ... but that speaks more about my crap restoration ability than anything else
@Don McErlean posted:Well 86 years old and still functioning... maybe there's hope for me!
Don
@Don McErlean I wish I could say the same for me .. I am buggered already LOL!
Lovely hopper and once again your dedication to research and the hunt for treasures inspires us all !
You are lucky I dont live in the US or we would be bitter rivals LOL!
Thanks @Fatman, I totally think the same thing. I think I will restore that poor little engine.
I could make it look as new but a model with patina may look better, in fact I will try several things to obtain the best aspect. Maybe a solution will appear after the total cleaning, just some black paint, maybe wheels repainted and some red lines but no more.
As I will keep it for me the lost of value is not important at all, it will never be a collector piece, just a running model, and with live steal models of this period the patina tends to come very fast with heat, oil, and flames.
Result in the future as I do not have many time to do it....
Very best, Daniel
Hey Fatman...I don't accept "bitter" rivals...after all this is Texas and there is always a convenient Saloon (Pub) where we would work things out...If you ever get to the US...I also have a nice big "Barbie" just waiting to cook steaks!
No Worries!
Don
@FRENCHTRAINS posted:I am not a huge fan of fully restored trains but when this poor loco appeared on the French Craigslist and, as it was just a one hour drive, I had to see it and .... buy it of course. As it was a bargain price that is fine.
So this engine is a gauge one live steam model by BING. it dates from 1925-30 and is just fresh from the attic. Some minor parts are missing, handrails along the boiler, front coupler and tender draw bar but despite his appearance it is not so bad, still work with compressed air. It is extremely dirty, kept in oil sheet of cloth since a very long time which has preserved the main parts. That poor piece has never been cleaned during her life and has been used intensively but it will be salvage. With it the complete set of cars and an oval of tracks. The cars have been repainted...maybe destroyed but i will look at this later.
Now keep it with that wonderful weathering or restore, I think restored will be better....
And a picture from the 1930 catalog
Daniel
I replied to your post on the FB tinplate page (Not realizing until now that you are the same person) It's such a beautiful patina, I'd be tempted to leave it.
@Will posted:I replied to your post on the FB tinplate page (Not realizing until now that you are the same person) It's such a beautiful patina, I'd be tempted to leave it.
Hello Will, as you i didn't notice.... First step will be cleaning and after try to do the best, but leaving it as is may be an option, a sort of rat loco would be funny and it will be fun to run it.
It makes me remember one thing, many years ago in a toy show, I have presented a selection of Lionel Standard gauge trains, running on an oval with accessories all in perfect condition, beside me a friend who has founded an old JEP train in the same battered and rusty condition, worst than my Bing engine, and just cleaned the motor has run it all the day.
Who had the most success..... not me, the general public was admiring this old train in such bad condition but still running....
Very best, Daniel
REGARDING "FLAT" FIGURINES...and posts by Nation Wide Lines and @jim Kelly-Evans...
The "flats" are German...go to this link...there should be a picture of the boy with the bulldog and others...
https://www.zinnfigur.com/en/F...isenbahnfiguren.html
Howard...
