Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

@pd posted:

Spent this AM servicing a few prewar motors, the Flyer 1096 and a pair of Ives 3251's:

Long stories on each, but the 1096 (top) is a family heirloom, one that has likely not seen track-time in more than 80 years. A bit of clock oil along with a judicious squirt of control-contact lubricant/cleaner got it running, albeit quite roughly. Anyone know how to crack one of these open for a thorough cleaning? No screws in sight, and I hate to think bending tabs to remove the shell is required.

PD

Sadly, bending the tabs to remove the shell is the only way to do it.  The tabs will likely handle 1 removal/reinstallation only, so be careful and make sure you service it properly, while having the shell off.  You should be installing new springs and brushes and repairing any wiring that needs it, as well as re-wheeling if needed.

NWL

Ugh, my worst nightmare. The tabs here look like they may have been bent once before. This, combined with a bit of corrosion, makes for a risky proposition. The wheels look good, but seeing up to the commutator and brushes without removing the body is tough. At some point we’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the info.

A King and a Queen, a Marklin and a Bing...

1912 Bing King George V

1920 ish Marklin 4 volt electric Queen Mary

Both made for the British market.

I've had the King for a while and he is in pretty good shape.  The Queen just showed up on my doorstep looking a little worn out

Will have to see if I can revive the little 4 Volt motor or not. I didn't get a tender with the Queen so I had to pose her with a loose sort of matching tender I had.  Not sure if it is a Bing or Fandor or what but it actually fits pretty well.

Well I encountered something fairly unusual recently ( I hate to use the word "rare" with Marx)...concerning the metal FM diesels that Marx produced in the middle 50's and up until about 1962 with some of the models.  There were three RR selected for small lithographed FM diesels, Kansas City Southern (KCS), Seaboard, and Monon.  Marx made both electric and wind up A units for all these RR over different time periods. They all started with A units in or around 1955.  However with all 3 Marx produced B units lithographed to match the A units.  These were very much more scarce, in fact IAW an article titled "spotlight on Marx Diesels from Fairbanks Morse" in the Nov 2021 issue of "Classic Toy Trains" the Seaboard B unit is the most scarce piece of the series.  Well I did not find a Seaboard B however I did recently find a Monon B unit, the 4 wheel variety (in Monon and KCS 8 wheel B units were also made), however ANY B unit is scarce and was only made for a portion of the run of the A units.  In Monon the A units were made 1955-56 and 1958-59 however the B unit was only made in 1958-59.  Given that the B units had no power, no lights, no smoke, no noise and had to be paired with an A unit to pull a train, you can see why mom and pop might have hesitated to fork over the funds for one.  Anyway it makes the B units tough to find.

Here from 1958-59 is the Marx metal lithographed FM B Unit.  This matches the powered and unpowered A units in livery.

This shows the end design

Here after considerable period of searching is my Monon A-B-A FM diesel locomotive.  This one is electric although they made the locomotive in wind up as well.  The only power was ever in the A units, the B units never had power of any type.

Here is the handsome A-B-A again getting ready to leave the depot on a caboose run.  The caboose is also Monon although not the matching tin lithographed caboose made for this set which remains a "search item".

Best wishes for a great weekend

Don

OK Don, Marx B units it is - Here's the KCS version. If I remember correctly Steve Eastman has the Seaboard diesels with a B unit...maybe he'll drop by and show us the Seaboard version.

Robert thanks for showing the KCS version. If Steve has the Seaboard unit I hope he shows it. IAW the Classic Toy Trains article it’s the most scarce Marx FM piece.
Don

Here is my A-B-A.

Steve

@pd posted:

Spent this AM servicing a few prewar motors, the Flyer 1096 and a pair of Ives 3251's:

Long stories on each, but the 1096 (top) is a family heirloom, one that has likely not seen track-time in more than 80 years. A bit of clock oil along with a judicious squirt of control-contact lubricant/cleaner got it running, albeit quite roughly. Anyone know how to crack one of these open for a thorough cleaning? No screws in sight, and I hate to think bending tabs to remove the shell is required.

PD

I I I just wanted to share some of our pre-war fun on display this year. It kind of follows your great post. 😎

@WRW posted:

I I I just wanted to share some of our pre-war fun on display this year. It kind of follows your great post. 😎

Very sharp. One of these days I’ll find me a nice Lionel 8.

@Don McErlean posted:

Robert thanks for showing the KCS version. If Steve has the Seaboard unit I hope he shows it. IAW the Classic Toy Trains article it’s the most scarce Marx FM piece.
Don

Just curious as to why Marx chose three less-well-known roadnames.  Any theories on this? 

No complaints, as they're all different,  very colorful, and I'm a fan of the Monon.

Mallard4468 - No hard evidence, but Marx like both Lionel and Flyer was throughout their history always trying to broaden their appeal to buyers outside of the NY metropolitan area or the east coast.  To me that might explain the selection of Monon and KCS but not Seaboard of course.  The other, more simple explanation, concerns the toys themselves.  They had no attempt at scale or detail, were way under size, and clearly designed as TOYS not model RR items.  Thus they were designed to appeal to Mom's and Grandma's (all these companies knew the ladies mostly actually bought most of the toys in that era) and so bright, colorful, liveries attracted attention.  The fact that these were really designed as toys, makes them somewhat more difficult to find.  They were cheap, played with HARD, and easily disposable.  Thus today they can be somewhat scarce.

Steve "Papa" Eastman - Thanks for showing the Seaboard and its B unit.  Really appreciate the posting.  As all us collectors say..."someday" !

Don

pd - the method I use when dealing with tabs is to carefully straighten them, remove the shell - do whatever maintenance is necessary and before putting the shell back on, take parallel flat nose pliers and really flatten the tabs in the vertical position. Then just slip the shell back on and, again using the parallel flat nose pliers, very slightly bend in the tabs on one side only.  I've found this gives a snug fit and it allows you to remove the shell in the future without having to do anything to the tabs.

  Another possibility - I've never tried this but somewhere I read about someone doing the same thing except instead of the slight bend they just took a small cotton swab and applied a dab of Loctite to the area where the tab pressed against the frame.  This was supposed to hold everything in position and, of course, that small Loctite seal could be easily broken the next time you needed to remove the superstructure.

I saw something a little different this morning.  How about some live steam with your tinplate!?

This weekend's project was re-wheeling and servicing the 3195 engine in my American Flyer 1930 Iron Horse set.  I have owned this set for approximately 10 years and it has been a non-running shelf queen until now. 

NWL

Thanks to help from @Fatman, I was able to acquire a Tolato Mozdony wind-up train.  Here's a pic...

Doesn't stay on the track too well, but it didn't break the bank.

@Robert S. Butler posted:

pd - the method I use when dealing with tabs is to carefully straighten them, remove the shell - do whatever maintenance is necessary and before putting the shell back on, take parallel flat nose pliers and really flatten the tabs in the vertical position. Then just slip the shell back on and, again using the parallel flat nose pliers, very slightly bend in the tabs on one side only.  I've found this gives a snug fit and it allows you to remove the shell in the future without having to do anything to the tabs.

  Another possibility - I've never tried this but somewhere I read about someone doing the same thing except instead of the slight bend they just took a small cotton swab and applied a dab of Loctite to the area where the tab pressed against the frame.  This was supposed to hold everything in position and, of course, that small Loctite seal could be easily broken the next time you needed to remove the superstructure.

Thanks for that, Robert. I’ve disassembled/reassembled numerous Lionel prewar freights and rarely had a problem. The one instance of broken tabs occurred when disassembling a Lionel 653. I repaired that using some Loctite GO2 on what was left of the tabs.

Other than a 3018 tank car, I’ve not taken apart any Flyer equipment. That came apart and went back together pretty well, but the 1096 looks a bit more fragile. If I can get the tabs bent straight, then I’ll feel pretty good about getting it back together later. The suggestion for a glob of Loctite to hold things in place rather than bending the tabs over seems a good one.

@Mallard4468 posted:

Doesn't stay on the track too well, but it didn't break the bank.

I think the Hungarians call that "Value adding "

Well I have quite a long post for today but I hope everyone will enjoy it.  While working on an effort to inventory some of my collection, I have been going through some storage boxes that have sat unlooked at since we moved to Texas some 15 years ago.  What I found, according to a note I left in the box, was something that I purchased when I was first starting to collect in Dayton, Ohio from a train show in the late 70's.  So this item has been moved around the country waiting to be "discovered" again for some 45-50 years!!  Anyway I hope you will enjoy this.

This is the outer or set box...it never had a locomotive or tender while I had it, likely missing from the set or perhaps it was not part of the set when purchased new.  Note that the label reads "A.C.Gilbert Company, New Haven, Conn" so it post dates Gilbert's acquisition of American Flyer in February 1938 and the move of train production from Chicago to New Haven.

Inside the outer carton, are the component boxes.  Still nearly fully intact they contain the individual cars that made up the set.  These cartons bear the notation..." B750 Copyright 1938 by the A.C. Gilbert Co.  A..C. Gilbert, New Haven, Conn"

The front of the component box.

The side of the component box

The ends of the component boxes, clearly stamped "3171 Pullman" and "3172 Obs".  Note the "R" designation on the box.  IAW Greenberg's Guide to "American Flyer Prewar O gauge" by Alan R. Schuweiler, Kalmbach Publishing Co, 1997 these 8 1/2 inch cars were offered 1930-33; 1934;1936-38 in various colors and configurations and this configuration, which you shall see,  which has the Type XII trucks and Type X coupler was listed as #3171R in the catalog but not on the car (which in fact carries no number).

Note by an unknown individual on the bottom of one of the component boxes, perhaps by the original dealer, maybe relating to the "new for 1938" Type X coupler but this reads (written in cursive, with a pencil) ... "Special Coupler".

Here are the cars, # 3171 Pullmans and a #3172 Observation

A close up of the Pullman.  Identifying and dating information for both the Pullman and the Observation are Color (Red over Red), Wording of the Name plates. (American Flyer Lines), position of the nameplates (over the windows and under the windows to the left and right), Type XII trucks and Type X couplers.  This combination of characteristics dates these cars uniquely from 1938.

The matching observation

Here is something I find rather amazing.  These cars are all illuminated, taking power individually from the track.  But look at the undersides of the cars, they appear almost unused.  There is some slight wear on the one pick up but there is not obvious wear any where else on the underside.

Well that was a long story and I hope you enjoyed it.  Now I have to find out what locomotive pulled this set and then find that!!  Likely a long process

Best wishes for a great weekend

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Well I have quite a long post for today but I hope everyone will enjoy it.  While working on an effort to inventory some of my collection, I have been going through some storage boxes that have sat unlooked at since we moved to Texas some 15 years ago.  What I found, according to a note I left in the box, was something that I purchased when I was first starting to collect in Dayton, Ohio from a train show in the late 70's.  So this item has been moved around the country waiting to be "discovered" again for some 45-50 years!!  Anyway I hope you will enjoy this.

This is the outer or set box...it never had a locomotive or tender while I had it, likely missing from the set or perhaps it was not part of the set when purchased new.  Note that the label reads "A.C.Gilbert Company, New Haven, Conn" so it post dates Gilbert's acquisition of American Flyer in February 1938 and the move of train production from Chicago to New Haven.

Inside the outer carton, are the component boxes.  Still nearly fully intact they contain the individual cars that made up the set.  These cartons bear the notation..." B750 Copyright 1938 by the A.C. Gilbert Co.  A..C. Gilbert, New Haven, Conn"

The front of the component box.

The side of the component box

The ends of the component boxes, clearly stamped "3171 Pullman" and "3172 Obs".  Note the "R" designation on the box.  IAW Greenberg's Guide to "American Flyer Prewar O gauge" by Alan R. Schuweiler, Kalmbach Publishing Co, 1997 these 8 1/2 inch cars were offered 1930-33; 1934;1936-38 in various colors and configurations and this configuration, which you shall see,  which has the Type XII trucks and Type X coupler was listed as #3171R in the catalog but not on the car (which in fact carries no number).

Note by an unknown individual on the bottom of one of the component boxes, perhaps by the original dealer, maybe relating to the "new for 1938" Type X coupler but this reads (written in cursive, with a pencil) ... "Special Coupler".

Here are the cars, # 3171 Pullmans and a #3172 Observation

A close up of the Pullman.  Identifying and dating information for both the Pullman and the Observation are Color (Red over Red), Wording of the Name plates. (American Flyer Lines), position of the nameplates (over the windows and under the windows to the left and right), Type XII trucks and Type X couplers.  This combination of characteristics dates these cars uniquely from 1938.

The matching observation

Here is something I find rather amazing.  These cars are all illuminated, taking power individually from the track.  But look at the undersides of the cars, they appear almost unused.  There is some slight wear on the one pick up but there is not obvious wear any where else on the underside.

Well that was a long story and I hope you enjoyed it.  Now I have to find out what locomotive pulled this set and then find that!!  Likely a long process

Best wishes for a great weekend

Don

Outstanding!!!! Thank you for sharing your “new” find at home. 😎

    Based on the 1938 catalog my guess would be this engine and set

  The car numbers match and the couplers you have are 1938 issue - the only problem is the catalog insists the cars are two tone red enamel.