Weekend Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽 6/12/20!

I just got some freight cars made by BING in Germany. They dates from 1925-30 and where made for the British market for the cattle and gondola as they are marked with specific railways companies of Great Britain.  The cattle car was sold with four cows which are long gone unfortunately.  The most interesting car is the two level one made for transportation of small animals, that is what Bing specified in his catalog. This one still retains two original pigs in "composition" as it is generally called, in fact it is "papier maché" covered with paint. The center level of the car is removable to access the first one and the roof can flip. This car doesn't bear any marks so it could have been sold in all countries. It has also been made in a brown version for Germany with specific stamping.

Have a nice weekend,  Daniel

Well after much to-ing and fro-ing and liberal use of Google Translate I made a new friend in Spain !

It was a very complicated transaction lol as his iPhone didnt want to play with Paypal and sorting out postage costs to Australia , but we got there in the end and had a few laughs along the way ... Bringing the world closer together one clockwork train at a time ! ( and 20 emails later ! )

So as I am a confessed lover of French Clockwork trains I am mightly chuffed to present some nice early ones to the OGR family

I might need to put out a holler to @FRENCHTRAINS and @Arne for absolutely correct dating as I bought 2 locos and tenders and I think perhaps in the photos they might be mixed

I am pretty happy to announce my first J d P "Windcutter" Locomotive ( or J de P, or as they would be eventually known as JEP )

#464 ...From the reseach I have done so far ...

in the photos it is shown with a J.P Tender this was one of the first trademarks used by the company when SIF (Société Industrielle de Ferblanterie ) incorporated the fledgling firm of Le jouet de Paris which formed in 1899 . The amlgamation took place in 1909 so from that we can probably take that the tender at least was approx 1909-1910

The loco bears a J (small D) P which again puts it as pre 1914 ish?

Now where the fun begins .. from the same collector I purchased a second J de P

As you can see in the blurry photo ( lol ) it has a J (Small DE) P logo with Made in France ...so obviously an exported model However this one came in the photo's with a hand painted 464 tricolour tender , could it be a mix up or were these used for different locos as well ?..

It is maybe possible the 464 was added at some point in the past ?

Although even if a "touch up " factory or otherwise it does seem to have the gold J d P on the side ?

To a museum or fanatic , they might have issues , but to me they are simply gorgeous , and I am in love ...

Scott Smith

Looks nice @Fatman, the first JdP model is from the twenties 20-22. There is several color variations, the first ones where green and look as a Bing loco and they appear in 1915. Yours has been made mainly in black and the tender is original to the loco. Is is a 464 and this type has had a 10-12 years manufactured period. From 1918 to 1931, yours has the first type of print. Not easy to find in this condition, excellent.

The second one is more strange. It appears that the chimney, front lamps are nor original; not sure about the front bumpers, anyway repainted ones and the red front also as the base plate of the loco is repainted. The wheels also have been repainted, originals where black and one is a replacement, the front right one. It has had some restorations but it is an old model and may have seen some action during his life so it is saved. I think it is a 463 model, same period than the first one.

If the price was right, no regret and JdP locos are good running ones, not powerful as the where used with one or two cars but they are fun to use.

Daniel

@scott.smith posted:

Scott Smith

 

Nice shots Scott, how did you make your portals?

Joe Gozzo

Since Fatman is going in the early windup direction, here is an American Flyer 0-4-2 that dates to the 1911-1913 era.  

My engine has been worked on a bit over the years, as the bell should be wood, instead of a c. 1930s brass bell from a wide gauge engine, and I believe the wood headlight may also be a replacement.  

This large engine was apparently built to go with the 5 window Chicago cars.  The tender is also Flyer's first larger tender, as it uses the 328 tender frame, but with a different body.  This tender first appeared around 1910-1911.  My tender came with a smaller engine and two 5 window cars, as shown in the 1910 catalog.  I purchased it separately, as the seller split the engine, tender, and 2 cars up on ebay and there was nothing special about the engine and the cars were not in the condition I wanted.  Here is a later 5 window car (as the early ones had different frames).

NWL

@Trainlover160 posted:

Nice shots Scott, how did you make your portals?

Joe Gozzo

The hardest part was cutting the holes in the wall.

I purchased tiles on clearance at Home Depot. The club already had sticky tile adhesive mat tape in the supply room. This tile mat had lines to help you line up your tiles. I looked at Ebay at all the tunnel portals for sale to look at how the blocks were laid out. I stuck the tiles in the way I thought they looked best.

Grout comes next and I just happen to be starting that when a man and his kids visited the club from Blacksburg and he happened to own a flooring company. After cover the tile with grout and making sure that all the spaces were filled you need to clean the grout off of the tiles themselves. The man from Blacksburg said the best way to clean off the grout is with window cleaner and a rag or paper towels. The tiles that are set up on their side are going to want to fall out until the grout hardens, he recommended using finishing nails to hold them in place. I didn't have any finishing nails that evening so I used masking tape.

A couple of weeks later I made sculpt-a-mold mountains around the portals. 4 hole means I had to make 8 tunnel portals.

A word of advice, please use a level. I eyeballed one of the tunnels and I was not happy at all with the results on that one. I have two to four more portals to build on the layout, I am happy to report that they are not going through walls.

Scott Smith

OK Fatman has some JEP loco's (JdeP) that are just really nice, in especially good condition cinsidering their age.  NWL has that ancient American Flyer loco and a Chicago 5 window coach from the same period.  These fellows along with others on this thread continue to show me tinplate I would never see under other circumstances, so thank you!    I am away from my collection spending the summer visiting family and going to the beach on the east coast (Georgia) so will have to make do with some archived pictures. 

What I have today is a MYSTERY ! at least to me...It came with some Mettoy freight wagons I purchased and the seller called it a "tunnel" but its much too narrow for O-gauge even the 2 rail track barely fits in the opening.  It is well lithographed and colorful, but I cannot tell what it is.  If anyone has any ideas, I would love to try and find out.  It was a "throw in" to the package so I didn't care about its monetary value but I would like to know what on earth it is! It is about 4" L X 3"W X 5" H

Here is the side and it is lithographed with a passage (but for what?).  The odd design in the upper right side of the pictured opening might be a steam cloud for a train passing underneath (or overhead?) but that didn't work all that well with the way the opening is oriented.  It pictures a raised walkway on the sides of the opening and a smooth roadway(?) down the middle but that is just my interpretation.  The perspective drawn obviously is meant to imply that this "opening" goes all the way through. Both sides are the same.

Here is the top.  The lithographed lines look a little like rails in some sort of roadbed.  The two darker yellow lines are approximately O-gauge distant apart but there are no sleepers pictured.

Here is what it looks like from the perspective of the un-decorated opening. As you can see the actual inside of the physical opening is just plain sheet metal, much like the inside of a more normal tin tunnel.  This is why the seller called it a "tunnel" but it seems a bit too strange for that, it certainly is not an O-gauge tunnel, nothing will fit through the hole.  As you can see the lithographed "opening" pictured on the side is at right angles to the actual opening which is in parallel with the lines on top.

Well there it is...my "MYSTERY" tunnel or whatever it is...I would appreciate any ideas or thoughts.  Right now it's just holding up a small freight wagon to give me some additional display space.  I just continue to wonder what it is.  LOL!!

Have a great weekend. 

Don

DANIEL: LOVE those pigs! (NICE cars too!)

The layout is covered for the summer, but will come back to life in the fall.

JKE: Sir, you must possess great will power to go without trains for a whole summer! I could not do that, unless disabled in some fashion!

Not my tinplate but going to be selling lots of it. Don

@Tinplate Art posted:

JKE: Sir, you must possess great will power to go without trains for a whole summer! I could not do that, unless disabled in some fashion!

Art, I have my garden railway at our seaside cottage, not tinplate but fun anyway!

Looks like GREAT fun!

FEF

Thank you Daniel! @FRENCHTRAINS Some awesome information ... and yes the price I think was very right for such early Jouet De Paris I am also not surprised with the possible modifications to the second one , I think perhaps it was restored many years ago ,and was pretty convinced at least the buffers were incongruous to the overall

I sort of expect some modifications to early European stuff , as when you think of it , they have survived at least one World War ( or two ) and a great depression as well as 100 odd years of play or generational abuse

Also some great stuff as always in this thread !

@Don McErlean I wonder if perhaps that tunnel of yours was maybe a part of a tinplate CAR set ?

There were several manufacturers which had clockwork cars running on a tinplate track which were smaller than O gauge in wdth with the vehicles being about 9cm ( 3 1/2 ") long , or just a bit bigger than Matchbox cars ?

Something like my early Distler Set ?

Although by the lithography on your tunnel I would think it as 50-60's in date ?

( the Distler above is 30's)

Just a wild guess by me ? I think a few british companies made these kind of sets after the war into the 60's?

Thet did also make some tracked locomotives that ran on the same style tin tracks ..GTP? comes to mind

Fatman:  thanks for the idea. I think you may have the right idea. I had not thought of car racing sets but that certainly fits the size.  Thanks for posting your thoughts 

Don McErlean

With the purchase of a Bing 4-4-2 Windsplitter and a Bing Mitropa combine my Wall of Trains has perhaps reached its ultimate state (unless I can find an 01 Bing Pacific for a reasonable price). The Wall features Hornby, Bing, and Bassett Lowke with an Ace Mallard and Corgi Bassett Lowke  representing modern locomotive production.  Note the 5 Bing super clockwork locomotives in a row and 8 beautiful Bing bogie coaches and baggage car. The Hornby Canadian Pacific Nr 3 15V is probably the rarest item with the Hornby 4-4-0 Caledonian close behind.

Covid-19 prevents friends from visiting but at least we have zoom and the internet to provide some communication.

Enjoy these photos.

Lew Schneider

Happy Flag Day!

Craig,

Great reminder that it is Flag Day.  Here is my contribution

NWL

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

Craig,

Great reminder that it is Flag Day.  Here is my contribution

NWL

One of these days I hope to accidentally find one of those stations, or if I had good straight on photos, make one.

Steve

Did some cutting on the inside of the steam cylinders. Now it will run on 42” curves. Looks silly, but at least it’s an option.

Steve

@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

One of these days I hope to accidentally find one of those stations, or if I had good straight on photos, make one.

Steve

Steve,

Mine is one of the reproductions that Carl W. made in the 1990s.  Those are the ones to look for, as they should go for about $500 to $600.  I bought mine directly from Carl a few years ago and also got one that I shipped to Hollis in Los Angeles.  

Carl told me that he initially made 25 stations and then had demand for more, so he had parts made for more of them.  He said that he had sold about 50 of the complete stations, sold parts to owners of originals.  

NWL

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

Craig,

Great reminder that it is Flag Day.  Here is my contribution

NWL

my head just expoded at sight of that station,,,,is it orignal? 

@terry hudon posted:

my head just expoded at sight of that station,,,,is it orignal? 

No it is one of the reproductions from the 1990s.  However, the Old Glory is an original Flyer item and not the reproduction.

NWL

Here's an odd one. Dan Schievelbein, moderator on the Hafner Facebook page posted this one, a 103 clockwork loco, a variation on the 100 stamped steel engine. First one I had ever seen.