Messages

226

Layouts / Re: Jim's Layout

« on: December 01, 2021, 04:25:15 PM »

That's a great transition station behind the City of Portland. I've not seen that variation. 115 or 113 in mixed colors? I have a 116 in early colors with a red base and green roof with the stop mechanism.

That's the beauty of Jim's cluttered layout. Picking out the really neat stuff among the just cool stuff.

227

General Discussion / Re: Recent Additions

« on: November 24, 2021, 10:56:08 PM »

The maroon is neat, but the maroon 38 is somewhat easy to find and cataloged so it gets ignored.

The red 33 is really cool because the loco was discontinued in 1923 and red was first used for locos in 1929. I made space for both of them in the middle of the wall.


You can do any size pictures as long as the FILE size for each is below 180KB. Windows 10 service pack has tools for converting image sizes.

See this post:

https://www.train99.com/forum/index.php?topic=26.msg106#msg106

There was a viewer on the board that allowed us to post big picturss and then see them easier, but that doesn't work with the newly updated board. The board updated itself. That's why we have dates agian.

228

General Discussion / Re: Recent Additions

« on: November 24, 2021, 11:50:39 AM »

Harold - My freind who is internet adverse has some mi-loco cars I found a few years ago.   I sold some mi-loco passenger cars last year and there are pictures on the forum.

Those cast metal trains are so neat. I have lots of similarly made trains in 00 scale. 

Mike - that's a great looking 152 set.

Since this topic is getting some interest again. . . Here's my 29th 33 loco:

 

The 30th came a few minutes later:

 

 

229

Layouts / Re: Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

« on: November 20, 2021, 05:07:43 PM »

I was down in the basement today and I heard a loud snap. Like a .22 rifle. Now I'd heard these pops before, but never could localize them. I'd always be too far away to tell where the noise came from.

Today, I was about 6 feet away and it was real loud. Turns out it's the cast heads on the 440 signal bridges.

This is the one that went today:

 

Looks like it cracked too!

230

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: November 20, 2021, 03:03:30 PM »

I found out Thursday morning the dog is a diabetic, and much of my toy money has gone to the animal hospital. Friday morning I sold a 700E on eBay and had some more toy money, and the dog was stabilized.

Maybe I could get one or two of the 3 items I wanted.

It made no difference.

The two things I really wanted were the two square cabs with ovals.

The 1910 went for $5900 plus the vig:

 

https://connect.invaluable.com/stout/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-1910-dark-olive-green-nyc-0-_C264F01B44

The 1911 went for $2200+ which was one bid over my 21, but I don't know how far the other bidder would have went, and after missing the 1910, I decided to go all in on the Penn 38:

 

https://connect.invaluable.com/stout/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-1911-dark-olive-green-electr_88B4773BF1

I wanted those because I have the matching oddball 1912.

I was online and bidding for the Penn 38. I threw in the towell and two other bidders took it up to $4K + the premium.

 

https://connect.invaluable.com/stout/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-scarce-38-dark-olive-green-l_C734025913


The dog should be ok, and whatever money I don't spend now, I can spend later.

231

Layouts / Re: Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

« on: November 15, 2021, 07:32:15 PM »

I'll be selling a bunch of these in the future on eBay. Probably in December as they are unlikely to get damaged in shipping and December is a high da,mage month due to the temp workers.

232

Layouts / Re: Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

« on: November 10, 2021, 12:05:10 PM »

Most everything on the layout is from the 1920-40 period. The figures are from 1930-50. I have more figures than I can put on the layout so I decided to put shelves on the ends of the layouts for them.

Here's a scrap of wood to see what a shelf would look like.

 

Here's some more Barclays. 

 

The shelf wood went up from $9 to almost $13 for a 1X6 eight feet long since August.  It's MDF particle board, and the glue formula changed too.

233

How To and Technical Information / Re: Loco stalling on insulated track, why?

« on: November 07, 2021, 08:14:53 PM »

Current will follow the path of least resistance. This means something on those 2 locos has higher resistance than the accessory.

Try cleaning the brushes and commutators on the two locos that stop.

If the locos run thru ok in the opposite direction the wheels are dirty.  Clean the wheels.

Also, wipe the track down with a dry Scotchbright pad.

234

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: November 06, 2021, 04:07:57 PM »

I think about that, but they see it IF it's one of the regular train auction houses.  There are enough  knowledgeable people looking at their listings to ferret out everything good.

If it's not a regular house and it's poorly listed there MIGHT be a deal. I've missed items that were seen by others and got great deals on rarities no one else saw. 

With the stuff I'm into I tend to place a higher premium on some variations than regular collectors. So with those items I try to keep my mouth shut.

Here's something for you Mike:

 

I wired up the lights and all visible bulbs are vintage and correct. The two on the station are lightly interior frosted and the filaments just glow. Might be from about 1920?  The tall street lights are probably from the early '20s. 

235

Layouts / Re: Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

« on: November 06, 2021, 01:30:20 PM »

I haven't done an update in a while and I had people over this morning so the train room is neater.

I got almost all the wood trim up on the layout. The lower trim comes off so I can get to the O gauge wiring.

 

I ran all the different trains around and parked them on their sidings and ran other trains on the same track. The industrial area still has the temporary wiring so the 380 set just went around in circles until it dumped the cars into the river.

 

The 380 has derailed there before, and the 1835E loco pulling the blue/aluminum cars had problems in the same area.  I'll change out the switch and the curve when I put the permanant wire in.

Here's pictures of the town area with the houses and streetlights in. All the exposed bulbs are vintage. I have a bunch of Kenton, Hubley and Arcade cast iron vehicles similar to the few that are already out to put on the roads.

 

 

 

Here's the town view with the lights on. The two bulbs in the 124 station must be at least 100 years old and look FINE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cookies from the bakery. There was a box of butter cookies too!

 

236

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: November 04, 2021, 01:12:12 PM »

I saw that grey 156. Wonderful.

A year ago I would have been after it.  Today I'd rather have the standard gauge. Unfortunately, I don't have unlimited money.

Good luck bidding. That will be a great addition to your collection.

Here's a photo so it's preserved:

 

From the photos it's certainly dipped.

237

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: November 03, 2021, 09:40:31 PM »

Neat. That means it might be from 1912/13 rather than later. I'm going to throw a bid at it.

There is also a gunmetal 2666T tender - the plastic one.

 

I had two or three different people ask me if I'd ever heard of a gray plastic tender at the recent TCA convention. The loco is messed up - brass screws on the rods? But if the tender is seen as being real, it might bring a boatload of cash.

238

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: November 03, 2021, 11:44:17 AM »

There are some great things there. Fantastic collection. I don't see a depth of variations, but lots of rarities.

How about the 38 lettered PENN RR:

 

Here's the auction:

https://connect.invaluable.com/stout/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-scarce-38-dark-olive-green-l_C734025913

Is that the same stamp the 800 boxcars get? Just by looking at the loco it seems to be from about 1912-16 era. I think the wire hand reverse lever means earlier like 1912-13, but otherwise there aren't enough changes between 1912 and 1916 to date things.

Speaking of auctions, Brad sent me a copy of the 1913 showroom layout photo. He's selling photos as posters:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115073161419

239

General Discussion / Re: which electric engine goes with a 219 crane car?

« on: October 20, 2021, 10:46:32 PM »

I sold a train collection on consignment where the collector marked everything with current values. My dad started selling the stuff before his death, and I sold the rest.

It was a mess. The prices did not reflect his values. Some went for more, most went for less. The woman trusted my dad, and was used to the lower returns, but the trains sold for 70-80 percent of his stickers overall.

The collector also had a wall of figures - Barclay, Manoil, Britians, Grey Iron. Over 3500 pieces. The wife wouldn't do anything with them because I was telling her the return would be pennies on the dollar. She'd pick up a figure and ask me what it would sell for and I'd look it up on eBay and say $3-5. She'd say it has a tag for $25 or $30.

The stickers caused her to dither and look for other ways to sell the collection. 

The wife passed about 6 years later, and the son found me through a local antique appraiser. He didn't even know I'd sold the trains for his mother. I bought the lot.

I sold 3000+ figures on eBay at opening bids of $3. Most sold in the $3-6 range. A few went for more, only a few surprised me. The stickers made it easy to list them on eBay as they cross referenced with the inventory cards so I knew the guy with the flag was a "Flag Bearer."

Speaking of the figures, ALL the ones that sold for more than $25 went to about 12 bidders. Those same bidders also bought a majority of the cheaper figures. There just aren't (or weren't in 2015) very many figure collectors buying on eBay. 

240

Collector Corner / Lionel WW2 inventory notes from financial statements

« on: October 19, 2021, 07:29:40 PM »

The 1943 and 44 lionel annual statements are listed on eBay:

1943 https://www.ebay.com/itm/304192089788

1944 https://www.ebay.com/itm/304192096034

The 1943 says in note B that there is 290K worth of raw materials, good in process and parts worth $ 263K for which the corporation cannot convert in finished goods.  1944 gives the amount as $237K in note A.

I'd think most of the raw materials could be repurposed to military uses. The sheet-metal, casting materials, wire, paint, and insulating material don't seem unusable unless it's things like rolls of tinplate designed for the track rail machines.  Maybe I'm missing something?

Goods is process would be groups of parts put together into sub-assemblies, and parts are parts. I think it was unlawful for Lionel to use labor to assemble these parts. That's a lot of parts.

The 1944 says in note the company borrowed $1.2 million in "VT loans" guaranteed by the US Navy.  This is surely for upgraded plant equipment as there is no corresponding increase in the real estate debt. The VT loans were working capital loans structured to get companies money quickly so they could ramp up war production. They placed obligations on the companies about maximum officer pay, and dividend and on company assets on hand. The loans were guaranteed by the navy against the completed work. 

Interesting.