Messages

256

General Discussion / Re: Ebay issues.

« on: October 13, 2021, 11:19:26 PM »

I've been having problems with youtube since yesterday. Looking at that I found a site called downdetector.com

https://downdetector.com/status/ebay/

People - probably not us - report when sites are down.  Here's a selection of their complaints:

https://downdetector.com/status/ebay/news/419177-problems-at-ebay/

I've had a few failures sending emails myself. Seems to be a consensus that eBay is updating functions and screwing things up.

I recommend NOT changing any bookmarks to solve the problems as they may be temporary.

257

General Discussion / Re: Recent Additions

« on: October 12, 2021, 02:56:42 PM »

Mike - there was an Austrailian or New Zealander on the Yahoo Standard Gauge group who hung trains from the ceiling. That was in the 1990s.

Here's something a bit different --- a Lionel 12 gondola with the number and data stamp on the left:

 

The interesting car should have brakewheels but they are missing. The car is the same as the one above it, but for the position of the lettering. The number and the data are different stamps. These cars have no Lionel MFG embossing or identifying stamps.

I have another brown Lionel 12 with the MFG embossing in the frame.  It's shown below on the lower left:

 

The MFG embossed gondola has a different number stamp, but the data stamps are the same.

Here's the three brown gondolas:

 

All the cars have tab couplers. I think these brown cars date from between 1915 to 1918.

258

How To and Technical Information / Re: How Activate A Lionel 154 Highway Flasher With An Automotive Turn Signal Relay.

« on: October 09, 2021, 11:38:11 PM »

I know this method will work with the Marx highway flashers. It shoild also work with the Prewar American Flyer hiway flashers.

259

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

« on: October 09, 2021, 05:16:36 AM »

I agree with Jim's advice.

Get the TCA book with the BLUE cover. That's the second edition. A little more information for no additional cost.

260

Collector Corner / 1940 Lionel Outfit 1073W with Dull black 1668 PRR Torpedo and litho cars

« on: October 08, 2021, 09:46:44 PM »

Here's an interesting set. The boxes are typical of what I find after years of a set sitting in an Arizona garage or attic crawl space. Any movement or force on the box causes it to fall apart.  (The two crayons i the photos were inside the 1679 Baby Ruth boxcar. You can see how they've melted due to the AZ heat.)

I like to look at the parts and try to guess when the set was made. The cars have black journals, there is not an E on the loco number plate, and the 1680 Shell tank car is orange. Those are 1939/40 features. The dull black tender means 1940.

There is no date on the setbox or the transformer  box. The instruction sheet for the transformer and the lubricant advertisement are both dated 1940. A quick look at the catalogs reveal the 1940 set came with the 1041 transformer whereas the 1939 set had a 1040 transformer.

Here's pictures.
 

"Dull black" on tender box.  This tender has a nickel plate.  By late 1941 the plates were replaced with cheaper rubber stamped lettering.

 

 

Interesting lubrication advertisement sheet dated 1940:

 

The transformer and boxed UTC lockon. There should be a bunch of track clips with this. That looks like the original black connection wires wrapped around the binding posts. They would have been in two coils inside the box with the lockon and track clips.

 

And finally, everything fits nicely into the set box. The track would have been on top, and a small U shaped cardboard insert or a wad of white paper would have been in the open area to the left of the transformer.

 

261

Collector Corner / Re: PREWAR LIONEL O GAUGE #289E/1688T..1701/02/03 #6502E

« on: October 08, 2021, 09:13:42 PM »

NICE.

It's a shame when they don't get played with. It's like feeding a dog salad.

Those are painted aluminum cars. As far as I know the uncataloged sets were painted, and the cataloged ones were chrome. The 289e is uncataloged.

I had a boxed gray 289E freight set with all the boxes and the set box. I bought it on eBay in about 1998. One of my first ebay purchases. The woman didn't show the boxes in the pictures and ruined them with tape and scribbles. She shipped the set to me in the setbox with the lionel label hacked up so it was unreadable.  I could have cried when the mailman handed the box to me.

262

General Discussion / Re: Interesting Auction Items

« on: October 08, 2021, 12:19:49 PM »

Here's a GUNMETAL 1684 for $46. That is one of the rarest prewar locos. No tender. Some scratches.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353713952219

263

General Discussion / Re: Postwar Erie ALCO’s

« on: October 02, 2021, 05:16:16 AM »

They had selenium disk rectifiers which probaby cost much more than the battery box. That's the big gold disk inside the transformers with whistle controllers.

Are you using the track voltage or dropping it somehow?

I think the best looking alcos are the Erie and Rock Island. Black and Yellow or Black and Red.
They also made 3 versions for UP - Yellow, Silver w/gray roof and all Silver.

The Eire's you can get the decal lettering off and run them as just black demons.

264

General Discussion / Re: Recent Additions

« on: October 01, 2021, 11:25:23 PM »

Mike - If you get some cup hooks you can start hanging them from the ceiling by the string tags.

265

General Discussion / Re: Do many run standard gauge trains?

« on: September 30, 2021, 07:45:07 PM »

I built a layout when in college for a rich guy. You could run 30+ trains at once on dozen different tracks on four levels.

I could run all the trains.

The owner could only run one per loop because he would turn them on as fast as they would go and they'd run through the blocks. Then there would be a WHAM! usually followed by a crashing noise.

After a few months we had an electrician come in and put all the train transformers on one switch. Now I think he just runs one easily accessible loop and the rest just sits as a nice display.

On my layouts, I can run the mainlines and one (or two on the the standard gauge) of the smaller lines on each. That's three or 4 trains at once so I can keep track of them. Each layout has it's own terminal switch for the power.

266

General Discussion / Re: Do many run standard gauge trains?

« on: September 30, 2021, 11:03:17 AM »

there are two strings of lights - blue that make for a great night scenes, and small white led that I haven't wired in yet as they run on 1.5 volts and I need to rig up a string of diodes and a rectifier to get current.

I did get the trim up around the O gauge.  I found the correct automotive flashers to run the 154 highway signs.  Those should be in the mailbox today so I can get them installed this weekend.

The size of the layout makes everything more time consuming. I have 2 hours in on a 440 signal bridge because the bridge is in one side and the wiring is on the other. If the O gauge wasn't there I could just pop under, but with the 156 sheds there I walk all the way around.

This is what I like to do - make everything work - so I'm having fun.

267

General Discussion / Re: Postwar Erie ALCO’s

« on: September 29, 2021, 12:28:25 PM »

The trains are good for your health. . .

I was told by the cardiologist to get my heart rate up for at least 20 minutes 3 times a week.

"No problem. I do that most days just trying to run my trains."

268

General Discussion / Re: Do many run standard gauge trains?

« on: September 28, 2021, 06:58:32 PM »

when i was building my O gauge layout on the floor, people asked about the white posts and I said I was putting a standard gauge layout over the O gauge.

I was told don't do that. . . leave windows so we can see the O gauge. . . and more.

Once the standard gauge started running on the upper level no one asks about the O gauge.

Links in my signature below.

The dog still likes the O gauge.

269

General Discussion / Re: Recent Additions

« on: September 27, 2021, 05:33:38 PM »

I haven't bought anything since the TCA convention 5 weeks ago.

Stout had a Lionel trolley in a Butler bros box last week, but I didn't bid because I thought it would sell for more than I could pay. It went for less than I expected, but who knows what the high bidder would have paid.

Jim's been selling some nice stuff on eBay that I don't have, but I have enough dark green locos and orange boxcars. I just saw a red 14 boxcar on ebay. I don't know if two red boxcars are enough.

The good thing about not buying trains is the money piles up and the first one after a drought can be more expensive!

270

General Discussion / Re: is there any lionel proto type items that didn't make the cut

« on: September 27, 2021, 05:17:55 PM »

Jim, The 264 army set came from Hertz though a NETTE auction? I've seen other cars that came from there.

Here's a prototype 517 caboose I wrote about years ago:

http://www.train99.com/ency/mo/mo9.html

After I wrote that article I was contacted by a collector in NJ who has a 385W tender, a 515 tank and another car that I don't recall clearly - maybe 512 gondola that match the caboose. His trains have the same filled in areas with bluing.

Lionel never went into production of the new couplers on standard gauge and did not introduce and new standard gauge items after the 1934 introduction of the 392T.