Model Train Journal

Lionel's construction of the "mountain" and portals is very distinctive. I presume they used the method they described in their instruction sheet (Scenic Display Set. No. 920), utilizing glue-soaked felt draped over a rudimentary framework. Seems primitive, but it works, especially in an e...

Reading through the site, I see that it is a dealer display layout. Wonder if it's in as-found condition or, I'm guessing, it's had quite a bit of restoration work done to it.

Looks a bit like a Lionel store display layout, just with a lot of extra stuff piled on it. A family friend of mine had a Lionel display layout when he was a kid. His father had been a department manager for the old Hutzler's department store chain in Baltimore. Somehow he'd managed to get a display...

The Western Maryland first used gondolas to haul coal, and they unloaded through the bottom. I've never seen a model of one of those, but it would be interesting.

Seeing the Ebay topic pop up has me wondering how Dave (Scalecraft) is doing. My recollection is he’d hit a rough patch a while back. Anyone heard from him? Hope he’s well and safe and enjoying his trains.

Okay, that’s weird to me. Those short boxcars certainly weigh a lot less than the scale-sized versions. Must be the improved free-rolling scale trucks on the later cars?

That little 2-4-0 is pretty sharp, Wayne.

LOL, now I remember that thread. Not exactly chocked full of information, was it? I don't have much reference information re: postwar equipment; the Greenberg book I have has no mention of differences in the motors used in the 1654 and 1655 locos. In this thread on OGR, folks refer to sliding-shoe p...

Thanks for the links, Robert.

I recall there being a collector/operator preference for the 1655 over the 1654, both nearly identical in appearance, but I can’t remember what the reason was. I think it may have had something to do with the motor. I’ll have to read up on it.

Nice locomotive, Wayne. Interesting to see smoke-deflectors on such a small loco. Digging through some storage bins I keep under the layout, found this dusty postwar Lionel 1655 in the bottom of one of them. Pulled it out, brushed it off a bit, then put power to it: https://live.staticflickr.com/655...

$75/day seems a great deal. I wonder if it has a kitchen and if it’s air-conditioned.

This might be fun for the Fourth: http://www.lionelstore.com/LionelStore-Product-Images/2526590-01.jpg The Acme Disconnect Rocket Car from Lionel's Looney Tunes series. I've been thinking about crafting a bottle-rocket launcher...would seem pretty simple. Hope all here have a terrific Fourth!

Terrific...thanks for posting. My kid lives a scant mile or so from the old Mohawk & Hudson ROW, presumably buried beneath the old NYC mainline running between Albany and Schenectady. It seems like New York is prodigious in its use of historic markers, yet I don’t recall ever seeing one commemor...

The bots are swarming again...over 1500 MTJ “users” online in the last few minutes. Forum response time seems burdened.

It’s weird, at least to me, that they numbered them as 6464-series cars. They are proportionally quite different.

They are out there...see here:

https://www.victorymodels.com/products/lionel-6-27293-o-scale-rock-island-boxcar-r-i-6464-route-of-the-rockets?variant=39460244586595

More research required on this thing...might be some sort of hybrid, lol.