Postby bob turner » Wed Nov 01, 2023 1:05 pm
There is another auction this week - apparently the estate of my old telephone buddy Bill Paul. Almost nothing of interest to me, but out of curiosity or maybe respect I looked at all of it. Some of those old and beat-up pieces are bringing more than expected.
He does have a P&S New Haven electric and several Sunset variations of the Great Northern Y1 - and several Lionel scale items.
Bill was most proud of his collection of Egolf items - they are not showing up in the auction. He sent me photos at one point, but I fear they have become lost in the arcana around here.
Back to Lenoir - as I recall, his philosophy on mechanisms was to spring the front and rear drivers by pivoting the driving boxes (axle bearings) around the centerline of the adjacent driver, via a lever or something. My philosophy is opposite - I prefer the slots (pedestals) as with the real thing. Of course my sprung models are constrained so that the drivers cannot move very far, and lately I constrain them totally, leaving space for springs if the next owner is so inclined.
I visited Bill in his Tampa retirement shop, and got to see his personal CGW steam. Nice looking models. I also saw an SP AC-9 model at a Chicago show many decades ago, and was quite sure it was not up to his usual quality.
Bill was a driving force in the Saginaw series of PRR steam. Every self-respecting O Scale historian needs a copy of his book, still available from Billy Davis.