Weekend Photos - 05/15/2020

[healey36]

Ugh, I miss Christopher kicking off these threads with the pics of his layout and his children. Hopefully he and the family are well and just busier than the devil...

I generally dislike "Oh, look what I got this week!" type posts, but that's about all I've been up to lately train-wise. Been extremely busy on other stuff that's kept me out of the basement. Meanwhile, the project pile continues to grow. I hate to say it, but I think I'm approaching saturation. I definitely need to start seriously looking at jettisoning some stuff and just hang onto the best bits.

I did find a "3rd Class" coach for the battered little clockwork Bing set I bought last run-through at York. Both it and the "1st/2nd Class" coach need a few minor repairs and a good polish, hopefully a relatively simple task:



I don't have any reference material on Bing other than a reprint of an old catalog from the 1920s, so I'm not sure what the age of these are. I'm guessing they are early versions of the prewar Bing line, but don't know for sure. Seems that the later prewar coaches didn't include the steps, but that might be wrong. More research required.

Healey

[HONDO74]

Has anyone heard from Christopher. Have not seen him post in a long time

Apparently the forum is full and won't let you post pictures unless you can link to a 3rd party program I don't have photobucket any longer.

[healey36]

Nope, haven't heard a peep. I don't see him posting anywhere, so maybe he's gone off the toy train gig for a while. I bought a photo from him a year or so ago for a project we've been working on...a month or so after that he dropped off. That was around the time he had a book of his photos published. Regardless, I just hope he and the family are well, whatever they might be up to.

[HONDO74]

Regardless, I just hope he and the family are well, whatever they might be up to.

He seemed be be a real family man. Doing a lot with the kids. Getting them involved with the trains and taking them with him. To me Weekend Photos was the highlight of the forum. I'm glad you are doing it Healey. I wish more members would participate. I have a lot of my train pictures that I would post to help out. I will have to see what I can do about it.

You and I seem to have the same love for tinplate trains. I still have the Loofah you sent me that I was going to use to create some prewar scenes. That was at the same time the wife became ill so everything has just sit since then.

[healey36]

I can relate to that. We've had a few health set-backs in the extended family over the last few years, and everything gets set aside when that happens.

Often wondered if you were able to do anything with that loofah stuff. I have a set of instructions around here that says you're supposed to soak it thoroughly, softening it up, before you cut away the outside (the inner bit is what they used to make the trees). I was able to do that, but never got it to dry out properly, a few times even getting moldy in the drying process. I might try again this summer, leaving it outside on a few hot/dry days to see if that does better at drying it out. I should ask Howard Lamey what his method is...he uses it on some reproductions of putz houses he builds. I'll take a look at his site to see if it reveals his secret:



I got hooked on the prewar tinplate stuff traipsing around with The Old Man at train shows. He was buying postwar stuff, but I found the under-the-dealer-table prewar tin way more interesting. He didn't like prewar because it didn't look realistic (precisely why I liked it). He had a Hoge streamliner set when he was a kid...ever seen one of those? Looking at that, I can understand why he had a bad taste in his mouth for prewar, lol:



But now I seriously need to thin the collection. Efforts to make up sets and give them to the children of my nieces and nephews seems to be going no where. Whatever, we'll figure it out.

[Roy]

...now I seriously need to thin the collection.

There is the TCA museum. Whatever they can't use to upgrade their collection, they can get good money for, to support it's operation.

[healey36]

I got a flyer from the TCA museum in Strasburg a couple years ago offering a bunch of stuff from their collection for sale. It was part of their big refurb of the museum displays, and it seems they took the opportunity to jettison some stuff. Nearly all of it was duplicates of things they had, and a lot of it wasn't in the best of shape (not as if that matters much to me).

I have quite a few pieces that came from local folks looking to get their houses in order as they downsized or moved into assisted-living, whatever. I've been thinking of reaching out to the local historical society to see if they have any interest. I'd be more than willing to donate it in the original owner's name (most of whom are gone now) together with whatever history I have.