Weekend Photos - October 2021

[webenda]

Lionel says, "6-29076, SOUTHERN RAILROAD BABY MADISON PASSENGER CARS, most Recent Catalog: Classic Trains Vol. 1 2000."
Twenty one years after last cataloged I found the passenger cars to go with Southern 8302.

[v8vega]

Postwar small engines have darkened motor side frames, Fundimensions ones are bright metal and show and it dosen't look good.

[healey36]

I wonder if there's room/provision for a trailing truck on the 8302 and they (Lionel) just left it off to save a buck. It would seem that could be easy enough to run down, if so inclined. Otherwise, that's a nice little set for the period.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I wonder if there's room/provision for a trailing truck on the 8302 and they (Lionel) just left it off to save a buck.

Looks like there's plenty of room if there's a practical mounting point available

[webenda]

I wonder if there's room/provision for a trailing truck on the 8302 and they (Lionel) just left it off to save a buck.

Looks like there's plenty of room if there's a practical mounting point available

There is.

[healey36]

Yup, looks easily do-able.

Now, what can be done about the tender-equipped "Mighty Sound of Gravel"? I recall The Old Man had a couple of those tenders and loved them. Chronologically, I wonder if this was a Lionel "feature" pre-dating electronic sound systems?

[webenda]

"Mighty Sound of Gravel!"
Love it or lose it.
If you don't like the looks then surgery is called for. Should be easy, it is plastic after all.

[healey36]

To be honest, it didn't sound that bad for what it was (best at low-to-medium speed).

For a mechanical chuff, the S-gauge American Flyer of the 1950s had a decent, albeit a similar toy-like sound.

Wayne, how long are the coaches? The standard 14" configuration? I think I have an orphan Southern Crescent combine around here somewhere that might make your train 50% longer (if you think the 8302 can drag it). Let me know and I'll start digging.

[webenda]

Wayne, how long are the coaches? The standard 14" configuration? I think I have an orphan Southern Crescent combine around here somewhere that might make your train 50% longer (if you think the 8302 can drag it). Let me know and I'll start digging.

What I found is the Southern Railroad Baby Madison Passenger Car 4-Pack No 6-29076.

The set Includes:
One Baggage Car
Two Coach Cars
One Observation Car

Features: Min Curve: O-27, Set Length: 54" (about 14" each.)

Thank you for the generous offer, Healey36, but I have enough passenger cars for the Southern Railroad on a door layout I have planned.

[healey36]

No worries...it was going to require quite a bit of digging, something that's always painful

The last of a big repro Dinky order finally rolled in this week:



A couple of sedans for the layout, one being a Peugot 203, a car unlikely to have been cruising the American highways. No matter, it looked domestic enough to find a place in a tinplate scene.

My understanding, although this might be a bit of mythology, is that Meccano developed the Dinky line as accessories for their Hornby O-gauge trains. I believe Dinky is owned by Mattel now, having acquired the Corgi line/brand quite a few years ago, and they (Corgi) having acquired the Dinky line/brand years earlier. Whatever, they bring back a lot of memories. These Chinese repros are pretty nice, but they are predominantly from Meccano's French Dinky line, so some weird stuff in there. A couple of fire trucks, a dump truck, another Matra F1 car, and a road-roller, I think I'll hold off for a bit before I order up anything else. It took nearly ten weeks for all of this stuff to get here, which is unusual. My past orders from Japan and China have typically reached me in less than two weeks, sometimes scarcely a week.

[webenda]

Nice looking Dinky Cars Healey36.
I agree, nice models for a tinplate scene.
Out of curiosity, I looked up Dinky Cars Studebaker.

[healey36]

You'll notice the Golden Hawk featured window "glass", a major innovation for Dinky. They lagged Corgi, in many ways, being forced in their later years to offer glazing and interiors to remain competitive. On some of their models, Corgi offered features such as opening doors, boots, and bonnets, sunroofs that slid back, seat-backs that moved back and forth, and my favorite, a sort of primitive light-pipe tech that would dimly illuminate headlamps on some models when a light was shined down from above. Dinky incorporated some of these, along with jeweled headlamps, pretty late in their cycle.

They, Dinky and Corgi, were two great little toy lines.

[healey36]

I finally rounded up the bits required for the first of two signals for the station project, a simple manual semaphore, tinplate style:



The order of brass bits I sent off a few weeks ago finally came in and I screwed up on the length of the brass rod I planned on using for this thing, it being too short. No worries, I wasn't happy with that anyway; bending the rod into a good configuration for controlling the semaphore position was going to be difficult, at least for me. Then I had an epiphany of sorts, coming up with the idea of using a cut off bicycle spoke. This would already be bent 90 degrees at one end and have a small nub to hold it in place; I just needed to cut to length and put another 90-degree bend in the opposite end, 90 degrees opposite of that at the top. I have a good pair of wire pliers out of The Old Man's shop, and with a bit of umph I got a nice 90-degree bend. It's a bit more rounded than I'd hoped, but should still work okay.

The semaphore blade itself, I cut from some a heavy sheet aluminum door push plate I picked up at Lowes for a couple bucks (the first one I cut from a sheet aluminum "For Sale" sign, but that seemed too flimsy). The pole is just a bit of 1/4-inch dowel, and I fashioned a plinth from a scrap of wood found in the shop. A pack of brass screws might be a short in length.

Meanwhile, I'm still hunting some red beads about a 1/4-inch round for the ball signal.

We'll see how this goes.

[gregj410]

This was the last thing I was working on before I became elbow deep in a full kitchen remodel.....ugh! Closing in on it but lots of unfinished details left to finish up. York in 2 weeks so I’m hoping to get back into it here soon.

Working this small On30 line into my 3 rail layout. The plan is to run the On30 line down into that plywood area that will some day be water. Then a turnout to an area to the right of the incline where the logs will be milled. Plastering the back side of that mountain should be fun.

[J. S. Bach]

Good luck.