Model Train Journal

No idea, as I was only there for a few hours...only had time for one quick pass. I suspect he hauled it home at that price. I will say it was in very nice shape, which is pretty amazing, considering how old it is. It's a massive damn thing, I'll say that!

I was going to run the Lionel 2018 around the tree this year (seemed appropriate) with a string of North Pole Central passenger cars, but then thought it better to finally run the Lionel 33/35/36 set. First standard-gauge I ever bought, more than twenty-five years ago, just for this purpose...just never got around to it. Well, this year we got around to it:



Despite a chunk missing from a drive-wheel and a few teeth missing from the pinion gear, ol' 33 still runs like a champ. Manufactured the year of The Old Man's birth, 1925. Looks about right.

Healey

Being able to run with broken parts says a lot about how it was made and what its purpose was.

healey36 wrote:Manufactured the year of The Old Man's birth, 1925. Looks about right.

Healey

6 years shy of being 100 years old. It would be interesting to know the history of the set and it's first owner. The ultimate toy for any boy in 1925. maybe even owned by a young lady.

Great stuff, Healey!

One last shot of ol' 33 from a couple months back:



Maybe get the 10 back in service for 2019.

This stuff is not my forte, but this , I think, is impressive:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/fs- ... #lastReply

Pridelines made some nice stuff...looking back, I wish I'd bought one of their O-gauge streamliner sets. They were located in Lindenhurst, New York, a town out on Long Island where my step-mother's parents lived. The Old Man, who maintained an affection for the streamliners of the 1930s, looked at getting one of their sets, but they were quite expensive. He eventually found and bought a second-hand Consoli Zephyr set (Western Coil), which we still have. Hasn't been run in years...we'll have to dig it out of the attic and give it a spin.

Been noodlin' what run under the Christmas tree this year - might bust out the MTH 392E. Hasn't been run in years, so probably deader than a door-nail. I bought a BCR for it, so could go ahead and make the swap.

Healey

Christmas was a whirl this year, never found the time to pull out anything to jam under the tree. Making a vow to do better in 2020, maybe actually have a plan.

Nah, that would be crazy...

Healey

Plan? For what? And Why?
Yeah. Crazy.

I was thinking about building a three or four-inch high platform that the tree could sit on, which would also help to prevent the train(s) from getting the tar kicked out of it/them by overly-exuberant visitors. Something a bit Baltimore Christmas garden-ish. I've been looking for a nice set of that iron fencing folks used back in the day to circle their tree, but haven't had much luck. Whatever, I've got a year to get it together.

I think I remember that fence. Had a neighbor that used some around his tree, on a platform, with a little scenery. This was O Lionel in the late 1940s.
I haven't seen that fencing for many years. It is a good idea. The platform could be plywood on 2" X 4"s on edge. Don't forget how heavy that can get.
Had a friend that did his like that using 4' X 8' plywood and then cut the platforms to 4' X 4' to make the sections easier to handle.

A standard gauge Lionel 78 train control block signal:



Also sold for O-gauge as the O78 (same size, same features as the standard gauge version), it features the same bi-metallic strip mechanism (Automatic Train Control, or ATC for short) that was used in various prewar stations to stop, pause, then restart trains. You need three or so conjoined insulated track sections to serve as the activation bit. This one, refurbished some thirty years ago, works well. Watching the alternating red and green lights as it cycles, it is an ingenious device when considering the era.

Nice.