ACME

[ScaleCraft]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/316749682378

made in Italy.

[sarge]

Wayne, you are reading what you want to read, I fear, and Trainz is either blowing smoke up your arse or the customer service people are not aware of what their description writers are doing and doing the same thing you do, look up and believe everything on the internet.

The A.C.M.E. you are tenuously latched onto is a recently formed company that imports Continental European prototype stuff from China in the same manner, say, Branchline or Dapol does in the UK or Broadway and Tangent in North America.

Trainz has been using "Acme" in their descriptions for anything in their limited knowledge they cannot identify, either as some sort of now tired joke in reference to "Roadrunner" cartoons or as a placeholder because their computer system requires a brand to be entered in the appropriate field when ginning up listings. They've done the same with parts and models across the spectrum, not just toy trains.

As far as "trusting Trainz", they are in the business of selling estates. Their employees range from Sunday School teenagers throwing stuff in boxes with perhaps a crumpled piece of butcher-paper tossed in to housewives earning extra cash answering phones in "customer service", and have little if any knowledge about the stuff they crank through, other than how to crank it through in volume. They could just as easily be selling ceramic figurines or old computer gaming cartridges.

There is no magic stash of Lionel parts salvaged from the skips and bins of America by the Caruso's minions, only to be discovered now in the hands of an Italian importer of HO from China, sold off to Trainz (at 10-cents on the dollar if my experience getting offers for estates from them is typical) rather than 25 years ago when the major nostalgia interest and profit potential were at their peak.

[ScaleCraft]

And.....bottom line....I NEVER trust anything Trainz says. Especially self protecting e-mails.
They're so full of shxt their eyes are brown.
Opinion.

I need to do more Trainz ebay posts.

[bob turner]

One of my buddies said that the guy who started Trainz was a 2-rail O Scale type, and had an older Cab Forward he needed help with. I offered, but no response, so maybe my buddy had the wrong guy, or maybe Trainz is incredibly busy making a fortune out of old trains.

My vote is with Sarge - the Acme label is just to differentiate where a pile of junk came from, or maybe it is just a placeholder for a manufacturer name. I doubt it has anything to do with Italy. If you want to invoke the Italians, try politics - now there is some fertile ground.

[Chris Webster]

My vote is with Sarge - the Acme label is just to differentiate where a pile of junk came from, or maybe it is just a placeholder for a manufacturer name.

My vote is also with Sarge.

I use their website, not ebay, to view their listings. They seem to use "Acme" or "Trainz" in their database's "manufacturer" field when (1) they can't identify the manufacturer, (2) the listing has multiple items from different manufacturers and/or (3) the item is from a manufacturer that isn't in their database. Books are a good example - they list them under "Trainz" because their database doesn't have all the different book publishers listed in it. (I assume that the Trainz employees who create the listings select the manufacturer from a menu and are not able to enter a company not already listed in their database.)

Their employees range from Sunday School teenagers throwing stuff in boxes with perhaps a crumpled piece of butcher-paper tossed in to housewives earning extra cash answering phones in "customer service", and have little if any knowledge about the stuff they crank through, other than how to crank it through in volume.

Their lack of knowledge can lead to some real bargains, like this brass HO Overland GP40-2 that they just sold for $29.69:
Ajin HO Custom Southern Pacific Diesel locomotive #7103 EX

I need to do more Trainz ebay posts.

They list items on their website for a week before their software also lists it on feebay, so their good stuff never makes it to feebay.

or maybe Trainz is incredibly busy making a fortune out of old trains.

I don't know if they're making a fortune, but their resale business model is really interesting to me: they buy estates/collections, part them out and sell the stuff in at least five different marketplaces: website mail orders, website in-person pickups, feebay, bulk in-purchase sales on Saturdays, and at stalls in antique malls.

[ScaleCraft]

I need to do more Trainz ebay posts.

They list items on their website for a week before their software also lists it on feebay, so their good stuff never makes it to feebay.

no intention of anything "good". Rather the stupid.

[ScaleCraft]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/336036293224?i ... RW8Y2FP91E



Trainz. Some of their recent listings aren't bad, but this one....

Paint de-laminating, needs new shell.
Extreme battery corrosion, needs new frame.
Better to buy a cheap version and put a repro shell on it.
No saving this one as original.

$470 for a nice one:
https://trainshoppe.com/2358-great-nort ... ctifier-6/

[webenda]

Never heard anyone claim those blocks were Italian, especially with Mussolini taking over long before we got involved.

It was Mussolini who caused Caruso to close La Precisa and move the Italian Lionel Factory to America in 1935.

Caruso would have continued to rely on La Precisa except for one problem. By 1935, when Tom was hired, the situation in Europe was precarious. The works manager followed Italian politics and watched with mixed emotions as Benito Mussolini claimed more power for his Fascist movement. War was not out of the question, Caruso feared; neither was a government seizure of La Precisa.

As a consequence of what Caruso saw going on overseas, he began laying the groundwork for transferring the design and production of tooling to New Jersey. For Caruso, Giaimo, and Bonanno, doing so was a prudent step that would advance the corporation's move toward self-sufficiency and avoid the dangers of contracting for work overseas and transporting it across the Atlantic Ocean.
--Roger Carp, Classic Toy Trains

[ScaleCraft]

You keep flogging this? 1935. I'd have to check, but my guess is those blocks are post 1938.
I give up.
This is nuts.
Done.
Feel free to make more stuff up.

The only thing I found that seems trustworthy is they did superstructure tooling, like 700E, which certainly explains the issue with zamac rot on those engines, IF they cast the parts from their tooling.
https://www.trains.com/ctt/how-to/timel ... am-engine/
1937 production started, AFTER the acme folks shipped everything back in 35.
Your numbers don't make sense, and Carp was Clambake, and do we trust Clambake?

You can find anything you want on the internet, and if you squint your eyes just right, you can make it say what you want.
And after 90 years, with all principles long dead, no proving anything.
Have fun.

[webenda]

Feel free to make more stuff up.

Have fun.

Thank you for the link to the Lionel 700E Dave.

From the link:

Lionel undertook the project in 1935 (two years before the first production model rolled out in 1937). The Hudson remained in the catalog through 1942.

That lends more credibility to the 1935 date. Production of the 700E was delayed two years by the move from Italy's Societa Meccanica La Precisa in Naples to New Jersey.

Thank you for permission to continue this search into the mystery of Lionel and ACME.

And thank you for starting me on this search. I did not know that Lionel Trains had a production plant in Italy.

Who is Acme, and why did they build 225E/675 motor blocks?

In case you missed it, ACME did not build the 225E/675 motor blocks; they only sold them to Trainz.

[Norton]

“ The only thing I found that seems trustworthy is they did superstructure tooling, like 700E, which certainly explains the issue with zamac rot on those engines, IF they cast the parts from their tooling.
https://www.trains.com/ctt/how-to/timel ... am-engine/”

The tooling was made of steel and had nothing to do with the zinc rot. More due to the availability or lack of 99.99% pure zinc. Zamac had only been around a few years when the 700E was produced. The fact that they are still making trains with zinc rot indicates the difficulty of making 99.99% pure zinc.

Pete

[ScaleCraft]

“ The only thing I found that seems trustworthy is they did superstructure tooling, like 700E, which certainly explains the issue with zamac rot on those engines, IF they cast the parts from their tooling.
https://www.trains.com/ctt/how-to/timel ... am-engine/”

The tooling was made of steel and had nothing to do with the zinc rot. More due to the availability or lack of 99.99% pure zinc. Zamac had only been around a few years when the 700E was produced. The fact that they are still making trains with zinc rot indicates the difficulty of making 99.99% pure zinc.

Pete

read the last line you quoted. That wasn't an accident. Thanks for quoting it!

[sarge]

That CTT article on the 700e is nothing but nonsense, BS superlatives, and incorrect statements, starting with the header, "This postwar engine, accurate down to the smallest detail, was Lionel’s masterpiece". Postwar? Accurate to the smallest detail when the cab is jacked too high so as to clear the motor? Hardly a reference and calls pretty much everything CTT and Kalmbach put on the net into scrutiny.

Regarding zincpest, the cause had been well-known since before WWII having to do with either the metallurgy of the alloy or lazy manufacturing resulting in mould or pour contamination. The only reason anything suffers zincpest today is poor or non-existing QC. There is nothing wrong with the material, just laziness by some in its use.

Regarding Acme vs. A.C.M.E., by clinging to this nonsense that a modern Italian model railroad importer (only in existence since 2001) somehow was the holder of a stash of old, used, trash and sold it all, books, drives, parts, unidentified-by-the-ignorant models, the wide variety of garbage Trainz has sold under the Acme moniker, and sold it lock-stock-and-barrel to Trainz, you are entering it into the lexicon of the internet, and further adding to the body of BS that others will refer to as "knowledge".

Go to eBay, find a Trainz listing, click on "sellers other items" and enter acme in the search bar. There were over 1400 items when I did that, switches that say "made in USA", motors made in China, Champ decals, laser-cut N-scale kits, figures, Maxon motors, George Barskey's switch machines, toy soldiers, unidentified junk, a huge variety of trash and yes, even a couple pieces of Italian HO imported from China by A.C.M.E. "Acme" is a catch-all they are using and the first word in any description they use it on.

No way a company in Italy only in existence for less than 25 years looted every trashcan, skip, and basement in America for all this sh/t , gathered it together, and sold the lot to Trainz. Acme is a catch-all.

[ScaleCraft]

That CTT article on the 700e is nothing but nonsense, BS superlatives, and incorrect statements, starting with the header, "This postwar engine, accurate down to the smallest detail, was Lionel’s masterpiece". Postwar? Accurate to the smallest detail when the cab is jacked too high so as to clear the motor? Hardly a reference and calls pretty much everything CTT and Kalmbach put on the net into scrutiny.

Regarding zincpest, the cause had been well-known since before WWII having to do with either the metallurgy of the alloy or lazy manufacturing resulting in mould or pour contamination. The only reason anything suffers zincpest today is poor or non-existing QC. There is nothing wrong with the material, just laziness by some in its use.

Regarding Acme vs. A.C.M.E., by clinging to this nonsense that a modern Italian model railroad importer somehow was the holder of a stash of old, used, trash and sold it all, books, drives, parts, unidentified-by-the-ignorant models, the wide variety of garbage Trainz has sold under the Acme moniker, and sold it lock-stock-and-barrel to Trainz, you are entering it into the lexicon of the internet, and further adding to the body of BS that others will refer to as "knowledge".

Ah, but if one posts BS on the web, they can then quote themselves and add validity!
Ain't this shxt fun?

[sarge]

Ain't this shxt fun?

I'd expect this out of Google AI