Even the Ives Plaque is cool. It's almost worth it to have this cast and reproduced. Kind of a shame that this is all that's left of a once great factory.
Why do I make such a big deal out of a factory that made a couple of toys? Toys that grown men pay a pantload of cash for and chase around like nuts spending their kids college education or what's left of their retirement?
Well, I don't view these as toys (well, not in today's sense) and the people that created them were artists. From the choices in paint and color to the beautiful architecture these toys exhibit, these are Arias of a bygone era. An era when men and women cared about the workmanship as much as profit and the income they made had a tangible effect on their family and the community around them. Besides being valuable antiques, these are lost art works, like Rembrandts or Van Gogh's.
I don't think I am overstating this, Ives toys focused on quality and did more, they captured an era. That's gone today and was even tough in the competitive times at the end of the 1920's. It would be nice to see the artifacts (buildings, homes, transportation, stomping grounds) of the people that built these trains, even if it is just the trains themselves.
Ah well, I'll get off my soapbox.
M
1 comment:
Is this great stuff, or what? IVES was just teriffic. It was great of the former standard gauge association to have the plaque made and hung at the building. But we have more than the plaque, we have the trains! How wonderful is it that we can run IVES trains on our layouts to this very day? I've been running a great little 3235 maroon boxcab on my inner-most loop all winter. it has the 3235 number embossed on the sides of the headlamp. Who else did such things? (Well, AF did a little :)IVES freights are always on the layout. They are so charming. Who else made a glass dome station? Then we have ball bearings on the drive trian of the 1134 series steamers. Unbelievable, except that IVES actually did it. It doesn't get any better. IVES is tinplate trains to the maximum.
Jim Kelly
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