I made a Carlisle and Finch Reproduction Incline railway based on a picture out of the 1897 catalog:
The incline was designed based on the catalog picture. It was made per usual finch practices; wood, cloth covered wire and tin. However a modern DC can motor and solenoid were used for the hoisting mechanism for simplicity. If I had to guess, I would say that the original incline probably used a mechanical lever arm connected to finch's typical drum reverse unit to reverse the cars at the top of the incline instead of a contact operated solenoid as I have used here. The catalog illustration is pretty vague on this, which leads me to believe it may not be an entirely accurate illustration.
Since no Finch inclines have been found, I made up the artwork to what the catalog illustration shows but also following typical Finch train station practices. The windows and doors were copied from a Finch station. The Incline catalog illustration shows simpler windows than were used for the stations, however that may or may not be accurate. The catalog could be in error or the illustration is too poor to see the detail. Also the windows are much bigger on the incline than on the stations. Although no one knows what size the incline was, assuming that the cars were 2" gauge, they had to be about 6" long. Scaling the whole thing up based on that measurement resulted in a 11.5" long station. To match the catalog illustration, the windows had to be 1.5" wide instead of 1" wide as used on the stations. The back of the station is just pure conjecture on my part, but based on the fact that all finch stations had a name on them, I couldn't help but think they put one on the incline. It has been said it was modeled after the Price Hill incline in Cincinnati, so that it what I went with. Although the catalog illustration doesn't show any sign for the incline in the windows, the stations have a ticket window sign in one window and I couldn't resist adding an incline sign in one window.
Since I was on a roll, I made a railroad station using artwork copied directly from
Finch small stations, however I think I made my station a fair amount
bigger than the real ones:
My station body is 12.5" long, 7" wide and 7" high. The semaphores do not operate, but that wouldn't be too hard to do. I have had requests to go into production and am considering it - let me know if you are interested. Any name can be put on them; I chose "Vandergrift" for this one because that's a town near where a friend of mine lives. Don't bother telling me the windows on the ends are lower than on the
sides, I discovered that AFTER I made two stations
New At York: Pride Lines Voltamp Trolley and Trailer in Standard Gauge. This new offering from John Davanzo and Co. was on display in the Orange Hall at York last weekend. It’s really a beautiful set. Voltamp is considered by some to be the American Marklin of the era, since Voltamp’s hefty construction was superior to the other 2” gauge manufacturers. Get your orders in for this beautiful set now, since production quantities are limited as with the other P/L Voltamp reproduction items offered in the past.
I've been looking to buy a Lionel No. 6 engine and tender for several years. The right pieces just haven't seemed to come my way until recently. I picked up a set that needs some work, but this particular loco and tender really appealed to me because they are so early - ca. 1908. Yesterday I did some work on the tender trucks, which are the very early Type I closed sided three rivet variety. It will take me some time to get this loco and tender back into shape, but it will be worth it.
Lot number 1374 at yesterday's fantastic Noel Barrett auction included two rare Dorfan light fixtures. I talked with a very experienced, long time collector who told me that, while he knew about these lights from Dorfan catalogs, he had never seen examples of these lights before. This lot sold for $4K. There were plenty of other interesting items at the auction. It was a great opportunity to see some real rarities.
With so many 390E's from MTH, I thought it might be kind of interesting to take a look at the original from Lionel. It's actually one of my favorite locos. It can negotiate any curve, isn't especially expensive and can pull almost any freight or passenger set. Not much downside really other than it isn't a Hudson or truly reflected by a protoype.
Another shot of Ward Kimball's train room from a TTOS bulletin. Simple yet engaging. He didn't have every variation of anything but he had alot of everything! Happy April!
