New England Toy Train Exch Today

Stopped by the NETTE Auction today in Connecticut. I gotta tell everyone, eBay is a terrific place to find trains but actually seeing them in person is still way better.

The prices were actually pretty reasonable compared with some of the high prices we've seen in the last few months. I perused the parking lot on the way in and noticed quite a few out of state cars there.

I watched Mark Tobias do his magic for a bit. I noticed that the postwar stuff seemed to be pretty hot at this auction. The room was definitely not packed however I got the feeling that many folks were coming and going depending on the items being auctioned and the interest the bidders had in them.

All told, I really did enjoy seeing the smattering of prewar toys they had there. I took some Youtube video as well. If you want me to post it drop me a note in the comments sections. Also, check out that Russian Transformer below (green). I've never seen one like it; the design was really novel and it caught my eye. I'm not sure I'd want to drive any trains with it but it was boxed and definitely was unusual.

Marc

Save The Date (Amherst Train Show)

I know this January is going to kick off a whole bunch of things; a new President, a new year, leaving 2008 behind and a new layout in my attic!

It also is the time for a great train show in Springfield, MA. The Amherst Railways Society Railroad Hobby Show. It is fun even if you are exclusively prewar/tinplate. There are tons of parts dealers, train dealers and hobby dealers.

January 24th and 25th at the Big E Fairgrounds in Springfield, MA. My kids and I have been going since just after they were born and I gotta tell ya, they still like it.

See you there!

Marc

Good Crowds At Allentown

Hobbyists waited in line last weekend to get into the Allentown First Frost train show, always one of my favorites. I have a dealer friend who was happy with his sales during the weekend.

Very Big Scale

Some new items from T-Repro. I can't imagine how much room I'd need to do some diorama's like this. It is probably the only kind of "high rail" I'd ever consider doing though...

Marc

Thoughts On Stout

I bid on 24 lots, but not many of my bids were serious and I didn't come even close on all but a few. I lost two lots that closed at my maximum bid to floor bidders including one C & F stock car that I really wanted. I did win this restored 1912. The 1912 was made for three years only, 1910, 1911, and 1912, and it's a pretty special loco, the forerunner of Lionel's great 42/402/408E series of electrics. Some of the closing prices are mind boggling like the Howard steeple cab that went for $24.5K. I think that now days auctions are NOT the best places to pick up trains at good prices. You're likely to be up against some deep pockets at high end auction houses.

Watching the Stout Auction

For an economy in the crapper there are some major, major dollars getting spent at a train auction today. Not many bargains to be had in standard gauge.

Plus I have to believe that if Jehu Garelick thought his little toy would sell for over $40k, he'd probably have made more!

PS $40k in 1895 dollars is $1,018,879.61. Guess the spirit of invention doesn't die and some people just get paid for it REALLY late.

Marc

Ballasting Standard Gauge Track Poll

Ok, so I guess quite a few of you don't care about my polls. If you are going to peruse the blog it would be really great if you could answer them. Come on, it's two button clicks.

Only 59 people responded to my poll on ballasting standard gauge track. Here are the results (above). Guess I'm going to steer clear of ballast for now....

Marc

Standard Gauge Mega Display In The Works!

Building upon our successful joint display at the Syracuse Train Fair, the Standard Gauge Module Association is planning what could be the largest, most spectacular and elaborate modular display yet. The date in the weekend of January 3rd and 4th, 2009. The venue is the World's Greatest Hobby show in Oaks, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. It is possible that we will have members from the Midwest, the DC area, New York, and the Philly area participating. This could be a huge layout. As always, the SGMA welcomes SG enthusiasts to bring something to run at all of our events. You don't have to be a member to run trains on our layouts. Stay tuned for more information.

Jim

SGMA At Syracuse 11/08

Here's the first of several short videos I took at the SGMA event last tweekend. This video features SGMA Syracuse member Dick Gordon's McCoy Circus train.

The SGMA At Syracuse

This is just a note to publicly thank the SGMA display team members in Syracuse...Jim Cottzolla, Charlie Grover, Dick Gordon, and Max Champion, for their wonderful hospitality during our group's past weekend activity at the Great New York State Train Fair. For me it was an extremely enjoyable experience that was made so much better by the warm reception we received from these fellow standard gauge enthusiasts. There was a lot of conversation about joining up again ASAP and personally, I can't wait. You guys are the greatest!

Jim

Photo: one of SGMA member Pat Rolland's creations running at Syracuse, a steel-bodied steeplecab on top of a Lionel chassis and motor

More From Syracuse

A large part of the fun of running standard gauge trains at shows like Syracuse is watching the reaction of the public and especially, the interest that kids have in these big trains. Yesterday I watched a couple of young boys as they ran around the entire perimeter of our 60 x 36 foot modular layout chasing one particular train that was running on our outside loop. I think we've made an impression with a lot of people at this big train show.

Today the show opens at 9 AM and the joint Philadelphia area/Syracuse area SGMA team will be back running trains. Later on we'll pack up a bit before the show ends and start our 5-1/2 hour trek back to the Philadelphia area. This show has been a lot of fun to do and well worthwhile from the standpoint of attendance and interest.

Watch for a full recap with more photos and videos in the next issue of Tinplate Times that I hope to publish around Thanksgiving.

Jim

SGMA: Images From Syracuse

SGMA: Blogging From The Syracuse Train Fair

Here are a couple of photos from Friday. On the left is a shot of some of the Syracuse Standard Gauge Module Association members: kneeling is Dick Grodon; standing behind Dick is Max Champion; in the blue jacket is Charles Glover, and standing holding the module leg is Jim Cottzolla. The below photo shows the Standard Gauge Module Association Philadelphia area team loaded and ready to go to Syracuse, left to right, Pat Rolland, Chris Bogus, Jim Kelly, and Kirk Lindvig. The trailer is 20 feet long and is literally filled up against the back door with modules, trains and accessories, stored for transport in specially designed cabinets.

The drive to Syracuse was a pleasant 5 plus hour trip. We arrived at the Syracuse Fairgrounds just after 3 PM. The NY SGMA group had already set up their interior loop of modules. We got to work constructing an exterior loop of modules that is an incredible 60 feet long by 36 feet wide, eight feet wider than the Altoona layout. The exterior loop includes two specially designed "ravine" scenic modules, one of which incorporates a Hellgate bridge. The exterior loop also includes the SGMA "Horseshoe Curve" module grouping featuring a track curve maximum diameter of an incredible 122 inches!

Today the show opens at 10 Am and we're ready to go! I'll try to post some pictures of today's activity at the show later on.

From Syracuse,

Jim

Surveys....

Happy Halloween Everyone,

You've noticed I put up a balasting survey. Part of the question comes as needing info for myself and part of it comes from wanting to find out how much high rail has seeped into our end of the hobby.

There's another survey from Vizu that I though I would try out that asks a whole bunch of random questions. This kind of irritated me because it asks too many personal questions (it wasn't positioned that way on the Vizu site) and I am having trouble backing out the HTML. Technically it's a hassle. I'll leave it up for a while, if anyone completely hates it let me know and I'll attempt to yank it. Otherwise you can answer or not, no confidential data will be gathered. I'll talk to my buddy Matt and figure out how to untangle it from the blog.... Should have learned my lesson from before about just keeping this to toy trains!

Marc

Off To Syracuse!

The third official outing of the Standard Gauge Module Association will take place this weekend at the Syracuse, NY Train Fair. Kirk Lindvig, Chris Bogus, Pat Rolland and myself are driving up to Syracuse this morning in Kirk's Suburban pulling a huge trailer full of trains, modules, and accessories. This should be a ton of work, er, I mean fun! In Syracuse we'll meet up with fellow SGMA members from NY and join our modules with theirs to form a historic first ever combined SGMA chapter layout. If I can get online I'll post a picture or two.

Jim

Stout Blockbuster!

Wow! The next auction at Stout is up and on EBAY. What a selection of goodies in Standard gauge! This is Dorfan's "Palmetto Limited," featuring the IVES 1134 casting loco and tender in green. With the economy in distress, it will be interesting to see the prices realized on some of these high end rarities.

Jim

PS: Is that "Dorfan Dan" in the loco cab?

1929 American Flyer Wide Gauge Flying Colonel

The 1929 American Flyer catalog cut showing the Flying Colonel set. Click on it to blow it up and read the text. $62.50 must have been about two or three weeks pay for the average American worker in 1929!

Jim

AF's Handsome Wide Gauge Flying Colonel

A friend asked to see photos of my American Flyer Flying Colonel set that I posted about yesterday, so here they are. You can click on the photos to enlarge them as always. I believe that the Flying Colonel was introduced in 1928 but catalogued only in 1929. It is a scarce set that always brings a premium, probably because it was not produced in the same numbers as other AF Wide gauge sets. The photos don't really do it justice because they don't show the beauty of the deep blue colors that this set is painted. I used to think that the Rolls Royce Blue 1928 President's Special set was the prettiest AF Wide gauge set. But now I like this handsome Flying Colonel set most of all. It is noteworthy that MTH reproduced this set.

Jim

AF Replacement Wheels

I've wanted the great AF Standard gauge Flying Colonel set for years. Finally, I have it, but look at the blown wheels on the pony trucks of the locomotive! There has been a lot of discussion on the STANDG list about the lack of availability of AF Standard gauge replacement wheels. I did buy eight pony wheels from George Tebolt at York, but that was all he had. Hopefully, MEW will be in a position to provide these AF replacement wheels before much longer. I can't wait to get this great Flying Colonel set running on my layout!

Jim

The Resurrection - Part 2

Last May I wrote about the resurrection of a Carlisle and Finch #4 paper label set:

http://stdgauge.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

The engine is from around 1898-1903 but the cars are a mystery. .
They look like Finch's small 13 series passengers cars and have exactly the same dimensions, but the window shapes were different and the cars are made of steel instead of brass. After de-rusting, the original scribe marks emerged around the windows and doors which showed that they were hand cut, suggesting that the cars were hand made. Finch would have made up a punch with jig to make the windows


After repainting them to match the original design, I made paper labels in two styles. One had black lining and lettering on a yellow background like original Finch labels and the other had yellow lining and lettering on a black background which matches the style shown in Finch's black and white catalogs. The illustrator probably did this to make the labels stand out more clearly in the catalogs, but I thought I'd try it out to see what it looked like:

I asked 7 people who's opinion I respect which way to go with the labels: 4 were for black, 3 for yellow. I excercised veto power and went with yellow because the black looked a bit overpowering. The labels were made up to closely match Finch's font style and the cars were weathered to give them some patina. The wheels were simply derusted and the original paint, or what was left of it, was kept.



I think the cars were made about the same time as the engine. Finch's catalogs encouraged scratch building and sold parts for that purpose. It wouldn't be surprising that someone simply bought the wheels and copied the 13 series cars to save some money or just because they wanted to build some cars.

Alex