Just perusing the Detroit News Website and I found a neat article on Toy Trains. Not especially localized to Standard Gauge, I actually just liked the pictures. It had the usual pablum about Lionel, Dick Kughn and so on. Stuff we all know and have heard way too many times.
This article also has a pictures link that has some interesting toy pics as well as a distinguished old hobby store I know I passed by as a kid.
Check out some of the other pics of Detroit in its' heyday. The trolley pics are exceptionally interesting. Before the auto companies, Detroit was a major town for trolleys and traction. Unfortunately the auto companies obliterated that concept out of existence. Funny considering the circumstances they find themselves in today.
I was perusing some 1970's era TTOS Bulletins and I saw these buildings. They are quite a departure from the old Lionel bungalows and stations.
It's likely that most of the folks that chuck these out on eBay aren't going to know what they are or their signficance.
I am always curious what a company like this has in its' archives. They were obviously creative because they had designed some aestheticly pleasing structures in aan already competitive marketplace. Marx was very strong as well as Lionel and Flyer. As the article states, based on the Marx set in the picture these were probably produced in 1938 to 1942.
I can't remember (I have to look back) but I seem to remember Marx coming out with some interesting loading docks and stations for freight as well.
FluxusReadymade sent me this great video of a #50 making the rounds and his excellent use of switches and signals. This is all of what trains are about. I need to slapped upside the head and reminded that it's the playing, not the collecting and acquisition that's important. This is really cool and Fluxus is experimenting with some newer vids and lighting. Hopefully he'll have some time! He asked that we please forgive the darkness, it's an initial attempt and not the only one.
On a different note, I have a question into Youtube. I am wondering how long the links and videos last before they are archived and/or discarded. I often look at old low tech bulletins and quarterlies (TCA, TTOS, etc.).
While low tech, they have preserved their messages for almost half a century. I need to work and make sure the blog isn't lost to antiquity as well. I got thinking about it when I tried to consider how I could read Jim Kelly's website offline in magazine form. It ocurred to me that I would love to have it as a reference for many years hence. I was looking at a CD last night and it had a picture from the mid-20th century of Louis Hertz and some folks from the Ives Train Society putting up the plaque on the Ives building. Low tech, yet seen by many....
I think of all of the computers I have in storage and how getting data off of them is difficult and time consuming. I've got to figure out a way to get the info off of the blog (and net in general) while retaining the formatting, etc.. I have thought about how many local TCA news columns and e-Trains I have seen online and the fact that I may not always be able to get to them.
It's easier to publish now; it's also easier to drop our work into the blowing winds of net-time and never see it again as well....
Just perusing the Detroit News Website and I found a neat article on Toy Trains. Not especially localized to Standard Gauge, I actually just liked the pictures. It had the usual pablum about Lionel, Dick Kughn and so on. Stuff we all know and have heard way too many times.
