Fun with pre-war Lionel trains

It was time to empty the boxes and run some pre-war Lionel trains. It really amazing how smooth these trains run after 70 years. Since, the 1688E is not compatible with the 027 switches I put him aside, its wheel flanges are simply too high. The 1666E is really a smooth runner and was giving the task to run the freight train of wagons of the 650-serie: 655, 652, 651, 659 and 657.
I also managed to deal with the jumpy pilot wheel of the 289E locomotive. The spring metal had been assembled the reverse way. Reversing the spring ensured that the pilot wheel is firmly pressed on the rail and now it does not derail on the switches any more. The 289E headed a passenger train with 1630, 1630 and 1631 coaches.

655 box car restored

Half a year ago, I bought a highly abused toy train car and I am proud to announce its restoration complete.
One side of the box car had a corrosion spot, as if somebody had dropped acid on it. When cleaning the affected region, I soon realised that this was a major defect. When the metal was sanded bare, a hole of a quarter inch became visible and at least half an inch around it the metal was much thinner then normal.
The hole was filled with tin-solder and was sanded, plastered and sanded many times before the side wall was really smooth again.
The paint came from George Tebolt and all the parts are the original ones!
Let's roll the box car!
This proves again that one man's trash is the other one treasure....

Holiday in the Jura

During my holiday, I visited the small steam train in the French Jura mountain named Coni'fer. The wood-fired 0-6-0 steamer runs from Hôpitaux neufs to a place in the middle of the forest and back. It runs on a part of the former railway Pontalier - Vallorbe. However, a lot of the original track has been removed. A group of train enthusiasts likes to recreate the original full track and lets hope they succeed. I was a beautiful experience.