Running pre-war trains

This weekend was great for playing with the pre-war Lionel trains and running them on the layout. I like the sound of the wheels on the tubular tracks and the sweet smell of ozone.

Anyway, it was also the first round for the restored 259E. The pilot wheel does not negotiate all switches good, when a switch is directly after a curve the pilot wheel still point inside the curve and derails on the switch. Hmmm, lets try to readjust the spring and lubricate the suspension point a bit better.

Furthermore, the E-unit buzzes enormously and when it is switched off, the engine runs much better. Perhaps, I need to change there also something.
For the rest it run smoothly.


A few pictures were made to show the fun.

Lionel 259E restored and ready to run

The Lionel 259E steam engine is ready! The final chapter of the restoration process involved the complete rewiring of the engine, since the old cotton covered wires crumbled to dust when touched. The brushes were short and had a scratched surface and were replaced. At first the armature did not turn any more: the new brushes were so long that they pressed the armature gear firmly to the gear plate. So, I added two spacer rings to the brush plate screws and everything turned smoothly again. After a full lubrication the engine was a real smooth runner. The three copper armature plates are a bit damaged due to scratches, probably due to friction with the old brushes. The armature plate was thoroughly cleaned and lightly smoothened with a brass brush on a Dremel tool.
After that the wheels were removed with a wheel puller tool and they were cleaned in white spirit, brushed, polished, cleaned and the interior was painted red. The copper domes, smokestack and handrails were cleaned and polished. Then the whole lot was reassembled. Most difficult was getting the thick nickel side wires in. The black paint was scratched while doing so and I had to repaint the damage again. The new rear truck wheels and axles of George Tebolt fitted in nicely and the new circular L signs on both sides of the cab really finished it off. The main driving rods have a little corrosion damage, because the nickel luster does not return completely after polishing, but they are the originals and they still look good. Lets not forget that this engine was build and sold in 1933 and 1934 and so it is allowed to have a few age marks. It is impressive to see it smoothly drive by. What an elegance and what a large light beam ( I placed a blueish - white LED lamp inside and that really gives a beautiful strong light beam).
Now the hunt is on for a matching tender: 259T or 262T, preferably in poor condition so I can restore this as well.

Scale Zero weekend in Zutphen

This weekend the Dutch Scale Zero foundation had its annual gathering in Zutphen. A few small layouts with nice scenery, a long central loop with many trains and almost all 2-rail zero trains.
Fortunately, in a corner there was toy train enthusiast who collected 3 rail zero: Märklin, Buco, Elletren and Lionel.
Surprisingly many really made their own trains, from brass and tin or from plastic, wood and even from cardboard. Honestly, I was a bit surprised to hear that the beautiful 1200 locomotive was cardboard based, but from the outside one can not see it. Here are a few pictures to catch the spirit.
And on top of all, I found an Scale 0 building kit from IHC, # 300-100, Big 2 Stall engine house. That will make my layout look better. I wonder when this kit was made. According to the manufacturer it is no longer available. Anyway, it is complete and has never been assembled yet. So, about time to do so.

Lionel in Europe

Several hunderds of European toy train enthusiasts prefer North-American toy trains over European ones for a manifold of reasons, to name a few:

• Scale. Most (recent) European toy trains are in scale H0, N, Z or G. A large fraction of the American toy trains are in 0. Zero (1:43.5) is a much nicer scale to hold in your hand and play with. It is just the right size for a toy for humans. Europeans that admire scale 0 can either collect expensive old or modern European toy trains in 0 or join with the Americans: much cheaper and much more choice.
• Design. Streamlined steam engines and classical diesel engines like the F3 belong to most nice looking trains this planet has withnessed. Since many American toy trains are also the best looking engine models they have created, it is pleasure for the eye. Obviously, there are many exceptions to this opinion and we have occasionally also observed some nice looking engines here in Europe, still the golden age of good looking trains was the 30's - 60's in North America. On top of that, in those days there were many competing railroad companies and they painted their engines in bright colours (well not all, but many in comparison to Europe, where competition between railroad companies was not an issue). The Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme on an F3 is one of the most attractive ones and that is probably the reason why so many of these engines were in starter sets.
  
• Great options. Many modern American toy-trains are dressed up with horns, whistles, crew talk, realistic train sounds, etc. It is very impressive to hear and see such a realistic toy train run through your house.
• High quality. Many early American toy trains are highly detailed. They simply look so much better than their European produced counter toy trains. Furthermore, it is easy to see that several classical Lionel trains are very well produced, resulting in very robust, stable products that show little wear. Also the old pre-war and postwar electromotors are easy to maintain and keep on running. Similar quality from European producers is simply much more expensive.
  

Globalisation speeded it up. Nowadays, it is getting much easier to import your own trains than a decade ago. Paypal, Ebay, Internet and many on-line dealers in combination with the low USD/EUR exchange rate make them much easier attainable. Paypal is important as Americans work with strange things like cheques and money orders and Europeans remit money directly with IBAN and Paypal made intercontinental money transfers between individuals much and much easier. Obviously the mailman and sometimes also the customer officer need to get paid, but still the total price remains small in comparison to European scale 0 trains.
The power issue (100V / 60 Vz versus 230V / 50 Hz) slowed it down. Because, importing these toy trains is one thing but getting them to work with all the modern electronical gadgets is another. If you want to have a full train show at home, you will need to generate 110 V / 60 Hz in your own home. There are few AC current converters on the market that do a decent job, but depending on the power required it remains a few hunderd Euro's extra. A German shop sell a converter with enough power for one train, but if you need more, you will need a bit more stout equipment. Several European Lionel train enthusiasts have developed their own solutions to deal with this.