Sunny autumn afternoon

With the lovely sunny autumn weather, I felt obliged to get outside and run the new diner coach. It ran great. The Merkur coaches with Bing couplers couple easy with pre-war Lionel trains with latch couplers, but pre-war Lionel is a bit under scale as compared to the modern Merkur tin-plate toy trains. But the modern MTH engines are a better size match and they also let the coaches run smoothly.

A string of colourful happiness

Pre-war Lionel trains look kind of small compared to these
huge Merkur coaches.

Dutch scale zero meeting in Zutphen

This weekend, the Dutch scale zero train meeting was held in Zutphen. Since most Dutch model railroaders are into half-zero or N, the scale zero public is limited and the gathering has a nice peaceful atmosphere. Up to a few years ago, this was the holy domain of fine scalers, scratch builders and rivet counters. But the toy trains have expanded to here as well. First, brands like Lenz and MTH made more and more European scale zero trains, which are very highly detailed, although some rivet counters will always be difficult to please and we start to see those trains in Zutphen now as well. Secondly, the local Merkur dealer has gained his own table in the group and achieved some pretty good sales with coarse scale Merkur trains, that run on 3 rails...

Yes indeed, here are some MTH engines on sale.

Some fancy coaches.

Nice modelling on the modular layout

It can't get more Dutch than this, I reckon!

Here is the Merkur-Lehnhardt display table with some nice trains running smoothly on the table. The sales representative of Merkur told me that it is likely that Merkur will also commence to produce AC trains in stead of those DC only engines. Would be a very good idea, as far as I am concerned. Also a larger hopper can be expected in the coming year.

Anyway, I could not resist and purchased a beautiful red diner car, Merkur 9331.

Merkur 9331 diner coach.

Memorail

Deep in the south west of France in the department Lot is a small railway museum named Memorail. This museum is located in the old goods shed of St. Gery along the former Quercyrail. The scenery along this line gorgeous; it lies in the gorge of the river Lot and is exceptionally beautiful.

The entrance fee is just a few Euro's and you will get to see a lot of railway artifacts, a nice h0 railway layout and several beautiful self-built large scale models.

One of the volunteers explained to me that they hope to raise funds to re-open the Quercyrail from St. Gery to Cajarc through the spectacular gorge de Lot. That would indeed be a great idea, but the scrubs and small trees that grow on the former railway line since 1989 have done substantial damage and more than some bucks will be necessary to achieve this goal.

Model of the WWI truce train car.

Decapod French style.

Let's hope they succeed to revive the Quercyrail and that trains will run through the valley bed again.

Doetinchem Stoomstad 2013

During the weekend of August 24 to 25th a steam fest was held and the organisation asked me to run some old toy trains. I had several months to prepare myself and choose for two ovals of pre-war Lionel trains.

The inner circle was classic 027 Lionel tubular track, the outer circle was modern Merkur tubular track. The streamlined engine was composed of the 1668E - 1679T - 1630 - 1630 -1631. The freight train was composed of the 1664E - 1679T - 652 - 651 - 1679 - 1680 - 657.

Two toy trains ran almost continuously; one freight train and a passenger train. They performed great. The 1668E suffered from a loose wire from the E-unit and was replaced after a day by a 1688E. Since it were original cotton-insulated wires, it is no wonder that it malfunctioned. I will have to rewire the engine.

It was funny to notice that most visitors did not recognise these toy trains. Some said that they were "Märklin" or "very old Märklin". I had explain quiet a lot, but that is just fine to me.

 Perhaps I have to organise a slightly larger table the next time...

Most of my public were young children; 3-6 years of age. They had never heard the rattle, seen the colours and smelled ozone of old metal toy trains on tubular tracks. What a joy to see these wide open eyes and mouths...

After two days of continuous service, I was more than satisfied with the reliable performance of these pre-war engines and I am glad to have shown some good old toy trains to a younger generation.

For some other pictures of the steam fest, see the site of Achterhoekfoto.

New tubular track curves

Yesterday, I visited the local toy train meeting in Zutphen and purchased some new tin-plate toy train tubular tracks made by the Czech company Merkur. Sixteen R9910 curves make a circle (about 042) and some additional straights R9920 (12 inch long)  make it an nice oval. The local Merkur and ETS dealer had a stand and layout. The tank engine 9195 with lights and sound ran a small goods train around the oval. It was a lively display and it really stood out from all the regular sales booths. Here are some pictures from the "Modelspoorbeurs Zutphen".

Modelspoorbeurs Zutphen May 25th 2013

Merkur toy trains

Merkur and ETS toy trains

There was also a bloke with a Lima scale zero layout, which was nice to see. And I was able to buy two old Lionel street lamps with die cast poles and the white plastic caps.  So a perfect trade meeting as far as I am concerned.

Lima scale zero layout on the floor of the Hanze Hall.

Well we directly laid an oval of the new track on the floor and it just ran great; no more derailments, shorts and other issues. The Weaver Alco can now finally run with some Lionel and Weaver cars directly coupled to it and without the help of some spacer to avoid derailment. I sure made me happy today.

The major bonus of tubular track is the rattle and rhythm, which can be heard in real trains on real tracks as well: 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, etc.

Steam and model railroad days in Nienoord

Last long weekend (May 9th -12th) amusement park Nienoord held the steam and model railroad days. There were quiet a few large steam engines showing off, puffing and whistling. But the large steam powered model trains that actually run a circle through the forest is the prime attraction of Nienoord. Quiet a few steam engines came over to join the fun. Here are a few pictures to show you what it was like. The rain on Saturday and Sunday, was unfortunately slightly less attractive.

Sunny afternoon thoughts

The good thing of MTH engines with protosound is that you need to charge their batteries every few months to avoid a lot of repair trouble. So, this basically means I am forced to make a temporary layout and enjoy my trains every now and then. Today, I learned that all my engines run great, but that a bulk head flat car filled with true wooden logs is truly heavy for many engines.
Furthermore, one of my JEP 042 curves has a wobbly dent that makes the cow catcher of my camelback engine hit the center rail all the times and besides some electric sparks this causes a guaranteed derailment, so I will need to buy some proper wider curves soon.

Pre-war Märklin exhibition prolonged

The pre-war Märklin toy train exhibition in the OVM Doetinchem is a much larger success than predicted. At first the closing date was set at the end of February, then it was prolonged to the end of April and now they do not even want to call a closing date anymore. The museum attracts much more visitors than what was usual, and a large part of the visitors comes from other regions. Classic toy trains are popular indeed, much more than the railroad history of branch lines. I would be surprised to see some more toy trains in railroad musea. There is nothing better than the feel, rattle and smell of an old toy train running on its tracks.

Märklin Rheinuferbahn in gauge 1, remake by Thull.

Märklin passenger car with open doors

It was an honour

Living in this corner of the world and playing with American toy trains that run on 3 tracks, means that other 'conventional' toy train enthusiasts think of you as the one expert in all Lionellish things that are around. This can be funny when some folks think that Marx trains are extremely rare, and sometimes annoying when folks try to push you a Lionel car in poor condition for far too much cash. But this last month, I had one encounter, that I will remember and cherish.
I was kindly asked to help a 89 year old to run his toy train. I went to his house equipped with some modern rails and transformer and I was amazed to find what he got. The original Lionel catalog of 1938, a Lionel junior train set with 1690, 1690 and 1691 passenger cars and the concomitant freight set: 1680 Sunoco tank car, 1679 Baby Ruth box car and the 1682 caboose. He showed me the original receipt of purchase back in 1938, from a toy shop in 'de Kalverstraat' that does no longer exist. To be frank it was half a month of house rent back in those days. So it was a great gift. And this gift lasted for ever. Can you even imagine that current toys will last this long?
We set up the rails on a large oval table and I noticed that he had trouble with his fine hand co-ordinations, so I could understand better, why he needed some help. When the tracks were laid, we took his engine, cleaned it, lubricated it and it just run. I noticed that the commutator plates were dirty and the brushes got a bit hot, but is worked just fine. I listened to his long life story. Impressive. He was very happy to run his own train again. So much joy in the eyes of an elderly person, who is hindered by his own body to play with his own toys from his childhood again and what a joy to see such an old Lionel train running again indeed.

Here is the prove that Lionel did make transformers for the European market before WOII.