Merkur tank car

Today, I visited the local toy train swap meeting in Zutphen. A full sport hall filled up with numerous traders. I even spotted a Lionel Scout engine for 128 Euro.  Ha ha, what a joke. 28 Euro would approach the real price much better. Anyway, I proceeded to the stand of "Blik en Speelgoed" to treat myself to a new Merkur tank car. A beautiful full metal, high quality car. It is the Merkur 9608 Mobil tank car. Fits in nicely with the pre-war Lionel cars. So, it was a good day.

Lionel MPC

The one thing that is good about a collection of toy trains that is stored away in boxes, is that you can unpack and enjoy them every now and then. Yesterday, I just felt that I had to let some Lionel MPC trains run. These were the Lionel toy trains that I started to gather a decade ago and as my interests have slightly shifted in time, they have ended-up in boxes. But what a smooth runners they are indeed. No, hick-ups, no surprises, just performance. You place them on the tracks and they simply run. It just made me feel good. Three rail AC rules.

A few things struck me. First, they run perfectly over Merkur rails. Secondly, now that I have wider curves than 027, finally my Lionel 9193 Budweiser Vat car also runs smoothly over the tracks and does no longer derail on switches. And thirdly, as the photo above clearly shows, American Scale zero ain't European scale zero. But that is old news.

The Lionel 9193 Budweiser Vat car is typical for the MPC period. It is from 1983, colourful and cheerful. Not very realistic as train car to transport beer in, but who cares. And that reminds me of the reasons why I was interested in Lionel trains as a kid; the large size (compared to h0) and the bright colours. The essence of MPC is plastic fantastic toy train fun.

Toy train market swing

Why would you buy one over-priced old toy train item with age issues, if you could also buy -for the same sum of money- a complete modern tin-plate toy train that runs smoothly?

I notice at auctions and trading websites that people still demand high prices for old tin-plate toy train items and they simply don't sell it. Personally, I like the theater and enjoy reading texts like "please bid according to value, etc." And then I think by myself, "no you wouldn't want that". And for the majority of the common rusty toy-trains of the past, it is plain pathetic. And please do not throw in another box of rusted tracks. That just has scrap value, and I can assure you, prices for collected tin-plate junk are dead low. Who has any use for that beyond melting, with so much high quality new tracks on the market for reasonable prices.
If you observe how much high quality modern tin-plate toy-train articles in scale zero are flooding on the market by MTH, Ace, Merkur, Darstead, Vintage and others and you simultaneously see that many traditional toy train collectors are getting too old to hold on their collections, you would expect a price correction for the vintage stuff soon.

With that in mind and an excellent beer in reach, it is time to enjoy those trains on the track; let them run. 

Pre-war Lionel Lamp post

Whenever you buy a box full of old Lionel junk, there is a fair chance that you will be treated with a pre-war Lionel lamp post. The lamp post itself is nice. It has a sleek design and it is made out of cast iron with off-white plastic cap.The reason why you will get it for free in Europe is that the bajonet light bulbs have died and these need to be sourced from over the pond. Nobody bothers, so basically you get it for free.

Yesterday, one of my original lamp posts died and I checked to see that the bajonet light bulb had experienced some kind of mercury explosion inside. Well, that is ready for the separate collection of household chemicals.

 To rescue the lamp post, I removed the original socket holder and soldered a new E5.5 socket holder inside. This is for small light bulbs that are ubiquitous in Europe, so I can enjoy my lamp post for many years to come.

Lionel pre-war train with some modern Merkur power

Here is a small video of a string of Lionel 800 serie pre-war cars pulled by a modern tin-plate Merkur engine. But first the ETS beer train passes.

Merkur 9406 red boxcar

Today, I played with the new red boxcar of Merkur. As you can judge for yourself, it adds great to a string of prewar Lionel goods waggons of the 800 series.

The old Lionel 814 box car is slightly shorter than the Merkur 9406; 8.3 vs 10.8 inch (21 vs 27 cm). But they are both equally wide and high. The Lionel boxcar has only two doors, the Merkur four. The Lionel can have shining journal boxes and some brass details on the sides. The modern full-metal tin-plate Merkur box car is more realistic.

Here you clearly see the level of detail on this modern tin-plate box car. Mind the slightly smaller axle-to-axle distance as compared to the Lionel cars.

Here you can see how the Merkur waggon with Bing couplers couples easily with the latch type prewar Lionel gondola. Time to take the lot for a run.

Ok, Frank, message understood. Here are some pictures with the Merkur box car coupled to a crisp, freshly restored Lionel 812 Gondola. Much better indeed.

Scale zero swap meet in Zutphen

This weekend the annual Dutch scale zero model railroad gathering was held in Zutphen. As usual, it was a relaxed meeting of train enthusiasts. Both the scratch building 2 rail rivet counting community was present and a group of cheerful coarse scale 3 railers. Although I like to see what these precision builders are up to, it is obvious where I spend most time. And the day brougth me a surprise. I was introduced to another Dutch Lionel collector and operator, that started commenting on this blog. We had lots to discuss.

The last three pictures are from the 3 rail corner. With some great engines and waggons. I could not resist and treated myself with a Merkur closed goods waggons, or as the Americans would call it a red four door boxcar.

and there was light

Last weeks I spend much time on wiring my layout. Today it is time to enjoy the lot. Several of the streetlights have been connected and the AC-DC toggle system to operate both AC (MTH, Lionel) and DC (Merkur, ETS) 3 rails zero trains needed to be tested thoroughly. Here are pictures of the fun.

Model train power statement

Surfing the web, I stumbled on this Czech video of a Merkur coarse scale zero engine clearing the tracks of a winter garden layout. Although two rails instead of three rails, the power statement is clear. Honestly, I am amazed that the power pickups on this snowed over rails is so good. Awesome, I would reckon.

In Czech language this train is nicknamed the goggle-train, but this model would better be named Hulk-train, or Muscle-train or something similar.

Rail to rail and wheel flange to wheel flange distances

Some German toy train collectors apparently claim that the Merkur outer rail to outer rail distance would not be similar to the one of Märklin rails and of related prewar scale zero brands. And the same would be true for the wheel flange to wheel flange distances. How to convince a German that is precise and wrong at the same time? Hmmm, show the evidence, I would reckon. So, here are some pictures, to deal with this misunderstanding for once and for all. 

So here we have my beautiful table with metal ruler and four types of scale zero rails; from left to right: old Hornby-Meccano, modern Merkur, old Lionel 0 and old Lionel 027.As everyone with good eyes can see; the inner-distance between the outer rails is 3.2 cm. That is why it is scale zero!

And guess what, Merkur and Lionel rails simply slide in each other... (well that is how I have built my layout in the first place).

And guess what, modern Merkur rails also couple with old Hornby-Meccano rails.

Additionally, the wheel flange to wheel flange distance of prewar Lionel cars (top) and modern Merkur cars (bottom) are the same: 2.8 cm. That why both cars run so good on these rails...


Und für die beliebte Nachbarn: Viel Modelleisenbahnspass gewünscht!

Merkur 9120

The Merkur 9120 is a modern diesel shunting engine with 3 axles of which two are powered. The quality is solid - no compromise- full metal, coarse scale zero. I would not call this engine tin-plate, since the metal sheets used to produce this engine are more like armoured plate than tin-plate. The paint job appears to be a green powder-coating, again a very good 'no frills' quality. The engine runs on DC, so I changed my control center a bit to be able to run both AC and DC engines on my three rail zero layout.

I purchased the engine with Merkur couplers. By removing the two red-yellow front and end boards, I got easy access to the nylon coated metal nut that holds the coupler and replaced it with Bing couplers. I choose Bing style couplers, since they can also couple with Lionel latch type couplers.

The Merkur engine is a heavy weight of 23 cm (9 inch) length, it can both crawl and run. It has no sound system. The motor sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner when it races over the tracks. The engine has directional lighting, runs smooth and pulls a heavy consist with ease.

Here is the new control centre, with toggle switches for AC/DC and DC direction. Furthermore, it is equipped with an automatic short circuit safety system and many switches for lights and future uses.

Red bridge

Finally, I am finished with painting the bridge. Much better now, I would reckon.
Furthermore, I am learning myself to make 0-scale trees from metal wire, clay, brown paint, wood glue and green fluffy pieces of foam. A hobby on itself, and so time consuming!
The ETS engine runs fine in curves but not on straights. The reason is that the springs in the third rail pick-up push the wheels slightly up from the tracks , which causes loss of traction. So, I need to improve on that.
Anyway, here are two pictures of the bridge.

Converting a ETS 102 from 2 to 3 rails operation

I just finished converting my small electrically ETS 102 rectifier from 2 rail to 3 rail operation.
 This engine is from 1996 and it used to ran fine on brass ETS rails, but now that I have finished my new layout with Merkur rails, I decided to convert it to 3-rail operation. Therefore, I needed to disassemble the engine. This involves sliding the roof of, loosening the two top-light LED's from their fittings and removing two screws that hold the engine-block to the bottom plate.

The new 3 rail pick-up assembly is from Merkur. A small pine wooden plate was made in which the 3-rail pick-up assembly fits tightly, which in turn fits tightly in the underside of the engine.

A connecting orange wire was soldered between the electrical pick-ups of the left and right wheels. The connection between the wheels and the engine was disengaged by cutting though the print-plate and soldering a new grey wire between the loose connection and the 3 -rail pick-up.

Below, you see the new grey wire to connect the 3-rail pick-up and below the soldering point is the broken connection to the wheels.

 

And after assembly the engine run fine on 3 -rails with DC power from an ETS transformer.

Lionel train on Merkur tracks

In case you ever wonder: "does a Lionel train run over modern Merkur tubular tracks?".
Here is the answer: "Yes, it does!".

Bridge and Light tower

Yesterday, I finished with cutting the X-beams for the bridge and nailing them down. Today, I filled a few gaps with wood filler and sanded the lot. So now the Ogle Winston Link Bridge is finished in crude. Guess I will have to contemplate the colours now.

Additionally, I soldered a few connecting wires to my Light Tower. For some reason I collected two rotating beacons; one metal of Lionel and one plastic from Marx. Both operate crappy; the light makes the beacon spin in a very uneven manner. So , I decided some time ago, to transform the Marx tower into a light tower. I used some scrap wood, paint, wires, sockets and lights and the first result is quiet all right. Looks a bit camp and that is just fine with me. Imagine that the core wooden barrel was a basket in which thin wooden cooking sticks were sold.

Cutting X-beams

Building a wooden bridge in scale zero is nice work, but you need real tools. Small doctor knives could work excellent with N scale, but here we need a small precision saw instead. Nevertheless, I have finished 2 cross-beams and still plenty to work on further.
Thought about what Frank suggested, and will name this bridge Ogle Winston Link when it is finished. That would be a tribute for a great photographer. Just have to get it done, Find a nice OWL poster and  print a small sign.

Dangerous crossing of a Lionel 289E over an unfinished bridge.

Building a bridge to ...

This weekend, I discovered that the Lionel 289E engine is a great engine to pull the Merkur coaches over the new track.

The video shows how smooth the Lionel 289E engine pulls the Merkur coaches 9751, 9330 and 9331.

Additionally I started with building the bridge to the other side (what else) and used the Lionel 817 caboose as the highest car in the rooster to measure the clearance.The bridge is still a bit rough, but it is a start.