The crossing

I finally got the crossing working and to prove it, here is a video. The bell still needs to be added (so I added a fake train bell for the video) and a small house needs to be build to cover all the electrics and the wires. But is works. When a train approaches the spring under the rails is compressed and a contact is made triggering the Lemax crossing lights (#34954) to function. After the train passed the spring pushes the rails back up again.
This set-up is clearly not finished yet, but I am happy that it works.
By the way, these Lemax crossing lights (that are easily available in Europe during the X-mas season) are the same as those once sold under the K-line brand. Probably they originate from the same Chinese factory.
The reason why the lights are still not fixed on the ground plate is that my layout is a folding table and I need to unplug them before I fold the layout table back against the wall. I connected them with a simple hole-pin system, but I need to fill the holes a bit more to get a tighter fit.

Weaver hoppers

A beautiful Weaver hopper car has joined the layout. It was available locally and that seldomly happens, making this a unique opportunity. Weaver is still relatively unknown in Europe as compared to Lionel and therefore there was hardly any competition.

It is a #71353 Great Northern PS-2 Hopper and it gladly combines with the #80003 AC-2 Hopper. The new one is clearly older. It is still has plastic trucks without springs and there are less rivets to count on the body. The light blue GN paint job is a rather simple two-tone as compared to the orange-black-white decoration on the DTI hopper. Nevertheless it is a great hopper that runs smoothly on my 027 layout. If anybody knows when the GN PS-2 hopper was produced I would be grateful for letting me know.

NW-2 Switcher

Last week a beautiful Lionel 17605 Reading caboose (built 1989) joined my toy train layout. In order to celibrate this event all near scale cars gathered to make an special tour on the layout. Watch and enjoy. For those of you interested in detail, my favourite reefer (old Dutch cleanser) is standing in the background.

Lionel 1689T tender

Many Lionel streamlined pre-war steamers came with a 1689T tender. They are abundant and can be scooped up on Ebay for about 10 USD or less. Although simple and abundant, the design is beautiful due to simplicity: a simple interaction between straight lines and curves.

This particular tender is a heirloom item. I received it in poor overpainted condition, complete with light grey paints blobs. It was really nice to repaint it gun-metal and to clean the journals, drawbar, coupler and shields. Simple pleasure. This just proves again that toy trains is not about money but about appreciation and enjoyment.

259E running

The Lionel 259E engine now dislikes another 027 switch. For some reason it slows down on one particular switch, while other engines run without any issues over it. Nevertheless it runs good (besides on that one switch) and it is nice to show it. So here it comes. It just shows that a dusty and rusty toy train that did not move any more can be revitalised to a truely well running toy with character and that feels good.

Busy repair yard

It is getting a bit over-crowded with pre-war Lionel cars that are patiently waiting restoration. Amongst the latest refugees is a 814 boxcar in very poor brown overpainted condition. It used to be bright yellow-brown in better days. The 814's came out in three rather similar bland colour schemes: yellow-brown, cream-maroon and cream-orange. Perhaps it is better to try a really nice colour like burgundy red / black. That would combine great with the copper details. Well, this needs some consideration. Furthermore, another 812 gondola joined us. This was clearly tortured: a front siding is missing and a very strange plastic hook coupler is bluntly glued on. And two tank cars joined: a 654 with missing rails and a 904.

It is getting time for some restoration activity. As can be seen on the photo's the metal of a 1689 Tender is in pink Hammerite primer, waiting for better weather to get a nice Gun-metal top-coat with Tamiya spray paint TS 38 (this is the only gun metal paint easily available in Europe). This tender was already primed with a more simple primer, but that one was found to be incompatible with Tamiya spray paint (nice textures formed, GRRR). So indeed, a lot of work for nothing. The other bare metal parts are of a 259 Tender of which the metal is heavily pitted and grooved by rust. I already removed the rust with a brass brush wheel, but the metal will need to protected, plastered, polished and smoothened thoroughly. So at least some progress is made.

Winter station

This winter holiday season the Dutch railway museum organised a winter station. They created a skating oval in the central building, musicians, story tellers, a traditional merry go round and special children activities.

The special exhibition was devoted to 120 years of Fleischmann and showed tin model ships, scale zero trains, more modern toy trains in h0 and n scales and also several Magic train layouts. These magic trains are in scale 0e (narrow gauge in zero), have added play options for children (parts of the train wagons can be disassembled and assembled easily) and look quiet sturdy. Many children were playing happily with the special play layout. These Magic trains appeared new to me, but apparently they have been on the market from 1992 on. I think scale zero is a good choice for children hands and 0e makes it easy to get cheap h0 rails and to run them here in Europe. The trains themselves puzzle me a bit, as if they are simultaneously meant for children (added play functions) and middle aged train-operating men (quiet well detailled). In case Fleischmann is serious about getting more children interested, they could get some inspiration from Lionel with their Thomas the tank engines, Polar express and Potter's Hogwarth express. Furthermore, they could add some whistles, train sounds, etc. to add play value.

One of the positive surprises of the winter station was that they had fired up "De Arend". This was the first train engine ever to run on Dutch soil, between Amsterdam and Haarlem in 1839. Obviously, it was British made and what a smoke comes out of this steamer! The driver must have felt like a smoked herring after a day's work. Great that they had it smoking for us. Pity that they so limited wide gauge tracks so that it can not really run anywhere. By the way, this engine is a replicate that was built in 1939 for its anniversary.

Stream lined express

Here is a video showing a beautiful streamlined steamer with three passenger cars running around my layout. The engine is a 1668E and a smooth runner. It was made from 1937 to 1941 (so about 70 years old) and still running perfectly. The passenger cars are numbered 1630, 1630 and 1631 and were produced from 1938 to 1942

Parade of pre-war Lionel toy trains

Francesco, you asked for it and now you are going to get it. Here is my attempt to make a video of the pre-war Lionel toy trains running around on the little layout. Let's hope you will like it.

I bought railway crossing lights of Lemax at Lemaxworld for the pleasant price of 3.50 Euro / pair and placed one on the layout. Well it still has to be connected properly, but that can be sorted out later. Then I placed the pre-war trains in a queue and let them run by. In order of appearance: 289E, 1688E, 1664E, 259E and 1668E.

Much of the Lemax houses are too fantastic for me. They still would blend in nicely with a Lionel Polar express or Halloween set, but they are too Dickens-like for my taste. Some items, such as railway crossing signs, benches, lanterns, telephone booths can, however, mix in nicely and since these items are available cheaply in Europe, they are welcome on my layout.

Progress on the Lionel 259E engine

The pilot wheel of the Lionel 259E engine kept derailing on the 027 switches that were directly after a curve. I could not find the reason quickly, but after some time I noticed that the pilot wheel was stuck in the turned position as if it wanted to continue the previous curve. The reason for that was that the switch pushes the pilot wheel upwards and since it is still in curve position it can press one side up, whereas the other side is still locked behind the guiding metal sheet (yellow object in drawing), tilting the pilot wheel and starting the derailment. After I finally realised how the pilot wheel derailed, I came up with a simple solution. I soldered a piece of brass sheet (blue object in drawing) in between the two notches on the pilot wheel bracket and now it runs continuous over all my layout without derailing! This piece of brass is just visible on the photo.

The engine finally also has a matching tender (259T). It is in poor condition, with quiet some rust, no handrails, circular L sign and drawbar. The drawbar was made easily from a piece of brass sheet of 2 inches length and 3/4 inch width. The corners were smoothened with a dremel grinder and two holes were drilled in: one for the engine pin and one to screw onto the tender. They have made their first joint trip on the layout already. This is the start of a new restoration project.

Train trucks

The Williams stock car made me curious to compare the detail level in the train trucks a bit better between four brands of 0 scale 3 rail toy train producers. I was quiet surprised to see the difference between the four brands: Lionel, Weaver, Williams and K-line / Husky. Perhaps, this comparison is a bit outdated, since Williams has been purchased by Bachman and K-line by Lionel and also not complete, since I currently do not have MTH or Atlas cars. But the comparison shows how much difference in toy train truck quality one can get. Three brands have springs in the trucks, but only the springs in Weaver and Lionel cars are functional. This obviously does not mean that I have converted myself into the tradition of rivet counting, just an impression.

Williams stock car

St. Nicolas has been good to me on 5 december. He gave me a yellow Reading stock car #FC04 from Williams Electric trains. The cattle car is relatively heavy compared to similar cars from Lionel and Weaver, since the floor plate is a thicker variety of sheet metal. It has a highly detailed body in 1:48 scale. The trucks are a bit simple of pressed metal and that is a pity because that really makes it a toy train in stead of scale model car. It runs perfect on my 027 layout, I just had to put some insulating sticky tape on the metal un-coupling discs, because they created short-circuits with my Lionel 027 switches. Below the car, near the middle is a gas cilinder like structure. This is perhaps the brake system. Any way, a very nice car and more than welcome on my layout. THANK YOU St. Nicolas!

Layout maintenance

Saturday we visited the 'modelspoorbeurs' in Arnhem. A toy train heaven for h0 and N scale enthusiasts. One stand had quiet a few Athearn American trains in h0. For 0 scalers there were two stands interesting selling pre-war Märklin and JEP for enormous prices: one passenger car from Märklin for 220 Euro or a lantern for 70 Euro. This is quiet in contrast to the low prices for conventional h0 wagons of 5-10 Euro per car. It has been suggested before and it is probably true, due to the global Ebay trade common toy train cars are becoming cheaper and less common cars are becoming extremely expensive. We enjoyed the three layouts on the side. The real steam powered engines in scale G (LGB) were running and those are the most impressive to watch and smell.

Sunday was a good day for redoing a part of the layout. Because the new engine house requires a track distance (center rail to center rail) of 13 cm (5 1/5 inch) instead of the common 16 cm (6 1/4 inch) on Lionel 027 layouts, a special Z-bend had to be made. I took two half curves in 027 topped them off at 10 cm curve length and soldered them back together with brass pins. This brings both tracks just the 1 inch and a bit more to each other and indeed the engine house is now ready for use. While being busy soldering I decided to connect one switch more and to make a circular power line for accesories. I only managed to connect two red bumper lights, but this simplifies the connection of other fun things in the coming months. For instance, the rotary beacon that still does not turn.

B and O Lionel freight express

This rainy weekend was very suitable for playing with Lionel toy trains. With the help of a tripod and a little natural sun light I was finally able to produce a reasonable video.

On the photo and for those with sharp eyes also on the video is the new orange AC-2 covered hopper from DT&I. It arrived this week. This club car from the TCA-MG forum is for blended sand only and was specially produced by Weaver models. It is amazingly detailed and has die-cast trucks and springs. It is still a light weight car. It states that is for 031 curves, but it runs perfectly on my 027 layout as well. The hopper is precisely 1:48 scale, so up to now I have only run it with the few 0 scale cars that I have. But the mismatch with Lionel cars that are a fraction smaller is only minimal, so I think it will run with some more trains soon.

Building a big 2 stall engine house

This weekend, I used almost all evening hours to construct the BIG 2 stall engine house that I purchased a few weeks ago. This nice model structure was made by IHC and although clearly intended for the American toy train market, it mentions "made in Denmark", well that is a surprise. The building instruction is one piece of paper with one drawing and that is a bit short, but the construction is straight forward. One aspect is not completely clear. There are two rectangular holes where we could fit two different ventilation blinds in, I just chose one. The construction time is about 6 hours and the resulting building is enormous: 27 1/2 inch long (70 cm), 10 1/2 inch (26 cm) tall and 12 inch (30 cm) wide. Four engines easily fit inside. It is a model-MEGA-structure or a train cathedral. I didnot bother about the BIG when buying it, but buyers beware, this thing is HUGE. My layout is full now. But it sure looks good.
One aspect is a bit daft though. The center-to-center rail distance for the two tracks is 5 inch, whereas for Lionel 027 6 1/4 is conventional. Well, this means I have to cut and solder a special rail to get it fitting. But for the rest it is a great structure.
Unfortunately, IHC do no longer offer 0 scale structures, in month time they vanished from the IHC website. Fortunately, Atlas 0 has included this engine house in their catalog, so most likely they have purchased the moulds. But this Atlas structure is with 2 chimneys, whereas the IHC has four!

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.

Sneak preview of the 259E

I just finished with spray painting the Lionel 259E locomotive black glossy paint and it really shines and reflects. Great. The pink undercoat of Hamerite was much less attractive, but now it starts to look beautifull again. I could not resist to put on some shiny brass bits and to make a few pictures. The brass bits are not ready yet, they do not have the full luster yet, so I will polish them some more. Also the driving rods are too dull at the moment, but the brass brush and the polishing disc will do their work eventually.