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Post by runamuckchuck on Feb 8, 2024 3:16:02 GMT
That truly is an if not sad very melancholy story. But at least he got to see the engine with lighted headlight working as he had imagined/wished all those youthful years ago.
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Post by healey36 on Feb 8, 2024 14:50:27 GMT
af3020 - Had a similar experience many years ago involving an older gentleman offering up a box of battered standard gauge. The set had belonged to his father before him, who'd received it from his father back in the late 1920s or early 1930s. In the crate was a pristine boxed Lionel 78 train control. Given the well-worn shape of everything else, I wondered why this had survived in what looked to be unused condition (I thought it might have been restored/rewired). When I asked the guy, he said his father and his grandfather had never been able to figure out how the signal worked, so it just got put aside. I explained to him "Hey, this is way more than just a simple signal," and showed him how, with a lengthy section of O-gauge insulated track, one could stop/start a train automatically, with the 78's lights alternating between red (stop) and green (go). I'm not sure if they failed to receive instructions with it, or perhaps discarded or lost them, but he was rather dumbfounded. I told him we could clean everything up, then he should take the whole pile back home and have fun with it, but he too relented. I think he was just happy it was going somewhere other than Goodwill or the trash. A few years later I sent the set to a friend of mine that's big time into standard-gauge, but I hung onto that 078/78 ATC. We've used it a few times on a standard-gauge carpet central here, and I think of the original owners then.
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 20, 2024 19:16:58 GMT
Has to be the colors and robust craftsmanship... I agree - not as delicate as Modeller's items for sure, but very nice indeed ! After 24 years of inactivity on the subject - children lost interest so we sell it all - I decided to return to some model trains today - still in the 3-rails Tinplate way - but just for me, gently, reasonably... So I offered me this ACE trains A3 4-6-2 LNER last week : "Blink Bonny" is on the way to her new home (mine), and she should be delivered in a few days... Cheers, OACE
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Post by Adam on Feb 21, 2024 19:39:50 GMT
Has to be the colors and robust craftsmanship... I agree - not as delicate as Modeller's items for sure, but very nice indeed ! After 24 years of inactivity on the subject - children lost interest so we sell it all - I decided to return to some model trains today - still in the 3-rails Tinplate way - but just for me, gently, reasonably... So I offered me this ACE trains A3 4-6-2 LNER last week : "Blink Bonny" is on the way to her new home (mine), and she should be delivered in a few days... Cheers, OACE Beautiful engine!
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 21, 2024 22:57:58 GMT
Thanks @platinumadam ! "Blink Bonny" has been delivered today : The seller's pictures were not lying : really beautiful... I just have this ACE Trains engine, and that's all... Now I have to purchase 3-rails tinplate tracks... I am considering Menards products, because it wont be a permanent track network, but a removable one, indoors or outdoors (when the weather is nice and dry, OK), set up quickly on demand for some hours, or a day at the maximum. OACE
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Post by healey36 on Feb 22, 2024 13:57:00 GMT
Beautiful, but another rabbit-hole I desperately don't want to fall into. I've looked at European trains at York for years, but other than a few pieces from ETS, I've managed to steer clear. That's a brilliant locomotive, right there.
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 22, 2024 18:43:40 GMT
Beautiful, but another rabbit-hole I desperately don't want to fall into. I've looked at European trains at York for years, but other than a few pieces from ETS, I've managed to steer clear. That's a brilliant locomotive, right there. Tkanks healey36 ! Yes, it's a nice engine of circa 20" long (515mm bumper to bumper). I discovered that Blink Bonny is fitted with twin-motors in tandem, DC operation, no AC, the switch rod in the tender is only an on/off one. Oh, it would be easy to add a switchable rectifier bridge for AC operation, that said. 30 years ago, I had this smaller one, also from ACE Trains : This 4-4-4 has more versatile features : both DC and AC 3-rails operation, plus a reverse direction relay activated by stop and overvoltage control. It was a very smooth running machine... The only item that remains from our little collection of model trains stuff is the supply I DIY'ed - and still working fine today : She offers AC and DC variable voltage (LV integrated Variac), Horn control (for Lionel Whistling tenders) and Inversion control (stop and overvoltage procedure, for lcocomotives fitted with the matching FWD/REV relay). Yes, we had two Lionel engine at that time : a 2055 4-6-2 "hudson" and a 221 2-6-4 "torpedo-streamlined", with their matching whistling turbine tenders... My children loved them ! I will probably buy again a Lionel engine of that style, just for the souvenirs... I let you imagine all those plastic multi-colored Lionel gondola cars train, rolling full of Playmobil stuff, enchantering my childs ! OACE
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Post by toolguy541 on Feb 23, 2024 5:35:12 GMT
Love the look of tinplate trains there all I collect I have over 150 prewar
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 23, 2024 10:07:11 GMT
Love the look of tinplate trains there all I collect I have over 150 prewar Amazing ! Do you have pictures of your collection ? OACE
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Post by healey36 on Feb 25, 2024 20:21:08 GMT
That 4-4-4 looks remarkably similar to a Hornby clockwork locomotive I had years ago. It was a great runner, one of the best mechanical locos I ever had. Wish I still had it.
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 26, 2024 15:24:43 GMT
That 4-4-4 looks remarkably similar to a Hornby clockwork locomotive I had years ago. It was a great runner, one of the best mechanical locos I ever had. Wish I still had it. Yes indeed, we could even say that this ACE lmodel is an "Electric Reissue" of those legendary Hornby 4-4-2 and 4-4-4... I should have kept this one, only : I didn't knew that it was a super-rare item, since P.O. stands for the "Paris-Orléans" railways French company, not British. OACE.
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Feb 28, 2024 22:06:01 GMT
Another one - a little one, more Tinplate than "Blink Bonny", very close to the Hornby models of the era : an ACE Trains 4-4-2 LMS... She was proposed at an affordable price - complete with box and docs, and gently used - so I could not resist... 24 years after my sold P.O. ! Like her, she's AC and DC compatible, and is fitted with a latching FWD/REV relay, remotely operated by the transformer ("stop - pulse - stop" sequence). Oh, and I am waiting for my set of Menards tracks : Shipping cost for such a set from USA to France is a nightmare... But nothing like this is available here. OACE
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oace
Junior Member
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Post by oace on Mar 2, 2024 10:28:12 GMT
Suddenly, the collection enlarges... A set of LNER coaches for "Blink Bonny" : A nice 2-6-4 Caledonian Railways locomotive : Oh, and I am also targeting some Lionel items too... 24 years of Model Trains absence to resume ! Wait and See... OACE
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Post by healey36 on Mar 2, 2024 15:03:46 GMT
Here's my LMS, a little Hornby clockwork from the 1950s: It's sitting in front of an experiment, an attempt to build a prewar European-style station out of nothing more than corrugated cardboard, matt board, some cardstock, on a wooden base. Sorta worked.
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oace
Junior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by oace on Mar 2, 2024 16:42:18 GMT
Here's my LMS, a little Hornby clockwork from the 1950s: It's sitting in front of an experiment, an attempt to build a prewar European-style station out of nothing more than corrugated cardboard, matt board, some cardstock, on a wooden base. Sorta worked. Yes indeed : it even worked mighty fine ! Very nice station build... You are very skilled ! OACE
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