Model Train Journal

And it's May...a third of the way to Christmas. As noted here previously, The Old Man used to caution me that as one gets older, the years rip by faster and faster. I'm feelin' it.

I've been going through stuff lately, trying to figure out what I want to hang onto and what I want to jettison. An acquaintance over on one of the other forums was asking about variations seen in the Lionel 259/259E series. There are too many to list, as far as I'm aware, but here's three found up on the shelves:



Other than the 1661/1681, these are about the bottom of the food-chain for prewar Lionel steam (a place I revel in, lol). I think the top one is legit first-gen 259E from 1932. It ticks the boxes for copper/brass trim, red pilot/trailer wheels, red spoked drivers, and the little four-wheel tender with copper journals, all in black.

The middle one is a bit unusual, a 259 which I believe Lionel cranked out in 1935 from bits laying around. It has the slot in the top of the boiler for an E-unit lever, but instead features a manual reversing lever in the cab. Nickel trim, eight-wheel caboose, all in black.

Not sure about the pedigree on the bottom one. I consider this to be 1936, although I'm not sure about the date of introduction of the thin-rimmed blackened drivers. Coffin-style tender, all in gunmetal.

Correct me if you know more/better. There's a lot of variation with this stuff, so my presumed dates could very well be off a bit. I have at least three or four others, but they are packed away somewhere.

Most folks don't give these a second look, but I love 'em.

Not that you asked for any opinions but I think the loco in the top photo is the best-looking.

RBH29 wrote:Not that you asked for any opinions but I think the loco in the top photo is the best-looking.

Me, I think I like the one in the middle the best, mostly for that tender. The top one needs its rims polished

I've got another early one with a four-wheel tender; I'll post a pic if I can find it.

Here's another 259E that's been sitting very near the bottom of the project pile for a couple of years. It, along with a number of similar-vintage 800-series freights, were found at an estate sale in Halethorpe (across the tracks from Arbutus where my parents grew up):



Looking closely, you can see the original owner (and there was only one owner according to the relative running the sale, her grandfather) made a number of modifications to it. Everything in the set had been repainted, and the 259E received a decently applied respray of flat black (almost a crackle-black in appearance). At some point, he soldered in a red light in the cab, presumably a sort of firebox light(?), and trimmed off the handrails at the pilot where he inserted a couple of "toothpick flags". He'd also pried open the tender and dropped a large steel bolt in it, presumably for added weight.

The wheels on the pilot and trailing trucks have rotted down to almost nothing. Hondo found me a replacement pilot truck on one of his parts runs, and I have a replacement trailing truck around here somewhere. One day I'll put some power to it and see what happens.

Here's a pic of the "set" as found:



As you can see, everything's been repainted in various colors, none as original. My first thought was to just scavenge it for parts and pitch the rest, but somehow it feels like it deserves better than that. So instead, I think I'll replace all of the missing bits, add a couple of flag stanchions to the pilot, then get the 259E back in running order. Hopefully I can find a new home for it.

A college buddy called the other day to say he was heading to Baltimore and wanted to stop by and see me. Ugh, I figured he's going to tell me something awful, but it turned out he's cleaning his place out and wanted to drop off some trains that belonged to his father. A big box with a crap-ton of stuff in it, I need this like another hole in my head, but we had fun going through everything. The best part was this Lionel set #139 from 1931:



The 261 locomotive is missing a few bits, but looks to be in generally good shape (haven't had it on the track yet). Generally unfamiliar with this locomotive, I discovered that the 261 was one-direction only...there's no E-unit or manual reversing lever. This fits in with the notion that this was the entry-level O-gauge steam set for 1931 (the only year the 261 was made).

I made a list of the parts needed and started putting together an order for Dr. Tinker, only to discover that Dave retired and closed his business earlier this year. This is a bummer, as he'd become my go-to guy for prewar parts after George Tebolt retired a few years back. Both of these guys were terrific for not only their comprehensive parts inventory, but also the help they could offer on a phone-call when trying to repair something. Hope Dave has a great retirement.

So I went through the Trainz site and found most of what I needed, the balance found at Hennings. Hopefully the orders turn over quickly and we can get this thing back in form and on the track for some test runs.

My friend's dad grew up on a farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, receiving this set for Christmas when he was seven or eight years old. I can't imagine there was a lot of spare cash on the farm in 1931-1932, so likely a big expenditure. There were a number of add-on cars in the box, likely subsequent gifts, along with a second set, an O-27 outfit featuring a 2-4-2 Torpedo (which is going to need a bit of work).

I'll put up a few pics of some of the other stuff as I have time.

The other O-gauge cars in the box were the following:



The 804 tank car in brass trim checks out as 1931-1934, so of the same vintage as the #139 set. The 806 stock car in orange/green/nickel was made for one year, 1929, so it actually predates the set. Purchased from NOS, second-hand...not sure. The 659 was catalogued much later, 1935-1937. It needs some work, as the bin doesn't tip, kinda wedged into place.

While working on a number of repairs, I took a break and pulled the prewar Lionel 1666 down off the shelf and gave it a few laps around the mainline:



Dragging a short string of Shell tank cars, the 1666 ran flawlessly (although the whistle in the tender wouldn't blow due to a broken pick-up wire on the underside). I acquired the 1666 from Don Carver some two decades back, plucked from the large number of prewar locomotives he had in inventory. It has always been a terrific runner.

Sure is quiet around here...

healey36 wrote:Sure is quiet around here...

I have been here.
Really nice photo of the 1666 heading a line of tank cars.
I'll be back as soon as I rescreen the patio screen door that the dog tried to blast through when he saw a possum outside yesterday.

Have had to do that more than a few times myself with the screened porch. We’re overrun with squirrels, despite the best effort of a pair of retrievers, and they sometimes are impatient, lol.

I’ve been thinking about getting a paintball gun and nailing a few. Probably an ordinance against discharging a paintball gun inside city limits, though.

I am back.

I have been running Williams Baldwin Shark A-A locomotives.

If it was not for the narrow front of the shark nose design, these 1/48 scale size locomotives would not make it through the Lionel O-27 turn outs.

In the photo above, the front A unit has entered the turnout and its back end is swinging right while the rear A unit is still in the O-27 curve and its rear is still swung left. Yes, the rear engine couplers swing that far.

I recall buying my kid a stack of those manual O-27 turnouts some 25 years ago, and he routinely complained about clearance issues when running some of his stuff through them. That said, you've got a potentially lethal turnout-to-nowhere there Wayne

Those Williams Sharks look pretty good for their abbreviated scale. I wish I would have bought more of Jerry's stuff back in the day...all I have is a NW2, a GP38, and a GG1. They are all fun and run like clocks, but it would have been nice to have gotten one of the A-B-A sets. I guess the Bachmann folks gave up on the line for the lack of electronics (the very reason I loved them).

I noticed your kitchen timer on your train table; do you use that for schedule purposes? I recently found my old Smiths, a throwback to my youth days fiddling with photography:



It seemed dead at first, but a few days of gradual coaxing and it's now running like, well, like a clock. I even ran it against the digital stopwatch, and it's dead-nuts on. Pretty remarkable.

I get in my motor vehicle in the morning and look straight at side by side Smith's instruments.
Rev counter and speedometer. Gotta tap the rev counter sometimes to get it off the zero peg.

healey36 wrote:I noticed your kitchen timer on your train table; do you use that for schedule purposes?

It does look like a kitchen timer in the photo you mentioned, but look at it closer.



It is the cheapest scale I have ever purchased, $1.00 at a thrift store.

It is used to adjust the weight of my cars to "NMRA Recommended Practice RP-20.1 Car Weight."

Looks like this gondola could use more weight to meet RP 20.1 recommendation of 5 lbs + 1 lb per inch.

Ah, a scale. I should have noticed that.

Do you think it’s the same Smith’s, Dave? The reason I ask is that it’s marked “Made in Germany” in two places (the bottom of the dial and etched onto the back). The Healey and the MG we have here both feature Smiths gauges, and those were made in the UK. Smiths also made time pieces, so maybe this was just a shopped-out item...not sure. I got it second-hand around 1970 from a local photography shop.