During one of my 'me' time sessions a couple of weeks back I pulled out this Marx Commodore Vanderbilt wind-up (aka clockwork) engine and a few 6", 4-wheel, tin-litho cars and gave it a few runs around the Edge of Town Layout. I'm not a big fan of wind-ups and have sold nearly all the ones I had. I'll probably keep one or two behind so the grandbaby can play with them, but otherwise I'll stick to electric. I've seen a lot of really nice layouts using strictly wind-up and I know there is a small but passionate fan base out there so I'm not gonna diss them because they do have a charm all their own that is undeniable. That being said - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
This particular piece probably dates from the 1930s and with a little grease and oil ran fine - if not for long
These three cars were enough for the engine to pull around the small Edge of Town layout without causing the train to derail. One less car and it would have run too fast, one more car and iit would not have run as far (which isn't saying much)
In defense of the engines pulling power, the layout does slope downward giving any engine a noticeably hard time pulling in the counter-clockwise direction.
A short film I did of the running session
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