TRAIN TIME: Karl Bub Nuremberg - Pre-war German House w-Fence for O-Gauge Trains

I've been acquiring a few small German style houses recently suitable for O-gauge. Maybe I can cobble together a small German style train layout - it would have to be small - got no room for a big layout! Anywho, nothing has gelled yet in my mind but gathering materials is the first phase. This measures:

Base: 5" (12.7cm) square x 3/8" (.952cm) H 
House: 3" (7.62cm) D x 4 1/8" (10.47cm) W x 3 7/8" (9.84cm) H 
O'all 4 1/4" (10.79) H  

It appears to be missing a pole - lamp post perhaps? but I have no reference books on German tin so can't say. In any case - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

TRAIN TIME: Marx 1666 Sound-O'-Power and Auto Haulers On The New Layout

I'm a tad late posting some of this but last month I had enough 'me' time to pull out trains, run them, and take videos. This post we're featuring the Marx gray 1666 with Sound-O'-Power tender. The tender had a roller underneath which made contact with the center rail. As the train rolled the electronic module produced 'white noise' or static such that it sounded like a train engine rolling by. A really nice effect for its day. The engine is s'posed to be a smoker but my smoke unit doesn't work so well and needs servicing. Also on this run I finally populated my empty auto hauler cars and vehicle hauling flat cars with original Marx cars and trucks. Unfortunately the 1666 wasn't strong enough to pull all the cars that were readied so several had to be pulled out of the consist and sidelined. The engine did however have enough 'oomph' to pull the auto haulers as you'll see in the video. This time around I also put out my Royal Lighted Village buildings to see how well they looked alongside the Built-Rite buildings. So far I'm liking it! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

 

TRAIN TIME: Running Marx Canadian Pacific on The New Layout

I've finally been taking trains out of the box and running them this year. Some of the stuff hasn't been run since I bought them, while others have had some little running time. The conisit pulled for this run was a group of scratch-&-dent specials, what we call 'operator's grade'. Yes, they're beat up but hey, they run! and sometimes with toy trains all ya wann do is watch trains run - not look at museum pieces. There hasn't been any work done to the New Layout as the focus has been on taking photos of toys, but it was nice to have some 'me' time to run trains.  Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

TRAIN TIME: Marx NYC E-7 On The New Layout

Here's a relatively 'new' acquisition to my Marx fleet of engines. I bought two New York Central powered E-7 A units (one 'long' flag and one 'short' flag) several years ago and finally took them out to run last month. I ran the 'long' flag version first - the other one is still sitting on the layout waiting its turn LOL The long flag I refer to is that white wing-looking motif on the nose of the engine just below the engine number. Anywho, the engine has a tab-&-slot (T&S) coupler on the rear of the chassis which means a little work was needed to hook it up to the plastic freight cars I pulled out to run. The engine coupler sits a little bit lower than the auto-tilt couplers on the cars (the auto-tilt couplers have a slot in them allowing them to be hitched to T&S couplers) and had to be bent to accomate a lash-up. The photos show some of the cars I was running this day although not all appear in the video. I had taken several videos during the day of different consists and while all that was going on I also placed my Royal Village paper buildings on the layout and a Built-Rite hangar to showcase a couple of old toy planes. All-in-all just messin' around! :-) Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

 

T. Cohn Fort Comanche Stable v.2

It's been awhile since I featured any tin-litho on a Monday but we can chalk that up to sheer laziness. I simply don't feel like haulin' some of this stuff out and photographing it - I know, I know I need to get off my behind and get with the program :-) Today's tin building was actually a target of opportunity as it was sitting out in the open, but because it's in kind of sad shape I hadn't wanted to photograph it before. It's another of T. Cohn's stable buildings from one of their western fort playsets. They had made a Fort Superior, Fort Comanche, and Fort Davy Crockett each with its own centerpiece tin-litho building. From what I could ascertain, there were two different Fort Comanche buildings, one of which was featured here on Toys & Stuff back on Mar 18, 2013. That was a two-story affair with T.Cohn's smaller shed plopped on top of the main stable building and it clearly states 'Fort Comanche' on the front wall. Today's version simply has two signs labeled 'STABLE' and 'COMMANDING OFFICER' on the front. I have seen complete Fort Comanche sets with today's building included so am fairly certain that it indeed belongs to Fort Comanche. (This wouldn't be unusual as even Marx offered several different building's in their iconic Fort Apache playsets over the years). The building measures Base: 7 1/2" (19.1cm) W x 11 3/4" (29.8cm) L x  5 3/8" (13.7cm) o'all height. I believe my building was bought as part of a lot but because it was a version I didn't have yet I kept it, although as you can see by the photo's it's pretty rough, having a bunch of rust spots on the roof and base but for now though it's a keeper. Enjoy!