Weekend Photos - December 2020

[E7]

Thanks. I’ve got a tube of the small spring-clamps, and the wife has a hot-glue gun. I’ve used that thing in the past and have burnt the hell out of myself every time, lol.

Got it from DeSade's department store no doubt.

[healey36]

I’ve got a tube of the small spring-clamps, and the wife has a hot-glue gun.

Lol, sounds like the plot for a kick-me-beat-me-walk-all-over-me movie. Interestingly, if you Google DeSades, you get more than one reference to the Marquis de Sade (which is probably what you're driving at, E7).

Bit I digress. Partitions are in for the most part:



Gonna tweak a few of them, maybe add a few, and the back-corner still needs to be done. Than it's the fun bit.

[healey36]

Christmas, 1937:



Looks like a 2-rail Marx mechanical M-10005 City of Denver set.

Is it my imagination, or is that one massive Christmas tree? The Old Man always held an affinity for tinsel-style garland on the tree - seeing these old pictures, I understand why.

Healey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

........ is that one massive Christmas tree?

Does seem a bit on the tall side but maybe the ceiling was a bit higher then and there?

[rogruth]

Most of the houses in my elementary and high school neighborhood had 12' ceilings. Some were even a little higher.

[healey36]

Our tree is only seven foot, but we tried for a similar theme for 2020:



The train is a Western Coil Zephyr from the 1930s, sold by the Consoli family after they acquired WC's remaining parts stock. The Old Man picked this up from B&E Junction back when the shop was still in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Being a Streamliner hound, this set was his pride and joy (although he was never happy with the cardboard/paper vestibules between the cars). When he was a kid he asked for a Flyer Zephyr set for Christmas one year, but received a Hoge 900 instead. If you've ever seen one of those, it is a ghastly-looking thing. It took him fifty years, but he eventually got his Zephyr. It's been in storage for the two decades since he passed. We busted it out this year...still runs like a champ.

[healey36]

The question of whether to provide illumination of the tunnel interior and the top bit has to be contemplated before I go much further. The original, as best I can tell, was not illuminated. When HL built his version, he provided lighting for the top structure using LEDs and connections he fashioned using repro Lionel transformer posts attached at the base. In subsequent conversations with HL, he says the LEDs he used were not bright enough, and this, combined with the dark painted interiors, made the lighting less than adequate. He recommends going old-school, using 12-18V incandescent bulbs. I have a bag of cleat sockets and could easily use a couple of those, but then I need to build the top with access to replace burned out bulbs (LEDs would likely outlive me). If I'm going to do that (provide lift off functionality), I'd rather forego the whole electrification chore and just get a small multi-LED coaster light that I can stick in there. Turning on/off and battery replacement would be a no-brainer.

Or I could just bag the lighting and build it similar to the original.

[rogruth]

What does one need to see in a short tunnel ?
Sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What does one need to see in a short tunnel ?
Sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

Possibly so. And will changing bulbs later be realistic? If so, I have an oven bulb that needs changing...

[healey36]

Almost certainly will forego lighting the interior of the tunnel (although remember, both Lionel and Flyer offered tunnels with interior lights, and some of the Flyer tunnels had signal lights embedded in the portals). More concerned with lighting whatever goes on top. I’ll likely go with some sort of battery-powered LED with lift-off access.

Oven lights are a bear, especially when the wife only cleans the oven every six months or so (whether it needs it or not). The cover gets gunked up and is tough to get off.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Oven lights are a bear, especially when the wife only cleans the oven every six months or so (whether it needs it or not). The cover gets gunked up and is tough to get off.

Do to the arrangement in our house I have to reach in change ours left-handed and every time the bulb pops loose of the base, and then I have to go get a set of fine needle nose pliers to extract the base from the socket..........left-handed. I'm close to being ambidextrous but only close,

[healey36]

Nothing like sticking the needle-nose into a live socket.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nothing like sticking the needle-nose into a live socket.

Okay, I do turn things off and almost all of my pliers had insulated handles,

[rogruth]

Nothing like sticking the needle-nose into a live socket.

Okay, I do turn things off and almost all of my pliers had insulated handles,

Ahhh. You took all the daring and fun out of it.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nothing like sticking the needle-nose into a live socket.

Okay, I do turn things off and almost all of my pliers had insulated handles,

Ahhh. You took all the daring and fun out of it.

One learns over time that the ratio of daring and fun vs. survival is not a constant and that when the Universe calls your bluff, it's holding all the winning cards.