Weekend Photos - December 2021

[healey36]

And so we begin the best month of the year...hopefully. I have a feeling this is going to be a crazy holiday.

I spent a couple days giving the Lionel 2034 recovered from the local antique mall a refurb. We've all done this, so nothing terribly exciting here. The tag said "$5 Doesn't Run", which seemed odd to me, as it looked to be complete. A quick disassembly found the E-unit filthy. A few squirts of electronic control cleaner/lubricant, along with a few toothpicks and Q-tips, and it was back in business. Additional lubricant using some clock oil and after a brief jerky spell, it was running smooth. I'll need to disassemble again at some point and give the face of the commutator a polish. I'm sure that's black, given the condition of the E-unit.

Cosmetically, it looked like it had been stored in a rock-tumbler for the last couple decades. Lots of paint off the edges along with a few large, rather prominent chips in the paintwork. Nothing broken, however, just a slightly bent marker lamp. I used a bit of a homebrew enamel to touch up the worst of worn away paint and filled the chips, then gave the whole casting an overspray of clear satin lacquer. I have found this serves well in blending the touch-ups with the original paint while retaining that semi-sheen they came with.

The 2034 was a down-market offering from Lionel in 1952, often grouped with the Scout line of locos. The 2034 is different, however, in that it doesn't feature the plastic motor and the two-position E-unit of the other Scouts, instead having a standard open-frame motor and a three-position E-unit (with the lever on the underside). In 1953, Lionel offered the 1130, same motor and E-unit, but with a plastic boiler, which then lead to the development of the 200-series Scouts we all know and love, lol.

I pimped it out a bit, adding a bell (the hole was there but Lionel left it off to save a few cents) and stuck a couple of those green jewels in the marker light positions. If I'd been really industrious, I would have drilled out the stanchion holes and added hand-rails along the side of the boiler, but that was too much like real work.

Finding a tender proved simple enough, although many of them have cracks or other problems. I found one on eBay for $15.00, offered $13.50, and it was on my doorstep in a few days. When it arrived, I discovered the truck side-frames were coated with waxy white crud, something I see frequently on Flyer link-couplers. I'm not sure what it is, likely some sort of oxidation of the plastic, or leaching chemical from the plastic formula, or possibly release agent from the molding process. It will scrape off, but the detail of the side-frames made that untenable. Whatever, getting it off is tough. Sarge made a number of suggestions, ranging from simple soap-and-water to mineral spirits. I've been having some good luck using white vinegar recently, so I decided to try that first. Using an old toothbrush and some vigorous scrubbing, I was able to remove about ninety-five percent of it. After letting it dry thoroughly, there's just a bit of it still there. I may try something a bit stronger to remove the last of it.

So anyway, here it is:



The 2034 turns seventy next year; this one seems ready for another seventy. My anal-retentive nature will likely have me running down its set consist, but we'll save that for after the holidays.

What else is cooking out there?

[v8vega]

Back when I was buying all the time I considered 2-4-2's a bargain and bought several.

[healey36]

Of all of the locos considered part of the Scout line, I think the 2034 is the best. The preceding 1110-1120 had a diecast shell with the plastic motor. The 1001 was all plastic. The 2034 was the only one with a conventional open-frame motor, 3-position E-unit, and a diecast shell. The 1130, its successor, had the open-frame motor and standard E-unit, but a plastic shell. The following 200-series were really low-end (although the 246 was kinda neat because it had Magnetraction). I have a 242 that was offered in a set you could get from Quaker Oats for a couple of box-tops and a nominal amount of money.

I have an appreciation for the low-end stuff. It reminds me of the frugality of times past. Sometimes a Scout set was the best a parent or grandparent could do, especially in the prewar years. My first train set was a second-hand Flyer Mountaineer set from 1956 (I received it for Christmas in 1962 or 1963). I ran the bejeebers out of that thing; I still have it (or most of it) and it still runs.

The prewar predecessor of the Scout was probably the 1661/1681 series, rolled out in the heart of The Depression. I've seen both Lionel and Ives badged versions. I have a Lionel 1681 I bought as a box of parts at a train show at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Company probably 25 years ago. It had most of its parts (those that were missing I was able to find), but I had a rough time trying to get the motor back together. I finally took it to Don Carver up in Gettysburg who got it back together, although he had to replace the intermediate gear which was tough to find. Here's a shot of that beast, still showing a bit of rust on a pilot wheel:



A good example of an obsessive-compulsive spending north of $150 to save a $35 locomotive. I probably have run this thing less than a half-dozen times; that bronze intermediate gear looks awful fragile.

[v8vega]

I have read the postwar 1101 has the best motor, I have 2. The prewar 1664 is the best looking complete valve gear, swinging bell wire handrails, trailing truck has a proper frame, I have one and haven't gotten around to seeing why it dosen't run.

[healey36]

The first Scout-type loco I had was a 1060 from the 1960-1962 timeframe. The 1060 had a plastic boiler similar to the 1001 from the late 1940s. I never liked it, with its plastic scout motor and the soft plastic shell. It did have a light, which I recall thinking "How does this not melt the plastic shell?". Maybe the heat went up the stack. It's one of the few postwar pieces that passed through my hands relatively quickly.

The 1101 Scout from 1948 is a pretty nice loco, similar in features to the 2034. Diecast shell, open-frame motor, 3-position E-unit, it's basically a cheapened version of the 1655 (another 2-4-2 not marketed as part of the Scout line). I've seen 1101 locos numbered as 1001; this creates a lot of confusion among the collector types.

[healey36]

Found a nice train-themed Advent calendar for this year:



Anybody still fool with these things? The tradition here started with my kids and my wife's college roommate. She was an avid Advent calendar girl.

[robert.]

Yes. We have them in the house. Most of the chocolate is horrible. I got a not so bad one in a Russian store. My daughter's birthday is Dec 1. We get her 1for her birthday, my mom gets one, And the neighbors also got her one. Today is Mikulas day. Last night we placed our shoes on the windowsill. Mikulas gives all the good kids candy in their shoes. Along with a few spuds to say "you are not behaving good all the time. The kid is bouncing of the wall everyday now with Christmas hype. I fear this will be the last magical year for Santa. She has a lot of questions about how Santa does things.

[webenda]

Friday, December 3, 2021, 2:07 PM
Southern Railroad's Terminal Station, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[webenda]

What impressed me most about Southern Railroad's Terminal Station was the restrooms.

[webenda]

When was the last time you saw something like this in the Men's Room?

[webenda]

[webenda]

The Women's Room was similar but yellow and with a lot of stalls.

[healey36]

Yes. We have them in the house. Most of the chocolate is horrible. I got a not so bad one in a Russian store. My daughter's birthday is Dec 1. We get her 1for her birthday, my mom gets one, And the neighbors also got her one. Today is Mikulas day. Last night we placed our shoes on the windowsill. Mikulas gives all the good kids candy in their shoes. Along with a few spuds to say "you are not behaving good all the time. The kid is bouncing of the wall everyday now with Christmas hype. I fear this will be the last magical year for Santa. She has a lot of questions about how Santa does things.

You gotta go old school, no chocolate, just little doors with whimsical images behind them. I never saw the ones with chocolate in them until the last few years. We Americans eff up everything, lol. My kids loved them.

When I was kid, we did the Krampus (sic) thing as part of the whole Christmas schtick. Now that will scare a little kid straight.

[healey36]

Old stations are very cool, especially the large city versions. Back when I worked for Pfizer, I used to catch the Metroliner out of Baltimore’s Penn Station (formerly Union Station) on the twice-a-month visits to NYC. At one point they did a refurb of the station, which included a new metal roof. In the process of tearing off some of the old sheet-metal, they discovered that some skylights that they presumed had been replaced with metal roofing were in fact just painted black (apparently a war-time move meant to prevent light escaping). When they stripped off the paint, they found some large panels of stained glass, which were restored. To say it was transformative is an understatement. Every time I go in there, I look up.

[webenda]

Southern Railway coach car 829 was built in 1949 for the Southern Railway. It is still operational.


This 52 seat lightweight coach was built by the Budd Company in 1949 for the Southern Railway.


It was part of the train my wife and I were on while in Chattanooga.