Blast from the past... Lionel and Wilesco.... ahhh the memories

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Well it's that time of year when we harken back to our days of youth and having my son for the last 5 days has allowed me to revisit my past with some of my old toys. We set up the old Lionel steam set under the tree, then we got out the old Wilesco steam engine and fired that up...don't remember it running that long when I was a kid...it ran for 10 minutes on one load of fuel and water. Can you just smell those Esbit tablets? Mmmm. youth.  Oh, that reminds me forgot to put oil in the stack of the train...forgot it has the smoke option. All of this memorobialia underneath a tree we cut on our own property, decorated with antique ornaments and lights from my parents and grandparents...man..life is good!

How many of you guys had the Lionel or Marx trains sets and Wilesco steam engines?  Any old Christmas decorations up at your QTH?

Merry Christmas from slightly left of Vernon, BC

Paul
VE7KHz

[WA1GFZ]

Yup had a train set. My brother still has his and a few of my old cars.
I decided to take apart all the electrical part of my set. Yup was a crazy thing to do.
Buddy across the street had one of those steam engines. We red lined it with a wood fire and lots of motor oil.

[Mike/W8BAC]

Paul,

What are

Esbit tablets

Is that fuel for the steam engine? Mine used petroleum jelly, or is that the pill you pushed down the steam engine stack?

Thanks for the memories.

Mike

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Setting up Christmas train displays was big in the Baltimore area. Called them train gardens.

http://www.wvmgrs.org/TrainGardens.htm#Baltimore

HOLIDAY TRAIN GARDEN TRADITIONS

Holiday train gardens have been a tradition in Baltimore, particularly in firehouses, since the late 1800s. Until the 1950s, every firehouse in Baltimore displayed their train gardens throughout December and into the beginning of January. Many firehouses gradually stopped doing the displays as their work and hours changed. Today there are only a handful of firehouses that have train gardens, but many people in Baltimore display train gardens under their trees, maintaining the tradition.

Holiday gardens are unique to Baltimore because the tradition descended from the Moravians who immigrated to American and settled in Pennsylvania and parts of Baltimore two centuries ago.  Their holiday gardens were slightly different in that they had a religious context.

Moravian gardens were basically Nativity scenes displayed under the Christmas tree throughout the season to remember the first Christmas. It is thought that these gardens had roots in Rome where refugees chiseled scenes connected to the birth of Christ in rocks and walls.

The Moravian gardens were named “putz” after garden parties. When the Moravians moved to the Baltimore area, the gardens began to change. Baltimoreans loved their gardens but wanted more than a religious scene. In the late 1800s, Baltimoreans were getting more involved with electric motors and designers wanted trains circling their gardens. Firefighters utilized the gardens as a way to bring holiday spirit to the community, especially to those who wouldn’t have much at Christmas. The gardens included churches, waterfalls, houses, stores, flowers, and many other symbols to represent the town. During difficult times, the train gardens were thought to represent an ideal world.
                                                                       
The original train gardens were handmade of wood, paper and cardboard. As the gardens became popular, they expanded. The firefighters began using themes based on the year’s events. Thousands of visitors came to see the gardens and many would donate money. The firefighters would use that money to make the gardens bigger and better every year. Some stations charged a small fee to raise money while others relied on donations.  Many times fire fighters would donate this money to a local charity.

There are several fire companies today that take pride in their elaborate train gardens such as the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company in Dundalk.  Fire fighters often begin working on the garden during the summer months when they have time to design and create. Gardens include fires, water pumps, traffic lights, cars, and require considerable wiring. Many gardens have gotten so large that fire engines need to be moved outside.

     Since 1986, the Fire Museum of Maryland has hosted a train garden designed by volunteers.  Visitors will be delighted by the 1940's style, O27 trains and O-gauge track of this large display.

During the holiday train garden opening, America’s premier collection of fire fighting apparatus will also be on display.  The collection contains 40 fire engines dating from 1806 to 1957, audio guide tours of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, working fire alarm office, children’s discovery room where they can dress up as a firefighter and sit behind the wheel of a 1938 Mack fire engine, museum store and more.

 The Museum is located one block north of exit 26B, off of York Road. For information, call 410-321-7500 or visit www.firemuseummd.org.

[WA1GFZ]

Those little fuel pills didn't last and no BTWs. We saw too many Westerns and used a real fire. That little slider valve would lift right off the base plate when the pressure was just right. You had to squirt oil at the piston of it would seize. If that fly wheel ever came off it would kill you.

[W3RSW]

Steve,
Thanks for the info and link to elaborate area garden listings.

Yeah, my wife's from Baltimore. She particularly liked the Christmas garden out towards Westminster. She can't remember which one exactly but perhaps your listing will jog her memory.

Merry Christmas, ya'll.

Oh, meant to add I have some Lionel running stock left over from youth as well as some added later in the mid '60's. All post war. The first set's remnants include 226 Prarie loco and freight cars.. whistle tender and tin plate Pennsy caboose.  The Pennsy cars have '41 markings but sold as first set right after WWII, late '45 but with modern electric couplings (the ones with magnet wire wrapped on every coupling and shoes to engage a special piece of track.) Those electric couplers later morphed into coupling shoes attracted to a central electromagnet in the special piece of track.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Paul,

What are

Esbit tablets

Is that fuel for the steam engine? Mine used petroleum jelly, or is that the pill you pushed down the steam engine stack?

Thanks for the memories.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Yes, those are the little white solid fuel pellets, about 1"x1/2"x1/4". You put two in the boiler burner holder, lit them and then shoved them under the boiler.  Today with my 7 year old boy, I cheated and heated the water for the boiler, in the microwave to give it a head start..which I now realize, why I got so much time out of the two tablets... .

Frank, you had me almost on the floor with laughter thinking about the speed at which the wheel was spinning. I can just see you with the Ronson Butane torch on the end of the boiler. Kind of like running 2KV on 813's.     Michael and I had the thing spinning pretty good  and used the whistle a bit a had a blast.  It was fun having the Lionel running around under the tree and the steam engine humming along side the tracks.

Yes, the memories of childhood are things I cherish.

Cheers

Paul

[k4kyv]

I still have my American Flyer electric train made by A.C. Gilbert Co.  The variable transformer is gone, though.  Used it as a variable a.c. source when I first started playing with electricity.  That xfmr got more usage than the train ever did.  The only other thing missing is some of  the track sections.  I only ran it a half dozen times or so, because there was no space to permanently set it up.  I'm sure it could be easily restored.

[KC4KFC]

My Dad has a great set of American Flyer trains. Even the talking station with the record player inside. Man, great fun. We used to hold down the momentary controls for the switches so they would smoke. I even re-wound one of those coils for the solenoids. Two rail track, too! Great quality!

So anybody else using their Variac for their Xmas tree lights? I think the old style bulbs look great at 75 volts. My wife turned em up to 140 volts. She likes them bright. Until I explained it might not be a good idea.

Happy Holidays!

[VE7 Kilohertz]

So anybody else using their Variac for their Xmas tree lights? I think the old style bulbs look great at 75 volts. My wife turned em up to 140 volts. She likes them bright. Until I explained it might not be a good idea.
Happy Holidays!

Yes, I used to use the variac for the old tree lights until it got relegated for under cabinet kitchen light dimmer duty. I now use an extension cord modified with a 1N5408 in one leg of it to provide DC at about 70 VDC. Works great and is a cheap fix for dimming bulbs, and being DC, the filaments should last and loooonnnggggg time. Do the same thing with the outdoor lights except I use a big bridge rectifier mounted to a steel electrical box for heatsink. Powering around 6 strings of lights each. 

Last year, instead of using Christmas lights outside, I made up strings of "lights" using old 2A3's I had laying around and ran just the filaments for a nice radio holiday glow.

Merry Christmas

Paul

[nq5t]

Great photo!  I had exactly THAT steam engine, and a monster American Flyer train arrangement that my Dad and I built in the basement -- complete with the "engineer's" position in a hole in the center (had to crawl under the train tables to get to it).  I still remember the smell of those little plastic ampules that had the "smoke" liquid in them.

One of many cousins eventually got all of the trains.  I can only hope they've been cared for, but doubt it.  The steam engine just vanished, like so many things -- the first crystal set, the Ocean Hopper, the BC-455 that served as my first station receiver, the BC-312N that was its replacement.  The one thing I still have is the Heath V7-A I built when I was 12 or 13  -- still works just fine, too

The coming year marks my Golden anniversary as a ham.  Hard to believe it all started so long ago

I suppose today's kids have as much fun with their nose glued to a PSP?  (Makes me wonder!)

Grant/NQ5T

[W1RKW]

I have my fathers old Lionel O gauge train set from when he was a kid and miles of track, cars and buildings.  It's all packed away. I take it out once a year just to check it.  Everything is wrapped up and sealed in plastic with desiccants.   Also have his Erectors set. The big one with the big metal case.

[WA2TTP Steve]

I had the exact same boiler as a kid back in the fifties, no clue what happened to it. Can you imagine a toy like that being sold today! Open flame, live steam, hot surfaces etc YIKES!!

Also had the Lionel trains and still have the same set. O gauge about 53 years old. I gave allot of buildings and a few cars away when I was teenager. They went to kid next door who didn't have much. I still have the engine, tender, coal car and cabboose. Also 2 transformers, track and a few manual switches. I set it a few times when my kids were small and now have set it up the last two years for my grand children to enjoy. It goes in 4' by 5' run around the base of Christmas tree. They love the laying on floor watching the engine come around and sounding the whistle, the do that allot!!. There careful with it and know to call PopPop if a car goes of the rail.

Merry Christmas to all on the board.

Steve,
WA2TTP

[k4kyv]

I never cared for the Lionel trains, with their three-rail tracks.  Why three rails?  That looks about as bogus as a $3 bill.  To me, a model train, or model anything for that matter, should look as much like the  real thing as possible.

[W3RSW]

Real, if you liked 3 ft. x 3 ft. thick ties spaced 20 ft. apart on a real railroad. Everything's relative, none of the Lionels or Am. Flyers were really to exact scale.  AM's came closest with S guage, but even then clunky compared to, say Athern in HO guage.  The really neat brass locos in true S or O guage, now.. that's scale. But we sure couldn't afford anything like that.  Old guys bought or built that stuff 

Lionel did try to make some equipment in true O scale, say the 703 Hudson I think. They also made some "Scale Detail" stuff in O right after the war but was expensive and only came out in a few boxcars. 
A true O scale loco, tender, baggage car, REA car, couple of coaches, dining car and observation/smoking car would stretch across a whole room.  As you know HO and N were developed to deal with real houses of the period.  Slot cars and faster stuff pretty much wiped out the toy railroads.  That along with the junk that late postwar (Fun Dimension) Lionel produced.

Funny, most of Lionels O scale rolling stock was actually S guage in LOA, width, etc. on O guage trucks.

In the 50's Lionel brought out a phantom third rail, somewhat less visible between true "T" squared outer rails and with more properly scaled and spaced simulated ties.  Called it Super O.  Nowdays they have Truetrack or somesuch with the psuedo ballast already mounted.

[k4kyv]

But what was the purpose of the 3rd  rail?  My old American Flyer used the two rails to conduct electricity to the locomotive via a set of metal wheels.  The cars and locomotive looked real and pretty much to scale, but the size and spacing of the ties were all out of proportion.

I have seen recent displays of model railways where everything, including the tracks and ties, are much closer to scale.  These are mostly for adult hobbyists, and are not kids' toys.  They have whole villages with houses and other buildings to scale.

At one time I had actually considered modifying my tracks by replacing the ties with home made ones built more to scale out of real wood, but I never had that much time on my hands or if I did, by then I preferred to build radios instead.

[W3RSW]

The reason for the third rail was simpler hookups of switches, special dump, logging and cow stations, etc. Fewer insulating pins and less complex wiring were needed.  Engines didn't get confused coming back on a reversal loop, etc.  Polarity wasn't an issue as with two track HO.  The third rail also allowed AC to be used for the locomotive motors and DC superimposed momentarily to the tenders which then could have mobile whistles as opposed to Amer. F'rs. which whistles were stationary and hidden in a station house.  Anyway lot's of city subways use three rail track, the third rail for E pickup runs alongside, I think outside one of the main carrier rails.

But even Lionel had locos with twin pickups sometimes spaced too far apart for more modern switches to handle, hence you'd get a stall or worse. 

I knew a few boys who thought their AM's and Lionels were too klunky for realism and traded them in on HO.  They are now very sorry as adults, since HO stuff was considered not nearly as collectable.  Very similar to trading in you 75A3 on a HW-101.

I see Lionel (recently resurrected) has now come out with tin plate replicas of their famous '30's standard gauage trains.  Very spectacular and well worth the money in this century's dollerettes.
http://www.grahamstrains.com/store/product.php?productid=3350&cat=35&page=1

The Lionel 390E 2-4-2 Steam Locomotive was originally manufactured by Lionel from 1929 to 1933. The #323, 324 and #325 passenger cars were manufactured from 1926 to 1940. When paired together, these made an impressive and magnificent Standard Gauge set.

Lionel has re-produced these Classics and they are just as impressive and magnificent as the originals. The 1-390-E features a durable enamel finish, operating headlight, lots of brass and copper trim pieces, die-cast frame, sheet metal boiler, cab and tender bodies, nickel plated journals and wheels,3-position E-unit for forward-neutral-reverse operation and operating whistle in the tender.

The passenger cars feature stamped sheet metal construction, bright enamel finish, lighted interiors, cream colored window frames and opening doors, brass steps and accents, nickel plated journals, couplers and wheels.

This set was test run one time and then has been displayed on the shelf for its lifetime. There are no marks, scratches rust or other signs of wear. The original boxes and paperwork are included.

 Quantity 1 item(s) available
SKU 5206
Manf Stock #  6-13100, 6-13401, 6-13402, 6-13403 
Condition  New-Test Run 
Box  Yes 
Price: $759.00 

$795 is about $80 in 1964 dollars and well under half that in '39 dollars.  Amazing what this country used to routinely produce.

Grahm's Trains also has a selection of O, S and other stuff for sale. well worth drilling up and down.

[Bill, KD0HG]

I had the exact same boiler as a kid back in the fifties, no clue what happened to it. Can you imagine a toy like that being sold today! Open flame, live steam, hot surfaces etc YIKES!!

There's no better way to be educated!

Anyone remember Lionel audio transformers?

[W3RSW]

Boiler toys are still being sold.  Now use fuel pellets.  price is up of course.  also for sale are little pully driven stuff, generators for lights, etc. to be driven by the steam engine.

As a really dumb (but thought myself smart) kid, my big thing was the kind of stuff you don't tell your parents.  We used to take those big, flimsy plastic jacket and dress covers that came from the drycleaners and hold them over the gas stove in the basement, filled them up, put on the 'payload' and ran them out the basement door for balloon experiments.  Wonder we didn't blow up the house.

Boy, we hams have a lot of youthful experiments in common.  Maybe not the exact same thing but very similar. I used to use train transformers for electro-plating.  Before I knew chemistry, I didn't plate anything, just rusted up a bunch of stuff in salt water.  acclerated corrosion, both poles and mess cause it wasn't DC (Don) 

I think I already told you guys in another post some time ago about going to a movie about ancient Egypt, coming home all hot and bothered about embalming... ooooh, the 'house of death'...  can stil hear the chords, the heavy sonorous music..
 
So I decided to embalm a rabbit, over the same gas stove in the basement.  Yeah, mysterious rich brine (box of salt), stir, say the AEgytpian chants remembered from the movie. . and voila!

My mother yelled down the stairs, "who's cooking meat or something down there, smells good."....
My big embalming bubble, just - oh so slightly burst. -
Kind of embarrasing.

[KL7OF]

My brother got the Lionel electric train...The red and yellow diesel streamliner engine....I held out for a 22 rifle...I had to make it a combo birthday/christmas present that year because it was too expensive...A Montgomery ward "Western field" single shot that cost $12.....I still have it and it is one of the most accurate rifles I own... built my own steam engine as a high school machine shop project....I blew up the boiler a couple times doing stupid kid stuff.....The Lionel is long gone....the steam engine is rusty and busted but still around....I'm gonna shoot that 22 today! 

[W3RSW]

From a lot of toy boiler outfits found on Google.

http://www.ministeam.com/

Here's Pauls and this style might be the one many of you remember.  Still selling them.
http://www.ministeam.com/acatalog/shop.html
Looks like Paul's is now $260.  Wow!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Heard you on 3870 last night with the west coast net.

My brother got the Lionel electric train...The red and yellow diesel streamliner engine....I held out for a 22 rifle...I had to make it a combo birthday/christmas present that year because it was too expensive...A Montgomery ward "Western field" single shot that cost $12.....I still have it and it is one of the most accurate rifles I own... built my own steam engine as a high school machine shop project....I blew up the boiler a couple times doing stupid kid stuff.....The Lionel is long gone....the steam engine is rusty and busted but still around....I'm gonna shoot that 22 today! 

[KL7OF]

Heard you on 3870 last night with the west coast net.

The 75 meter band was long last nite...The Calif guys couldn't hear each other ...The band is long tonite as well...Hearing wa1hlr k4kyv w9a(d) on 3870 right now. 814PM PST...

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I think it's about time for some coast-to-coast action.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the link. That one you have pictured there is the "deluxe" version, with extra details such as railings, brass trim etc. I think the one I have is "only" ~$150. 

Just before I left for my Christmas trip, I was looking for something in the shop (probably my sanity) but instead found a very old steam engine which one of my Dad's friends gave to him in the 60's and back then it was old, and then Dad gave it to me. It's a twin opposed cylinder, like half of a Porsche engine with a seperate boiler and alchohol burner.

I'll post a picture when I get home tonight.

Happy Boxing Day

Paul