Presents!

This past week we went off to see Mrs Hades family the way we did last year, and even though the rain canceled the fireworks we had a good 4th of July party there. While we were there we went to Ohio to see her Grammy, and her aunt gave me a box full of trains that had taken up space in the basement since whichever cousin it was that had them lost interest in them.

When we returned to Pennsylvania her mother added a small bag full of trains that one of her dad's brothers had lost interest in many many years ago as well. I didn't get a chance to look through them at all while I was there because the 4th is a big to-do for them so they kept me busy. They stayed in the box until we returned home, at which point I was able to unpack them and check them out.

The first thing you will notice (besides the fact my kitchen is a disaster and needs a good cleaning) is they are all HO. Other than that, the first set pictured above is a Cragstan set made by Distler of West Germany (yes kids, once there were two) sometime in the 50's. This is the set that came from Pennsylvania and included the locomotive, two freight cars, the caboose, a bag full of track and the battery controller (with no batteries, thankfully). The locomotive is interesting in that its electric motor was connected to the two drive wheelsets by way of rubber bands. Other than the fact that one band is missing and the other is completely dysfunctional the set is actually in pretty good shape, the battery terminals are not corroded and the track is all there and in good repair. The motor in the locomotive works as well, so as soon as I can find some suitable rubber bands it should run.

The controllers to the left are identical except for the name imprinted upon them, one is a Tyco and the other is an AHM. They were both included in the set from Ohio pictured below and they both work beautifully.

This AHM set was from the mid 70's and featured an EMD GP-18 locomotive and four freight cars plus the caboose. There were also a handful of buildings in the box with this set; a barn, farmhouse (with two-holer out house), chicken coop (the picture doesn't show a roof on it, but it was there), windmill, stable, and even a dog house. There was also a station with passenger platform, a dairy bar and an interlocking tower. Two bags of people and animals and a bundle of telephone poles were also found in the bag. All of the parts to the structures were there, along with a few extras. There was a box of curved AHM track and a box of straight AHM track, all brass rails, plus a pair of Atlas 90 degree crossovers and a single bumper (but no turnouts at all), pictured below. Everything was in good shape and fully operational, although there were a few tie ends broken off some of the track pieces (undoubtedly from assembling and disassembling the trestle set).

The caboose was unfortunately missing its rear truck and one set of wheels on the front truck, but the rest of the cars were in great shape. The farmhouse seemed to be a bit big, and a few of the people and animals seemed to be a little oversized as well, but that might be just my perspective as an N scaler. The locomotive ran good in forward and reverse, although it did take a bit of persuasion to move the first time. A good cleaning and lube job should have it in tip top shape immediately.

There was a couple of extra walls for the station, what looks like a billboard with the date of 1957 on it, and a few miscellaneous unidentified pieces as well. The square piece underneath what looks like a bit of fencing turned out to be the roof of the chicken coop, so all the structures were more or less complete. The barn has a broken wall which should be easily repaired and there is a single stool missing from the dairy bar, other than that just a few signs on the station and interlocking tower and a broken mounting pin for the windmill fan are the only issues with the structures.

The only thing that appears to be missing from the otherwise complete bridge and trestle set is the deck for the bridge itself, although the bridge sides may have been designed to just snap onto the sides of a straight piece of track.

Since the trains all belonged to family members I am loath to dispose of them even though they are Horribly Oversized, so we will probably end up making something to put under the tree for Christmas. I was just glad to see everything more or less complete and in good shape given their age.