Rob's Heimat Holiday

Woodsy,

Just for fun, here are pix of a few German HO scale houses I've decided to take to Goodwill. 

I've had them for years, and frankly, I need the space! No train layout anymore, so I have to be discerning on what I keep.

 All of these hail from the 1960's, although some of the builds are more recent.

Rob C

USA

Scooby Doo Toy Train Sets

When I was looking in to the big and expensive Lionel Scooby Doo train set models, I discovered a couple of other sets. All plastic, these look to be much simpler and cheaper. They also look to be a lot more fun, and have a good selection of accessories.

What does Scooby Doo have to do with railways ? Well, they probably appeared in a few episodes, which is enough of a link for most toy companies.

Boley - Where the action is !

The Cartoon Network - Scooby Doo ! Train Set came in '2 Assorted Styles - Collect Them Both !'. '18 Piece Playset - Wind-up Action'. Made in China. Copyright date on the box 1999. Since both sets use the same box, they have the same catalogue number - No.51103.

These were clearly aimed at younger children. The box says 'For Ages 5 and Up'. The front of the large window-box showed off the contents, while both sets were shown set-up on the back, along with a list of contents:

1 Mini Wind-up Train (it is a locomotive - two different styles - wind-up knob on the left side)

1 detachable trailer (they mean wagon or carriage, although car would be the American term - one is a small passenger carriage, the other looks to be a mine wagon - perfect for an old haunted gold mine)

6 piece self-assembled train track (4 curves, and 2 straights)

4 playscene accessories (plastic buildings)

2 paper accessories

6 figures - Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and (I think) Scrappy Doo.

If you count the 'paper accessories' that is actually 20 pieces.

These were clearly not aimed at serious model railway enthusiasts, with wind-up engines, and plastic tracks. The accessories are great, and include the essential Haunted Mansion, Windmill, Water Mill, fountain with cherub, food stall, Railway station with clock tower, level crossing, and a single tunnel mouth, spread across the two sets.

The figures, tracks, and paper accessories are common to both sets. The trains and buildings are different. The colour schemes are a suitably spooky black and purple, with a little ghostly ectoplasm green.

All Four photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

IT WAS A CASE OF DRAGGING DOWN A BLUEBIRD BOX WITH COMBAT MAN FROM THE ATTIC!

 I've been rummaging in the attic and dragged out a few bits.

This is a nice 1983 Buebird Toys plastic carry case. I remember buying it at Thorpe Arch car boot sale a couple of years ago, full of MASK figures and toys [since sold on].

Very dirty but since cleaned up, the case is a sort of large lunch box. It must have been for storing Bluebird toys at the time. I've read that it was part of a Masters of the Universe competition prize as well but 1983 and its toys passed me by I'm afraid, as I was trudging round the mountains of Snowdonia most of that year just prior to becoming a Dad!

Is this case something you remember?

This is a large talking Thunderbird 2 from 1999. It could be Vivid Imaginations. It says Carlton on it. I got it for Junior last year in a charity shop but he's sort of moved away from Thunderbirds onto Pokemon and Nintendo Switch.

I added a home-made roller to the pod so it would roll and made sure all the talking and sound effects worked, as well as the spring-loaded legs. Not sure what went inside the pod. Its a big TB2, around 18 inches long. Its best features besides the pod are the opening cockpit and the descending grapple hook. Is this one you had readers?

This one was put away for a future sale, a gorgeous child-size plastic toy hoover from Zodiac Toys, which I bought on Doncaster second hand market a few years back.

I fixed the battery unit and once working it roared like a hoover, filled the bag with air and the front lit up just like the proper big one we had when I was a nipper!

Its great to see a Zodiac Toys price tag again. It was one of my favourite toy shops in Preston in the 1960's and early 1970's. That red ZODIAC lettering is so memorable!

Do you recall Zodiac Toys readers?

The last toy I dusted off was this Combat Man military Train Set, which I bagged a few years back at a boot sale, whilst on holiday.

It was the box art that drew me in first, very reminiscent of Action Man or Airfix toy soldier boxes.

Maybe Combat Man was a brand?

I had to replace two train wheels and an axle with home-made ones so it could run and also gave it a new cellophane box lining.

It looks great chugging round its circular track, the Special Forces livery flashing by.

I've just noticed the loco has a front light too!

Have you anything like this readers, a military train?

HO HO HO REPAIR SHOP BY ROB

Not sure if this is too far off-topic for the blog, but I wanted to share this latest model with you. It’s an HO scale repair shed from Pola of Western Germany, circa 1965, and I think it came out pretty nice. I even tried a little light weathering on it. A nostalgic kit from my childhood, redone!

Rob C

CT

USA

Ed's 2024 Christmas Tree and Train Display

Woodsy,

Every year I try to do something a bit different with the holiday layouts. This year I wanted two things:

- I wanted a Hogwarts Express

- I wanted to try and use some of my larger buildings, just to see how they would fit on the small 4'x6' table I have

The Hogwarts Express turned out to be a fail. I bought Lionel's cheapest, bottom of the line, battery operated set and it just wasn't suitable for what I had in mind. 

While the engine and cars were able to ride on 3-rail O-gauge track their bodies were more compatible with the smaller S-scale trains. Also, Lionel's cheapest version is also not an accurate copy of the real Hogwarts Express. 

The toy is an A1/A3 class 2-6-2 with 4-wheel tender while the real one is a Hall class 4-6-0 Pacific with 6-wheel tender. Lionel makes a good O-gauge electric version of the Hogwarts Express but at ca$400 for the set, I had to pass it up this year.

Instead, I opted for my trusted Lionel LionChief Polar Express. I have the early LionChief version with black roofed cars (vs. the simulated snow-covered roofs of later versions). Also, the fireman figure in the early version sets is missing his l-o-n-g red beard as seen in the movie. 

Later versions of the set corrected this error. I also acquired the last car Lionel made for this particular series. The boxed set included an engine, tender, and three cars plus Lionel offered four separate sale cars making for a 7-car consist. I was missing the diner car - aka the hot cholate car - and now I have it.

The larger sized buildings worked great and look just fine with the O-gauge train. I was going to add a couple of German Schreiber Bogen large playhouses (cardstock kits) but never got around to assembling them. 

The left side of the layout is a happy mixture of North Pole, Polar Express, Grinch and other figures and accessories as well as the large buildings.

 The right side of the layout is a forest. It could probably use some figures to make it more of an enchanted forest but for now I'm okay with it. 

Quite frankly guys, The Cave has so many Christmas decorations I could turn the entire living room into a Christmas train display!

In past years I used poly fiber batting as snow ground cover. As nice as that stuff looks as 'snow', it's next to impossible to get small figures, tress, and accessories to stand up on it. This year I covered the board with a plain white tablecloth - works just fine!

From The North Pole Vegas Annex

Ed

Enjoy!

Ed's Vegas 2024 Christmas Train Layout - 1st Version

 Woodsy,

While I'm not that big into decorating, I have managed to pull together a few Christmas train layouts over the years - always simple affairs but nice. The granddaughter wanted me to start early this year, so I was dragging stuff out of The Cave by mid-November. 

My first iteration of the layout used a really cheap battery-operated Hogwarts Express for which I've attached photos here. Since then, the layout has changed and now I'm running an early version of Lionel's 'Polar Express' ('early version' means the cars don't have the simulated snow on the roofs), and I've moved the buildings around some. 

I need to take photos of the final layout after which I'll send some more pics.

From The North Pole Vegas Annex

Ed

Will's Rovex Model Electric Train

Hi Woodsy, 

I bought this original Rovex train set the other day.

 It's long been known that the original cellulose acetate used was prone to distortion, but I'd never seen one as wonderfully bad as this one! 

You?

 Will O

UK

THE MINI ANASTASIA TRAIN SET BY BURGER KING

I came across this wonderful mini train set, and thought it would be of interest to all those readers who like to combine Christmas and toy trains. The top of the locomotive and all the carriages being topped with snow.

Anastasia was a 20th Century Fox animated movie, which came out in 1997. It was based - pretty loosely by the looks of it - on the life of Grand Duchess Anastasia (youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II), who was rumoured to have survived the murder of her family following the Russian Revolution in 1917.

The Burger King fast food chain released a series of toys to go with the film, and this mini train set was one of them. It is powered by a single AA battery which fits inside the locomotive.

There are six pieces of black plastic track (four curved, and two straight), which clip together. The track even includes moulded ballast.

The train consists of a locomotive, with a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement. The toy actually runs on four small wheels hidden in the underside.

There is a tender; a passenger carriage; and finally a guard's van (caboose). Manufactured by Equity Marketing, Inc., Los Angeles, California, but Made in China.

The underside of the locomotive says MFG for BKC - TM & © 1997 FOX - MADE IN CHINA. This is followed by a group of letters and numbers I cannot read.

Oddly, there is no mention of Burger King anywhere on the packaging. The instructions for changing the battery are printed on the back of the box.

This You Tube video shows the set in action. It also gives an idea of just how tiny the set is - the oval of track being about 18 inches across.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=UzH6wHLNizI

A great looking toy.

Six photographs from Worthpoint and Ebay.

Paul Adams from New Zealand's Summer

Did you Fall Asleep During Night sleeper?

 Me and the Missus are watching the Beeb's new train drama, Night sleeper. It's a hack-jacking, a new word on me.

It reminded me of other train dramas, always a difficult job to pull off for any TV or film maker I bet.

There's Speed of course, the runaway train starring Tom Cruise Control. Or is it Keanu Neo Reeves? I forget. It went too fast.

Then there are things I've not seen like the zombie ride Train to Busan and the sci-fier Snowpiercer.

My favourite train-based efforts are all horror flicks: Death Line, set in the London Tube; Creep,not dissimilar to Death Line and my number one, Horror Express, with Kojak himself, Telly Savalas. A great film about a regenerating monster aboard a trans-Siberian express.

An honorable mention has to go to Quatermass and the Pit too, set as it is on the London Underground.

And so to Night Sleeper. Episode 1 wasn't great to be honest. It seemed as if adults were talking and behaving like teenagers. It felt juvenile, clunky and probably worst of all for a disaster film, tensionless. Did you see it?

What's your favourite - or worst - train related TV or movie readers? 

LIONEL'S SCOOBY DOO TRAIN SET

I recently came across a Scooby Doo train set by Lionel. When I went looking for further details, I discovered it was not the only one. But more on the others next time.

Probably the biggest name in American model railways, Lionel are best known for their O Gauge models. Many of them have working features. Note that American O Gauge is 1/48th scale, while British O Gauge is 1/43rd. The models are very large, and very expensive.

This is a fairly modern range, from 2018. There is a basic train set, with various extra cars (wagons) available separately.

6-85241 The Mystery Machine FT LionChief Set with Bluetooth. LionChief is the control system.

This includes the EMD FT Diesel Electric engine - with sounds and working headlights - painted up as The Mystery Machine. The engine number is 1969, the year the Scooby Doo cartoon made its debut. There are three freight cars (wagons) decorated with scenes and characters from the Scooby Doo cartoon, a transformer, controller, and 40 x 60 inch oval of track.

The wagons are a plain box car or goods van, with 'Would You Do It For Some Scooby Snacks ?' on the sides. An open goods wagon or gondola car, with a load of crates, which has an animated feature: a monster chases Shaggy and Scooby Doo around. Finally, a caboose, or brake van, which lights up.

The extra models are:

6-85323 Scooby Doo Boxcar, with opening doors

1928360 Scooby Doo Aquarium Car, another animated model

1928590 Happy Birthday Scooby Doo Sound Box Car

There is also a model building:

85269 Scooby Doo Sam Witches Cafe - lighted interior

I do not know if this is the entire line, as American O Gauge model trains are not my usual subject.

Here is a You Tube video showing the engine, and two of the extra cars. It shows their special features, including sound effects, in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVCA61K9xY

Unboxing and test run video of the basic set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRyTpvkiZXY

Ten photographs, all from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand