Old Antique Toys: It's Not Just the Trains

Saturday, May 3, 2014
(Milder, overcast and rain)

It's not Just About the Trains

I'd recently received permission from Stout Auctions to be able to write about them and of course use their photos. I had sent e-mall before, but being one of the foremost companies isn the USA for auctioning Model trains, my e-mails were most likely dumped automatically in the spam or trash bin.

So "Plan B" was to telephone them, and that worked. I had introduced Stout Auctions to you, but I didn't present trains, I presented unbelievable airplanes. One thing I have learned is that you never know what toys you'll find in real life or on the Net, so always look everywhere, and expect the unexpected in names of auction houses or in remote antique stores all over.

For today, I decided to present a sampling of accessories that go with the trains. Everyone always adores the trains, but if you've ever been to a model train fair, there's so much more to a huge 30' x 60' ( 9.14 M x 18.228 M). There are people figures, animals, handmade rivers, mountains, trees, and of course all of the railroad accessories that accompany railroads.

Please click here to visit this exceptional model railroad auctioneer

What I had always linked about Stout Auctions is of course their special "niche" area of model trains and accessories. However, even more that their trains is their high-quality photography and large-sized photos for upcoming and recently -held auctions.Older actions have smaller-sized images. What's so great about quality photography is that it saves me time in improving them (when I am allowed to). When I select people, collectors, sellers, museums, or auctioneers, photography is not a criteria. I select favourable commentary about people (e.g. ebay) or reputable companies. I always know that with photo-editing software, you can dramatically improve for the better poor-quality images. I won't select anyone who just had terribly-bad photos such as out-of-focus. That you cannot recover!

You can still see these warning shacks and signals all over.

This is a great accessory for a model railroad. In fact I once saw something similar.

What was more interesting was the fact that the model railroad club had all kinds of rusted scraps miniature pieces of metal accompanying the crane. Some model railroaders are serious in their hobby, and authenticity is a priority!

People who collect things often want the accompanying box as well. You will often find the original boxes, because kids (e.g. myself) had to clean up after they used their trains, and what easier and organized way to store trains than putting them back in their boxes. In the above example, you can see that the box is relatively old, since the more recent orange designed box is not there.

This must be a slightly later prepare (WWII) item. You start to see the familiar orange and black colour theme. What also tells you that the item is older is the address. Imagine that you could write,

The Lionel Corporation,

New York, New York, USA

and the item would find its way to the Lionel Corporation.

Another "clue" is the wording "4th class mail".

I don't think that this class of mail exists anymore.

I've seen modern-era structures such as this near my house or on the way to the Montreal International Airport (Formerly called Dorval Airport).

These are super,with their brass reflector heads.

I would hypothesize that this toy is older than the previously boxed one. The more familiar orange and blue colour theme is now appearing on the box.

What's great about most old model trains and their accessories is their condition.

These look like they were just bough yesterday!

Another older item that can be identified by its accompanying box.

Porcelain insulators !

Try to find a modern era accessory with such attention to detail!

I didn't do a 100% improvement to this photo. In whitening the background, I erases some of the globes at the top of these beautiful street lamps. I will redo this ASAP!

The design of these bell signals sure is "old"

What I'm wondering is if they are accurate?

Did "real" bell signals" of that era actually have such large-sized bells?

A certainly very old design!

I like to look at old books and magazines because of the old design, typography, photography, and written material in them In the above old train station, it's the "old artwork". If you view these photos in Blogger's slide mode you will see a larger-sized magnification.

However, I enlarged some of the artwork for you to view.