December 2013 Newsletter - Nor Cal Division

Richard White Editor

December 2013

The Newsletter of the Northern California Division of the Train Collectors Association

Check out the latest Tinplate Times at http://www.tinplatetimes.com/

See the Nor-Cal Express in FULL COLOR @ www.norcaltca.com

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Bob Nichelini #81-16938 As many of you may have heard, Bob Spivock is unable to continue as Chairperson of the CalStewart. Bob has been the “glue” that held the Cal -Stewart together for many years. Rickey Renfro, who diligently operated the Registration Desk is moving to Washington State and will not be available to help with the 2014 meet. The Cal Stewart requires a significant level of volunteerism to deal with the Convention Center, prepare and distribute advertising material, coordinate with display and layout providers, process registrations, make table assignments, etc. As of right now, we have no one to perform many of these critical tasks. Due to the lack of sufficient volunteers, Nor Cal Board Members met to decide upon a course of action. At that meeting Michael Andrews agreed to continue working with the Convention Center and coordinate other Cal Stewart preparation activities. Mark Boyd will handle advance table registration. In order to reduce the workload, there will be no advance registration this year except for table purchases. Meet admission for Nor Cal members will be by presentation of your 2014 Membership Card -- Cal Stewart admission is included in your Nor Cal dues. A member’s spouse/domestic partner and/or minor children will be admitted free if accompanied by the Nor Cal member. Non Nor-Cal members and the public will pay admission fees at the door. That said, we still need volunteers for various Nor-Cal wishes to thank Mike Raymond for his securing a $50.00 donation to Nor-Cal TCA from the Redwood Empire Train Show/Sonoma County Home Shows.

assignments – especially the Registration Desk. IF YOU CAN VOLUNTEER TO KEEP THE CAL-STEWART GOING, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDAITELY. My telephone number and email are listed below. December 4th is our annual Christmas – Holiday Meet with lunch provided for members and their immediate family, immediately following the trading session. In accordance with our longstanding tradition, only Nor-Cal members and their immediate family may participate in the meet and lunch. There continues to be lot of discussion at the National level regarding the impact of the recent dues increase. However, the National Headquarters cannot operate on a deficit basis, paying out more for member services than it takes in. Even with the increase, the dues are less than $1.00 per week -- Skip one Starbucks double-latte and you have saved enough money for one month’s dues. Bob Nichelini, President 510 547-1278 email: [email protected]

UPCOMING NOR-CAL MEETS December 14– The Christmas Meet, with lunch, for all Nor-Cal members and their families only. January 11, February 8, April 12– all at the Lafayette Veterans Hall May 11– In Sacramento

HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED AT THE ONTARIO CAL-STEWART

This was the second year that the TTOS-sponsored Cal-Stewart was held at the Ontario Convention Center (you may recall that the administration of the Pasadena Convention Center encouraged TTOS to move out). There was a large crowd (maybe a bit smaller than last year), with a fantastic display of “Gatsby Era” Lionel Standard Gauge sets, with super-rare items, and many operating layouts, and of course, lots of trains for sale.

ITEMS SEEN AT THE SEPTEMBER 14 MEET First, the “Show-n’-Tell” items

At left: These two large tin floor toy locomotives, circa 1910-1915, were brought in by Fred Auda. Above: Gary Espinosa is having a look at one of the locomotives. Cliff Jarrard in background. At left, below: These are Stewart Armstrong’s custom-painted Lionel #221 loco, Alco diesel and observation car Below: Gary Espinosa brought in this small Bing locomotive, pre-WW1. It’s a 2-2-0, not an 0-4-0!

At left: This Dorfan loco (see set in the Sept. Express) sold on eBay recently for $255! Very rare! At right: This Marklin station (repro?) was at the Ontario Cal-Stewart.

And now some table views:

Ives Wide-Gauge passenger cars and more...

Lionel Standard Gauge 500-series cars (front row and third row) and 200-series cars (second row)

MTH model of the unsuccessful Chesapeake and Ohio steam turbine. C & O had three locos, intended to pull a new Washinton DC- Cincinatti streamliner, the Chessie, which was cancelled. The locos were scrapped in 1950.

Lionel #5340 Hudson locomotive

Fleishmann stationary steam boiler, etc.

Home-built or kit-built trolley car (top) and interurban cars, O-gauge.

Marx large lithographed freight platform. This is a Standard Gauge item if there ever was one!

Reminder! Bring your trains to the Christmas Meet to sell! This is the best meet of the year to buy and sell– it must be the Christmas Spirit??

INTERESTING ITEMS OFFERED FOR SALE ON EBAY

Look at the loco. There’s something odd about it. It seems to be a hand-built amalgam of Ives and Lionel parts, with handmade “hoods” and frame extensions, and an early Lionel motor. And the NYC emblem appears to be glued-on paper. The seller had no clue about the set. Note also the postwar knuckle couplers on the cars! Very ealy Ives No. 1 “Mohawk” set (from the name on the coach), O gauge. Circa 1903-04. The loco is lithographed tinplate.

Pre WWI Bing Destination Sign for stations.

At left: Pre-WWI tinplate O-gauge caboose (New York Central and Hudson River RR) from the series of cars Marklin made in the 1910’s for the American market- the Heintz 57 Varieties, Fruit Growers Express, New York Central, Arizona Tank Lines, United Fruit and others. The caboose is all hand painted and lettered and among the most difficult to find in this series of cars.

ITEMS SEEN AT THE OCTOBER 12 MEET SHOW ‘N TELL: For the Halloween theme, Mark Boyd brought in this Lionel Fundimensions 1982 Black Cave Flyer set (#6-1254), which includes the table cover, the cardboard backdrop/tunnel mouths, and miscellaneous items such as the dynamite loader. Scary!!

Items Seen at the October Meet (continued)

Page 7 SHOW ‘N TELL: Again, with

a Halloween (“orange”) theme, the photo shows (1) Mike Andrews’ Lionel O-gauge 254E loco with matching 605 and 606 cars, circa 1930-32, restored some years ago by your Editor (2) In the vackground, Richard Zanotti’s O-gauge Bing “London Underground” loco along with a Carrette operating mail car, and (3) the set box lid for the Black Cave Flyer.

Table Sale: This US Army Hospital Train is in HO gauge, by AHM/ Rivarossi,and includes a “US” (actually NYC) Hudson locomotive.

SEEN AT THE NOVEMBER MEET

This is Mater Model-Maker Ira Keeler’ latest creation. It’s a Standard Gauge Model T pickup, track inspection car. This is crafted from aluminum, with a Lionel can motor custom-adapted for this application, and McCoy wheels. Ira has an order for another one, and may make more, if there is demand.

Note: Your editor’s camera focus feature failed to operate properly at this meeting, resulting in a number of out-offocus, unusable photos. The items with unusable photos were: Show N’ Tell: (1) Will Taylor’s new Lionel ZW transformer (700W output, and many cool features (2) Jack D’Angelo’s vintage tin toys– submarine, etc. (3) Mark Boyd’s postwar military items, including a very rare flatcar with a U.S. Marines helicopter, and an uber-rare rare FA Alco diesel locomotive– #221 Santa Fe (someone offered one on eBay recently for $5,000!). Also, Table items of interest included (1) Bill Smith’s antique kerosene wall lamp (brass) (2) Bob Morris’ boxed prewar Marx set, which included a lithographed steam locomotive and accessories, tunnel, and more. Bob obtained this at the recent York Meet. Your Editor has resolved the problem with his camera and there should be no problems in the future. Apologies!

Just Trains Largest Selection in the East Bay Friendly help for the young and the young at heart

O-Scale, Hi-Rail and Tinplate, G, HO and N 9650-H Imhoff Drive, Concord Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00 PM Joan Saunders, Owner Sunday 12-4:00 PM Website: www.just-trains.com (925) 685-6566 FAX: (925) 685-7997

Submit address and email changes to: Mark Boyd, E-mail: [email protected]