Standard Gauge Trains in Action
 

Check out this YouTube video of Dorfan standard gauge trains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqBf...ature=youtu.be

The freight cars are originals, the rest of the cars and engines are reproductions. Dorfan engines were made of a pot metal that had impurities like a lot of pot metal from that period. They would expand or crumble apart after a couple of years. I have never seen a real Dorfan engine that did not have some type of deterioration.

Nice! Gotta love a clean running Model Train layout. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Nice! We got our kids an LGB train set - I think it was G gauge. Is this a larger gauge or similar? Fun stuff.
Tom

cool vid, thanks for sharing !

Tom, 'G' Gauge, also known as Garden Gauge, Gauge 1 is larger in scale but I believe the actual track gauge is about the same. The old Standard gauge, tin plate stuff was never about accurate scale, rather toy like.

Standard or wide gauge is roughly the same size as G gauge. But the sizes really varied back then. You could have passenger cars that were 22" long and others that were 10" inches. The only thing that really mattered was the distance between the wheels. Even coupler height varied. Lionel had cars with two different coupler heights for their trains back then. The 500 series for smaller trains and the 200 series for larger ones

Here is a video of a reproduction Lionel State set with full interior. Even the toilet seats in the bathrooms go up and down. My wife says that it is like a doll house on wheels.

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

:banana::banana::banana:

Joshua Lionel Cohen was a marketing genius. Instead of making his trains in one of the common gauges of the period. He came out with a new gauge, 2 1/8" and he called it standard gauge. Thus implying that all other gauges were non standard. And by the mid 1920's most electric train manufacturers in America were making trains in his new gauge. And standard gauge trains are grand looking in their bright colors with the nickle and brass trim. Like classic cars of the time. They also take a lot of room to run and they are very heavy. A kid would have a very hard time lifting one of the bigger engines like the 400E. The state set with four cars is around 10 feet long.

Was always fascinated by the train hobby although never got involved in it myself. I'll never forget the layout that took up the whole attic at a house I visited with my parents once when I was a teenager, it was for sale and we were looking for a house at the time. Needless to say I liked the idea of moving into that house! That layout was supposedly staying with the house... It must have been at least 20x20ft with every imaginable detail built into it. Supposedly the guy passed and his wife didn't have the heart to tear it down as it was his passion for many, many years. It was a whole town with many, many trains. Wow!

Now here's some standard gauge action, the mighty NW 'J' 611 struggling to 'make the grade', listen for the 'wheel slip' starting around the 4 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/XFlN7m-Mpcg

Santa Fe "Super Chief" 1954 educational film :thumbsup:

https://youtu.be/DyY316jMahY