toy train Archives - The Silicon Underground

Skyline tin buildings

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 08 May 2020 12:00:06 +0000

In the 1940s and 1950s, Skyline of Philadelphia manufactured and marketed a line of toy train-oriented building kits. Actually, there were two lines: One was a line of building kits made of cardstock and wood, and one was a smaller

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The copper piece on a locomotive

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 11:00:40 +0000

I get a lot of inquiries about “the copper piece on a locomotive.” They mean a toy train locomotive. Depending on the make of the train, there may be one copper piece on the motor, or there may be two.

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Vintage tin litho buildings

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 12:00:46 +0000

Years ago, I decided I wanted to take a different approach with my trains. I heard about a guy in Springfield who has a traditional toy train layout with no plastic on it. I wanted to see if I could

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Selling Marx trains

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:00:01 +0000

Since my advice on selling other makes of trains was popular, I thought I would give similar advice on selling Marx trains. Marx never got the respect that its competitors got, but its trains have built up a following over the years,

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Cleaning electrical contacts with Everclear

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 11:00:24 +0000

When I was 19 or 20, I paid a visit to my old grade school to do some computer repair. My fifth-grade teacher dropped in, saw me cleaning up the contacts on a circuit board, and asked why I wasn’t

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Don’t use lamp oil as smoke fluid in Lionel trains

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 29 May 2015 11:00:43 +0000

Every so often, the topic of lamp oil as a cheap substitute for smoke fluid in Lionel and Marx trains comes up. The topic has been beaten to death on many closed message groups, but finding the answer isn’t always

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Another creative source for S gauge figures: Liberty Falls Americana

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 11:00:41 +0000

In the 1990s, there was a brand of collectible village called Liberty Falls Americana, made by a company called International Resource Services and sold in department stores. The figures are stamped “IRS” on the bottom. The product line consisted of

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Painting model figures in five easy steps

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:00:39 +0000

Painting model figures for train layouts is a task that few toy train hobbyists relish, but we can borrow techniques from other hobbies to solve that problem. The model railroading and toy train hobbies have solved a lot of problems

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Why you can’t get a $50 replacement sound/control board for your modern Lionel train

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 11:00:29 +0000

Every so often, some people start raging on the train forums, or even in the pages of the magazines, about modern electronics in modern O gauge trains. The modern electronics make the model trains sound just like real trains, but

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How to write reviews without getting sued

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 19 May 2014 11:00:24 +0000

In a well publicized incident that happened earlier this month, someone who wrote a bad review on Amazon about a cheap router got threatened with a lawsuit by the router’s distributor, Mediabridge. Amazon retaliated by banning the distributor from selling

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