As a blogger, at the moment, I need a rest from those bureaucracies which I find so exasperating, and perhaps visa versa. I suppose it would be a good time to stop and reminisce some more about trains, both model and real. Shown above was the real deal when the 0 gauge was king. Before I go too far, let me state that growing up I never had a train. For a few years I had a friend whose father, looking back, was rather obsessed with the hobby. He had the transformer shown. It was 275 watts, and could operate four trains and an assortment of accessories. For many years, Bloch's Hobby Store, in the 400 block of 7th Street, was a model train expert. Trains were also sold at Pollard's Firestone Tire Store, also on 7th Street.
I've presented a number of Barber Quarry branch line photographs in previous posts. The one below shows the siding at the former Traylor Engineering Plant on S. 10th Street, now owned by the AEDC. About 20 years ago the track was removed for the entire length of the former rail line.
photogragh by Mark Rabenold, 1987reprinted from April of 2013
Happy Holiday’s Michael,
ReplyDeleteThat’s the coveted ZW transformer made by the Lionel Corporation. This was the power behind the iconic Lionel Trains. Pollard’s on north 7th St. was my hangout as a youngster. The train area was towards the back of the store and had all the latest Lionel trains and accessories. The two gentlemen that waited on you were very knowledgeable about the repair of trains and were eager to share their knowledge. Roy Laube was the older guy and Larry Wotring was the other. Larry had a great layout in the basement of his home up in Schnecksville. I was lucky enough to be invited to visit and view it several times.
Unfortunately, Larry passed away 3 or 4 years ago and his trains were sold at auction.
On a happier note every little boy had on their Christmas wish list a Lionel or American Flyer train set… back in the day.
Right you are Erich. I grew up in NYC and our train place was also a tire store....other than Macy's, etc. That famed ZW transformer is still running trains on thousands of layouts throughout the county. Only now, the kids are granpas. :)
DeleteTo The Commenter from NYC,
DeleteThe Holy Grail of train stores was in New York City…Madison Hardware. That store had everything Lionel. It was run by the Shur brothers that had a direct pipeline to the Lionel Factory that was located in Hillside NJ. Anything that you would need or want for your train “They had It”!!!
On a side note: was out this week visiting train layouts or as the Pennsylvania Dutch folks used to call them… “ A Train Putz”. Most of the fellows that put up the trains at Christmas or on a permanent basis are in their 60’s to 80’s. Don’t know if the youngsters of today will have the same feelings for trains as the baby boomers did.
Traylor Engineering had their own yard and switcher .
ReplyDelete