I had to spent the night at a motel in Sringfield, Oh a few years back, and when I went down to the dining room for breakfast, ther was this huge cast iron train above the fire place. I thoght it may have been a pull toy from years ago, but it was too big for that and had no way to couple the cars and loco together. Upon inquiring about it I was told it was lawn orniment from back in the 20’-30’s. My first thoughts are, gee the beginng of the garden railroads. Has anyone else seen these? It was quite large and heavy. This was the first and last one if seen and it was a freight train. Sorry if this is off topic, but thought it interesting enough to mention it here.
I have a decorative cast iron train that I bought from a local iron works. It has a locomotive, tender, and three “old style” passenger cars. Each car is about 4" high and 8" long. Although I’m sure my wife would prefer to have it out of there, I display it proudly in my TV room. My train came with double-ended hooks that you can use to couple the cars together. I think it is a really interesting piece, and it cost much less than those little trains we buy. I forget exactly what I paid for it, but I know it was less than $50. [:)][:)]
Roadtrp, I can’t blame you for for displaying your train in your TV room. I can see where it would add some atmosphere. My fireplace mantle is filled with trains and trucks I collect as I’m a truck driver (46 yrs) and would love one of those cast iron trains to display in front of the fireplace. The train I mentioned was really huge though, 8-10 inches wide and each car was about two feet long, large enough you couldn’t miss it in someone’s yard for which it was intended. Only way to discribe it, is that it was made along the lines the old style cast-iron farm tractors you sometimes see. anyway I thought it was nice that someone thought enough to display it and keep a tiny bit of old America and days gone by alive for us old fogies.
ED;
This could have been an old Buddy-L train. Many years ago they made a “kit” for an engine, tender, several cars, and even supplied track. All were boought separately. These were setup like the old Erector sets from AC Gilbert, you had to put them together with screws and nuts. In fact they were made to compete with them. They were quite large and built fairly easily , but cost too much for most people. Result is they didn’t last too long. Nowadays they are quite a collectors piece.