Running my classic Märklin again.

Pulled out a bunch of my old classic Märklin to run for a change – back to the basics for a while. 😃

The E03 with the TEE (the classic tinplate) was my childhood pride and joy.

An hour ago the E03 wouldn't run or gears move. For the first time EVER totally took apart motor, cleaned gears and brushes, AND even managed to put it back together...

SIE LÄUFT, DIE E03 mit TEE am Hacken.

My first Märklin train.

Running the switching puzzle. I've taken this to numerous trains shows — the kids love it.

Still more to do, but it's a start and most importantly, I'm having fun and really enjoying it. I've missed that feeling.

My father's childhood SE800 also got put on, but without traction tires (never had them) wasn't going anywhere. I have a version with though, too, so will run in spirit.

Bahnhof Friedrichstraße

Thought I'd share this postcard I just got depicting the lovely P8/BR38 heading out of Berlin's Bahnhof Friedrichstraße.

A sign on the left indicates that this was taken during the renovations and expansion of the station that started in the late teens and went into the twenties.

And here another Berlin BR38 amidst the ruins of Weimar's downfall and the war... A Hamsterfahrt about to head out from Anhalter with Berliners heading out into the countryside to barter for food. Image by Margaret Bourke-White for LIFE magazine.

Cleaning and first time running in a loooooong time

Due to bookish (bookbinding and writing) projects my layouts have languished and Shelob and her offspring have run amok, dust built up, and trains stopped running smoothly. Contributing to this were also ongoing accessibility/mobility issues on my part that made areas unreachable. Thanks to lots of quality time at home (almost 2 weeks) and familial help, Shelob succumbed to "Sting" and trains are now running again. I even enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to more and ongoing modeling projects. At one point I had toyed with "flattening" the layout, metaphorically and in reality to make it easier to reach. That thought was banished when I realized that rebuilding would be much harder than begging more regular "donations" of time for dusting...

While cleaning, took some time to explore areas I detailed but that normally are hidden due to facing the (removable) backdrop. Yes, there was "road work" to be done, in part to help the trolley run smoothly.

Let's run some trains!

E 19 der DB

Decided to put my E 19 / 119 of the DB on the tracks again. Beautiful runner and super smooth.

You can see the prototype in the same green livery at Ulrich Budde's Bundesbahnzeit website here. That picture was taken in Nuremberg in 1966.