What is this, you might ask? The very first 'trains' that Lionel made in America in 1901 were not meant to be trains at all. They were intended as an electrified operating display for shop windows, looked very much like a cigar-box on wheels, and ran on 'track' with a gauge of 2 7/8 inches. Customers were unimpressed with the items displayed on the 'wagon', but very impressed by the new wagon itself!! So Lionel was now in the toy train business. Despite being more than 110 years old, some of these original 2 7/8" items still exist in collections, but are obviously extremely hard to come by, and most collectors who have them wouldn't consider actually running them. Since I like to run everything I have, I jumped at the chance of buying a very accurate reproduction made by MTH Trains, when they were announced.
The No. 200 Wooden Gondola came with a 34" diameter circle of track, and it is this that is seen in the top picture, and which is now on it's way to Whistlestop. The track consists of wooden sleepers (ties) with slots sawn in them into which is pressed the spring-steel rail. This was a common way of making track in that very early period of toy trains. The most well-known manufacturer using this method was Carlisle and Finch, although their's was to the slightly smaller gauge of 2 inches (gauge 2).
I did receive a circle of this track with my original Gondola, but circles are boring and I really wanted at least an oval of track. I decided to buy this second track-set to combine with the original, although it might need a bit of adjustment to make a proper oval. One of the permanent layouts in the Trainbarn will be what I call the 'early-period' layout, and it will feature this 2 7/8" oval as it's centrepiece.
There is another company making reproductions of these early trains and it is JLM Trains in the US. The quality is outstanding, significantly better than the MTH version, although I'm perfectly happy with mine.
Some of the other trains that will be displayed on this early-period layout will be early Lionel Standard Gauge- introduced in 1906- and early O gauge- introduced by Lionel in 1915, although several other manufacturers were already very active in this gauge. Eventually I would really like to also incorporate some 2" gauge by Carlisle and Finch or Knapp or Voltamp, but of course these are really hard to find, and will most likely be reproductions also.
I'm very happy with my new purchase and, of course, can't wait to put it all together!
