bigindoortrains.com

I just love love love the Circus accessories that came with the train in the ad a few posts above...........

A recent find at York, a Gilbert 635 crane car, this with the diecast chassis, sheet-metal cab, and cast derrick boom:



I didn't notice when I picked it up, but it should have a stack on the roof to accommodate the steam engine inside. This roof is a replacement, a pretty nice one, but it's missing the stack. Still, a decent example for not much money.

The crane cars always offered a lot of play value with their hand-operation. You could spend an entire day trying to put a wreck back on the track with one of these

Tracked down a decent Flyer 977 caboose for my childhood set:



The set I had was the Mountaineer from 1956, and the swinging brakeman on the 977 was a small rubber figure. The early version (1955) featured a handpainted two-dimensional figure, which is what we have here. I always liked this version better than the boring little rubber man. Besides the brakeman action, the 977 is illuminated and features automatic knuckle couplers. I'm glad to have this example added to the set.