Nickel Silver and Steel Aloy?

[WGL]

  Of oil on rails, Jim Banner wrote, "On my home H0 layout, I add it maybe once a year."
  If one cleans the rails with alcohol more than once a year, should he re-apply oil after each cleaning?

[nhmanhere59]

WGL and Jim Banner,
   I received my first train set in 1938,when I was 7 months old. It was a Lionel tinplate replica of one of the Zephyers.I still have it and it runs well. My grandfather was an engineer on the "Jersey Central",and always gave me train stuff every Christmas. After WWll,I got Lionels 0-4-0 yardgoat,and a Lionel 2-6-4,which ( sort of a K-4) I still have with many freight cars and passenger coaches. Now at age 71,and living in California,I have a large scale layout on my patio. I use aluminum track,and apply the Wahl oil to keep things operating well.
David

[WGL]

nhmanhere59,

  I received my first train set in about 1949, when I was 5.  It was a Louis Marx tinplate steam locomotive with all metal cars.  Probably, it was the only one of the 3 major brands that was available in a local store; it was also probably the cheapest.  That was followed by a Marx UP diesel with automatic couplers & many accessories.  Occasionally, through the years, I'd unpack & run them, & they still run after almost 60 years!  Only last summer did I become an HO scale hobbyist.
Bill

[Rangerover]

Geez you guys bring back a lot of memories. I guess I fit in your age group. I too was born in 1944. Got my first all metal train with the bent tabs and wind up when I was 5, about the same time I got one of them double barrel shotguns with the corks in the end of the barrel tied on with string. I shot all the balls off the Christmas  tree that I could reach, before the folks got up. That's when I got my first lesson on gun safety.

Got my first Lionel when I was 9 years old, 2 switch's too! My dad and I built our first layout in the cellar on a piece of plywood. Went to HO when I was 15, and still have all of that layout and use it on my current pike. In the 70's I built a nice layout but we bought a new house and moved and I never put it back up until I retired 3 years ago. Raising them young'ns and putting them through college was most important. Model railroading is more rewarding now than ever.

Funny, I became a competitive high power rifle shooter, master class, and have shot in the nationals in Camp Perry Ohio every year for the past 28 years except one. And I still love model trains, prototype too!

[WGL]

Rangerover,
  It's nice to find here some of our group, born during WWII, which is smaller & is ignored, compared to the attention the Boomers get.  Most of my boyhood friends are dead.

  My first train had bent tabs with slots, but it was electric.

  I had a cork gun, too, but without a string.  I used a cork that fit almost completely down the barrel, which made my shots more accurate.  I could pick off my playmate's cowboys or soldiers faster than he could mine.  I was sad when it stopped working.  My parents replaced it with a gun that shot round corks & was very inaccurate.

  I went from corks to bobbers & did a lot of fishing in a beautiful lake 3 blocks from our house.