Down By The Chein Station

Sometimes the oddest things can add interest to your collection.

This is an interesting group of tinplate stations made by the J. Chein (pronounced chain) & Company of Burlington, New Jersey.  The company was in business from 1903 through the 1980’s.  The company is known for its mechanical toys made from stamped and lithographed tin that were produced from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.  In the mid 1960’s, the government started regulating the toy industry and the sharp edges on the metal toys became a problem as retooling to meet the new regulations was cost prohibitive so the company diversified into other types of toys.

The stations were probably made from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.  I know of 6 varieties of the stations.  All the stations are made from three pieces of lithographed tin held together with bent tabs.

The unique station of the group is the Toy Town depot.  The front is the same as the other stations with a door and 2 open windows but the lithography is unique.  The back and sides are windowless.  Both sides has a hole that could be used for a light bulb.  The sides have the Toy Town sign on one side and the Telegraph office on the other.  The back has the American Railway Express sign and baggage window with a baggage handler.  The roof and base are green.

The other stations are the same except for the name of the town on the roof of the station.  The sides are a reddish lithographed brick pattern.  The base is green and the roof has a red lithographed shingle pattern.  The front edge of the roof has a tab that is bent up to form the station name.  The ends have two open windows and a hole that could be used for a light bulb.  The back has an open door and two open windows, the same layout as the front.

There are at least 5 station names, probably named after locations in New Jersey.  They are:  Oakland Station, Glenwood Station, Parkville Station, Glendale Station and Grove Station. 

There may be more but I have yet to find additional names.

Lionel Standard Gauge Green Comet Car

The Green Comet Westphal Car

Lionel Stephen Girard Car

A Lionel Green Comet car, you ask?  Well, not quite!  Just a Stephen Girard car with the wrong nameplate, you ask?  Again, not quite!  This is a Stephen Girard look alike car made from two Blue Comet Westphal cars.  The real question is, is it homemade or factory made?  First a little history:  The car was originally purchased at a Midwest Division Train Collectors Association (TCA) meet back in the 1970’s by a friend of mine and he sold it to me about 30 years ago and it is pretty much untouched since I got it.  Lionel introduced the Blue Comet cars in 1930 and introduced the Stephen Girard cards in 1931 so the Blue Comet bodies would have been available before the Stephen Girard cars were introduced.

In the Spring 1977 Train Collectors Quarterly, Dr. Gerald Wagner (with photos by Ward Kimball) wrote the article Lionel Factory Prototype Blue Comet Set.  In the article the author describes the Blue Comet set cars as being “professionally constructed using parts from a least three State cars and nine 309-310-312 series cars” and “the roofs are made from two 309 roofs professionally joined at the center”.  The descriptions in this article are very similar to the physical attributes of my car and illustrate how Lionel made their prototypes.

Nameplate moved to center

Ends connected to body

The body of the car was shortened by cutting the lavatory end of the car off two left sides (looking at the rear of the car).  The vertical section with rivets is soldered (or welded) into place and the vestibule ends were tabbed into place using the available slots.  The name plate was moved over about an inch and a half to center it on the shortened car.  The indentation for the name plate under the second window was filled in with solder.  The plate which should have contained the car number is blank and has no signs of anything ever being on it.  The indentation for the Lionel Lines plate was made by cutting a hole in the car side and soldering a peace of metal with tab slots inside over the hole.  The light bracket has been centered in the car and the roof hold down brackets have also been moved to match the roof.

Blank number plate

Underside center of roof

Center of roof

The roof is joined in the center either welded or soldered together.  The floor is also shortened and joined in the center.  The fishbelly has also been shortened and joined in the center.  Only one air tank is used.  The interior has no seats.  The car has no steps and doesn’t appear to have ever had any.  The car has cream window inserts with blue clerestory material.  The paint on the car appears to be old and matches Lionel’s Stephen Girard green.  If it is a repaint is has done long ago and the car has seen much use since the paint was applied.  The car has been played with and shows numerous nicks and scratches and the interior is quite dirty.  The trucks were once rusty and have been repainted.

Uncleaned interior

I have always wondered whether the car was homemade or a factory prototype, but I don’t have the expertise to determine the provenance.  I leave that up to you.