Straco Express Layout, Part 55b - Straco Steam

The original Straco Express train (l) and the
newer steam loco version (r).

Read all the installments of the Straco Express layout project here.

Last fall I wrote about a Straco Express variation I found (see: Straco and the Mystery Train 2). There appeared to be another version of the Straco Express with differently lithographed cars.

I was able to purchase the set and do my own first-hand comparisons. You can read about the unusual steam loco that came with the set in Part 55a. It had some surprises.

And detailed comparison of the rolling stock yielded an insight.

At first blush, it looks like the only changes to the rolling stock was the lithography. The yellow NYC gondola car was instead an orange Michigan Central/NYC gondola car.

The blue, white, and red US Mail box car was instead a a red, white, and blue State of Maine box car. Both based on Lionel 6464 box cars, apparently.

The Japanese State of Maine box car has the number 8864-275. Lionel's has the numbers 6464-275. Straco used 3428 for their Mail car. Lionel used 6428 for theirs. A little too close in both cases for coincidence, I think.

Original Straco box car (lower) and newer box car (upper).

 And those "borrowings" can help date the sets. Lionel offered their State of Maine box car from 1957-1959, and their US Mail car from 1960-1961 (and again in 1965-1966).  F. J. Strauss & Co. filed their trademark in 1960. I think it likely that both sets were made around 1960, when both Lionel box cars would still be on the market.

The black and silver Santa Fe caboose was instead a yellow Union Pacific caboose. And it had an important clue. Note the embossed window outlines. Their identical for both cabooses. The Santa Fe caboose's lithography has windows that fill the embossed frame. The UP caboose does not.

Original Straco caboose (lower) and newer caboose (upper).

That suggests to me that the Straco Express with the diesel locomotive and Santa Fe caboose was made first. The steam set with the Union Pacific set came later, I think, because the stamping doesn't match up. It was a design placed over the existing form, rather than being developed with the form as the original Santa Fe lithography had been.

Since the "borrowed" Lionel box car numbers suggest a very narrow time frame, I believe that what I call the original Straco Express was manufactured in 1960, and the steam set either later in 1960 or possibly 1961.

I still have one question about this set. F. J. Strauss imported the first set, and had it branded with their name. The steam train set has no such branding. So was this set also made for Straco to import, or was in imported by another firm? The set box may have the answer.

But whether it's an official Straco set or not, this little steam train decided looks good on the display layout -- even with its tendency to jump the tracks.

Layout construction:

• Pegboard: $4.95
• Flathead Screws: $0.40
• Molding: $2.49
• SilClear: borrowed from a friend
• Green Paint: leftover  from another project
• Wood Screws: $3.60
• Felt Pads: $1.99

Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29

Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
2 tinplate signs: $1.00
4 tinplate signs (with train) $5.99
Cragstan HO Light Tower $20.49
4 nesting houses $4.99
Tinplate gas station: $5.00

Vehicles:

• Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
• A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
• Taxi: $2.99
• Ambulance: $2.99
• Two Japanese patriotic cars: $6.99
• Haji three-wheel sedan $3.00
• Haji three-wheel tanker $5.00
• 1950's sedan $2.99
• LineMar Police Car $9.00
• LineMar Pepco Truck $8.50
• LineMar Bond Bread Van $8.00
• LineMar Fire Engine $4.95
• LineMar Dump Truck $12.99
• LineMar GE Courier Car $10.98
• LineMar County School Bus $9.99
• Nomura Red Sedan $5.00
• Nomura Police Car $2.52
• Nomura lumber truck $3.48
• 6 Nomura vehicles $16.99
• Orange Sedan $10.99
• King Sedan $9.95
• Indian Head logo sedan $4.99
• Indian Head (?) convertible $18.00
• Yellow/red Express truck $9.99
• Red limousine FREE

Total Project Cost: $238.35

Straco, Cragstan, and Bandai -- the comparison

I've been puzzling over these three toy train sets that have come into my possession. They all share the same track, but not much else. I know that one set was made by Bandai, and that the other two were made by Japanese companies for American importers. Did Bandai make all three, or did they all buy their track from a Japanese subcontractor?

Front to rear: Straco, Cragstan (?), and Bandai sets

If anyone has any info about these sets, I'd love to see it!

In the meantime, here's a comparison of the three sets. All are approximately HO scale, and all three operate off a battery power pack. The Bandai set consists of a diesel, a tank car, a gondola car, and a caboose. The Cragstan(?) set (I'm not sure it is Cragstan) is made up of a diesel engine and two box cars. The Straco set has a fairly detailed diesel switcher, a box car, gondola car, and caboose. Here's how they stack up.

Cragston(?) diesel (top) and Bandai diesel (bottom)

While the Cragstan diesel is more proportionally accurate, the Bandai engine required more involved manufacture. Cragstan's engine is basically a flat surface with applied lithography. Although it's not very clear from the photo, the Bandai has windows punched in the frame, as well as embossed detail. Both have a two-part body assembly (although it's easier to see where the nose section attaches on the Bandai piece).

Bandai gondola (top and Straco gondola (bottom)

As you can see, the Straco cars are shorter than those in the Bandai set. It's difficult to say which was more expensive to manufacture. The Bandai car has the entire frame painted black, including the interior. The blue sides have raised details stamped into the metal. The Straco car has flat sides but is lithographed both inside and out. Plus the ends are a more complicated folded metal shape.

Bandai caboose (top) and Straco caboose (bottom)

As handsome as most of the Straco set is, the caboose almost looks like an afterthought, especially when compared to the Bandai version. Both have bent ends, but the Bandai caboose has punched out sections to better simulate railing. The Straco caboose has smooth sides and roof for easier application of the graphics, while the Bandai used a stamper to provide detail (and open windows). It seems to me that if Bandai was contracted to produce the Straco set, they could have saved money by reusing the frame of their older caboose, and just putting a smooth metal body on top of that.

So are these three sets all products of the same company, or do they all have different sources?

#Straco

Straco Express Layout, Part 55a - Straco Steam

The new Straco set on the display layout. There's something
missing for sure.

Read all the installments of the Straco Express layout project here.

Last fall I wrote about a Straco Express variation I found (see: Straco and the Mystery Train 2). There appeared to be another version of the Straco Express with differently lithographed cars -- or where there?

A set became available on eBay, and since it was in my price range (less that $30). Many times eBay listings are wildly inaccurate -- it's not from an intention to defraud, but simply one of ignorance. I've seen mismatched pieces described as a "set" before, and I wasn't sure I wasn't seeing it again.

The train consisted of a Pennsylvania steam locomotive, a Michigan Central/NYC gondola car, a State of Maine boxcar, and a Union Pacific caboose. What I didn't see was a coal tender behind the loco (and I have thing about that). Was this set indeed complete?

Consultation with my colleagues in the Sekai Toy Train Group (specializing in vintage Japanese toy and model train sets) confirmed that it was complete. This steam engine never had a tender. Like the original Straco Express, it had a locomotive and three cars.

The original Straco Express (l) and the steam engine version (r).

When the set arrived, I did some basic lubrication and tried it out on the layout. It ran fine, but the engine had a tendency to jump the track after doing three quarters of the loop. I'm not sure why -- but that's a problem to solve on another day.

In examining and comparing the two sets, though, I made some surprising discoveries.

I removed the locomotive's shell to examine the works and got my first surprise. This loco could actually puff smoke!

The heating element is the grey plastic cylinder mounted in the shell.
The clear plastic bellow is attached to it.

As you can see in the photo above, there was a small heating element that was attached to a clear plastic bellow.

The L-shaped arm in the front of the chassis moves back and forth to
pump the bellow.

The electric motor powered the rear wheels via a drive shaft. A second larger eccentric gear pushed an arm back and forth. This arm pumped the bellow, causing the engine to puff smoke. It's an ingenious mechanism, especially for such an inexpensive toy.

Original Straco Express diesel (l) and later steam engine (r).

With the exception of the smoke mechanism, the drives for the diesel and steam locos are pretty much the same. I think they both have about the same draw, which explains why both sets have the same number of cars (and therefore, why there's no tender).

Still, it's a well-made piece. Note that the ladders have individual rungs, and how solid the front of the loco is. Also note how many individual pieces its composed of. All of those are attached with tabs bent by hand.

Despite the Pennsylvania RR designation, I suspect the loco was based on a Japanese prototype. Still, it's an appealing little engine. And as you can see, makes a nice addition to the Straco display layout.

So what about the cars that came with the set? They yielded another insight, as I'll explain in the second part of this post.

Layout construction:

• Pegboard: $4.95
• Flathead Screws: $0.40
• Molding: $2.49
• SilClear: borrowed from a friend
• Green Paint: leftover  from another project
• Wood Screws: $3.60
• Felt Pads: $1.99

Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29

Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
2 tinplate signs: $1.00
4 tinplate signs (with train) $5.99
Cragstan HO Light Tower $20.49
4 nesting houses $4.99
Tinplate gas station: $5.00

Vehicles:

• Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
• A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
• Taxi: $2.99
• Ambulance: $2.99
• Two Japanese patriotic cars: $6.99
• Haji three-wheel sedan $3.00
• Haji three-wheel tanker $5.00
• 1950's sedan $2.99
• LineMar Police Car $9.00
• LineMar Pepco Truck $8.50
• LineMar Bond Bread Van $8.00
• LineMar Fire Engine $4.95
• LineMar Dump Truck $12.99
• LineMar GE Courier Car $10.98
• LineMar County School Bus $9.99
• Nomura Red Sedan $5.00
• Nomura Police Car $2.52
• Nomura lumber truck $3.48
• 6 Nomura vehicles $16.99
• Orange Sedan $10.99
• King Sedan $9.95
• Indian Head logo sedan $4.99
• Indian Head (?) convertible $18.00
• Yellow/red Express truck $9.99
• Red limousine FREE

Total Project Cost: $238.35

Seeking Sakai - Part 1

I'm always on the lookout for vintage Japanese tin H0-gauge trains for my Straco display layout. There's not a lot of collected information about any of the manufacturers involved in early postwar production, so I've been slowly discovering what was available and from whom one piece at a time.

They looked like a good fit for the Straco display layout. However...

A set of rolling stock came up for auction on eBay. Having only the photos to go by, I determined they would be a good fit. I won the auction for a price I was comfortable with, and everything was fine -- until the pieces arrived.

It was then I discovered that these cars were of a much higher quality than the ones I had been collecting. Not only was the quality higher, but they weighed far more than the Nomura, Bandai, or Straco pieces I had.

Below are side-by-side comparisons:

Top to bottom: Straco, Nomura, Haji (Nomura), Sakai

Top to bottom: Straco, Nomura, Bandai, Sakai

Top to bottom: Straco, Bandai, Sakai

Top to bottom: Bandai, Sakai

Top to bottom: Straco, Bandai, Nomura, Sakai

In time, I discovered that the pieces were made by Sakai, a post-war Japanese company that specialized in H0-gauge track and accessories (such as switches). They also manufactured O-gauge trains that competed with high-end Marx and low-end Lionel in the American market..

And eventually, I found a locomotive for my set. And it's a monster, as it needs to be to haul those cars. On average, the rolling stock for all the examples I owned -- Nomura, Bandai, Straco, and Haji -- weighed about 2.5 oz. The Sakai rolling stock was closer to 5 oz. per car. The Nomura and Bandai diesels each weighed 7 oz.; the Straco diesel weighed 5 oz. By contrast, the Sakai locomotive weight 20 oz. -- 1.4 lbs.

The Sakai locomotive shell is diecast metal. And it's heavy.

The shell of the Sakai diesel is diecast metal, which accounts for most of the weight. But that weight was necessary. As you can see from the chart below, it had more weight to pull. The Nomura diesel can only pull its two cars weighing a total of 6 oz. I've tried adding a third 3 oz. boxcar -- the engine's wheels just spin. By contrast, the Sakai diesel is designed to pull 4 cars weighing a total of 17 oz..

The Sakai chassis. Those wheel frames are diecast metal, and the
motor is also pretty substantial. Both give the locomotive a lot of traction.

The lithographed metal construction makes the set seem more toy-like. But this train was designed for true H0-scale track, rather than the taller tinplate track of the toy train sets. Note the scale-proportioned flanges of the wheels of the Sakai rolling stock as compared to those of the Nomura set.

Note the difference between the wheels of the Sakai boxcar (l) and the
Nomura car (r). The Sakai train was designed for standard
H0-gauge track, as opposed to the bigger tinplate track of the
Nomura/Bandai sets.

The diesel I found was in rough shape, but the price was right. And it works as a display piece placeholder until I can upgrade.

The train is complete, for now.

My next project is to see if I can get the engine to work again.

And this past week I discovered a bit more about this unique set which I'll share in Part 2.

Straco Track: the mystery clears (slightly)

Bandai track with
fiberboard ties

Straco(?) track with
plastic ties

For some time I've been posting on these three inexpensive (OK, cheap) Japanese toy trains I've acquired, and what the connection between them is. In my last post, I talked about the two different types of track that these sets came with. There was an early fiberboard-tie version stamped with Bandai's logo, and a later version where the ties were plastic.

Now these sets came to me through various means. As a child I owned the set with the Santa Fe diesel and two Santa Fe cars (a box car and a refrigerator car). From that set just a few pieces of track survived.

The Straco Express, the most detailed set of the three, I picked up at a toy train meet over a year ago. It had some, but not all, of it's track with it, including the terminal section (that's the piece that has the connectors for the wires running from the power pack).

The other set, which I'm pretty sure is Bandai, I obtained recently through an eBay auction -- primarily to complete my circle of track. It also had a piece of terminal track.

Front to back: Straco Express, childhood Bandai(?) set, Bandai set via eBay

And its those two pieces of terminal track that helped me unwrap the puzzle a little. The eBay set's terminal track was missing one of the posts, while the Straco's was intact. And they were different types. The Straco's terminal track had plastic ties, while the other piece had fiberboard ties.

So I know now that the plastic track goes with the Straco Express, which means that the Bandai fiberboard track belongs to the two earlier sets (I'm assuming that the Straco Express was made after the other two -- it seems newer).

As always, if you happen to know something about these trains -- or know someone who might -- please leave a comment. I'd really like to know more about these toys!

#Straco

Straco Express - A Better Story

Last post I shared an Antiques Roadshow version of my purchase of a small, tin toy train. But there's an even odder story (and I think a more interesting one) associated with the Straco Express.

The train was offered for sale "as is." (There's a picture of the Straco Express I purchased at right). It was in a small cardboard box with the locomotive, two cars, and a caboose. Included was the battery-powered transformer, and some track. Not enough track to make a complete circle, but what survived from the original set.

One of the reasons I decided to purchase the set was because I recognized the sectional track in the box. It seemed to be a match to the ones that came with a small toy train set I had as a child (pictured at right).

When we got back to Dad's house, we pulled out the old set, and the sectional track matched! We had tested the Straco locomotive, and it worked, so I was excited to put all the track together and start running trains.

But when I combined the tracks from the Straco set and my old set, I was exactly one piece short. I couldn't complete the circle. The set was HO scale (sort of), so I invested in a circle of modern HO sectional track. No luck. The flanges on the wheels are wider than those of most HO-scale locomotives, which causes the engine to bounce up and down on the ties of the track, breaking the electrical connection.

So I'm stuck until I can find a curved piece of track.

But that's not the whole story. The train I bought was the Straco Express, a Japanese-made toy for the American-based Strauss Company (not the same ones who make the jeans). But the one I already owned, though also Japanese in origin, was not. And with the exception of the track, the trains have almost nothing in common.

In the photo below, the boxcar from the Straco Express (left) is next to one from my childhood Santa Fe set. The two boxcars have different frames, different body styles, different trucks (wheel assemblies) and different roofs (angled vs. rounded).  Click on images to enlarge.

Did two different companies sub-contract to the same source for the track? Did one Japanese company actually make both sets for different American firms based on client designs? I don't know -- but I'd sure like to find out. Internet searches have yielded almost no additional information about the train of my childhood.

#Straco

Straco, Bandai, and Cragstan -- the hookup

No, it's not a band -- nor a law firm. As near as my limited research can tell, these are the four firms involved with the three disparate toy train sets I own. As I explained last post, these three sets have little in common, save the track supplied with them (click on the images to enlarge).

Left to right: Bandai set, Cragstan set (?), Straco set

So here's it goes: the set on the right, the Straco Express was made in Japan for the J. Strauss Company (Straco). The one on the left was made by Bandai, while the one in the middle was made by Bandai for Cragston (perhaps -- my info on this one is a little sketchy). I've also seen Distler and/or Karl Bub credited with similar trains. In all cases, the names attached were those of either the supplier or the distributor. And the supplier was simply putting their name on product manufactured for them in Japan.

So did Bandai make all three sets? Not sure. The track is identical, but the designs are completely different. Did each company commission a new design from scratch? It's possible, but it seems to me that Bandai would have reused some basic parts for all three -- such as couplers, trucks (wheels), or even car frames. But as you can see from the following comparisons, that's not the case.

The Cragstan(?) set uses directional coupling -- each car has a hook on one end, and an eye on the other, so the cars can only be connected in the same orientation.

Detail of the Cragston(?) box car's couplers.

 The Straco Express features a similar concept, but a different coupler design entirely!

Detail of the Straco gondola car's couplers.

 On the other hand, the Bandai set uses a universal coupler, with both the hook and eye incorporated into the same piece of metal. These cars can be connected facing either direction. It's much cheaper to use the same coupler on both ends, so if Bandai did make all three sets, why not use this design across the board?

If the same track wasn't included in all three sets, I wouldn't be asking these questions, but it seems odd that costs would be saved with track, and not with other measures. It's what led me to wonder if Bandai got the track from another Japanese company. Curious.

Next post we'll compare and contrast the rolling stock of the three sets.

#Straco

Straco and the Mystery Train

Recently three pieces became available on eBay. There was no real description for them -- they were just three seemingly random vintage Japanese tinplate toys. But they caught my attention.

All three were offered by the same seller. It's clear that they're the remnants of a train set, although the seller elected to sell them separately. Unfortunately, they were individually priced way beyond what I was willing to pay for all three. So all I have are the photos.

At almost $50 each, I had to pass on these.

The dimensions provided for the rolling stock were consistent with the pieces I already owned. So I know they're the same size as the Nomura, Straco, and Bandai trains I have. And they looked familiar. So I did some comparisons and discovered that the rolling stock was identical to that of the Straco Express.

First, look at the box cars. The frame is identical for both, as are the construction of the trucks and the couplers.

Second, look at the cabooses. The embossing isn't aligned properly on the mystery caboose, but it's there -- as it is on the Straco caboose.

Was there a second Straco train set? I don't know. The locomotive is missing a tender, so the set isn't complete. The Straco Express had a gondola car -- did this set, also?

And one thing more -- although I'm confident in saying that the maker of this mystery set was the same as the Straco Express, I still don't know what company that was. Yet.

Straco and the Mystery Train 2

This is a followup post to my 9/6/16 post, Straco and the Mystery Train. Some odds and ends had come up for auction on eBay, and just by comparing the photos, I guessed that they were made by the same Japanese toy company that made the Straco Express. Those particular items were priced too high for me to bid on -- but then another example became available that was within my price range (about $8.99). 

So I can at least make physical comparisons between the box cars. I think the evidence is clear: these box cars were made by the same company. 

The Straco Express box car (top) and the mystery set
box car (bottom). Identical construction and chassis lithography.

Straco Express (left), mystery train (right).
The ends were something of a surprise. There's no real reason
for a graphic redesign. All that was necessary was to change
 the red color plate to blue. Note that the couplers
are also identical. 

And here they are together. A colorful (and patriotic) pair of boxcars!

Some questions remain, of course. Who made these sets? What pieces were in the State of Maine boxcar set? Who was this mystery set made for -- was it also Fred Strauss and Co.? 

Based on this, though, I'm confident the caboose I saw in that auction is also a companion piece to the Straco Express caboose. That locomotive, though...

What's missing from this set?

The Straco Layout, Part 8 - Let's run some trains!

Read all the installments of the Straco Express layout project here.

After affixing the track to the board, there was really only one thing left to do -- run some trains. The three Japanese-made trains I had for this setup ran the spectrum of operability.

From left to right: the Bandai, Cragstan, and Straco train sets.

My childhood Cragstan engine would barely move. Early in its life, we had lost the powerpack (Mom wasn't one to keep our toys continually supplied with batteries),  so the engine was mostly just pushed down the track when I played with it. When I put it on the layout, the locomotive whined a great deal, but hardly moved. I suspect internally there are either stripped or misaligned gears.

In the middle of the performance spectrum was the Bandai set. This locomotive had not been run for quite a while, and even with lubrication, it was somewhat balky in its motion. The longer I ran it, the smoother that motion became, but not by much. Here's its inaugural  run on the layout. As you can see, it still has problems with the slight voltage drop on the straight section.



The best-running set was the Straco Express, the toy train I had bought on a whim -- and the one which started this entire project. As you can see, it ran very smoothly. I soon learned, though, not to let the train go too fast. It didn't take much for those featherweight cars to fly off the track!



Although this is the end of this project, it's not necessarily the end of the series. I'd like to find some Japanese tin cars and buildings to add to the layout -- things that are in keeping with the look and the era of the Straco Express.

Total cost for the project:

Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Moulding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90

Total Cost: $19.33


#Straco

Japanese Litho Train Sets 4 - Straco, Cragstan and Distler

My informal postwar Japanese lithographed train sets databasing project continues, and I continue to turn up some interesting oddities. Last time (Cragstan, Distler and Nomura) I wrote about two virtually identical HO train sets, one made in German by Distler, the second in Japan by Nomura -- and both imported to the US by Cragstan.

Distler made another HO gauge train set for Cragstan. (click on images to enlarge)

This set features an EMD NW2-style switch engine, a box car, a gondola car, and a caboose.

I own a very similar set made in Japan and imported by F. J. Strauss Co., Inc. I've written extensively about the Straco Express, which consists of an EMD NW2-style switch engine, a box car, a gondola car, and a caboose.

Straco and Cragstan were two different companies, and probably competitors. So it's a different situation then having an importer just change manufacturers. And there are some distinct differences between the sets. The Distler set is mostly plastic, while the Straco is all tinplate construction. The cabooses are distinctively different.

Of the two, the Straco Express is a more elaborate -- and therefore costly -- set to make. Perhaps Cragstan contracted Distler to make a knockoff?

And the track for both sets is identical, which is something I find curious. All of the HO toy train sets I've run across -- whether made by Straco, Bandai, or Nomura -- use this same track. And the Cragstan/Distler sets do, too. So where did it come from? Is it possible these competing companies used the same sub-contractor? Or was the design for this track "borrowed" as well?

The Straco Express and the Mystery Train

If you've ready my earlier post this 1960's Japanese tin toy train, the Straco Express, you'll know I was confronted with something of a mystery. This train set I purchased had the exact same section track as a set I owned in my childhood. And yet, when I put the two together, they couldn't be more different. (You can click on the images to enlarge them.)

The Straco Express had clear markings on it, which allowed me to find some background information about the toy. It also had fairly sophisticated metalwork. The engine required quite a bit of hand assembly, and each of the three cars were constructed in a different fashion, requiring mostly different tooling.

My childhood Santa Fe, however, was a different story. As near as I can recall, the set always only had three pieces -- the Santa Fe diesel, vaguely resembling an F3, and two box cars. No caboose.

The boxcars are slightly bigger than the Straco Express boxcar, and are much more cheaply made. The metal has no embossed details, and the roof is rounded rather than creased. Having two of the same car body with different graphics is a huge savings over having three different car designs.

I have yet to find anything about this set either online or in reference books available. Clearly it was made in Japan, most likely in the late 1950's-early 1960's. Did the FJ Strauss company (who had the Straco Express made for them) also make this set? There's no markings anywhere, save for a small marking on the back of the engine saying "Trade Mark Made in Japan."

If anyone has information about this set, I'd love to know more. Was it the same Japanese company making toys for two separate American importers? That's my guess, but I'd really like to know for sure.

 - Ralph

#Straco