Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket!

Rogdcam. I doubt it is a British made model, why would we make a model of an alien design concept. Ie Bar frames, cowcatcher, headlight etc. The engine looks to be quite a good model for it's era, even without flanges. Many early models were one offs made by precision workers like Watchmakers, Optical instrument makers. It appears to be a model or a very superior toy. Only the driving wheels look crude. (lack of spokes) Would a model be viewed as a desirable prize in those days? The word model to mean a miniature replica was not as common then so the lack of the word on the ticket doesn't signify in my opinion. Perhaps having a engine as first prize was seen as a way of catching someones attention. It certainly has caught ours!

Live steam model locomotives were first made in Europe in the mid 19th century and only started to be made in the US around 1895. They were expensive imports into the States and modeled both European and American trains. The Smithsonian has info as do some sites that deal with these antiques. I will give you some links tomorrow.

https://www. (20140417) Site Not Allowed .com/articles/how-model-trains-transformed-from-cutting-edge-to-quaint/

I tried to post this link before. It will not let me so I am done for now.

Ken,

Great find on the image. Was there an article associated with it? It's an uploaded image so I can't glean anything from the URL.

Rogdcam,

Would you mind emailing me the link you're trying to post?

Thanks!

.
Whodathunkit? Another article on our favorite topic:

End of the Line for Model Trains? Aging Hobbyists Trundle On

https://www.wsj.com/articles/end-of...n-1455157546

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I just Googled "General Grant Locomotive" for images and that came up among many others, there was no details attached.


I think you ticket is a great find, I like t a lot.

Young's hall burned down in 1874. It was owned by a masoner Charles Werner, and subsequently opened up a Werner's Hall.

The Young family (John (who held township offices, etc), Henry (including diamonsds, watches, clocks and jewelry) , and Mansfield (hats, and misc), were involved in many Joliet affairs.

source: souvenir of settlement and progress of will county, ill

wrong thread. deleted.

Great prizes anyway!

That model looks more like it was based on the "America" which appears on the letterhead of Grant Locomotive Works. (I reversed the photo for comparison.) But the "General Grant" locomotive was probably more popular at the time so that's the name they used on the model.

As for the $300 price tag, that was just an arbitrary number the raffle organizer placed on it. It's entirely possible that this was a retail item that they couldn't sell in the store, so this was a way to get it off their hands. The other raffle items were just used to sweeten the pot.

I was just thinking, this looks like the locomotive in stamp 1897a...

The General Grant was a 4-4-0 and the model looks pretty close to the real one shown in the thread. I could only find 3 images of the real GG. Two were sold by Heritage Auctions as a lot in 2005. This style of 4-4-0 is VERY similar to The General, of The Great Locomotive Chase in 1862. Both tenders had the flaired out top as does the model. As others have observed there is very little information on the General Grant out there.

drifting even further off topic.... I did find a pretty incredible story about a steamship of the same name wrecked off the coast of Australia.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/707...-old-mystery

What a wonderful find RC. That's a tough CDV with a great story.