Edison and Brunswick

Mike's Edison Wax Cylinder Player and Brunswick Phonograph

The Edison (with cover on and off) and is with horn connected & ready to play. As you can see the horn has been painted and was that way when I bought it. The original paint and designs would have been better, but I did get it at a good price and it plays just fine. A few extra piano rolls are in the cabinet below.

Here is a record cabinet for the cylinders I had made way back when, and show it setting on an old pump organ I had rebuilt not long after the first player rebuild. This was an old organ my grandmother had, and though it originally had a top part, it had been removed before she had bought it. I bought parts for it from Player Piano Co. too, but luckily the organ didn't need any urethane! (a smile here).

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Here is the Brunswick player. It has the reproducer that can be rotated to play all 3 types of records (still needs a bit of work on 1 diaphragm). Also shown is the record storage below and an original sales sheet in a wall frame. That's not really readable in the picture but interesting to read how the Brunswick had a new wood horn for fine music reproduction! All grand-kids have IPod's now and think these record players are ??? They do really like the player piano though. That just sounds like a live Ipod and really even better.

RCA console 78 player.

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Mechanical, so not totally unrelated, model trains make their own form of music.
Here are pics of a hanging HO gauge train table, with an open center, that we use to hang over the Christmas tree. Now I have it hanging in my workshop, high enough for walking clearance. The third pic is a light I had originally made as an overhead light for our sons train table when he was little. Brian is 43 now - boy does that make me feel old. At any rate, I'm back in my second childhood or still in my first? and using this light over my desk now. There are 2 working trains on this light and 3 on the round light. I just repaired one of the tracks and all 5 trains are running now. It's good to be a kid!

Editor's note: My kids make me feel old (at every opportunity)! When it comes to train sets and model cars etc. we never grow out of childhood. Who doesn't love a train set?

Thank you Mike for these brilliant pictures and captions.