Although I collect mostly Elgins I do collect other brands and finally picked up a very very nice looking 23j model 5 Special Railway with the starburst pattern. I now have the 19-Railway, 21j-New Railway and 23j-Special Railway versions. The last two tend to be hard to come by since not a lot of them were made.

Claude the 16s Hampden marked Special Railway is really very scarce. Most of the 23j 16s Hampden model 5 watches are marked 104. I have a total of 23 model 5 23j Hampdens and only 2 are marked Special Railway. You have a wonderful watch, quite scarce and compared to a similar Illinois much less cost to own. By the way the 21j New Railway should keep time with any 21j Bunn or 992. If you can post a picture or two I would love to see your SR. I am also curious as to the serial number as so few were made. Best wishes and now you need a 4th model 16 size 23j 104 hunter for your under appreciated collection. If you keep this up you too can be known as a Hampden nut!

О Нет !!

regards,
bb

Hear, Hear to Deacon's request!

Claude, congrats on getting that S.R., the "holy grail" of 16s Hampden RR's.Just so you know, there's no known cure for "Hampdenitis", sounds like you have come down with it too! Regards, Ted.

I have been on the road quite a bit since my transfer to Michigan, last week Ft Worth and this week Des Moine Iowa but I am back and off to a convention in Detroit tomorrow. SN is 3327409 and I will get some pictures up. The movement is beautiful, has the Deuber Hampden SS bold Arabic dial and was keeping accurate time up to the point that it stopped while I was Iowa from a lack of winding. I have tried to get one for a while and finally snagged one.

Claude I am glad you have a hard to obtain S.R.. Please do your best to keep up the "Hampdens are junk and of little value" myth. I still marvel that a very hard to find 16s 23 jewel "holy grail", as Ted says, can be reasonably acquired by people like me.If collectors and dealers catch on to how nice they are it could ruin my day! By the way if you do not know about it you might want to ask Dave Abbe about why the 18 size Hamilton resembles the 18 size Hampden.

Here is my Hampden 16s Special Railway in its NAWCO railway case. They are hard to find but my favorites are even harder to find. My joy is having pretty much all of the variations of type 4 16s Hampden two tone 23 jewels watches.

Here is the other side

Deacon:
I have a Hampden SR 23 jewel 16 size that is marked SR & the movement number is 3327240.
Somewhere I read that only 1100 of these watches were produced. I don't know that to be a fact. Maybe you could check & let me know.
Don

Please re-check that serial number. 3327240 is a single run of 600 Burlington watch labeled grade 108 movements.

Dave

Are you sure you didn't look that serial number up as an Illinois instead of Hampden?

Dave:
You are correct but if you look under Hampden that S/N is a SR model 5 as best as I can figure out.
Don

OOPS!