Last September 11th, I recieved a Hampden 18s Railway watch from Lindell. The previous week Lin had asked that I look at it because someone else had told him they did not have many parts for these. Well now we know what happened to Joe Btsflk's Pocket watch! (Al Capp's Character from "Lil Abner" comic strip!)

Just for openers . . . the Balance wheel was broken and SOLDERED back together! Not good!

Digging deeper, it seemed that every time I had one thing fixed another turned up wrong or broken. Finding that someone had filed the winding arbor to accept a reverse wound mainspring almost put me off the boat. (Lin had told me that when he bought the watch it "would not wind" and he was right.)

I worked on this in "shifts" over the past 8 months because you have to be really inspired to restore what falls apart more every time you touch it.

To get it running took a new Balance wheel, right length Pallet Fork and matching escape wheel, 4th wheel, three Jewels, the winding arbor and mainspring and about about 6 miscellaneous assembly screws.

(A funny aside; I took it to Vladimer when I hit the too short pallet fork along with 4 of my parts movements for him to use to get it running. Vladimer misunderstood me and got one of the parts movements going again and left this Railway alone as a "goner".)

All this because Lindell liked the case marked "Railway"

It may never run a Railroad again, but it did turn out OK. Interesting to see a Stopworks on a Hampden Motor Barrel.

These are purdy, but I would hesitate to let old "Joe Btsflk" carry this one again.

Great restoration, Dave! This one really put you through your paces. But it is so rewarding when you do get it fixed, assembled and running again.
Kudos to you!

Great story, I enjoyed it. That poor watch would have died or even worse had it been a human.

Nice job on that one David.

I'm so proud of you for sticking to it!

It's a beautiful watch, and no one would have really appreciated it, without the care you have so generously given it.

Does your heart good huh?

Does mine!

Way to go David, and a great story by a superb storyteller....

You remind me of the frog....you never give up....

Nice job David and what a killer marked case. Geno

Great job David! Your one of the good guys in this hobby.

Great work Dave.

Never run on a railroad again you say. Of course not. It's too good for that.

When they replaced our standard clock with one more suitable for a kitchen and accepted any "reliable" watch for train and engine service I turned in my overalls for paint brushes.