Oldies but Goodies. The Old Stuff.

[toptrain1]

post 41

Aristo-Craft HO Locomotives

Does any remember this line of HO locomotives? They were diecast. They ran and looked alright.

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

I came across this Aristo Craft 0-8-0.
The tender truck was broke and the motor was missing. (I put a can motor in it)
I've seen a few Aristo Craft locomotives on Ebay, I notice alot had zinc rot issues.

 

[CNJ999]

The Polk bothers, owners of Polk's Hobby in NYC, were pioneers in the importation of model trains from both Europe and the Orient. Their Aristo-Craft Distinctive Miniatures were a most interesting product line spanning the 1960's. It had an amazing diversity, with models representing various eras from the late 19th through the early 20th century and numbering between 20 and 30 distinctly different locomotives. Being produced in Japan, they carried a small (usually foil) label marked "New One Models" on the underside of the frame.

The most recognized part of the line were engines made of zamac, their accuracy to the prototype ranging from downright primative to really quite nice. The biggest problem with the zamac locos was their tendency to develop zamac pest or rot, which caused various parts to disintergrate over time. The worst example was the CNJ ten-wheeler, which was also offered at the time by AHM. Most examples warped horribly or turned to dust long ago and it's rare to find one completely intact today.

The line also included some brass imports, at least a portion of which apparently did not originate from orders placed by the Polks. Rather, they seem to have been over-runs or left over stock from other importers of the day. These always sold in very limited numbers.

Incidentally, some years ago I wrote an detailed article on Aristo-Craft models which appeared in the pages of RMC.

CNJ999

 

[pgandw]

The only good thing about zinc (or zamac) rot is that it's already happened if it's going to. Impurities in the casting alloy allowed it to disintegrate over time.

The other issue with the Aristo-Craft (and many others of its day) is the deep flanges. Even when complying with NMRA standards, flanges were allowed to be knife-edge and .035" deep. NMRA compliance was spotty until the RP25 wheel and flange became more or less universally adopted in North America, with European manufacturers becoming the last to adopt. The .035" flanges will run on code 83 HO track, but code 70 and code 55 require testing.

But the older (19th and very early 20th Century) prototypes of a lot of the Aristo-Craft line make them very tempting for me.

my thoughts, your choices

 

[toptrain1]

post 45

Ashland Coal loco

One of my gripes with these New One locos was the encased drive gear. When some New One made loco pasted over a re-railer it would rub on the surface. Sometimes when going slow actually stop. I cut these encasements off of the locos that did this.

Here is my 0-8-0 . 0-4-0, and 2-8-2

 

[toptrain1]

post 46

Getting a CNJ 4-6-4 tanker.

Back in the late 70's when little variety even in HO was available, getting a particular locomotive was a challenge. The CNJ had some Hudson tank locomotives that in HO were only available in Brass. Now a European company Liliput had 4-6-4 tankers. Thro a friend two became available to me. New couplers, bumpers removed, and the addition of pilots in my eyes were enough to make these German engines Jersey Central.
toptrain1

 

[MilesWestern]

Might want to buy an american cab for it too, that slanted german one doesn't do it any favors.

 

[toptrain1]

When you hold it and look at it you see you don't just need a cab but a boiler to. Untill something comes along they will stay as they are. toptrain1

 

[CNJ999]

If you really like "oldies", those from the early days of HO between the late 1930's and the early 50's, how about Ideal Models, makers of a broad line of 1/8" scale, cardstock structures, addaptable to either OO or HO use? The one in the image below is their fire station, crafted exactly after the one on Central Ave. in Hartsdale, NY.

CNJ999

 

[toptrain1]

post 50

card stock firehouse by Ideal

It looks like it was made yesterday. Lots of detail for card stock.The only Ideal I have is a automatic gate arm and a water tower.

 

[CNJ999]

In fact, toptrain, Ideal Model's line of structure kits was very extensive, amounting to more than 30 kits and more than enough to populate a good-sized period layout. Some of these kits surface on eBay from time to time.

In the 1940's Ideal issued a design for a rather clever 8'x10' HO layout utilizing most, if not all, of the kits they offered at that time. Each is identified on the plan by the kit number. I'm attaching an image of the layout plan although I don't known just how well it will reproduce.

CNJ999

 

[Sarge_7]

here is my Cary E6 on a Hobbytown drive. They don't make'em like that anymore. Also have some John English FA-1s I am finishing up now.

 

[toptrain1]

Cary E7 UP

Sarge; Very nice. Looks brand new. toptrain

 

[toptrain1]

View attachment 64989 View attachment 64989 post 54

AHM Riverossi 2-8-0

If you remember way back when AHM started to import trains made by Riverossi of Italy. One of their first Locomotives was what looked like a World War 1 era consolidation. It looked like the locomotives we sent over to Europe to move war supplies. It was made with a motor in the tender and gear drive in the locomotive, connected by a drive shaft. This is of a type that Mantua uses in it's Gereral locomotive. The 2-8-0 used a clear vision tender. It was made with two different cabs. One kind of French'ie, Americanized, and the other definitaly European. I have two of the first type. They came with and without valve gear. The die cast floor in the tender almost always corroded and fell apart. What was good was Riverossi used the same tender with it's Indianna Harbor Belt 2-8-0. These tenders had less problems with their frames. Both my locomotives use these newer tenders. I have them lettered the way the US Army lettered the locomotives they shipped over to france. At the start of WW1 the United States Railroad Administration was formed to help move war freight here. Locomotives of this type were on hand and were the first issued to American railroads. The Jersey Central recieved 10. Seven in Feburary of 1917, and three more in December of 1918. All were built by Baldwin. They were returned to the goverment by August 1918 and replaced with 19 Russian decapods.
I placed a second photo of #665 with valve gear added.

 

[Triplex]

In the 1940's Ideal issued a design for a rather clever 8'x10' HO layout utilizing most, if not all, of the kits they offered at that time. Each is identified on the plan by the kit number. I'm attaching an image of the layout plan although I don't known just how well it will reproduce.

CNJ999

There's a clearer version of that in 101 Track Plans.

 

[toptrain1]

post 56

The Athearn GP9

When is a Athearn GP9, may be not entirely Athearn. I have this locomotive in 3 different numbers. Now this may seam to be not so odd but Athearn didn't list a Pennsylvania GP9. Maybe it was some sort of special run. I think Bev-Bel or another company may have released these GP9s. Shown is #7152, I also have 7151 and 7132 who's photos I have added. All have nice crisp factory paint jobs on Athearn and not Globe bodies. So who out their knowns who painted these locomotives? Other photos are in the Gallery in my album named "Pennsylvania Railroad Diesel Locomotives".
frank toptrain1

 

[toptrain1]

post 57

Remembering the Varney hopper.

Here is a car I've seen very often. I remember the old add showing the black Virginian 2 bay. It was shown in many Varney adds. Now is their some collector out their who can tell what other road names were made. Lets just cover the open version of this car. Also with other car types different runs were made using different car numbers. Was this done with the open hopper?

 

[toptrain1]

post 58

The Marx Hudson HO scale

Marx realeased this locomotive for almost 10 years. It was intensionaly toy like tho still kind of nice. The most clearly different thing about this locomotive was the choice of tender trucks. They used EMD bloomberg diesel trucks! This was not the only model marx used these trucks on. The marx passenger cars used diesel trucks. The porter hussler they made used them also. And of course their GP7 and F3. They belonged on the last two not the other three. Their were other differences. Some had a head light. On these the boiler front was removeable to access the bulb for replacement. On others, the boiler front was cast with the boiler in one piece. The area under the locomotive cab and the way the tender connected to the locomotive had variations. The drivers were different from norm also. One side,the right, used metal wheels the other,the left, was plastic. American flyier (gilbert) did this also on their first hudsons. Another thing is this locomotive had a smoke unit. Tho I did find one without smoke. All had the same number, 6096. This was cast on in raised numbers. Painting was different also. The stripes changed, or were not present. This was done in different combinations. Attached are four photos of my Marx hudsons. If you look you will see some of these differences. frank toptrain

 

[bigsteel]

i have a pretty old athearn GP9 that was custom painted and lettered.i placed it in a consist with 2 new proto 2000 GP-9's and the older athearn is HUGE compared to the newer ones.i never really noticed the size difference unti now.--josh

 

[MilesWestern]

I have an odd request for TopTrain, or anybody out there:

Mantua made a little davenport DIESEL that was an 0-4-0 with SIDERODS and counterweights. I came across it looking in my 1992 Walther's Catalogue. Does anybody have one of those? I'd love to find one.