Anyone into the oldies

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
AHM crane. Bought this in the late 60's, Haven't seen another one like it.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Varney F3. almost ready for paint. this one was equiped with a centrifical clutch. It was interesting to run . Had to take it out when the old motor died.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Of course who could forget these. Athearn Hi-F. Notice the extra magnets on the motor. Helps out those tired motors.
 

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Clerk

Active Member
Nice shots Ray. I haven't seen one of those rubber band drive units since I was into HO back in the early 60's
 

jim currie

Active Member
ray
looks like you have same oldes box as i do only my crane is green bought it in 1963 and the varney units i have a powered a and a powered b the a is geared, the b has a stepped pulley with a spring only 4wd . also have a box of old hi fi athearn .
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Cool, This Varney is only 4wheel drive with belt drive. I like how quiet the belt drives are. I need to find a better replacement belts that don't rot. I have a few Hi-Fs that I put low RPM motors in , they run nice.
 

brakie

Active Member
Ray,Put those antiques back in the museum..:D

I didn't know any of those old Uncle Irv's GP30 was still around...Those speak of a more fun and relax hobby unlike todays its gotta be perfect and correct from the box hobby.

That GP30 was carried by Athearn for a year and finally drop from their locomotive line up and was replaced by the GP35 due to the lack of sales...If I remember correctly Hobbytown of Boston bought the Varney dies for the F units while PennLine(now Bowser) got the steam locomotive dies.
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
I came across that GP30 at a show back in Pa. for $20. It had a broken axle gear (big deal), other than that it's in great shape. It must be one of the last runs, cause it's got the rubber motormounts and metal style coupler clip.
From what I understand the early gp35s had the same frame but different coupler mounts. I could be wrong.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Originally posted by brakie
Ray,Put those antiques back in the museum..:D

I didn't know any of those old Uncle Irv's GP30 was still around...Those speak of a more fun and relax hobby unlike todays its gotta be perfect and correct from the box hobby.

That GP30 was carried by Athearn for a year and finally drop from their locomotive line up and was replaced by the GP35 due to the lack of sales...If I remember correctly Hobbytown of Boston bought the Varney dies for the F units while PennLine(now Bowser) got the steam locomotive dies.

I was told by some of the old timeres here in So Cal that what happened to the Athearn Gp 30 is that the mold got dropped and the roof broke. It was easier to make a Gp35 roof to fix the mold than to make a new Gp30 mold.
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
Wow, that's something I never heard. They broke the mold, that is an interesting bit of Athearn history. Thanks for sharing that.:)
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Always wondered why Athearn didn't offer those '30s anymore. I love old school HO and used to have one of those Hi-F drive F7s. Its motor is a beautiful flatcar load...somewhere. This hustler used to have the old belt drive. Trouble was, to replace the belts you had to completely disassemble it. The last time I lost a belt, I wondered if it could be remotored. That worked so well an Ernst gear set soon followed. Then I just had to see if I could stick a DCC decoder in her... Thanks for the memories, keep them coming.
 

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Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
I'll bet that runs a lot better. I've got an earnst regear kit for one around here somewhere ,but my hustlers are all the older style with the pointed axles and no idler pulley.
Speaking of the regear kits , do you have any experience with the one for the RDC? I wonder how they run.
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
I found this little beauty at an antique shop for a buck. Not entirely original due to missing parts. Manufactured by O-lin prod. Chicago 25. Ill.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
I'm sorry I can't speak for the RDC kit as I've never had one. One other thing I did with the Hustler is to replace the wheelsets with solid nickle silver ones from Jay-Bee. It greatly improved the electrical pickup and, with the improved axles with the bronze bearings that Athearn switched to, ran much better. It can start and run on the 01 setting on a borrowed Digitrax throttle. The wheelsets came in a set of 8 so if you interested in trying to retrofit them by drilling out the pointed bearings, PM me your address and I'll send the remaining 4 off to you. I'd be tickled to see if it could be done.
 

TinGoat

Ignorant know it all
Have you tried...

Originally posted by Ray Marinaccio
I need to find a better replacement belts that don't rot.

Have you tried the plumbing section of the local hardware store????

I was thinking of trying rubber "O" rings if I could find one the right size...
 
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