History on an old engine?

[rekline]

Any help on this would be appreciated. My parents were going though some old boxes in the basement and found my old train stuff I had as a kid. In the box was an old locomotive (I thought it was lost during my last move as a kid) that my grandmother had bought for me and I was wondering who made it. It was purchased in the mid/late seventies and has stamped made in Austria on the bottom. Suprised that when I put in on the test circle of track it worked. A little noisy though.
View attachment 36329
Thanks in advance for you help.

 

[jeffrey-wimberl]

Made in Austria? Could be Trix or maybe Fleischman. I don't know much on steamers.

 

[nhguy]

That is a Rivarossi "Casey Jones" 4-6-0. There is one for sale on EBay right now. Yours has the valve gear. His doesn't. Iwould say some of the 70's vintage engines had better drives and valve gear.

Roundhouse made one almost exactly like it as a kit.

Bill

 

[shaygetz]

It looks very similar to the AHM/Rivarossi "Casey Jones" but I don't believe it is. The wheel spacing is incorrect for the old "999" as all three drivers would be the same distance apart. The pilot wheels would be spoked, it would have the more proper looking long, pointed "cowcatcher" pilot and a smaller tender. There is also a very distinct celestiary roof, very similar to old time passenger cars. Bowser and Varney put ones out similar to yours that were incorrectly called "Casey Jones" but are more correctly called ten wheelers. Because of all the plastic, it couldn't be either of those as they were primarily metal with Varney selling out to Bowser long ago.

Which leads me to believe that it is a Life-Like issue from the 70s. It has all the Pennsy markings, the squared up Belpaire firebox just ahead of the cab, the cylinder mounted on the pilot, the horizontal rather than vertical spokes on the shallow "cowcatcher" pilot being the ones that stand out. You should be able to run it without the tender as well. The final clincher is that I owned one of those Life-Like ones back in 1976, my first loco I ever bought with my own money. My first redetailing project too, I gormed it up like an early version of "Pimp My Locomotive"...sigh...

...I go back in my cave now...:thumb:

 

[rekline]

Thanks for the input.

I believe that it maybe the Life-Like even thought I haven't found a picture of one to compare it to. The Varney has a slightly different underside based upon the picture in e-bay. I remember the day that my grandmother bought it for me. There was no box and they just gave me a random one off the floor (Trolley of all things) and yes it can run without the tender. Brings back good memories of childhood. (and that why we still play with trainssign1 )

 

[shaygetz]

Just seeing that pic brought back many fond memories from my 9th grade model railroad club...thanks for sharing it. One of the projects I had planned for it was to make it a cab-forward...that was before I added elephant ear smoke deflectors...

 

[BillD53A]

It was made by either LifeLike or Model Power in the 1980s as a model of a Pennsylvania RR G5. (Model Power, I think). Definitely NOT AHM or Bowser.
At any rate, put it on a shelf. It isnt worth bothering with.

 

[Justin]

Could be a ROCO. All ROCO was usually made in Austria.

 

[rekline]

I have been looking for an example of the ROCO to see if it matches any of the pictures. I found the Life-Like and don't think that it is it because of the paint. The grey on the front of the boiler is not consistant with Life-Like which the pictures have them all black. Hard to believe that as a kid I didn't customize it.

 

[shaygetz]

I have been looking for an example of the ROCO to see if it matches any of the pictures. I found the Life-Like and don't think that it is it because of the paint. The grey on the front of the boiler is not consistant with Life-Like which the pictures have them all black. Hard to believe that as a kid I didn't customize it.

It's not unusual to have the same loco put out by several manufacturers in the early days of this hobby right up to about the early 80s. I have an excellent 5 car set of Life Like Scene Master passenger cars from '82 that were made from Penn Line molds from the 60s. I recently read a review of this very locomotive in the Trade Topics section of a late 70s MR, they actually gave it a pretty good rating for its type. I'll try to find it but, with over 600+ magazines, it may take a bit.

 

[toptrain1]

It is a Life Like release. Made for them by Liliput. It was released after their Liliput german protytpe 4-6-0 that they call a Casey Jones. They followed a Life Like release of the original Varney Casey Jones. Made from Varney Parts.
toptrain

 

[toptrain1]

I have a photo of my Life Like PRR G5 here in Gallery,Member's Categories,My old stuff,toptrain1. The last two photos are of the two Life Like Liliput 4-6-0s .

 

[rekline]

toptrain1 you nailed it with the liliput 4-6-0. The paint scheme, and quantity of detail is exactly like the one I have. Thanks much. I appreciate it.:thumb: :thumb: I knew the experts here could figure it out.

 

[toptrain1]

No expert here just an old train guy
frank

 

[shaygetz]

Thanks, Frank, been looking for one of those 4-6-0s for awhile, kinda nice to know I didn't toast all my brain memory cells back in the 70s. That's quite a gallery you have. I'm struck green with envy that you have the Athearn DD40 in Pennsy paint, they're as hard if not harder to touch as the UP ones. Those GG1 shots are great, too. I still have distant memories of one in Amtrak black shooting the corridor in Baltimore. Was pleased to be able to add a Tyco one to my small but growing fleet.

 

[toptrain1]

Harry I got two DD1's. I doublehead them. The two can pull HO a train 45' long. I have run them on my layout where the caboose on the end was directyl infront of the lead locomotive
farnk

 

[Kanawha]

It was made by either LifeLike or Model Power in the 1980s as a model of a Pennsylvania RR G5. (Model Power, I think). Definitely NOT AHM or Bowser.
At any rate, put it on a shelf. It isnt worth bothering with.

I wouldn't say it isn't worth bothering with. Especially if it was given to him as a gift when he was younger. With a little work, lubrication, some extra details, and maybe a decoder it could be a really nice engine. And with a great story behind it.

 

[rekline]

Thanks everyone for your help. My plans for it are to clean/fix it up, new couplers. I have some old style passenger and some freight cars (not at the same time) that I will use with it. I am building a small circle and hope to have it ready for Christmas where I can remember my Grandparents.

 

[MasonJar]

I have some old style passenger and some freight cars (not at the same time) that I will use with it.

Why not? That's called a "mixed" train, and they were very common, especially on branchlines post-WW2 through the end of steam. Passenger cars (almost) always trailed whatever freight was in the consist.

Andrew

 

[kmorris]

A great site for researching old HO scale engines is HOseeker at http://www.hoseeker.net

Hope that helps