Can anyone ID who made this? I’m a 3-Rail O guy, but got this in a box of misc Lionel stuff. From googling, I thought it was Red Caboose, but the bottoms of the trucks don’t look the same. I’m thinking about using it on my layout. Desplaines Hobby sells a shell, but I think a section of the frame was removed. Whoever made this, does anyone know if a new frame is available?
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Looks like it might be a Weaver GP 38.
The drive looks like a single tower weaver, or something similar. I don’t know what the rest of it is. Des Plaines makes a brass frame and a body kit. It’s designed for a dual tower weaver drive and I think you can get the conversion from P&D
The weights on the frame and the trucks look like Weaver to me. But I could be wrong.....
Looks like a modified Weaver GP-38 that some one has taken a section out of to shorten it for use under some other body.
Could be useful,
Yep... Weaver for sure. Hope you can "save" it...
Mark in Oregon
The chassis was likely cut to lengthen it. GP9s had a truck to truck spacing of 40 feet while the GP38 spacing is 35 feet.
I think the GP38s were longer than GP9s.
Anyway, the parts are all Weaver. The drive is basically the same as the kit they use to repower a Red Caboose GP9.
Des Plaines used to sell a complete GP9 kit that did not have a drive just all the body and frame parts. If they still do, you could get one and use it with this mechanism. The brass frame insert mentioned above is a nice upgrade but not necessary. It does make it heavier and sturdier. Also you do not have to do a dual tower drive, you can use the single tower drive. You just have to cut out spaces on the ends of the fuel tank for the drive shaft. These are not typically visible when the unit is on the rails.
If you are thinking plastic body, I have one Atlas SDP-35 body left. We stole the trucks for some 2-rail conversions of, I think, MTH units.