700E Rebuild

Wow, what a mess!  I hope you can save this girl.  Good luck! 

John

Save the data plate and serial number.  Get new parts. Opinion.

I'm always shocked when I see pics like these. How could people treat these toys so poorly? Just amazing. These are my first locos from when I was 3 years old. I treasured my toys. It is like the way people can mistreat animals.

I don't think that damage is from mistreatment.  To me, it looks a lot more like "zinc pest" messed up the metal.

700E or other, those trains are still junkers. I don't thnk I'd worry too much about keeping them clean either. I would store them in a way to minimize further decay.

IMHO, SantaFe158 is correct, most of the damage appears to be due to zinc pest.

As an aside, I have a 2226W tender that had severe warping on one side. I was very surprized to find that I was able to straighten it without cracking the metal. One of these days I will finish restoring it.

For all the money you will spend on this project, and you don't have a good boiler yet, you would do better buying a complete one in nice condition. You could get lucky & find one in the $2,000-$3,000 range.

The result will be Great-Grandfather's ax:  2 new heads and 4 new handles but the "same" ax.

I'm happy to see that you are restoring it.  I liken this to the old car hobby.  There are only so many original '32 Fords out there.  Everyone that can be saved is one more to be enjoyed.  There are only so many original 700E Hudsons out there.  When this one is done it will be one more for future generations.

Please keep us updated.

To John,

It is going to be a lot of work, but I think the end result will be well worth the effort.

To Bob 2,

This is a later 700E without the serial number.

To Dave,

The locomotive was not mistreated. Like so many early die-cast items it has zinc rot which causes the damage. The loco and tender had been stored in open paper bags that fell apart over the years. In fact the last time I saw the loco and tender about fifteen years ago the cab was still intact, and the tender deck had not cracked.

By the way nice trains! Who made them?

To C W,

Junk is in the eye of the beholder. <g> So far after taking the loco apart last night the steam chest, and valve hanger, pilot and trailing truck frames are in great shape. When I removed the motor and e-unit I lubed the motor applied some juice and it fired right up. The bearings and gears are perfect. The frame, boiler, and wheels are history.

To Eddie G,

If you re-read my original post, I said the he had parts and boilers. In fact today when going through some trunks under his work bench I found a box containing two more frames with motors, and a ton of additional parts including the original display board. As it stands right now the biggest issue is the drivers. I have two good sets but they are a bit suspect.

To 2101,

Thanks!

To all,

More to follow.

Regards,

Randall

Any updates on the restoration?