Electrics!

interesting. What are the drives?  Are they one of those early 50s food mixer-type things?

@John Sethian posted:

interesting. What are the drives?  Are they one of those early 50s food mixer-type things?

Stock IMP ones are as you colorfully describe - early 50s food mixer-type.  The trucks one the one are not stock IMP; probably an improvement. The white metal bearing blocks tend to not be in very good condition on these and prone to fragmenting....

Another IMP electric.  Missing the motor though. 

Just a quick  question,, does any one make a centenary system in O ?    Good looking steeple cabs!

Sommerfeldt of Europe

https://modelmasters.co.uk/sea...roduct&q=O+Scale

Otherwise it's possible to build your own

does any one make a centenary system in O ?   

Only every 100 years....

Here's one of my prizes from the Strasburg show several years ago; scratchbuilt from produce or lubricant can brass; remains of the label are on the inside.  After cleaning, tidying up the wiring, and straightening the poles, it runs nicely.

Here is one of mine, was a MPC Lionel New Haven, Repainted Pennsylvania R.R. Copied my dads Lionel HO from around 1959/ 60.

This is a home made wood PRR O1  I got several years ago.  Cam ewith some nice Walthers pantographs, cast pilots and a few other cool details...

"Only every 100 years.... "

This gets the funniest answer award for this week.

Here are the Y1/FF2 Electrics.  I admit I am using the designations from memory . . .

The one on the left is Sunset - they did a superb job, except for only powering four axles.  Takes two of them to haul six of my Empire Builder cars.  The one on the right was cobbled together using castings from Stevenson Preservation Models.  How he finds the time to produce small production runs of such varied models baffles me - but it is a great thing for that part of the hobby that likes to build stuff.

Grand Central Terminal Electrics!

@mwb posted:

Here's one of my prizes from the Strasburg show several years ago; scratchbuilt from produce or lubricant can brass; remains of the label are on the inside.  After cleaning, tidying up the wiring, and straightening the poles, it runs nicely.

Warrior River Railway,eh? I have two boxcars lettered for the Rat River Railway; I can think of some interesting merger names!

Anyway, on to the real reason for this post. TBill Robbins built this box motor out of metal oil cans (remember them?) many years ago, the other side (no photos) is not painted and the brand of the oil (Esso? on this one) is visible:

Here are two more of his creations; he did build with an assembly-line method; the box motor is mine, a friend owns the combine and somewhere I have a matching coach:

One final comment; whatever brand of oil can that Bill used for the white box motor was what he used for all of his many builds.

Icken O1 - you have seen it before.  Exquisite French sand castings!

Of note: two Pittman DC-91 open frame motors, driving separate NWSL steam gearboxes on Lobaugh drivers (machined here).  Runs like the wind.

keep going Bob. I love it.

@bob2 posted:

Icken O1 - you have seen it before.  Exquisite French sand castings!

Of note: two Pittman DC-91 open frame motors, driving separate NWSL steam gearboxes on Lobaugh drivers (machined here).  Runs like the wind.

Would love to find one of these beasties...

this is a fun thread!

Neat stuff fellas

Here's a 1980s vintage New York Central S motor electric. I built it from a brass kit produced by John Crisi. He branded his kits under the name "The Electric Shop". It was a very smooth running engine.

I also built his T motor kit, but unfortunately don't have any photos of that one.

Jim

Jim

Nice job on that kit.  That is cool looking.

I hope you are not going to apply power to the rails with it sitting on that block wall

An old photo and out of date because I have more GG1s, but we'll call this photo "a sampling" of my GG1 collection.  Missing 12 O ones and several HO and N ones as well.  Now to find some in S, G, and 1:1.

And I thought I had too many!

Really neat "Electric Shop" model.  I was only vaguely aware of that production.  I recall a "David O King" or something that cane with poor press comments.

@Jim Policastro posted:

Here's a 1980s vintage New York Central S motor electric. I built it from a brass kit produced by John Crisi. He branded his kits under the name "The Electric Shop". It was a very smooth running engine.

I also built his T motor kit, but unfortunately don't have any photos of that one.

Jim

Jim, that's true craftsmanship on display!

Jim - that model is absolutely stunning!  Thanks for sharing!

Another image showing a selection of my electrics.  I have always enjoyed heavy electric locomotives.  Growing up around them probably has something to do with that.  These photos go back about 10 years or so from my last home.

At the other end of the spectrum, a small steeplecab:

My Lionel MPC #8659 Virginian from 1976 with a Lionel Virginian caboose, has a PW motor that I put in.

@GG1 4877 posted:

An old photo and out of date because I have more GG1s, but we'll call this photo "a sampling" of my GG1 collection.  Missing 12 O ones and several HO and N ones as well.  Now to find some in S, G, and 1:1.

Gotta say GG-1 4877 that is one nice collection of GG-1s

Mark

@j2morris posted:

Sommerfeldt of Europe

https://modelmasters.co.uk/sea...roduct&q=O+Scale

Otherwise it's possible to build your own

thank you!  I have done trolley wire in N and HO , and used centenary in G but was a total loss on O

@mwb posted:

At the other end of the spectrum, a small steeple Cab:

great looking steeple cab

Please don't repeat my photos in your quotes.  I already post them too many times.

Here are a few GG1 photos - first, the awesome Sunset import (photos are mine):

If one wanted a fairly accurate GG1, this and it's sister "rivets" would be a really good choice.  the only flaw I could find was that only four axles are powered, which is not good for 2-rail pulling.

By the way, this photo was for a Lionel project involving deteriorating zinc castings.  The lower frame is the Wolfer/Duddy/Stevenson frame (still available) and the upper is the Lionel.  As far as I can tell, the Wolfer frame is the most accurate ever done in O Scale, and I would bet that includes Kohs.  Three of my GG1s are equipped with these frames, and only a couple have the earlier Alexander trucks.

@bob2 posted:

If one wanted a fairly accurate GG1, this and it's sister "rivets" would be a really good choice. the only flaw I could find was that only four axles are powered, which is not good for 2-rail pulling.

Actually you just need to change the weight distribution.  I have four of these 2 rail Sunsets in regular use, and once you take care of that and unload the 4 wheel trucks they run and pull just fine.

Saying you need all six axles powered (meaning a  4-6-6-4) would imply a Northern, Hudson, Pacific, or even an Atlantic have pulling problems

@bob2 posted:

As far as I can tell, the Wolfer frame is the most accurate ever done in O Scale, and I would bet that includes Kohs.

Suggest you take another look at those Kohs trucks (your photo repeated to allow an A-B comparison):

The Kohs side frames are not just a single casting as in other models, but are an assembly of multiple components (including both an inner and outer sideframe) with hollow cavities to house all the suspension components.  Note the three springs, speed recorder, sanding lines, etc.  Just as the prototype.   

Here are a couple of Baldwin class E motors I am just starting to work on.

Here’s one from my collection of 3rd Rail items that I own... I forget what it’s called. Lol !

A VisionLine GG-1…

Hello all fun game I'll play along here

Cheers Carey

Mauer DD1 1947

Jack Bramble Class O 1935

Parmele & Sturges 1938 E3

L unknown class T

R modified Bedell into Class T

Alexander GG1 1938-41

What a genuine treasure trove!  I need to go back and study those.

On the Kohs truck - I concede, but also offer that there are lots of add-ons for the Wolfer truck, including slack adjusters, speed cables, and the like.  I doubt those three springs are there, though, and these puppies are substantial, unlike a totally accurate hollow casting.   If we scale things down exactly, we wind up with beautiful, delicate, and very fragile models.  Case in point: say a box car has 1/8" steel plate siding.  1/8" in 1/4" scale is less than .003" - thinner than tin foil.

That, of course, is the problem with truly accurate locomotive beds, especially the cast type.  I use 1/4"x 5/8" brass bar, which is way more than twice the size of a truly scaled down frame.  But again, I concede.

Back to GG1s:

Top is what I believe to be a "Baldwin" GG1.  I finished and painted it, but it is essentially the actual kit, except for the pans.

Lower is a bronze Duddy casting, mounted on Wolfer trucks, again without the supplied slack adjusters and speed cables.  Pans are imports, which are a lot better looking than the lost wax kind on "Baldwin" up there.

For Martin, the larger pans are roughly 4" when retracted.  I have a spare set of smaller ones, which I still need to measure - I think they are under 3 1/2"