JAD Hiawatha

Very nice Steve!! 8' long, wow!!

Always wanted to get one, never had the funds though.  My late father was to purchase a set off of another guy over 25 years ago, but the deal fell thru.

All the vestibules have pick up rollers but nothing except the loco has a light. Wonder if lighting was an option on these?  I do plan on adding a fan driven smoke unit if I can do it without altering it much. Looks to be plenty of room up inside the shell.

Steve

Great looking train!  Even has the correct Milwaukee Rd observation.  MTH ought to make this!

John

Awesome looking set Steve. You stated that JAD was the only one to make a standard gauge Hiawatha that can run on 042 curves. Lionel's Hiawatha will also run on 042 track. That is what I run mine on all the time.

Enjoy your set.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I agree that wider radius curves do help reduce the friction. Funny, my Lionel Hiawatha does not have traction tires.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Steve,

The answer is yes, it should have lighting. If it doesn't, it could be a bunch of different things: forgot to get installed; ran out of parts to install; someone removed it, etc. The lights are very basic. They used a pair of small Christmas lights to light the interiors. Let's just say they don't get very bright. I have included some pictures of the installation. They way they get power is thru the vestibule. The "T" portion of the car connector is isolated from the the rest of the car. This is what one side of the light string is connected to. The red wire just connects the 2 ends together. The other side of the string is connected to the screw post.

If you plan to install lights, make sure all parts are isolated as needed.

On a technicality, the 4-car JAD Hiawatha set is 9 feet in length, the 3-car set is about 7-1/2 feet. Still a great looking set.

Hope this helps.

ARNO

Thanks for the correction on the Lionel being able to run on 42". I was going by what I was told. Still a lot for a new guy to learn.

Steve

Arno

Thanks for the pictures of the lighting. It would not be hard to add some, but with the clear acetate windows, I'm not sure I would like it. If they were frosted, it would make more sense.

On another subject Arno, that little McCoy 89 I picked up at Cal-Stewart cleaned up great and now runs fabulous.

Steve

Another question, what years were these made?

thanks

Steve

Mid-1970's.

Steve,

Loco's were made in 1974, cars came the following year. Check out my article on SG Streamliners in the July 2010 issue of the Train Collectors Quarterly (vol.56 no.3) for more information about these sets.

Your windows should be frosted. As there is no interior, they were fitted with frosted windows. Since yours set is an anomaly, I would guess your set of cars were made well after the initial run. Dick Mayer probably put them together with remaining parts he had lying around. That would explain the lack of lighting, window material, etc.

What number is on the bottom of the loco?

ARNO

That is a Beautiful Hiawatha it's the one that should have been in the Opening scene of The Christmas Story. I don't think the Hiawatha should ever be understated. Wish I had the reastate to run that sweetheart.

To: Steve Papa Eastman:  I saw your post about your cars not having lights and the windows being clear, unfortunately it sounds like you may have fraudulent cars.  My Father is the "D" in JAD, it stands for Richard "Dick" Battaglia.  The contractor that had the tooling and dyes made additional units without the consent nor knowledge of JAD.

The pictures that the person posted here of the car with the lights are real units.

My Father, Richard, is now on a mission to educate the public about this contractor making cars and you may call him directly if you like, he will talk your ear off about JAD and is very upset that fraudulent cars have made their way into the marketplace.

As the holidays always do, my brother was visiting and we all got together yesterday to discuss JAD and also pull out my Father's inventory, he still has Factory Sealed, since 1976, Hiawatha's!.  There were only 250 Engine and tender sets produced, 250 engines and 250 Tenders and much fewer car sets as many people did not purchase them.  I took some great pictures yesterday of my Father's inventory if you are interested, Hiawatha's all over the place!

Also, he is not going to be selling any at all, we the sons are going to get them, this was a big part of our childhood and it is still exciting to us.

Everyone here is welcome to email me for my father's phone number, rather not post it, but he wants to get the word out and if you have any questions please feel free to ask away.

Also, JAD stands for (J)ohn Daniels, (A)rt Varney (D)ick Battaglia

Son OF JAD,

Thanks for posting the info...How about Dad (or son) get back to producing some new tinplate for us newbies?  

Sunrise

My Dad really wants to protect the owners of the original products and not flood the market with knock off's as he would say.  Personally I would like to produce a limited edition and either altering them or marking them in some fashion to denote that they are not original models.  I really love the products they made, those trains are so beautiful and awesome in person and I would love to make more as long as it did not affect the value of the original products.  

My Father is the sole surviving member out of the whole team and even after all these years he is so passionate about JAD.

I will discuss it with him and my brother tomorrow to see what the feedback is.  

I have a young son, as does my brother, and my son loves trains and is re-igniting my passion for them and would love to have the JAD Trains running but am so afraid to because of them getting damaged, but having reproductions would be a different story.

Who knows, I'll pitch it to them tomorrow.

Thanks

Sean

Any chance you could post some of the pictures?

Bob

Alright...enough of the teasing already...   Lets see another production run....

Sunrise

Very cool thank you for posting.

I am surprised there were unauthorized knock offs, which strikes me as a sad chapter regarding a terrific, original product. The index of qualities between the two are equally striking and apparent in hindsight. Its a shame for all concerned.

My Father was really upset when he discovered them on eBay.  The sub-contractor still had the original tools and dies and apparently wanted to make a few bucks.  Now fortunately for owners of the original trains they are stamped and serialized as well as apparently the sub-cotractor did not use all of the original parts when he produced them as we have seen reports of the cars not having lighting and the windows not frosted and so forth so if we see some pictures of the trains in question we can spot a fake a mile away! 

If you look in some of my pictures you will see sealed boxes.  The trains in them have not seen the light of day since 1976!!!  

I added the closeup pictures of the cars so that you can use them as a reference what an original authentic JAD Hiawatha should look like.  Again, there are unauthorized knock off's floating around and uneducated individuals may be paying high dollars for them when they are not worth nearly what an original is worth, and the construction is inferior as well.  The paint is not the same as well.  So as I have already posted, if you are questioning your Hiawatha please feel free to either send me pictures and or you can also talk to my Father directly on the phone, he is the last remaining partner of JAD.  And to be honest, he really wants to talk with you as he is retired and has free time and is very passionate about trains themselves but especially JAD of course.

He has been in the toy train hobby for over 50 years and this is a great opportunity for you to ask him about the old TTOS and TCA meetings and just the whole train 'business' as a whole in addition to JAD if you like.

I remember in the late 60's and early 70's he had large magnetic signs made for our car that said "Wanted; Toy Trains" and something like 'Stop Me' or 'Call Me' with his phone number.  I remember driving around and actually being stopped and my Dad making deals, it really grew his collection.

Anyway, don't be shy, if you would like to discuss your Hiawatha and so forth then message me for his number, he will give you all of the history and some cool stories about JAD.

Thanks again

Sean Battaglia

those are some beautiful trains!

Thank You!  I was just talking with my Dad and tossing around the idea of doing a ReBoot of these trains, but only as long as they are very distinguishable from the original trains and if there is any interest in them.

We need to do some research to see if there would be a market for them.

Anyway, we are tossing around the idea.

could you stamp the year on the frame?

You could count me in for one.

Sunrise

My brother is still in town for a few days so he, and I are going to meet at my Dad's later this week and discuss the idea of producing a 2nd generation and will of course keep you updated here.

I really think that JAD produced some of the greatest looking trains in Standard Gauge, the Union Pacific is especially cool.

I also like the fact the the electric motor itself was easily removed for cleaning, oiling or storage.  You can see one on the floor in the puctures, one pin at the top held them in the Engine.

I would be in also. I have one of the Hiawatha sets. I would be interested in an M10000 and the GG1.

I'd be very interested in this set. Living in a Condo I've shied away from Standard gauge. But I'd find the real estate for this one. On June 15, 1946 Ma and Dad boarded the Hiawatha for their honeymoon some 40 years later Dad retired from the Milwaukee Road (actually the Soo Line by then after it bought out the Milwaukee Road.) 

Son of JAD:

I will send you some pictures. I found a couple of the boxes straight away, but I wanted to include a picture of each type of piece I have. Just need to find those other boxes....

Steve,

    That has to be one of the most way cool Tin Plate trains I have ever seen, how do you keep coming up with this great Tin, I want it!

PCRR/Dave