Lionel AEC Switcher

"HONGZ" stands for HO scale, N scale, G scale, and Z scale.

Post your non-O scale stuff here!

j whiteOGR Forum Member

A few years ago a lady at work was getting ready to move and had heard that I liked toy trains. She asked me to come to her house and get rid of the trains that her deceased husband and their now grown children had played with years ago. Most of the items were H0, but there was two very early O gauge MTH sets. The H0 items were pretty well abused, and there seemed to be a lot of engines compared to the number cars and track. There were a lot of rubber band drive Athearn engines in there.

Then there was this little beauty:

One of these days I will get a section of H0 track or two and a DC power pack and see if this thing works or not. I think it is a pretty neat paint job for such a low end engine.

There were a few more Lionel cars in the lot, and I found an operating helicopter car (sans helicopter of course) to go with it. I found a picture of a matching caboose online, which I will be on the hunt for if this engine works.

J White

10/17/155:23 PM

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Chuck SartorOGR Forum Member

Good find. Little critter is just as hard to find as the O gauge version. The AEC caboose is not an easy find either. Might get a hold of some one going to York next week to look for one.

Might also look for one or two 0805 blinking reactor cars to go with the loco.

10/17/157:54 PM

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j whiteOGR Forum Member

Thanks for the suggestion. I had never heard of the flatcar before. There were quite a few to choose from at York if money was no object. Looks like the average asking price was about $40 for an unboxed one (I don't recall seeing one with a box; perhaps they were set only?) I found one for $8 and bought it. Didn't notice that one of the steps was broke off, or that the container was a bit melted. It kinda looks appropriate though.

I also found another AEC switcher that was pretty cracked up for $20. The mechanism works fine though. The one I had already I am guessing doesn't work based on the condition of the other items with it. There was a Vari-AC transformer with them (which converts 120 VAC to a percentage of that: 0 to 120 VAC output) and I think someone used that to power the trains and let the magic smoke out of them.

Here's a picture of my growing Lionel collection:

Somewhere I have a helicopter launching car without the helicopter. I learned at York a few days ago that they make repros for it to be used with the O gauge reconnaisance launching car.

J White

10/25/159:06 PM

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