Messing with Some Vintage HO Stuff....

@PRRK4s posted:

Mark,  the restored one is the one with the smaller 118 on the cab. I acquired that one first. After I found the original one I had notified the maker of the decals that are on the restored one to see if he could correct the sizing and color of future prints of the decals to closer match the originals but he had no interest as the demand really isn't there.

Okay; I had it backwards then. Thanks for the clarification...and for showing us these very cool, very unusual pieces. Rusty's right: you win! 

Mark in Oregon

My workbench power supply...

I can remember when these were first advertised in Model Railroader magazine, and when I got this I was surprised by how small it is. The "pulse" feature in this seems less "harsh" than the one in the Heathkit unit and certainly any of the Troller units I have... FWIW.

The only thing about this is I wish it had a "power on" light; dunno how many times I've forgotten to turn it off! 

Mark in Oregon

Here's another item...

Have built several kits of this type over the years: this is one of the "pre-built" Bowser K4s. Very pretty, weighs exactly 2 pounds (engine only), and runs as a Bowser/Penn Line should.

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

My workbench power supply...

Mark in Oregon

I was using a Controlmaster V for my bench supply.  I liked that you could take the surrounding bracket off and flip it over to hang the supply.  It's still buried in one of my moving boxes.

However, I did locate my first "real" DC power pack to supplement the Marx one I had.  The MRC Ampack:

It last saw service on my former S Scale railroad powering the Bowser turntable motor.

Rusty

Funny...the Ampack was my first decent power pack as well; mine had the smaller knob and red push- button circuit breaker... 🙂

Mark in Oregon

Here are some photos of more vintage items I am digging up as I clean out my storage unit.  I forgot just how much HO I have.  Literally boxes and boxes.

First off - A "new" in the box set of Hobbytown E7 castings.  Great locomotives overall, but I was never a fan of how they did the nose.  I have a set of PA's I will post later that are just awesome.

Blue Line passenger car kit.  This is one of several I have.  The others are PRR.  Sadly the paint has been damaged, but these are still very nice kits for their time period.

International Model Products didn't just import O.  They also did HO and I have this pair of shorty PRR passenger cars.  I think these must be mid 60's vintage as the frames are plastic.  The dining car frame is broken in half and I never got around to figuring out a fix.  These are fun as they came with full interiors.

If there is time tomorrow, I'll post my Stromberg kit.  Very rare WWII vintage for those in the know of HO history.

@Strummer posted:

Here's another item...

Have built several kits of this type over the years: this is one of the "pre-built" Bowser K4s. Very pretty, weighs exactly 2 pounds (engine only), and runs as a Bowser/Penn Line should.

Mark in Oregon

I will post my Bowser K4 soon.  I built it when I was 16 and added the long haul tender to it.  Very nice build on your part!

Thanks, but as I mentioned, this is one of the "factory builds" that Bowser offered. List price (printed on the box) was $179.99(!) I think I paid 40 bucks; maybe my all time best deal in HO... 🙂

Mark in Oregon

PS: will post my (2) Bowser builds sometime: E6 and I1...

The just about all-but-forgotten Athearn Train Master:

Athearn made two versions: The "SP" style with large numberboards and Mars light bezel and "regular" with small numberboards and no Mars light bezel.

Rusty

Jeez, between you and Johnathan, we can keep this topic going for a while...🙂

Mark in Oregon

Not all HO ( or OO ) is fancy schmancy electrickery stuffs !

All photos from my collection

Right back to the "first " HO ... The Bing Miniature Table Railway ... clockwork from 1922!

with a later finescale adapter kit ( uk made)

Distler, Bub, and a french company Mignon quickly followed suit with miniature railways of their own .

A distler set ( minus locomotive )

Even the Spanish got into it by 1937 with this Rico example

fast forward a few more years and Karl Bub in 1938 made the Sonderklasse ... a 5-speed clockwork locomotive , the speed of running could be set to 5 different rates via an adjustable governer set up .. very ingenious, and a superb bit of engineering in such a small clockwork

Unfortunately the war stepped in to seal this brilliant loco's fate and it was only ever made for one year .

Bub also was a pioneer of train sets with differing functions the following loco is an electric outline locomotive from their "Passing" set where two locos ran on the same loop and as one rounded the track it was sent into a siding where it automatically braked and sent the other set off around the loop !

After the war with improved manufacturing things exploded !

Mettoy UK made a circle of pressed tin HO and locos

Stepping away from "toys" companies like Pyramid in the UK started making more scale clockwork

This might look very familiar to HO modellers as it became the basis for the Triang/Hornby Jinty series when Triang took over Pyramid in 1950 .. the above is the original 1949 model by Pyramid Toys .

Over to France Jouef was starting to make Clockwork HO sets as well.. with the Diabolo!

Over in Japan companies like Sakai and Bandai were getting into rather cool tin battery powered sets

Distler also made a several battery powered sets after the war into the late 50's .. below is the TD5000

And just to prove clockwork wasnt fully dead Hornby kept the clockwork HO happening into the 70's !

Although all of the above is not the entirety of the collection I think it makes a nice walk through time

Which bring us to the star in the HO section ... Just because your house didnt have electricity that didnt mean you couldnt have fun with trains , as all the above showed us, but necessity being the mother of all invention ... here is Probably one of the first HO STEAM locomotives I have ever come across ... made in the late 1930s from a Trix UK tender chassis ..a very talented engineer ... and yes it still runs today !

Here's some old and new Marklin along with a '50's series stamped metal engine house and a '60's era motorized turntable (which runs like new).

@Strummer posted:

Thanks, but as I mentioned, this is one of the "factory builds" that Bowser offered. List price (printed on the box) was $179.99(!) I think I paid 40 bucks; maybe my all time best deal in HO... 🙂

Mark in Oregon

PS: will post my (2) Bowser builds sometime: E6 and I1...

Apparently reading is not my specialty this weekend!  I just found mine, but no pictures yet.

Some more finds as I'm cleaning out my collection.   To start several metal Varney F3s, an AHM SW1 I custom painted for CNJ, two Athearn SW7s, a Varney NW2, two of the three Tyco Brill trollies, and some various truck trailers by Athearn and Tyco.

Close up of the Varney NW2

Next box:  A Brill cast trolley of unknown origin, part of a Mantua 2-8-2, several tenders from Mantua, Varney, Bowser and others, some Varney NE style cabooses, a nicely customized Athearn SD9, a rubber band powered F7, an MDC PRR specific gondola, and Athearn tractors.

A little out of focus, but a mixture of Varney, Life Like, AHM, Athearn, and MDC cars.  One to point out is the "Wreck Pond and Northern" green covered hopper.  This was an HO layout custom run for a club that operated out of the Elberon station on the New York and Long Branch.  When I was late in high school the 19th century station burned to the ground and took the layout with it.

Nothing too special here other than AHM offered a Red Baron painted Alco and I custom painted one in the green scheme when I was about 14.

This one is special to me only as it is the first custom painted locomotive I ever did.  It started life as an ICG Tyco locomotive and I hand painted the stripes and added the various decals.  I was 12 when I did this so the effort I feel is commensurate with my age at the time.

Finally on this post, a Hobbytown PA non powered unit that I was planning on striping and painting to match my custom painted PRR unit which I will post when I finally find it.

A gallery of Varney Streamliners, circa early 40's. For awhile I was on a kick of collecting these vintage locomotives. I finished the first one in 2013 as a 4-6-4 Hudson. Scratchbuilt the streamlined tender to go with it. Found another kit a year later, built and finished it to match the first one, but this time it was made into a 4-6-2. The tender was Streamlined from a plastic Varney tender. The third one was nearly built when I acquired it. Whoever did the preliminary work really went all out with mods to try and duplicate the look of the Frisco Firefly. It too is a 4-6-2. I gave it it's paint and lettering. The Last of the group got the flavor of the "Southern" look. Another 4-6-2 that used a PFM PRR K4s chassis. Tender is a modified Mantua with fluted lower sides. One by one I sold them off and they now reside in several other collections. I have a 5th one, yet untouched, in their boxes and master carton. More or less a mint specimen of the original Varney Streamliner Hudson. Ahhh, maybe some day it will be built too.

Lots of cool stuff... 🙂

Mark in Oregon

To continue...

This 1974 AHM/Mizuno brass/cast hybrid is a pretty enough thing:

...the "Brown Book of Brass Locomotives" says it's a notoriously poor runner.

Running the motor separated from the frame shows the motor itself is fine; rolling the chassis without the motor shows no signs of binding; improved the electrical pickup on the tender; made fine adjustments to the gear mesh, but it still runs poorly!

Is there ANYTHING that can be done to improve this, or is it simply a crappy model?   

Mark in Oregon

About 25 years back when I was still heavy into HO, I found a company that sold can motor replacements for open frame Pittman style motors like the DC-71.  Perhaps that will help your locomotive if you can find one of those still? 

@GG1 4877 posted:

About 25 years back when I was still heavy into HO, I found a company that sold can motor replacements for open frame Pittman style motors like the DC-71.  Perhaps that will help your locomotive if you can find one of those still?

I had thought of that; except my other HO brass (and lots of HO non-brass) locos have open frame motors and run just fine. Heck, my S scale Enhorning F unit and O scale all Nation Ten Wheeler both have big open frame motors; both are very quiet, very reliable runners. This thing not only is noisy, but runs very sporadically. It's a puzzle, that's for sure!  

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

To continue...

This 1974 AHM/Mizuno brass/cast hybrid is a pretty enough thing:

...the "Brown Book of Brass Locomotives" says it's a notoriously poor runner.

Running the motor separated from the frame shows the motor itself is fine; rolling the chassis without the motor shows no signs of binding; improved the electrical pickup on the tender; made fine adjustments to the gear mesh, but it still runs poorly!

Is there ANYTHING that can be done to improve this, or is it simply a crappy model?   

Mark in Oregon

I had one of those.  I don't remember any particularly bad running qualities, though.

However, it was being marketed as a 3400 class Pacific, but it didn't look right to me.  The 3400's had an Elesco feedwater heater on the pilot deck and the model didn't have one or any of the associated plumbing.  It stuck me more as a 3500 class, so I swapped positions of the sand dome and numberboards to represent a 3500.

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

I had one of those.  I don't remember any particularly bad running qualities, though.

However, it was being marketed as a 3400 class Pacific, but it didn't look right to me.  The 3400's had an Elesco feedwater heater on the pilot deck and the model didn't have one or any of the associated plumbing.  It stuck me more as a 3500 class, so I swapped positions of the sand dome and numberboards to represent a 3500.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty

Since yours was okay, I guess they are at least capable of being decent runners. This inspires me to continue to fuss with mine. I'm gonna use this photo as my new "desktop" picture...

Mark in Oregon

Westside Sierra #24, lettered for my last HO layout:

Rusty

That's a very nice looking engine. 👍

Mark in Oregon

Some more vintage HO found while going through my collection.  Still have not gotten to the box that has close to 50 HO GG1s ....

This one goes back to WWII.  A partially completed Strombecker wood kit of the Rock Island Rocket. 

And one more for tonight ... don't want to spoil all the goodies!

One of the two Gilbert HO steam locomotives made.  This one is the PRR B6 and has a smoke unit.  The other was the Hudson.  I found a Hudson at auction and gave it to my dad as a gift.

Jonathan

Neat stuff; I think I have seen an example of the Strombecker wood/paper train, but it was in UP colors. Like probably a lot of us I had, at some point, some '60s-vintage Strombecker 1/32 slot cars...

Gosh, the Gilbert loco can barely hold that motor; there's hardly room for the tender! Is it like their S gauge steam, where all the pick-up was in the tender?

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

...Like probably a lot of us I had, at some point, some '60s-vintage Strombecker 1/32 slot cars...

Mark in Oregon

Uh... that would be me, too. My first Strombecker set arrived for Christmas '63 as I recall... my second Strombecker set was Christmas '66. I did the 1/32 home set scene until the early 1970s. Did a little bit of 1/24 commercial track... but I enjoyed the home set racing more. Here's the very ad in Montgomery Ward's '63 Christmas catalog of the track (the "A" set) I received for Christmas that same year:

I've just recently re-entered the vintage slot car hobby, with Strombecker being my main emphasis. (Imagine that.) Here's a set I purchased the past week (but haven't  yet received):

Sorry... I couldn't help but chase the Strombecker slot car rabbit that scampered out of the brush pile.

Andre

@Strummer posted:

Jonathan

Neat stuff; I think I have seen an example of the Strombecker wood/paper train, but it was in UP colors. Like probably a lot of us I had, at some point, some '60s-vintage Strombecker 1/32 slot cars...

Gosh, the Gilbert loco can barely hold that motor; there's hardly room for the tender! Is it like their S gauge steam, where all the pick-up was in the tender?

Mark in Oregon

Mark,

The set up is typical HO steam from the era.  One terminal picked up from the tender and the other from the locomotive.  Yes, the engine is a little large for the locomotive!  No one else made a B6 in this era in HO.  I have an English A5 too but it is missing the tender, motor, and the valve gear.  Not sure how the motor fits in that one. 

I never got into slot cars much because at my age they were all HO and had a hard time staying on track. My brother got a Tyco HO slot car set the year after I got my Tyco HO starter trainset.  At one point we had a 4x8 board on the ground that had his slot car set on one side, my HO loop on the other and my Dad's 1955 UP passenger O27 set on the inside of the HO loop.  I vaguely remember the slot car taking a leap off the track, fouling the O27 loop and then getting crushed as it derailed the Lionel train.

Today's posting is a Penn Line kit I found at a local show about 10 years back.  Being in an arid environment, these kits almost look new outside of the damage to the boxes.  This is an E6 that someone started by painting the tender and that's it.  instructions are original.  This kit is circa 1955.

1955 TYCO set

That is a very nice Tyco set.  Mine from 1976 wasn't nearly as nice.

Some vintage brass:

Sunset from way before my time with them.  I suspect this is from the Mort Mann days.

Track cleaning car.  I used to see these advertised in old model magazines.

Some crude brass from TID.  I don't know much about this company, but I have a few pieces from them.

Holy cow ... you could open a museum... 😳 🙂 👍

Mark in Oregon

@GG1 4877 posted:

Some vintage brass:

Sunset from way before my time with them.  I suspect this is from the Mort Mann days.

Track cleaning car.  I used to see these advertised in old model magazines.

Some crude brass from TID.  I don't know much about this company, but I have a few pieces from them.

I was always intrigued by brass...but not enough to ever pull the trigger on any item.

I remember way back in early 1976 my father (after much pestering) drove me up to a train show in what I believe was Kenilworth NJ I just remember it being off rt 22 somewhere. I looked at brass Rutland style caboose...it reminded me of a Raritan River caboose that I was so familiar with locally...it was well detailed, but the lack of paint and couplers that would not work with my then horn hooks dissuaded me from it...I ended up spending my money on other items. Ten Life Like blister packed individual freight cars for 2 bucks each that the vendor probably got out of Two Guys the month before for 25 cents apiece.
Talk about a missed opportunity !

Back to the mundane: The Athearn F7 from the 1970's.  Still has the old metal load bearing, inaccurate trucks.  Seattle Tacoma & Portland is my most prolific private railroad name.

Even developed a simplified paint scheme.

Rusty

A morning post of my Bowser K4 before I head off to work for the day.  I built it when I was 16 in 1985 and added the long haul tender and super detail kit.  Having just pulled it out the box, I see now I need to do some searching for some of those super detail parts that are missing!

It's a little dusty from years on display.  Kind of like the real ones.

No K4 is complete without some passenger cars.  These are two Blue Line coaches.

I don’t have much Flyer HO but the two sets I do have are mint.

I like the reallly old tin/ cast stuff....  Love these Globe, Athearn, and Silver Streak tank cars... I just keep buying them even though I have nowhere to run them lmao

Beautiful kits Dennis !

Somehow I managed to win the MTH K4 for $25.  I think the Bowser cost a bit more.  Would like to land a few more Bowser or Penn Line PRR locos as well as the Varney F-3's