post war engines

@Bob is cool! posted:

This past 9 months I've been working on my 1946,47  671 & 725 engines that I bought at York TCA meet 50 yrs ago and haven't had them out their boxes since then.  What I've discovered is that I truly have come to enjoy these old guys. I have fun fixing them up and getting them running  I enjoy them in ways more than my newer sophisticated engines. This truly is a Great hobby!!

That's what it's all about

A great hobby indeed.  And for me carries with it many memories.  Like my Dad, my trains are only up at Christmas time.  I think I appreciate them more because for me they are linked to the Christmas Holiday.  Some years, before packing them up and putting them back up into the attic I leave a post war engine on display in the house.  It warms my heart just passing by it to remind me of wonderful memories.

I had trains under the xmas tree every year growing up and with my children also

They're just plain cool. They have their own sights, sounds, and smells. I could never get rid of the couple post war locos I have.

That's what's great about postwar stuff - a little cleaning and lubrication, and they'll probably run forever.  And if they don't, most repairs are fairly simple.

I hope this isn't considered sacrilege but I am planning to convert an old Lionel 6-8-6 S2 Turbine from the late 40s to run on TMCC. The conversion will be reversible. I picked one up that needed some TLC and I cleaned it up some. I wanted to be able to run it on the layout as a nod to my grandpa (I inherited his S2) and as a nod to the post war era. The lack of traction tires, the heft, and the growl of the motor are sure to make for an interesting trip around the layout!

I have converted post war engines to the AC version of ERR.  Works great.

Bill

Putting tmcc in a postwar turbine or pacific sounds interesting. I'd like to see how that turns sout

@ogaugenut do you run ERR postwar engines alongside modern TMCC/Legacy engines?

Yes.  A post war engine with an AC commander is much like a TMCC steamer.  It improves post war low speed performance, but still not as good as a modern engine.  I forget, but maybe the sound board is a separate addition.  Adding the sound of a prime mover really improves the post war engine (IMHO). I stripped the post war whistle out of the tender and put the boards in the tender.

Bill

We'll see what I ended up going with when I get there. I appreciate your insight @ogaugenut