Hello all, I received several boxes from a neighbor who had a relative pass. In boxes was a basket case motorized Big Boy Kit, wondering where I could find assembly information. Thanx in advance for any help. Jim R
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some idea as to the manufacturer or photos will be a big help in helping you.
John, All I know is it's Rivarossi and two rail. I looked the only marking are Rivarossi, no original box. It looks to be of the same vintage as 0-8-0 switcher, hope this helps, no info that I could find on their web site. Thanx again, Jim R.
To the best of my knowledge Rossi made O scale kits for an Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0, an Illinois Central 4-6-0, and a 4-4-0 "Genoa". The also imported ready to run Fairbanks Morse C-liner A unit diesels, a small industrial diesel, and an 0-6-0 steam switcher based on a European prototype.
Rivarossi did make a Big Boy in 2 rail HO.
Ed & John, The more I get into this I believe it to be 2 of the 0-8-0 Indiana switchers kit bashed into some type of 0-8-8-0 or some other variation in the wheel configuration. I'll post some pics later on. Thanx, Jim R.
Yes, it is most likely two kits of 0-8-0 that the previous owner tried to put together to make a BigBoy engine. I purchased multiple old kits from Rivarossi years ago, in an attempt to do the same.
It was better and more realistic to just purchase a Sunset BigBoy or some other USH models....in the end.
That being said, Rivarossi contemplated doing an O scale kit of the BigBoy and the Cab Forward at one point, but they quickly gave up the idea as not many people have the desire to spend the money for these expensive kits; or the ones that can pay for them cannot build them or don't have the time for it.
Another spin-off of Rivarossi, Pocher, was more successful in the domain of classic and exotic cars and offered many beautiful (and expensive) kits of cars in 1/8th scale. They recently released the Lamborghini Aventador for a whooping price of $700-800.
So, no Big-Boy kit in O scale....at least not yet.
Yves
This thread on the Rivarossi kits brought back some old memories for me.
Back in the early 70's, I bought two of the 0-8-0 kits and built a 2-6-6-4 articulated out of them.
With the parts that were left, I built a 0-4-0 switcher.
Both of these have the power kit in them. ( you can see the switcher on the right )
Using parts from the Casey Jones engine, I "kit-bashed" a Japanese steam engine. ( the blue one on top )
Below that is another 0-8-0 kit made into a 2-8-2 engine.
These were fun to experiment with and gave me the courage to start building my locomotives from brass.
Ray,
This is beautiful. I wish you could post some close-up pictures of your models.
I wanted to do like you, but then got caught up in the brass and wood fevers....
Yves
Yves .. These photos I posted are really old and the engines are all packed away right now because we are in the process of moving.
Jim .. I did find an old assembly instructions for the 0-8-0 engine that I got off ebay with some extra parts.
If you will send me an email at: jdcrawler@yahoo.com , I can return your email with copies of the instructions.
