The Electric Shop

That name rings a bell, how about a photo or two to jangle those bells a little louder. I Might remember the model more so than the producer. TIA

Yes, it was John Crisi who produced a line of kits for electric locomotives under the name "The Electric Shop".

I built the New York Central S motor and the T motor kits. Any soldering skills I may have today are thanks to those kits.

I learned an awful lot about soldering both larger brass castings as well as sheet brass!!

Both assembled models looked good and were excellent runners. I wish I still had them today, but they went the way of a trade during one of my many scale/gauge layout transitions over the years.

Photos weren't as easy back in the late 1980s in those pre-digital days, so I only have a couple of snapshots of the assembled S motor.

Jim

Jim Policastro -- Thank you for confirming the name "John Crisi." Building three of his kits, especially the S-motor, which had a heavy brass casting for each end, taught me a great deal about soldering and definitely improved my skills. There is a nicely painted example of a built-up S-motor kit on the Allegheny Scale Models website (look under electric locomotives). I wish I still had those three NYC electrics.

Those Electric Shop models are definitely at the top of my list of things that I shouldn't have let get away!

Thanks for the reference to the Allegheny Scale models website. That is a very nicely done model of the S motor.

Jim

Jim! Thanks for the photos. I lusted after these S and T motors by The Electric Shop while at O scale shows of the early 80’s.
they were very rarely on tables,, but always a sight to behold!

Mine went to some lucky guy at one of the Stamford CT shows in the late 80s! I don't think I ever saw another after that, except in photos.

I did run into John at a York meet in the late 80s. He was very happy to hear of my success in assembling them. I think he must have gotten more than one complaint about the difficulty in assembling.

But that's what brass models are all about, and his kits were very well-engineered. Everything fit together perfectly - no trimming or other adjustment of parts was necessary.

Jim

Yes, indeed -- the kits were extremely well engineered and carefully produced. Everything went together just as it was designed to, and all the castings were very high quality. I resorted to using a "Smith"-brand jeweler's torch for the S-motor end castings, which were heavy brass castings that had to be soldered to very thin brass sides in order to construct the distinctive ends of the locomotive, each of which included a narrow access door. Incidentally, the S-motors (the first one, #6000, was built in 1904) were "bipolar" electrics, like the later Milwaukee bipolar EP-2s from 1919.