Model railroading
Apr. 11th, 2014 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lionkingcmslWhen I was a cub my father had a 4'x8' H-O scale layout that was stored in the garage and set up during the Christmas season. It was always a treat when he set it up. This was my first recollection of model railroading, but I had toy trains before that. Interesting bit of trivia: My mother introduced my father to scale model railroading, as her two brothers had worked for railroads at one time.
My father probably had a total of 16 pieces of rolling stock: 4 locomotives (1 each of steam, diesel F7A & B units and an electric), 3 passenger cars, 6 freight cars, 1 caboose and 2 pieces of work equipment (a crane and crane tender). Compare that with my H-O collection of 854 pieces of H-O scale rolling stock, comprising of 164 locomotives, 373 passenger cars, and 317 freight cars, cabooses, and work equipment. Some of that rolling stock is his.
So, that means I have increased the total rolling stock count by 53.375 times; locomotives by 41 times; passenger equipment by 124.3333 times; and freight, caboose, and work equipment by 35.222 times. Needless to say I'm much more into scale model railroading than my father ever was; but he now has a decent collection of N scale equipment and layout.
Back on May 14th of last year I made a post that enumerated my collection. At that time the count was 787 pieces total; 195 locos; 315 passenger cars; 277 freight, caboose, and work.
This means I subtracted 31 locomotives. This may seem confusing, but, IIRC, I had counted the RDCs and totaly unuseable locos in that count. I have actually increased the locomotive count by a bit. I added 58 passenger cars. These are true additions, as the RDCs were counted here also. The freight car count has increased by 40 units. This accounts for a total change of 67 pieces of rolling stock; though the actual change is probably closer to 108 units; as the actual total last year was probably closer to 746 units. Looking back I had closer to 154 locomotives, instead of the 195 that I listed in error.
it is also interesting to note back on Sept. 6, 2011 I had a total of 620 pieces of rolling stock. Since then I have added 234 units. This is a net increase of ~87 pieces per year. :=3
When I was younger I tried to "repair" his locomotives and ended up making them unusable.
The one piece that cannot be ever restored is a AHM/Rivarossi late 1950's vintage 2-8-0 with tender drive. This particular locomotive had the motor in the tender with a neoprene coupling to drive the worm in the engine. I have a replacement motor, but the tender frame, as well as the pilot truck, was made of "pot metal" and it is decaying rapidly. Even if I could find a replacement on e-bay it would be in the same condition. However, if someone came up with a replacement loco I would buy it in a heartbeat.
His electric was a Fleischman Swedish railways 2-C-2. Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quickcasey I was able to get a replacement chassis for this loco, and it now sits in a place of honor. This loco will probably never get Kadee couplers installed, nor DCC. Installing a DCC decoder would be a challenge because of how the motor is constructed.
This leaves the F7A & B units, which were made by Revell. The B unit was useable, though I needed to change the trucks back to the proper Blomberg B trucks. The A unit was a different story. The loco had an unique centrifugal clutch arrangement that allowed the headlight to remain lighted and the engine not moving even with some power applied. The clutch also acted as a flywheel. Well, this lion had disassembled the clutch to see how it worked and lost some of the parts. Add to that the front truck mount had broken and one of the wheels broke apart. The body is in okay but not in mint condition. I had given up on restoring this loco as I had thought it was near impossible to restore the chassis so it could run again. I was entertaining the thought of putting the body on a spare Athearn chassis, just to have it available.
On a lark I searched e-bay for Revell trains. Of course I was surprised, when a listing for a set of 3 1950s era Revell H-O scale model trains popped up. In it was a Revell F7A unit, though not of the same road. To say I used the "Buy It Now" feature immediately would be an understatement. Though the listing did not state whether or not it had the clutch I was betting it did. When the package arrived two days ago I opened the box and went straight for the loco. I popped the shell and I was over joyed: it was the exact same chassis! :=3
The only thing that needs to be fixed is replacing one of the traction tires.
So now the body just needs some repair work to get it looking like new, but it is on an original 1956 Revell chassis. So the Revell B&O F7A & B units are going to be restored to operating condition, with the three Mantua Royal Blue passenger cars in tow. I actually had purchased an observation car, from Mantua, to match the Royal Blue set.
So the railroading lion is very happy that he got three of his poppa lion's locos back into service. Now if I could snap my fingers and get all his equipment to like new status .... :=3
My father probably had a total of 16 pieces of rolling stock: 4 locomotives (1 each of steam, diesel F7A & B units and an electric), 3 passenger cars, 6 freight cars, 1 caboose and 2 pieces of work equipment (a crane and crane tender). Compare that with my H-O collection of 854 pieces of H-O scale rolling stock, comprising of 164 locomotives, 373 passenger cars, and 317 freight cars, cabooses, and work equipment. Some of that rolling stock is his.
So, that means I have increased the total rolling stock count by 53.375 times; locomotives by 41 times; passenger equipment by 124.3333 times; and freight, caboose, and work equipment by 35.222 times. Needless to say I'm much more into scale model railroading than my father ever was; but he now has a decent collection of N scale equipment and layout.
Back on May 14th of last year I made a post that enumerated my collection. At that time the count was 787 pieces total; 195 locos; 315 passenger cars; 277 freight, caboose, and work.
This means I subtracted 31 locomotives. This may seem confusing, but, IIRC, I had counted the RDCs and totaly unuseable locos in that count. I have actually increased the locomotive count by a bit. I added 58 passenger cars. These are true additions, as the RDCs were counted here also. The freight car count has increased by 40 units. This accounts for a total change of 67 pieces of rolling stock; though the actual change is probably closer to 108 units; as the actual total last year was probably closer to 746 units. Looking back I had closer to 154 locomotives, instead of the 195 that I listed in error.
it is also interesting to note back on Sept. 6, 2011 I had a total of 620 pieces of rolling stock. Since then I have added 234 units. This is a net increase of ~87 pieces per year. :=3
When I was younger I tried to "repair" his locomotives and ended up making them unusable.
The one piece that cannot be ever restored is a AHM/Rivarossi late 1950's vintage 2-8-0 with tender drive. This particular locomotive had the motor in the tender with a neoprene coupling to drive the worm in the engine. I have a replacement motor, but the tender frame, as well as the pilot truck, was made of "pot metal" and it is decaying rapidly. Even if I could find a replacement on e-bay it would be in the same condition. However, if someone came up with a replacement loco I would buy it in a heartbeat.
His electric was a Fleischman Swedish railways 2-C-2. Thanks to
quickcasey I was able to get a replacement chassis for this loco, and it now sits in a place of honor. This loco will probably never get Kadee couplers installed, nor DCC. Installing a DCC decoder would be a challenge because of how the motor is constructed.This leaves the F7A & B units, which were made by Revell. The B unit was useable, though I needed to change the trucks back to the proper Blomberg B trucks. The A unit was a different story. The loco had an unique centrifugal clutch arrangement that allowed the headlight to remain lighted and the engine not moving even with some power applied. The clutch also acted as a flywheel. Well, this lion had disassembled the clutch to see how it worked and lost some of the parts. Add to that the front truck mount had broken and one of the wheels broke apart. The body is in okay but not in mint condition. I had given up on restoring this loco as I had thought it was near impossible to restore the chassis so it could run again. I was entertaining the thought of putting the body on a spare Athearn chassis, just to have it available.
On a lark I searched e-bay for Revell trains. Of course I was surprised, when a listing for a set of 3 1950s era Revell H-O scale model trains popped up. In it was a Revell F7A unit, though not of the same road. To say I used the "Buy It Now" feature immediately would be an understatement. Though the listing did not state whether or not it had the clutch I was betting it did. When the package arrived two days ago I opened the box and went straight for the loco. I popped the shell and I was over joyed: it was the exact same chassis! :=3
The only thing that needs to be fixed is replacing one of the traction tires.
So now the body just needs some repair work to get it looking like new, but it is on an original 1956 Revell chassis. So the Revell B&O F7A & B units are going to be restored to operating condition, with the three Mantua Royal Blue passenger cars in tow. I actually had purchased an observation car, from Mantua, to match the Royal Blue set.
So the railroading lion is very happy that he got three of his poppa lion's locos back into service. Now if I could snap my fingers and get all his equipment to like new status .... :=3
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Oddball Question
Date: 2014-04-11 04:25 pm (UTC)I am looking for a steam engine from Southern Railway for static display. I have no clue where to start.
Re: Oddball Question
Date: 2014-04-11 04:52 pm (UTC)Use their "Advanced Search" function and plug in scale, railroad name and locomotive. If you want a desk top model I would stick with H-O scale. For a wall display go for the O scale locomotives.
Re: Oddball Question
Date: 2014-04-11 06:03 pm (UTC)This is exactly what I need. Thank you very much. When I tried googling "model trains" I got overwhelmed.
Re: Oddball Question
Date: 2014-04-12 12:15 am (UTC)Re: Oddball Question
Date: 2014-04-12 06:27 pm (UTC)That hadn't occurred to me. Looks like I have more research to do. (I had no idea there was so much involved in model trains.)