Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2017 22:42:14 GMT -5
Hi All,
Long time no post: my usual M.O. this decade, it seems. I hope everyone is well! Seems like I caught some rumblings of members dealing with various ailments, so my best wishes for recovery on those fronts.
I recently visited a shop that has a good selection of used stuff and came home with a couple cool items for $30:
I pegged the loco as a Hobbytown FA2. It's in great shape and someone did a marvelous job painting it back in the day. Not only that, but later attempted upgrades with couplers and functional diaphragm, and membrane windows and wipers (the membranes did not survive my cleaning but I'll fix them later:
Less certain about the RPO, but I would guess Walthers since it's wood structure and roof with flat metal sides and cast end pieces.
I was simply charmed by the pair. But it would only get better!
When I tested the loco at home I was simply astonished at the noise it made. No hesitation to start, but it sounded like a turbine spooling up to speed... I mean it took a solid two minutes for the RPMs to build to the high throttle setting, all the while with an undertone of rumble, and enough grunt under that massive cast metal shell, to torque-push the ends off the Tidy Track test/cleaning track! It was awesome! So I had to open it up and... what the-?
Suffice to say, I've never seen such an exotic-looking drive in HO before. The vertical gear mesh with an absurdly short universal coupling is a first. Not visible, is the driveshaft connecting both trucks under the chassis, through the fuel tank. And is that a flywheel-clutch? And someone's attemtp to add a headlight?
Turns out the shell is stamped Lindsay, so unless Hobbytown never removed this, the shell predates the Hobbytown acquisition, but the drive is nothing like Lidsay's. It's *similar* to the Hobbytown diagrams on HO Seeker, but those do not show the dynamo-turbine-flywheel thing, nor any provision for a headlight, and even the gear towers look slightly different.
So does anyone know more about this drive and its components? It's butter smooth and sounds incredible, it's so much fun to hear spool up and seems to pull like a branded buffalo. I'd love to find more of them.
Long time no post: my usual M.O. this decade, it seems. I hope everyone is well! Seems like I caught some rumblings of members dealing with various ailments, so my best wishes for recovery on those fronts.
I recently visited a shop that has a good selection of used stuff and came home with a couple cool items for $30:
I pegged the loco as a Hobbytown FA2. It's in great shape and someone did a marvelous job painting it back in the day. Not only that, but later attempted upgrades with couplers and functional diaphragm, and membrane windows and wipers (the membranes did not survive my cleaning but I'll fix them later:
Less certain about the RPO, but I would guess Walthers since it's wood structure and roof with flat metal sides and cast end pieces.
I was simply charmed by the pair. But it would only get better!
When I tested the loco at home I was simply astonished at the noise it made. No hesitation to start, but it sounded like a turbine spooling up to speed... I mean it took a solid two minutes for the RPMs to build to the high throttle setting, all the while with an undertone of rumble, and enough grunt under that massive cast metal shell, to torque-push the ends off the Tidy Track test/cleaning track! It was awesome! So I had to open it up and... what the-?
Suffice to say, I've never seen such an exotic-looking drive in HO before. The vertical gear mesh with an absurdly short universal coupling is a first. Not visible, is the driveshaft connecting both trucks under the chassis, through the fuel tank. And is that a flywheel-clutch? And someone's attemtp to add a headlight?
Turns out the shell is stamped Lindsay, so unless Hobbytown never removed this, the shell predates the Hobbytown acquisition, but the drive is nothing like Lidsay's. It's *similar* to the Hobbytown diagrams on HO Seeker, but those do not show the dynamo-turbine-flywheel thing, nor any provision for a headlight, and even the gear towers look slightly different.
So does anyone know more about this drive and its components? It's butter smooth and sounds incredible, it's so much fun to hear spool up and seems to pull like a branded buffalo. I'd love to find more of them.
