This review is on Lindsay's ALCO FA-2 diesel in HO scale.
Most probably don't know about the manufacturer Lindsay, but they were around from the late 40's until about the late 60's. Back then, they were well known for their high quality drive units and detail parts, with some pretty novel ideas such as the "Ghost" boxcar, which was a self-powered boxcar to assist in pulling loads (or to freak people out!). Many of their parts are still in production today, notably Precision Scale's entire selection of traction trucks for trolleys and interurbans. The body for the ALCO FA-2 (and all of its detail parts) reviewed here was picked up by Hobbytown when Lindsay went out of business, and remained in production until Hobbytown closed a few years ago. Some of these bodies and detail parts are still available from Hobbytown's owner, and could make a good base for a project!
When it was introduced in 1951, Lindsay's ALCO FA-2 featured some of the best detail and quality you could find in an HO scale diesel. Except for some fiber insulation here and there, the kit is 100% metal, making it extremely hefty and durable even without any additional weight! Although a little bit crude compared to today's offerings, the detail for its time was very sharply and accurately cast, and matches up well to drawings, photos, and other detailed models. The horns, headlight grille, numberboards, and steps are all quality lost wax castings, and the exhaust stack is diecast. The radiator vent is a brass mesh, and is held in from the bottom using a steel wire clip. The mesh isn't exactly flush with the top, and the circular frame is much thicker than accurate, but it's still a novel way to have a see through vent and looks pretty good. Brass wire is provided to make all the grab irons on each side, and there's enough extra to make any other grab irons that may be on the prototype modeled! Drill points are cast into the body to make drilling for details much easier. Lost wax brass semi-scale dummy couplers are also provided, and they can be hooked up to standard Kadee couplers. Speaking of that, the metal brackets for mounting the couplers are a great fit for Kadee Whisker couplers, and it's easy to adjust them to the proper height. The truck sideframes are single piece castings, and look excellent.
The only real problem with the body is the rear door; it's nothing but a cast block with no detail at all! You can cover it with with a diaphragm, but it looks pretty bad on its own. Most other manufacturers were casting at least an open door frame you could work with, so it's odd that this would be left so blank with what was a very expensive model. Other than that, it's a very good looking kit that represents some of the best you could get at that time, and it looks great once painted! Lindsay kits are also easy to build, with very simple construction throughout and only a little fine-tuning required.
The FA-2 was offered with three chassis options: single motor all-wheel-drive, single motor 4-wheel-drive, and dummy. The one reviewed here has the cheaper 4-wheel-drive chassis.
This is where Lindsay really shined in their day. Powering the kit is the L-740, their most powerful powered truck! Packed in this small unit is a 7-pole skewed armature motor with a high quality Alnico 5 magnet, 13:1 gear ratio, self-centering bearings, a self equalizing axle, an adjustable wheel base, and a flywheel. The turned brass wheels and flywheel are all perfectly balanced, and contribute no vibration or wobble when running, which is something that modern manufacturers still have trouble getting right! The model runs smoothly, with some gear growl and hum. It's noisier than most of today's drive units, but you'd be hard pressed to find a quieter drive back in 1951!
At a full 12 volts, the FA-2 runs at about 140 scale MPH. More realistic speeds are in the 6 to 8 volt range. Despite the 7-pole armature, I could only keep it running down to about 10 scale MPH. However, the high number of poles combined with the flywheel do give it much smoother starts and stops than most any other chassis from this time period! Running free, it draws an average of 0.35 amps at most speeds, and draws closer to 0.5A under load. Stall current at 12V was 2.4A. Electrical pickup is typical for the day, with each truck picking up from one rail. Now you'd think a diesel with only 4-wheel-drive and no tires would have trouble pulling, but I actually got it pulling a load of 28 free rolling freight cars on level track before it started to have trouble! The all-wheel-drive chassis would be able to pull even more, but this one has proven to be more than suitable for a realistic load. It's no wonder Lindsay called the L-740 and similar trucks the "teaspoon of power"!
Because of this motor's construction, DCC is not possible without modification of the motor. One of the brushes is grounded directly to the frame, and isolating it could be a real challenge. One issue that revealed itself over time was that the axle gears would sometimes split with these drives, making them inoperable, but NWSL carries direct replacement geared axles. These motors also get hot overtime, so it's best to let them cool every now and then to make them last. Constant operation under load for hours can cause them to overheat and permanently short out.
Lindsay's ALCO FA-2 isn't without its problems, but it was an excellent model in its day with some of the best performance you could find! I was fortunate to find this one brand new in the box, and I'm very glad I got it!
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It's neat to read a review of one of these. It's been a LONG time.
I'm surprised at the comment about gear noise. With a "straight" worm gear drive, it should be awfully quiet. And the top speed is surprisingly high, what with the 13 to 1 gearing.
I guess sometimes there are surprises.
Thanks, Darth
Ed
Glad you enjoyed the review! Although helically matched to the worms, the brass gears have a sort of squarish shape that makes some noise. It may get quieter with time.
The motor runs at about 13,000RPM, which is almost double what most of the motors used now will run at. Looking at the old Lindsay catalogs, this is completely in line with their specs, so the speed is normal for these.
The Lindsay Alco was reviewed in the June 1951 Model Railroader Trade Topics and if you have the issue, or have the Digital Archive access you might be interested in reading it. The price was $31.50 with dual drive which was a high price at that time even for quality goods.
Dave Nelson
I have one much older than that. Very heavy and have cleaned and have it running. Took me a while to figure out the wiring. Had to make new connectors for the drive which seem to work. It pickes up power on the front truck from one side and the rear truck on the opposite but would like to add power to the other wheels to keep it from stalling. Any suggestions
It's possible to attach some wipers and plastic insulation to touch the insulated wheels to get all wheel pickup. I did this with another Lindsay drive and it was a good improvement.
This is actually an original Lindsay from the early 50's, so it's about as old as they get.
I have an A B A set of these that I bought from Hobbytown of Boston in 1968 or 69. They came with the standard Hobbytown four axle flywheel drive.
I cut off the rear door blob of metal and replaced them with doors cut from the 89 cent Globe/Athearn plastic F units. Not exactly correct for Alco's but a big improvement.
I spliced the remains of the F unit shells together to make a double ended F7 similar to Australian units.
Mark Vinski
I have some Hobbytown FB2s with the Hobbytown drives. for the doors I used some old Train Miniature FB1 ends and fit them to the Hobbytown shells. I cut off the fuel tank skirts and cut and fit tank assemblies from some old Proto FA units. These FB2s then were pretty close to the the New Haven FB2s. Of course I used the Hobbytown drives for them.
I have also used the end doors from TM FB1s to replace the metal block on the end of the Hobbytown PAs that I have
Of course you can't go wrong with the Hobbytown drives.
The FA2 FB2 units are still available from Hobbytown here
https://hobbytownofboston.com/?page_id=61
Ron High