This model popped up for sale on eBay. It looks a lot like a Hustler to me, but I cannot make out what is written on the front of the locomotive.
It looks old. It has a vertical motor and a spring belt drive. Did this model predate the Hustler? Is it based on the Hustler? Is there a prototype for this thing?
I have so many questions.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I've found pictures of others out there and the letter on the front is OPICO.
It even has the fat hood like a hustler. It looks to be a lower quality of brass manufacturing, but if it's cheap enough, it would be an easy rebuild.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
I'm glad they didn't fully abandon the rubber band drive.
Ed
7j43k I'm glad they didn't fully abandon the rubber band drive. Ed
I thought it was a rubber band, but I magnified the photo and it looks like a spring.
It's a very early brass import and I believe by GEM. It's pretty crude compared to the Athearn or Lionel models and doesn't run as well as the Athearn Hi-F drive or the geared versions. It also won't do Mach 3 like the Hi-F versions.
It's a nice collectable but if you want to run the engine I'd recommend the Athearn body with either an Ernst drive or the NWSL Stanton drive they make.
oldline1
I believe it's supposed to be a Plymouth prototype but not sure.
maxmanI thought it was a rubber band, but I magnified the photo and it looks like a spring.
I'm no fan of the spring drive! Some early Varney locos used spring band drives. I recall seeing one that had stepped pulleys so you could "choose" three speed ranges. A clever idea!
NYC_T3_Alco-works by Edmund, on Flickr
I could never get this NYC T3 to run, bought a second one just to get the spare springs. Can't find the 1.2mm spring stock. Mamod and Wilesco have some but they are 1.5 and 2mm. Paid $60 to have 12" worth sent from UK. Too big.
NYC_T3_Alco by Edmund, on Flickr
I'd love to fit a Stanton drive (2) under there but the axle centers are shorter than what's available.
Good Luck, Ed
Weird, for the longest time I thought Athearn (and the marx/model power/lionel) hustlers were based on a complete fantasy prototype.
For a brass manufacturer to make one though, would imply that it was indeed a real loco.
Can anyone find a photo of the prototype?
Charles
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
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Trainman440Can anyone find a photo of the prototype?
This Whitcomb is close. It's even brass
The "Hustler" possibly follows the lines of the H. K. Porter industrial models:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel100.html
Cheers, Ed
gmpullman NYC_T3_Alco-works by Edmund, on Flickr I could never get this NYC T3 to run, bought a second one just to get the spare springs. Can't find the 1.2mm spring stock. Mamod and Wilesco have some but they are 1.5 and 2mm. Paid $60 to have 12" worth sent from UK. Too big. NYC_T3_Alco by Edmund, on Flickr I'd love to fit a Stanton drive (2) under there but the axle centers are shorter than what's available. Good Luck, Ed
I recommend investigating this:
https://www.grandtline.com/products/sprockets-and-chain/
trwroute It even has the fat hood like a hustler. It looks to be a lower quality of brass manufacturing, but if it's cheap enough, it would be an easy rebuild.
dknelson On a related topic: Athearn's Little Monster O-4-2T steam locomotive was a genuine prototype (plans published years earlier in MR, drawn by a young Linn Westcott)...
What was the prototype?
7j43k What was the prototype?
That certainly is very similiar to my Athearn Little Monster. Though undoubtedly smaller.
Thanks!
dknelson It also has the twin stacks of the Athearn Hustler, which in turn was also offered by Lionel in a geared version (and I think a working headlight). The Hustler had that EMD style fan on the hood which is another oddity.
Those two features, the round fan and twin stacks, are what give the Hustler much of its appeal for me.
I now have a geared version, and two more to build a Huster Center-Cab.
Athearn offered a Hustler in gold painted plastic
https://features.snow-plows.biz/athearn-ho-train-custom-gold-porter-hustler-diesel.html?product_id=pcFbnQ6UglCJyA
This one looks like it could have been repowered and the normally black running gear painted gold as well - are you sure it's brass?
And despite claims otherwise ("It's a Porter" "No, it's a...") the Hustler was a product of Uncle Irv's imagination
Trainman440Weird, for the longest time I thought Athearn (and the marx/model power/lionel) hustlers were based on a complete fantasy prototype. For a brass manufacturer to make one though, would imply that it was indeed a real loco.
Your first impression was correct, it's a figment of old Uncle Irv's imagination
Just because some brass importer had it made doesn't mean a prototype existed - see the "Brute"
HO Brass Model Train - WMC Westside Freelance Series 2-10-0 The Brute | BRASSTRAINS.COM
I guess they had some extra parts lying around on Friday afternoon
BEAUSABREThis one looks like it could have been repowered and the normally black running gear painted gold as well - are you sure it's brass?
Do you mean the model in the original post?
If so, yes it is brass. In the bottom view the folded sheet metal is very obvious.
Northwest Short Line's Stanton drives are the best to replace spring belt drives in electic and traction models. Some guys have used rubber O rings instead of spring belts, but I found those added more bind/resistance and took more power to run the model if the O ring was tight enough not to slip under a load. You might join or search some of the trolley/traction modeling forums and sites for a source of those smaller spring belts. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Or you might try the sprocket and link system I linked to earlier.
I've not tried it, but it looks promising. Come to think of it, I have a Sunset 2-8-8-0 that I think has some sort of O-ring drive. Maybe if I ever work on it, I'll try that route.
I suspect this system is kind of noisy when running fast. But this is a UP 2-8-8-0, which NEVER ran fast.
In my opinion o-rings are a very poor replacement for the kind of spring conjugating drive pictured. An O-ring remotely able to handle the torque would be too stiff to stretch as needed and would exert ridiculous transverse force on the axles. In theory you could autogenously weld plastic tubing to form a 'flexible O-ring' to match the 'pulley grooves' (one way is with a 19-micrometer laser and careful tensioning and positioning at the ends; another is to use the joining method for GSHP ground loops 'in miniature')... neither of these are practical for real-world modelers who don't work at Sandia or comparable place.
Use a flat belt of the right size, perhaps sourced from one of the places making replacement audio-equipment drive belts, and remachine or fill the pulleys to suit. Either a sliding or roller Weller tensioner could easily be provided -- it could be as simple as a beefed-up version of the foam block in a Philips cassette or 8-track cartridge in this chassis
(Of course, just fixing that execrable 'splice' in the spring belt so it's shorter, and putting a simple light roller pretensioner on it, goes a long way toward making it 'tractable' as is without lots of surgery...)
Kevin, did you actually get the engine to run? You might not need to rework the powertrain. I have an old brass 0-4-0 (plantation type) that has a similar vertical gear drive. I managed to change the motor and put DCC sound. It actually runs OK, although I did add a tender for extra power pickup. But the gear drive itself works fine. I also have a few Rivarossi's that have that vertical gear arrangement, and they work OK as well. The starts are a bit towards the "fast" side, but that's fine with me. The Stanton drive works well, but is a bit pricey. I don't like pouring tons of money on an engine that will have more shelf time than operating time on the layout....
Simon
Many of the old 'issues' of fine speed control involving open-pole motors with limited number of straight poles and gears with lash/belts with elastic stretch are now perhaps more easily handled with fine motor control via DCC and better magnets retrofitted to the motor. I would be tempted to lap those gear teeth with progressively finer abrasive, true up the belt-pulley grooves to the same dimensions, and abridge the belt coupling and tensioning before jumping straight to a repower or 'najor surgery' that ruins the historic fabric (such as it is)