Any Idea What This Thing Is?

[SpaceMouse]

I was going through my parts box and for the heck of it put it on the track. I made noise with pressure, so I played with the pick-ups and it took of.



It is made in Yugoslavia. It has four wheels, two of which are drive wheels. The open engine is vertical and drives the drive wheels with a worm from front of the rear axel.

The funny thing is that is quiet and works quite well. It creeps smoothly and responds to slight changes from the power supply.

So what is?

I'm half temped to paint it red and trhow a couple Kadee #5s on it. (Gotta see what kinda current it draws first.)

[dave9999]

Lil' Guy's little brother, maybe?? Dave

[Anonymous]

It's a switcher isn't it ?... It sure looks like one.

trainluver1

[dehusman]

Its supposed be a Plymouth or Whitcomb industrial switcher, like something that would be in a steel mill or a quarry. They very rarely were ever owned by a class one railroad (the MP owned two smaller engines of this type as shop switchers at Little Rock, they never left shop complex).

Dave H.

[AntonioFP45]

Incredible!

Back in the late 1970s I visited Tampa Yard constantly.

On a rusting siding there was a tiny industrial switcher almost exactly like your model!! This poor old thing was gutted out and rusting very badly. She was eventually taken to be scrapped. It actually had what looked like gear shift style controls instead of the traditional engineer's horizontal brake and throttle levers.

These types of switchers were usually found working at large industrial plants, shoving cars where they were needed that the railroad had dropped off. General Electric built quite a number of tiny switchers years back. I'm sure other companies built them also.

Guys, wasn't there a book years back called "Critters"? Some of these switchers may have been covered.

Hopefully someone with some info will chime in.

[twhite]

It's a Left-handed Veeblefetzer.
Seriously, Chip, I think it's a Plymouth industrial switcher--they were made in the '30's and '40's, and I think the military had quite a few--it looks very much like one I saw working at Lackland AFB in Texas, when I was in basic training, years and years ago. Cute little feller, isn't it?
Tom [:D]

[SpaceMouse]

Any idea who made this Industrial Switcher?

[leonardbrand]

I have one stuck away somewhere, it is called a Plymouth Industrail switcher, up untill about a year ago there was one working a plant here in Montgomery, Al I havn't seen it lately,

[bpickering]

The box on mine, dating from around 1977, called it a "Plymouth MDT". Painted for the Santa Fe- yeah, right!

I've never seen an actual prototype photo of a Plymouth that looks quite like it on the web. I'm personally thinking of (in the long-run) having a "downtown" section of the railroad that will have its own little "Critter" for deliveries and pickups.

Mine runs, sorta, but rough and incredibly noisy (about as I recall it from my teens). I've been toying with remotoring it someday using a NWSL Flea III (http://www.nwsl.com/Catalog/pg017-cat4-01-v0502.pdf)- with the auxiliary gearbox it could even be four-wheel-driven. (A guy can dream, can't he?!)

Brian Pickering

[Mikeygaw]

Brian's right, that's an MDT... i have two myself, UP and Pennsy

[Anonymous]

Keep it blue, leave it out in the rain & in a while it will look like this guy:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-k/kopp00ags.jpg

Heres a site with a lot of industrial switchers, including more Plymouths than you will ever want to see in one sitting. http://www.northeast.railfan.net/industrial.html

Love these critters. They just get a bit hard to do in N Scale.

Wayne

[underworld]

SpaceMouse!!!!!
It is late 60s to early 70s manfactured/distributed by AHM!!!!! That is my first HO engine....well not that exact one as you have cause I still have mine and mine is ATSF. Good for you! It is a cool little engine. Last year I found a UP one at a train show in Saline, Michigan in the original box.....for $5.....so of course I bought it. Kepp it the color thatis is. This little one has a lot of character.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[rrinker]

I also have one of those, yup, an AHM Plymouth MDT. It was originally IC black but back when I was about 10 I painted it blue and yellow for my fictional railroad, but never lettered it. I also took an AHM observation car and painted it to match, and cut out the back end following an MR article on making an inspection car. Of coursemy paint was Testor's spray cans and it's rather thick.
That loco runs at warp speed. SO fast that, like many a Lionel die-cast loco, will tilt over on curves. The difference being the MDT won't roll over, it lifts up the inside wheels, looses contact, slows down, and sits back down on the rails. I think it give the Athearn Hustler a run for its money in the top speed department - back when I belonged to a local club I took it down one night and ran full throttle on the longest tangent section - whoa!

---Randy

[SpaceMouse]

Yeah, I got warp speed out of it too. I'll have to set up Lil Guy and Sparky (My daughter named it for the sparks that fly when it goes over the turnouts.

But it ran smoothly at low speeds where Lil Guy won't.

[Anonymous]

I think it's still being made by Model Power/Mehano - there's a store fairly near me that has them for £10 new. I've been quite tempted to buy one and add Kadees, then run it with my Walthers Oscar/Piker set (these were freelance heavyweight cars - very short versions. If you imagine a six-wheel heavyweight truck with a bodyshell on it you have them!). I'd say to fit the Kadees and get it into service if it runs.

[bpickering]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit
...I've been quite tempted to buy one and add Kadees...

Not to throw a damper on an idea, but mine is VERY low- even with the Kadee overset couplers, they were coming out rather low. I was thinking I would need to rout out the coupler pockets with the motor tool, then install the Kadee coupler pockets sufficiently high to work properly.
This one is WAY on the back-burner for me right now, because of the amount of work it would take to get a nicely running critter. [:)] Between mounting the Flea motor (i.e., rout out the whole center of the frame) and the couplers (rout out the coupler pockets), all that would be left is the shell and sideframes! Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Brian

[Anonymous]

What is a MDT? Ford Motor Co. built a "lil Critter" for shifting around the Company yards as well. As I recall, it didn't have quite the "character" of the Plymouth but a "cute lil critter" nonetheless.

[rrinker]

It's not the same as Plymouth car company.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel81.html

There are 4 pages worth of them, various models and sizes.

Oh yeah, I have one in N scale as well, althought that is supposed to be the 6-axle WDT model.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

rrinker, was anything mentioned about the Plymouth "car company?" Ford Motor comapny manufactured a yard "shifter" for work around their River Rouge and Detroit River plants. Thanks for the many pix of "cute 'lil critters." T.D.K.