Can anyone help identify this loco? It seems to be an On30 scale. The main body is about 5" long x 2" high, 2-rail. The body is cast metal with brass handrails, and brass wheel rings. The herald on the front is B&O. I'd like to know the manufacturer, and a date it was made if possible.
Thanks,
Kurt
It looks like a Varney Dockside. They were HO scale and were manufactured in the 50's up to about the early 60's. IIRC, they were made in plastic toward the end of production. Those are Mantua loop couplers
Bowser bought the Varney dies and made their own version up until they decided to give up the steam business.
http://www.bowser-trains.com/hoemrrs/dockside/dockside.htm
Andre
Andre is correct, it is a Varney Dockside. There where only two prototypes, #97 and #98 on the B&O, built especially for working sharp radius street industrial tracks around the Baltimore harbor.
Varney first made it die cast, like this one, then changed to plastic sometime aound 1960. So this one is definately 1950's. I scanned through a few old copies of MR and the oldest ad I found for this loco was 1953, but it may have been offered a little before that.
Sheldon
Great! Thanks for the help!
"L'il Joe" they called it, and bach in the 40's and 50's, many a layout started out with that as their first loco - it was easy to assemble and relatively inexpensive. Rugged, too.
Later on, Rivarossi did a plastic one sold by AHM, and Life-Like made one too.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
There have been B&O Dockside models in HO (die cast, plastic, and brass), S , O, N and quite possibly TT; possibly hundreds of thousands of models of an engine with four prototypes (two were converted to tender locomotives). Is it HO gauge? What look like Mantua couplers suggests it is HO, but you say it is 5" long which sounds big for HO, more like the Rex model in S.
If it is the HO Varney Dockside then it could even be from the 1940s-- Varney had sold 40,000 of this engine by 1947, and they kept selling it for years after. It featured in some of John Allen's famous Varney advertisement photos in the 1950s.
Why such popularity? The relatively large saddletank provided plenty of room for motors of the time, which is also why some of Mantua's early steam locomotives were Reading prototypes with the wide fireboxes.
Almost unbelievably, Earl Smallshaw had an article in February 1981 MR showing how Harold Horner fitted (crammed?) a sound system, can motor, and flywheel into one of these models, which he also superdetailed and fitted the Central Valley valve gear. Oh yeah and an engineer in the cab.
Dave Nelson
rrinker "L'il Joe" they called it, and bach in the 40's and 50's, many a layout started out with that as their first loco - it was easy to assemble and relatively inexpensive. Rugged, too. Later on, Rivarossi did a plastic one sold by AHM, and Life-Like made one too.
r:
The LL version seems to be, basically, a continuation of the Varney plastic one. There's a lot of little similarities. Life-Like the company, of course, was basically a continuation of (an already cheaped-out) Varney. Life is strange.
That Smallshaw article was great. One of the air tanks was a sound capacitor. :)
A lot of HO scale ideas. But....here are a few more photos.
Thanks again for the help.
Comparing the Mystery Docksider to an HO engine:
Mystery Docksider to a Lionel Docksider:
Mystery Docksider running gear:
Mystery Docksider front:
Mystery Docksider Belly:
Does it fit on HO track? Now with something to compare it to it looks like S Scale, 3/16" = 1', and I believe there was an S scale version by a different manufacturer at one point.
Take a look in the Varney section. Put the site in your Favorites folder for future reference.
http://www.hoseeker.net/lit.html
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Does it fit on HO track? Now with something to compare it to it looks like S Scale, 3/16" = 1', and I believe there was an S scale version by a different manufacturer at one point.
It does not fit on HO track. Inside flange to inside flange is 7/8". Ah HA! S Gauge!
Thank you!
Yes, 7/8 is S guage. One correction about the prototype - Baldwin actually built 4 of these for the B&O in 1912, but two where almost immediately converted to tender versions by the B&O shops with their unique saddle tanks removed. The other two lasted until 1951.
The model you have was most like made by REX MODELS or their predicessor, PUTT TRAINS. Not sure about years.
Rex Models made very durable die cast construction S scale trains for years and years. They come from the same circa 1950 era as Varney which explains why most of us immediately assumed from the first photo that this too was the famous Varney model. Evidently the S scale modeler who had this engine used Mantua's HO scale coupler which makes sense I suppose. What I do not know is if anyone made a valve gear retrofit for the Rex model.
At least some of the Rex engines might still be in production from this source:
Thank you very much!
I wasn't able to find any photos of Rex trains, but I will contact Terry.
k:
Rex..neat. I wonder what happened to them.
Incidentally, the side rods are upside-down. The little nubs are oil cups, and should point up. I don't know if I'd want to switch them, though, after they've run-in that way for all these years. :D
Thanks. I didn't even notice. I took everything apart to see what the motor looked like, and must have put it back together upside down.