Jumijo The Varney "Lil Joe" is a nice running train, and easy to work on.
The Varney "Lil Joe" is a nice running train, and easy to work on.
Indeed.. I might be wrong but,IIRC just about every photo in MR had a Lil' Joe in it back in those days.
I wonder how many recall using headlight jewels in our locomotives?
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
rrinkerA moderler who wanted specific protoypes back then either made it themselves, or commissioned a custom loco from someone like Fred Icken or Rollin Lobaugh.
Randy,They could buy brass steam locomotives that was more road specific then the generic steam locomotives.
VisitingLimey I've recently acquired three Varney locos - the Little Joe, Casey Jones and Old Lady and am just getting the first two back into working order. The third goes brilliantly! Can anybody tell me what prototype the Casey Jones and Old Lady were modelled on? I'm suspecting Southern Pacific or Harriman lines from the general style. The Rev Edward Beal wrote about Varney models, particularly the big Mallet, the Little Joe and Pacific back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s in England - I'm glad to have my three.
I've recently acquired three Varney locos - the Little Joe, Casey Jones and Old Lady and am just getting the first two back into working order. The third goes brilliantly!
Can anybody tell me what prototype the Casey Jones and Old Lady were modelled on? I'm suspecting Southern Pacific or Harriman lines from the general style.
The Rev Edward Beal wrote about Varney models, particularly the big Mallet, the Little Joe and Pacific back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s in England - I'm glad to have my three.
I believe the Casey Jones is based on a SP Harriman ten wheeler, like a T-28. The Old Lady is the same boiler on a 2-8-0 mechanism, so not sure how close it is to a SP Harriman consolidation.
Gary
A moderler who wanted specific protoypes back then either made it themselves, or commissioned a custom loco from someone like Fred Icken or Rollin Lobaugh. For pre-war models, either one of those men made some fantastic pieces. Looking at pictures, it seems many of them would stand up today as well above average in detail, although in many cases you could specify just what you wanted - maybe just the basics of a partiocular loco, and then you added the extra details yourself, instead of getting it fully decked out and painted.
I don't collect things I wouldn't use, so I doubt I would ever buy one of those pieces, but I do enjoy looking at them and understanding the heritage and history of the hobby.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hello VisitingLimey!!
Welcome to the forums!
I can't answer your questions but I did want to say hi!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
The "Casey Jones" 4-6-0 is nothing like the locomotive that Casey road to fame and funeral. It has attributes of locomotives from several railroads but isn't exact for any that I know of. The same can be said for the "Old Lady" 2-8-0. From various angles it resembles locos of a number of railroads. I suspect that is exactly how Gordon Varney wanted it -- why lose sales by being too specific? -- particularly since the era of these locomotives is when most guys had their own railroad and thus felt they could run about anything they wanted. The fussy ones back then tried to create a family resemblance by perhaps using the same cab on all their steam, or deciding whether headlights were top of smokebox or center of smokebox front, that sort of thing.
Prototype modelers back then had their work cut out for them. That is why brass was so welcomed - if you were lucky enough that is to have as your prototype something that also appealed to the importers.
Be aware that when Bowser acquired the Varney tooling and reissued these loomotives, they changed a few things regarding the drive train and such.
Dave Nelson
to the Model Railroader Forums.
Your first few posts here will be moderated, so don't be discouraged, as that will pass quickly.
I'd guess that your suspicions about the prototytpe origins may have some merit, at least regarding the style, but I'm not aware if they were based on particular locomotives.As you've probably noticed, the boiler castings for the Casey Jones and Old Lady are the same, and while I wanted those locos when I was a kid, didn't have the money.
Many years later, I picked-up one of the boiler shells for a couple of bucks, and when I decided to use it for a project that I had had in mind for some time, a friend donated a second shell.
If you're interested, you can view the procedure HERE, which basically involved adding the Varney castings to the mechanisms of a couple of Bachmann Ten Wheelers, then adding a bunch of details. Because the Bachmann mechanisms run very nicely right out of the box, I didn't need to do any mechanical tweaking.
Wayne