I just got finished tuning up a Lindsay F7 chassis for the Globe F7, but this one has a unique 8-wheel drive and central motor design!
Although I've seen the central motor with separate trucks a couple times on brass models, I've never seen this chassis before. Has anyone else come across these? Seems like it would've been an expensive high-end option at the time, and I also have to wonder if it pre-dates the Athearn/Globe chassis at all. If it does, credit for the now standard central motor with a universal to each geared truck might actually go to Lindsay instead of Athearn!
Speaking of innovations, Bob Lindsay actually came up with quite a few starting with his time at Varney and then going into his own business. Fully sprung self-equalizing axles on steam engines (pre-WW2), equalizing axles and adjustable wheelbases on diesel power trucks, skewed armatures, flywheels, self-contained low profile motor units, and all before 1950! A lot of these features wouldn't be found on ready to run models from other manufacturers for years or even decades after, and a lot of his original lost wax and diecast parts are still being made today by Precision Scale and Hobbytown!
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Wow, that thing is built like a tank! Definitely not a toy train...
Thanks for sharing.
Simon
That mechanism looks like it could power a tank! But the hobby was still strongly influenced by the O scalers with their robust and almost indesructible mechanisms.
The original Globe F7 was only available as a dummy (very inexpensive at that; painted gold) so there was definitely a market for this. My old Varney F3 of similar vintage had the motor powering one truck, and then a drive shaft between the two trucks powered the other. It was powerful but noisy. The Varney version of the EMD Blomberg trucks had a too-short wheelbase; is the Lindsay scale length? My old Penn Line F unit powered only one truck if I recall right, but there was a nice big lead weight over it. I'd put my money on the Lindsay in a pulling contest!
Lindsay's other innovation and perhaps the one that was best remembered was his "Ghost" boxcar, which had a motor that drove one axle. It was never real clear whether his idea was just to add a bit of pulling power to a train, or to simulate a car being "kicked" at a yard or into a siding. I think some modelers just enjoyed creating confusion and havoc at operating sessions, but the Lindsay mechanism enjoyed popularity with traction modelers or those who wanted to power their locomotive crane models.
Dave Nelson
If one goes to HOSeeker.net and searches the literature for Lindsay, one will come up with diagrams and literature of a lot of Lindsay items, including a diagram and part list for the Ghost Car.
dknelson, the truck is scale length with correctly sized wheels. Lindsay was one of the first in HO to really put a strong focus on making things as true to scale as possible.
Did Lindsay have that type of motor, mounted via the visible three screws with rubber cushioning, with the stamped cooling fan?
I think you're looking at a good 'older restoration' private improvement using Lindsay parts. As noted, it would be interesting to deduce the age of the work by seeing what bits and pieces would have been available in the likely era.
Aside from the brass headlight bracket, the chassis is all original Lindsay! I've seen the large motor with fan and flywheel combo a couple times before, and the trucks and other parts are all marked with their brand. A collector who saw the video mentioned that these were made in very small numbers for some coin-operated railroads back in the day.