old engins

[Anonymous]

Hi I just got into ho scale railroadin. I picked up alot of stuff on e-bay. I ended up with an old cast metal Varney engin, it has a pulley system drive with coiled spring belt?. Does anyone know how old it might be?, or if it might be worth some money? I think it is quite old. Also what is the best type of engin drive.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by peterviv

... I ended up with an old cast metal Varney engine, it has a pulley system drive with coiled spring belt?. Does anyone know how old it might be?, or if it might be worth some money? I think it is quite old.

Without knowing exactly what you have, I'd guess it was made sometime in the late forties to early sixties. Maybe someone can tell us when Varny was bought out or the brand name ceased to exist.

What's it worth? Just like anything else that's a collectable, pretty much what someone is willing to pay for it. Sometimes the market's hot, sometimes not. How much did you pay for it?

QUOTE: Also what is the best type of engine drive?

In my opinion, anything with worm pinion gear and flywheels (although some quality DCC decoders may make the flywheel obsolete).

[Anonymous]

Another vote for gear drive/flywheels here.

Most RTR locos are geared too high for realistric operation as delivered. Several makers, NWSL for example, make reduction packages which greatly improve low speed operation.

Randy

[Anonymous]

Gears and flywheels, with a hefty central motor. "Pancake" motors are to be avoided - I have a few British locos with these drive systems, and they're embarrassing when compared to the latest Bachmann British-outline products - these now have drive systems comparable to Lifelike Proto 1k/2k, see-through roof grilles, seperate radiator fan mouldings, a DCC socket and come with a bag of extra details to fit on the bufferbeams - though this can pose problems with couplers. However, a piece of brass wire bent to shape, painted black, and fitted into holes in the chassis works very well with standard UK "Tension-lock" couplers, and also has the benefit of protecting the detail parts.