Alco High Hood switchers

[Anonymous]

In Great Model Railroads 2005 Blair Kooistra mentions how he converted P2K Alco S1's to Alco HH660's using a resin castings for his Walla Walla Valley RR.

Does anyone know what the kit is, who makes it and where it can be bought from?

I'd love to have a HH on my MEC inspired layout, but had given up hope of ever getting one as I can't afford to pay "brass" prices for the recent(ish) Overland model.

Many thanks

[CNJ831]

JJL Models of Bear, DE offers the HH660 locomotive - probably the same as cited by Kooistra - in undec with a price tag of $189.00 . While this is better than the brass price, it is still too rich for my blood (I understand the engine is just a slightly modified Life Like S-1 with a resin high-hood added). Incidentally, Branford Hobbies in CT used to offer an all resin HH660 for a similar price that was based on an Athearn mechanism.

I'd love to have an HH660 too but I'll wait for one of the major manufacturers to offer it for under $100 thank you.

CNJ831

[dknelson]

Walthers used to sell a set of metal castings to make this locomotive. They were still selling the castings in the 1980s by which time I think the moldings were close to 50 years old. I see them for sale from time to time at swap meets, for very little money as a rule.
Some years ago I picked up a bunch of Fairbanks Morse switcher bodies at Walthers for $1 each, wondering if I could kitbash an HH660 from them. I concluded it would not look convincing but then I was not very ambitious about that project. Close is good enough for me.
Dave Nelson

[CNJ831]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Walthers used to sell a set of metal castings to make this locomotive. They were still selling the castings in the 1980s by which time I think the moldings were close to 50 years old. I see them for sale from time to time at swap meets, for very little money as a rule.

Yup, and I've got a nicely finished example of the Walthers' HH660 dating from about the late 1940's too! These were a bear to assemble and I've seen very few that look all that good. Mine must have been built by a real craftsman as its the best example I've ever seen of this particular model (especially following my early NH paint job). Looks real nice but its ancient power truck leaves something to be desired.

While Walthers did indeed offer the set of casting to build this engine until the early 1980's, these later casting were full of tiny air holes and need a lot of work. Probably very few HH660's were actually assembled by modelers once Walthers stop producing the full kit (which built a complete, powered model).

CNJ831