I need help to figure out who made this HO loco. I think it's Life-Like:
It's a HO GP38-2 with Conrail's 7940 road number. Kato had this number in N scale but I can't find anything for HO with this number from anyone.
Atlas Athearn, and Bachmann have had several of the most recent releases of the Conrail GP38-2. I haven't found any listed with that number from any manufacturer. You may have to pick one up and have the number boards and lettering changed.
Springfield PA
Well if your running straight DC with it looks like by the pic you have posted probably the most obvious answer would be an Athearn Blue Box locomotive. Relatively cheap, reliable and all around good buy for the money. Although they no loge make the blue box series I am pretty sure you'll be able to find one without too much trouble another alternative would be Atlas Trainman series GP38-2 also a very nice locomotive. As far as a specif road number finding it is like looking for a needle in a haystack most of the time just get a decal set or transfer numbers from someone like Woodland Scenics or any decal company and change the number.
We can rule out Athearn and Atlas Trainman.
Could be a older Bachmann or Concor.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
That is definitely not an Athearn! It could be an early Concor import. It has a single truck drive with an open frame motor that looks a bit like a Pittman motor (but that's not neccessarily what it is). It may be of east european manufacture. It may have been part of an inexpensive train set and may not have been available as a separate item originally. JMHO.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Your little blue beauty is a LifeLike product.And it is a 1977 product.
I bought this loco at an estate sale, among others (got a Tyco and AHM one). it was not in an original box (box was AHM but for a switcher) and the manufacturer was not marked. I doubt it's a paint job as the paint leaked blue on the inside, but it could be a an add on shell. I know Athearn released this model but with different road number in late 2009. I highly doubt this is one of them, so it has to be older then that. It might be Blue Box series. This is the only loco that I bought with an issue (aside from a burnout bulb and a lot of cleaning). The motor is excellent, all wheels and gears are all lubed and cleaned. If you look closer at a pic, you will see that the drive shaft is disconnected and the coupling from the drive wheels is cracked. I wanted to ID the manufacturer so I can see if I can find the replacement coupling (gray piece at the bottom). I'd rather not use some aftermarket part that almost fits, rather go with the original.I'm kicking myself as the last show I went to, there was a dealer with tons of parts. But I had the Tyco's F7 all apart and focused on parts for that one (I even got a brand new motor for it for $4). I thought this Conrail one just had too much gunk in the gears and all it needed was cleaning.
Someone mentioned eastern European, this was made in Hong Kong. Also I mentioned the number since it sometimes helps with narrowing down the manufacturer, but doesn't seem to help me this time.
So lets switch the question - anyone know where I can get the replacement coupling???
I can't even attempt to glue the old one, as it will probably come apart again.
Thanks for the responses.
The engine is absolutely an early Life-Like model, shell and all. But it is custom painted, because LL never offered the GP38-2 in Conrail as far as I can find.
Some of you may find this hard to believe, but the earliest diesels made by Life-Like (not the even older ones by Mehano) used a decent Pittman style motor driving a single truck (F7A used a Varney style truck), and they had a generous amount of weight compared to now. They didn't make them for very long before introducing their (still in production) Bachmann-clone power truck.
Northwest Short Line (NWSL) makes an assortment of universal couplings that will fit. Just make sure to measure both shafts first. The motor should have a 2.4mm shaft, but I don't know about the truck.
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Life Like, I bought one just like that for my son off Ebay last year new in the box. They came in Conrail in the 70's. Didnt run for long before the motor fried and the shell is made of a real cheap plastic, the kid liked it anyway.
Sigh.One more time.Now pay attention this time.
The loco is a LIFELIKE and it is factory painted for ConRail.It is from 1977.
Got that? Good.
You will find the information here
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/lifelikemodeltrainscollectorsresource/index.html
Websites don't lie, but I can't belive that is a factory paint job. It looks like the white can-opener was painted using a small broom.
BTW, that double loop styrofoam layout that's on the link was my first trainset, back in the 70's. Brings back memories. Mine came with a BN GP18 I think. Ran like crap, but it could make a three car train really sail around those curves at warp speed.
- Douglas
Life Like it is... no wonder it's rare now, 33 years later and it still runs, sort of. If it wasn't for the front railing missing, it would've been in mint condition. I ordered the coupling assortment that Darth mentioned. We will see if it fits.Now what decoder should I throw in?? Kiddin' this one will be in continues loop layout for my son.
And if anyone cares to gain some more useless information, the road number 7941 was the N scale version of the 76 release, 7940 was the HO version. 7940 was significant as it was first of 100 that Conrail returned to EMD at lease end.
Thanks for responses everyone, appreciate the help, and back to lurking.
So I got the new shaft and installed new couplings, connected all together, re-soldered the wires, oiled the gears (hint), cleaned the wheels... and learned the hard way why LifeLike was garbage. one of the axle gears is split, so it gets the screw and the shaft locked up, or basically the whole drive. It's also loose on the axle so I have one wheel drive at best. No wonder the original coupling broke.
I'll see if I can find new gear wheels at a train show, but that's the last ditch effort before this puppy is turned into a dummy.
end of rant