Hi There;
This is my first HO loco I got when I switched from O to HO in 1950. It is a Varney Dockside. Still running today.
Tom
OK, here's mine - I've had this Athearn bluebox SW1200 since 1988, the year I came back into the MRR hobby. (I'm not including the retired models that are waiting to be cannabalized for parts...)
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
OK, I'll weigh in on this one.
I apologize in advance for the photo quality. It's an old digital camera and I'm not that good at using it (my wife is the shutterbug).
If you squint, you can make out two locos that my father brought back from England in 1969. On the left is a Mantua 0-4-0 Switcher / Tank Engine (affectionately referred to as "Thomas Covered with Tar" by my kids). It still runs beautifully, and the only change I made was to swap out the standard British hook couplers for McHenry ones. The other is -- I believe -- the oldest prototype yet offered here: Stephenson's Rocket (with the original coupler). Unfortunately, the motor seized about 10 years ago, and I have been unable to find a new one small enough to install in it.
And yes, I know it's a boring bookshelf shot. I haven't yet installed a backdrop on my layout, and the bare concrete wall in the background just really ruins any photos I take.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Hi, My oldest loco is this HO Athearn f-7 Soo Line 2228A from the late 1960's. This dates from my earliest days in HO scale having begun the hobby as many others as a kid in the 50's with Marx and Lionel O gauge. It was wrecked in a fall and as with the prototype, the nose was re-built. Around 1999 or so, I replaced the trucks with Athearn plastic side frame style. A newer Athearn motor and 1" A-Line flywheels supply the power. A Walthers F unit dress up kit was applied. Decals are Champion. Companion B unit 501C is similarly powered. I haven't run these locos lately on my Chicago Yellowstone and Pacific under construction as they are awaiting DCC decoders.
scottychaos wrote: HO scale Tyco 0-4-0 circa 1979, I was 10 years old.Scot
HO scale Tyco 0-4-0 circa 1979, I was 10 years old.
Scot
That's my first locomotive! Identical!!! Mine's in pieces in a box. I took it apart about 20 years ago to fix a broken side rod and never put it back together. It's still in the box, somewhere in the basement.
I wonder if I could get it running again? It would need a new motor and side rod. Hmmm...
The Cedar Branch & Western--The Hillbilly Line!
neil300 wrote: weetle wrote:my oldest engine is one of the models produced 1939 and 1945-46 engine but i dont know which one. the number model is 224.68 years!? The best I can do is a L-L GP38-2 I got with my first layout Christmas 1987. It doesn't run. I dummied it.
weetle wrote:my oldest engine is one of the models produced 1939 and 1945-46 engine but i dont know which one. the number model is 224.
68 years!? The best I can do is a L-L GP38-2 I got with my first layout Christmas 1987. It doesn't run. I dummied it.
It was my Great Grampa's. Still runs. I'm missing the tender.
I guess my oldest Loco was a kit. An Arbors Model J1 PRR Everybody thought I was nuts to try and build it. They told me it couldn't be done! Well here it is and it runs!
SamV
In Half-0, a 1941 Varney Docksider.
In "0" 2-rail, a 1938 ScaleCraft SantaFe Mike.
In "0" 3-rail, a pea-green 252 from about 1925.
BTW, on a John English "Yardbird", contact Yardbird Trains.
He has parts and expertise.
I've restored my Uncle's from 1948 or so.
I have restored a bunch, the Athearn gear drives and Hi-F run flawlessly, gone back to my brother, I keep the die-cast, as they run and run and run and run.
All mine are old and the newest one was purchased in the early 70's. The first HO engine was an old 0 4 0 tank engine which I purchased in the early 50's and it still runs but not well. All the rest are brass from the 60's with a few athern deisels. The one I like best is the tensodo Royal Hudson. Now it is planning time for the layout to run them on!!!!!
Douglas
Nieuweboer wrote: Mine is an Akane brass 2-8-0 -the well known small Ma & Pa Consolidation - that I picked up in 1961 in Amsterdam in a long gone MR shop that specialized in second hand MR material. It is still running on my layout as steamer on a tourist line pulling two Harriman coaches. Still older is a Globe FT/F3A locomotive that I bought in 1956 but is a dummy so I don't think it counts.
Mine is an Akane brass 2-8-0 -the well known small Ma & Pa Consolidation - that I picked up in 1961 in Amsterdam in a long gone MR shop that specialized in second hand MR material. It is still running on my layout as steamer on a tourist line pulling two Harriman coaches.
Still older is a Globe FT/F3A locomotive that I bought in 1956 but is a dummy so I don't think it counts.
I've never heard of an Akane brass locomotive still in existance that isn't still running and running well. Somehow Akane made the best steam locomotive drive systems available for their time and they're almost indestructable. I have a total of six Akane articulateds that I've purchased over the years, dating from about 1964 to when the company stopped importing, some with their original motors, some that I've re-motored, but I've never--I mean NEVER had to re-construct the drive mechanisms. And all of them are wonderful runners. They may not have the super-detail of todays' brass or plastic steamers, but of all my brass locos, they're the ones that I've had to spend the least amount of time 'tinkering' with. They're just put together like the proverbial TANK!
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
I have a few. All belong to my dad who passed back in 1997. I have a link to my webpage were I store my pictures.
As far as I know, the oldest 3 I have are:
A Revell belt drive F-7
A Varney 0-4-0 Dockside
A Tyco Diecast 0-4-0 w/ tender. I believe this was part of a set as I have 3 cars and a caboose that goes with it.
All 3 engines still run, though I don't run them often. The Revell has a "slipping" issue. The Tyco and the Varney run but they take quite a bit of juice to get moving!
The pictures are here: http://home.comcast.net/~ccmhet4/trains.html
OK, you folks talked me into it. These both come from about 1952.
I hope you'll accept the Budd car, although it's not really an engine. I don't recall who made it. It has an open-frame motor and a truck full of tiny gears. It still runs, but not well. I am reconditioning it, especially the tiny bearings for the tiny gears.
The Diesel is a Varney, also with an open-frame motor. It is all metal, except for necessary electrical insulation. It came unpainted and had only two driven axles. I added a drive for the other truck, which later became standard for Varney. It also runs poorly. I am reconditioning this one, too. I bought a similar one (plastic body) at a model RR show for spare parts.
Hi Model Railroaders,
I don't have a digital camera at this time, but my oldest loco is a tyco 0-4-0 and a 0-6-0, i traded a sw1 new haven diesel for two steamers. steam rules in my house, i have 38 steam loco's and 7 diesels dating from 1956-to- today, and 250 cars and growing all from the fiftys till today, i like buying old broken locos or somebodys elses broken trains and trying to bring life back into them, i had 4 tyco locos, mantua 2-10-0, a tyco 2-8-2 camelback, the tyco general,and a 4-8-0 mastadon i think mantua, they haden't ran for 25 years cause i coulden't find good replacement motors, then someone on ebay had at least 10 replacement motors, i bought 4 of the motors and started to work on getting back to life, they all run great, my steamers are from a varity of companys, bachmann, ihc, rivorossi, tyco, mantua, walthers, all in good running shape, i have a few old cars that need trucks and couplers, i do have a few lional cars, 70's military train cars and so on, i love steam compared to diesel because a diesel sits and hums, a steam engine has a HEART that beats, and a whole lot of working parts, i just love when a film maker chases one of these things, and its so neet to watch these machines work, i enjoy being a kid at 58 years old, makes life a whole lot easer. thanks for time.
Earl
pbjwilson wrote:Heres a Bing clockwork engine circa ? Maybe late 20's early 30's.
Heres a Bing clockwork engine circa ? Maybe late 20's early 30's.
Looks more like an Ives from the turn of the century thoiugh about 1920. Might be interesting to do some research on it.
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
I still have my first loco..
(this isnt my actual loco, but a picture of an identical loco I just found on the internet)
As a teenager in the 1980's, I modified, kitbashed and painted nearly every engine I ever had, but I never touched the 0-4-0! I didnt have the heart to modify it, because it was my first engine.
I dont even model in HO scale anymore, and likely never will again, but I will never sell that switcher! :)
My oldest steam engine is a New York Central 4-6-4 Hudson W/smoke. It was my fathers and I got it after he passed away. I am guessing that it is serca 1950, but cannot confirm.
They is a serial number on the tender, No.2-0489. front pilot truck is missing and needs cleaning and repair. P.S. it is heavy in weight.
Rich form Mich>
CNR engineer wrote: well i dont have a photo as it is in storage and i dont run it for SAFETY reasons. i have an IVES 110 volt AC train set made around 1910. yes the track voltage is 110!!!!!!! wall socket voltage!!!!
well i dont have a photo as it is in storage and i dont run it for SAFETY reasons. i have an IVES 110 volt AC train set made around 1910. yes the track voltage is 110!!!!!!! wall socket voltage!!!!
That's why people had such large families back then. They knew that a large percentage of kids weren't going to survive their trainsets.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
well i dont have a photo as it is in storage and i dont run it for SAFETY reasons. i have an IVES 110 volt AC train set made around 1910. yes the track voltage is 110!!!!!!! wall socket voltage!!!! it uses LIGHT bulbs of different wattage to control the speed. it is about the size of the current G Scale. not really sure what you would call it. i got it from a guy about 20 years ago and he got it as a kid. he was almost 80 when it was given to me. it is a 2-6-2 and has a tender and three passenger cars. i tried it out when i got it. believe it or not it ran great after a cleaning. i stopped running it when i about FRIED my mothers cat with it...lol..
robert
A Lionel 027 from 1953, still runs.
JaRRell
The oldest HO scale loco I have is this American Flyer 1950's Hudson.
This first shot taught me not to run it at full throttle. Nearly asphyxiated me:
The oldest loco I own is my father's AF S scale Hudson, but I didn't fire that up since I plan to breathe tonight.
Darth Santa Fe wrote:Wow! An Athearn 0-4-2! You don't see those very often anymore!
Wow! An Athearn 0-4-2! You don't see those very often anymore!
It was originally a 2-4-2. I could never keep the front truck on the rail so I took it off!
I have been around the hobby a long time, The two oldest locomotives I have are a Varney dockside from the late forties and a PENNLINE Reading Crusader from 1949.
The Dockside was my fathers. The Crusader I got as a box of parts. Both are still operable.
Ray