7 pole? Daaaaaaaang [EDIT]: For anyone wondering what happened to his nail, he was drilling into a piece of wood, the bit slipped, and it drove into his nail. Can we get an F in the chat for Harrison's nail?
I have seen mantua or bachman tenders at train shows in South Carolina this year. We have had four shows since February and Atlanta is having one next month.
That's a really good find there! The 7-pole V-2 and V-3 motors from Varney were designed for them by Lindsay, who was known in the 40's and 50's for having some of the quietest and best running motors on the market. The 7-pole skewed armature design made them smooth and powerful even with their small size, but they were also expensive and complicated to produce, so Varney dropped the design after a fairly short time (so they're both very rare and valuable) in favor of cheaper open-frame style motors. Lindsay kept making the 7-pole motors under their own name into the 60's before going out of business. Although the motor tooling is long gone, Lindsay's quality detail parts are still made today by Precision Scale Co, and their detailed ALCO FA-1 and FB-1 bodies are still being made by Hobbytown of Boston.
You maybe onto part of my plans but you're missing the bigger picture. If I let my hair grow out and get some glasses I can look like Garth from Wayne's World. I just need to buy some time.
It looks like a Varney "Old Lady" 2-8-0. Most of Varney's kits were based on Southern Pacific locomotive classes. Roundhouse kits took over most of the Varney line. The "Old Lady" was always popular, but I never saw a kit from the factory with a 7 pole motor. Biggest problem that I remember was binding in the valve gear from people getting the rivets to tight. Always roll the chassis on a piece of track before installing the motor. Check and correct all binding before proceeding.
I can tell you more about it. It is early 1940s Varney Reading I10a, yours has boards added. Mine is modded to a 0-8-0 by its owner yours tired to make it SP. a lot of these became victims to G&D knock offs or to custom locos very few full originals left. Yours is pretty original less the missing boiler plate. As a side note. Both yours and mine predate the class being rebuilt by the reading into T1s so yes you have a model older than the Reading T1. From your friendly neighborhood historian :p
Hey Harrison, I've got an update on the smokebox front I'm making for you for this. I have the rough shape of it, just working on details now. I'll email you about it when I get the chance
you should nickname the locomotive barry after the locomotive saved from scrap in the Thomas and Friends storybook or was gonna be in the book. cause you saved this poor little steamer and he just needs a little TLC and he'll be ready to be really useful again
Reading I-10sa prototype. Bachmann made a version with a suitable tender and Bowser did a conversion kit and it came with trucks and a frame to get her running. You could score a cheap Bachmann Reading Consolidation or one they lettered in Great Northern on ebay. The I-10 did not have the number boards. Otherwise, the engine is very close.
Six months late on this one, BUT...... That seven pole motor will provide excellent crawling speed. And as far as the cosmetic condition? We in the "business" call that 'patina'.
Those old Varney motors are nearly bullet proof. The only reason Varney quit using them was their cost. They were nearly 3 time more than. What Mantua, MDC Roundhouse, and others were using. Take care of it and keep it clean and lubed and it'll last another 60 years. As for missing parts, send me a email or message me on RU-vid, or FB, as I have a lot of miscellaneous detail parts I can send you, to help with your restoration's.
If this little engine was mine, I would install a new smoke box cover, and turn it into a mike; plenty of room for a trailing truck and a nice little Vanderbilt tender I would love it to death!!!
The tender would be a Varney or Bowser tender like the ones used on the Old Lady 2-8-0 or Casey Jones 4-6-0. They were available from Varney with plastic tender bodies and cast metal frames or as all cast bodies and frames from Bowser after they purchased the Varney dies. Very common on ebay.
What did you do to your thumb?? I love watching these in depth maintenance shorts. I've learned a lot from ya and enjoy following your channel! Stay safe
These models are very very good for the day, Hornby only reached this standard of engineering in the 90s !! , with some extra detailing and a repaint, its got a slew wound 7 pole motor too, amazing.!!this engine would look good on any layout today, certainly no worse than any Bachmann new product
Patina. Old cars and old trains, can look good with patina! I don’t know enough about trains to picture this irl, maybe you know its appearance as it was, but it would have been nice to have added some descriptive images and thumbnail background of what this train was a copy of originally? Either at the beginning or end of the cleaning, to educate those of us still learning. Thanks for sharing your servicing session!
Wonderful video Harrison, 5 to 7 pole motors are for slow speed crawls, please show us how slow it can go too. I so much looking forward to your future videos, as you definitely know the excitement of restoring old steamers to working condition, next you will be making diecast brass hybrids!! Yes!!
I notice you've got a bit of oxygenation on the valve gear. You might want to remove the motor from the frame, and soak that sucker in some de-greaser....or polish the valve gear with a Dremel tool and its buffing brush attachment. Or you can leave it if it's not causing any issues.
There is a very good possibility that you may have your hands on a brass locomotive and you don’t know it !!!🚂!!!The way you were describing the weight, and the way it felt, even in the way, it looked it looked like a brass locomotive !!! You’re going to needTo clean up that outer body shell because it is really messed up plus she got a phone in the front for it and possibly even figure out whether or not you got the front working light and you’ve also got a find a tender for it to boot but if I’m right and there is a brass locomotive then you may have to end up giving you a brass tender !!!🌊🐺
That’s awesome Harrison and I wonder if you can paint it your RU-vid channel logo on locomotive for style and interesting the tender when you get to tender i’m not saying you have to do it I wanted to say it for an idea and I hope you have a very awesome day Harrison
That is so cool Where did you get the foam that you use for the videos. If you can like to see a link for the items that you use in each video. Friendly FYI I'd put a white cloth in your work area so you can see screws and any other parts.
Quite the surprise for today. I'd say that's a New Haven because of the rounded cab windows (I may or may not be biased, if it wasn't obvious) but those number boards on the boiler say different. I'd say a 4 axle Vanderbilt tender would go perfect behind that.
Varney,in its day ,was one of the better Co. in the H.O. field.Noted for their smooth running,hence the seven pole motor.Imported Brass eventually changed the market to ready to run highly detailed models.
Good old Reading I-10-sa, cool locomotive to begin with. Varney things never die, I swear. The old locomotives made out of die cast are unkillable, lol. Nice job on this resto, I hope I can get my hands on one of these one day. They're extremely rare.
I think if you really wanted you could take some pictures of the tender that's supposed to go with this you could get someone to make a rough but clean 3d model and 3d print the shell and chassis that you could add a little weight and wire up to act as the source for pickup. Really cool project though where do you find things like this?
You have a Varney Super Consolidation there and is a very nice kit. Here is a link to Ho seeker and the diagrams for this hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionvarney/varney280consolidationpg2.jpg
Varney first offered this 2-8-0 patterned after a Reading class I-10 in 1938. The firebox design was changed to a more conventional style in 1939, and after a hiatus for WWII it was sold in kit form 1947-57 less tender and 1957-63 with tender. It appears the tooling was damaged or lost as it's never been produced since. Bowser bought Varney's steam locomotive tooling and parts in 1968 and sold some of their other engines through around 2008. Although the guide says they were sold into 1963, I looked through a collection of magazines and never saw ads for them after 1951. I have two or three of these around I've picked up over the years. They're not particularly common anymore. Bowser may yet still have a few parts for these around, although they discontinued all of their cast metal locomotives several years ago and may have even scrapped the tooling. As for the tender any Varney would work with it; the type used with their Old Lady and Casey Jones is closest to what would be correct for a Reading engine, but alternatively any tender that provides for power pickup could be used. It is missing a smokebox front, headlight, and some sort of pump or detail on the fireman's side.
Great job Harrison. It looks like the Varney HO Super Consolidation (Heavy) from the 1951 catalog and parts list. Now we have to find the tender, the smokebox door and perhaps a few other bits. You have the makings of a true, vintage, collector's item. To add to some other comments I agree that with the 7-pole motor , etc. that locomotive should be able to pull several freight cars at a very slow speed. (Watch your voltage. Some of those older motors were designed for lower voltages than what we currently use.) Impressive job of resurrecting this one. Nicely done!
Y'know, I thought my 1950's Tyco Pacific I picked up this past January was odd having a factory enclosed gearbox and a proper Pittman open frame motor but that is the funkiest thing I've ever seen! The more I lust for dcc and sound, the more and more I look at the projects and retired outcasts of people's collections. Not standard Tyco stuff, Mantua at the very least. I'm very interested in getting myself and experimenting with Bowsers, Penn Line and Varney steamers to restore. Not just a dismantle, clean and oil restoration. Stripped and repainted (if needed) and get them running as best as ever. I've already done a Mantua heavy mikado and an all diecast 0-6-0.
As for my Pacific, yes it has a slight track binding issue with the blind drivers but that's my crappy trackwork. I very much plan on adding DCC and sound to it and doing absolutely nothing more to it. My cousin, uncle and grandpa all insist it must have a can motor to even consider giving it dcc but it runs so unbelievably smoothly, quietly and with little amps pulled with its original old Pittman.
I would love to see this engine restored maybe a mat black light weathering a tender something I would love to do myself I think that engine has got great potential please don’t put it on the shelf and leave it.
You have a fine example of gordon varneys equipment. That is his super motor with gearbox scewwound really ahead of its time the drivers should be sprung too. There was also a super pacific. Great find as inused to have several when i was younger. I am very envious. Lol
The best I've seen on a modern locomotive is a skew-wound 5-pole so I really wasn't expecting this. I'm going to be on the hunt for similar locomotives. Thanks for sharing some of the history on this piece.
I had a Varney Old Lady in my early teens (circa 1960). It was decorated for the Southern RR and was green. It looked great on my scratch-built turntable, but I never got it running well. I had few skills and no money back then. Memories.
I have a problem with one of my rivarossi steam locos. One on the drive wheel that is connected to the gear is lose and free spinning. How do i fix that? Would glue work?
Super glue might work but you have to be extremely careful. If I were you I would remove the wheels from the chassis, clean the gear and axle well with alcohol to make sure no grease is there to mess it up and then carefully glue it making sure it's centre. Make sure after glueing it there is no leftover glue on the ends of the axle or else it might mess something up.
There is no doubt that you would get this old gal running again, Harrison. She's missing a few parts so maybe this is a good locomotive to do some Steampunk modifications, and have a really unique locomotive on the layout. Thanks for sharing. 👍 👍 👍 "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson
That's such a big doofy engine, I really love it! It definitely needs some paint, a tender, and a new smokebox door at a minimum. Would love to get my hands on an engine like that!
It's a reading I10. they could pull 100 coal cars 50 mph. ridiculous power and smokeless burning. old Bachmann 2-8-0 made this in plastic for many years. they were junk, mostly. Bowser made a repower kit for it. was/is crude but worked.
Also, a bit more info. The prototype is the Reading I10sa, a powerful 2-8-0. It is indeed a varney, marketed as a "Super Consolidation." The boiler front should have a smokebox - mounted headlight and bell. Maybe brass castings would do the trick. As for a tender, from photos it seems Varney put a six - wheel tender behind it, which looks better than the more prototypical approach, what Reading actually used, were these four - wheel tenders that look too small for these chunky brutes. Looking up "Varney super consolidation" will yield an advertisement photo showing the tender. It looks like one of the Mantua tenders found behind one of their Pacific's or Mikado's would fit the bill. Looking up "Reading I10sa", will show some pics of the locos with the smaller tenders. The bachmann model of this locomotive (Yes, bachmann made an I10sa too!) has the prototypical small tender, and that tender was later used on their USRA 0-6-0's so they are quite common. I actually have one of these tenders I can spare, but postage is expensive from Florida to Canada! A coat of flat black, with a graphite smokebox and firebox, would look great if this loco ever gets finished. Then Reading or fictional RR decals, oooh. that would look nice! Hope I've helped in the completion of this loco!
This is my first time on your channel so I don't know whether or not your use DCC. If you do, kitbashing a tender may give you a good opportunity to give this loco a DCC card and receiver.
I use both DC and DCC. Although it's probably possible to give this loco DCC, I'm not sure how the decoder would react to a 7 pole motor. I've been told that the CVs must be changed for 3 poles so I'm not sure if it works the same way.
@@nikolausbautista8925 The "Old Lady" was also purchased by Bowser rather than AHM, and they continued making the kit until around 10 years ago. Apparently, the tooling for them and all other Bowser metal kits was scrapped a few years ago. :(
It's a *SEVEN* pole motor. ...Fascinating... I think that's based on a Reading railroad 2-8-0, I love the Reading's wide firebox and arched cab window aesthetic. Whoever made that engine did a beautiful job on the running gear, those bearings looked heavy duty!
In the grand scheme of things logically speaking, I can't say I'm surprised it ended up running as well as it did. Back in those days, it seems everything was built to last forever. Now a days things are made to break instantly it seems. Although considering it hasn't ran in as long as you said, it takes the magic touch to get it running again like this.
D Kemper yes, they will work, but you have to be very careful as the tiny fibers break off everywhere and can get in your skin or worse, eyes. Use with extreme caution
me gustan tus videos de restauraciones y esta hermosa esa locomotora y el motor esta increible me gustaria alguna vez ver una locomotora de una compania de Mexico
That motor was made by Lindsay for Varney in the late 40 s. Lindsay was the first company to make small motors and HO power trucks for model trains. I have quite a few of them in my locos and they run great.
7-pole motor - whoa! Would've liked to hear it better, and also see its slow speed response. I see that motor cost $21 back around 1950, so take care of it!
734 is very different from actual Western Maryland steam locomotives. This wheelbase has drivers of around 60 inches. While 734s drivers were about 52 inches. I'm looking to make h7-b or h9 2-8-0s
That's a great loco, I work on a good number of engines that are 40 , 50, 60 years old and a little TLC and they all tend to run. Pretty much any old tender designed to pick up power should adapt to it. Again, great engine , a true antique 👍👍👍
Hey is there a hole in your nail or is that just paint btw love your content I have to say your camera is amazing and the videos are amazing love videos keep up the awesome work
