Trying to Fix the Worst Locomotive I've Seen - Varny F3 

Outstanding work bringing this one back from the dead. If there were ever a loco that could be described as a train wreck, this one was it.

You know the fact you took that loco which was left for scrap basically and turned around and made 2 parts for the spring and the insulating plastic is just wild. Totally wild. Originally i know it would have same breadboard type stuff mantua used on their motors. I giveyou props man 👏👏👏👏👏 your the modern day MacGyver for model trains.

I love watching your resurrection videos, Keep bringing the old school back to life .... Awesome job Harrison!!!

Nice to see this resurrected. Varney was such an important part of the hobby back in the post-war days. With four wheel pickup and drive it will never equal a modern engine in performance but still a great piece of history. I must admit that I cringed when I saw you take that sheet metal screw to fashen the chassis to the shell. About the only modernization that I'd try would be to add a flywheel.

I got a pair of these diecast diesels in kit form about 25 years ago. I believe they are pre 1953. I put a spare athearn drive in the powered unit and painted and lettered them for Boston and Maine. I appreciate your restoration videos they sure help with some of my restorations. Thanks.

This 'Cinderella' deserves some new 'clothes', Harrison, to complement your creative engineering in getting her to run again. Since you are working with a metal body, there is little chance of damaging anything in stripping the old paint. I have been experimenting with brake fluid on some of my older pre-owned plastic streetcars. Given the actual purpose of brake fluid, it doesn't damage plastic or rubber, but lifts off old paint with a bath and a little scrubbing using an old toothbrush. I look forward to seeing what you decide to do with her.

Impressive job fabricating the brush spring and mounting plate. That Varney is more like 50 or 60 years old. Good job.

You’re a wizard Harry! That thing belongs in a museum, right next to dinosaur bones.

There's a electricity "conducting grease" available you can use on the truck-to-frame bolster pins that dramatically increases the conduction. I've used it on Athearn locos with excellent results.

great work harrison,,you should give this respray fit couplings and you would have a real gem,best wishes.jpj

Good job. I ordered my first Santa Fe Super Chief Lionchief set. Waiting to receive it in India. It was my dream to buy 45 years ago.

You could seriously benefit greatly with a 3D printer, with your current manual skills maintenance and calibration of this machines absolutelly will fall into the "extremelly easy" zone, spare parts and specific items for your layout will be on a new level.

AWESOME JOB! YOu never ceased to amaze me resurrecting these "dead" or "hibernating" engines. Perhaps you can create new vids on painting them back to almost good as new.

Those brass gears are good. No breakage like the plastic and/or nylon ones. A can motor and a flywheel would make a world of difference also.

Nice job that was fun and interesting watching you work on the engine. It was great to see the old engine running again after so many years.

SMT - Maybe that terminal lug on the front truck screw was for the headlight? That was a good idea to oil the axle bearings in the trucks. Maybe you should put some oil on those worm gear shaft bearings inside the rear power truck? Also, use some alcohol to clean the motor armature core plates; they are flat pieces laminated together to control the magnetic fields & any currents that develop in the armature. It wouldn't hurt to use alcohol & a toothbrush to clean the wheelset axles on the front truck.

Very Good Harrison keeping those old buggas going Varney HO is great collectable nice bit of work!!

Great job on rebuilding the locomotive I have built a half a dozen or so dead ringers and every one of them came back to life so keep doing the great work

Fantastic! Also Thank you very much for advice about power packs! Finally I got my trains moving!

Hi Harrison I love your channel I have been a subscriber since 35k subscribers you make great videos and you are my favorite youtuber keep up the good work ;)

For what 2 days you have done is amazing! I have tried to do it on one of my locos and it took me forever. im happy that you got it run in just under 2 days that is impressive. it would of took me like 15 days to do all of that work.

I have a Varney F3 similar to yours. It is dated 1947. It was my dad's when was a boy. The motor is the same but the gear assembly is different. And one axle gear is missing. Because of the missing gear the loco can run only on the flat portion of my layout. Oh, and mine has a very ugly baby blue paint job. Very nice rebuild. Good job. Larry.

You never cease to amaze me that was a great job, you didn't give up until you figured it out I wish there was more people out there like that .seems like people just don't take pride anymore until your next video stay safe and have a good day

That fibreglass burnishing tool is excellent for cleaning the commutator. Great idea, Harrison. A coarse-threaded screw to hold the body on, is the only option. The original fine pot metal thread would have stripped out anyway. She deserves a nice paint job and some detailing, then she'll look a real sweetie. Great resurrection.

Another excellent restoration Harrison! I might have mentioned this before, but this F unit does technically wear a prototypical paint scheme that was originally applied to BNSF C44-9Ws from 1997-1999 in which during that time, the road was desperate for motive power (even to the point they purchased SD40-2s from Canadian National) that the then new Dash 9s were hastily pressed into service without the familiar yellow striping and lettering applied to their flanks with only the locomotive's road number on the cab and a very small 'BNSF' underneath. While this would be the wrong era for this F unit, it does make for a good what if scheme, happy holidays!

Very nice work and recovery of this wrecked loco, very well done, cheers KC Cradle Mountain Tasmania Australia 🇦🇺🤝🇨🇦😎🙂👍❤🏁

Harrison great work as always and superb fabrication work.

What you have is the second generation Varney F3. The first gen had a coil spring belt drive instead of the brass gears. These locos had many ways to modify them. You could purchase a geared front truck and connect it to the rear power truck via a drive shaft. Also Scalite made an aftermarket headlight add on. You could also fit a centrifugal clutch to it for low speed performance but, as you have noted, when running properly, the basic Varney mechanism is smooth and draws low amps. If you want a very nice running set-up, couple two or three units together and wire them all together. That way they have multiple trucks to pick up current and so will not hesitate on frogs. Once broken in and the motors are all pulling together, you will have very smooth set of units.

Really glad I found your channel. Very clearly shot and explained. I have always felt it far more satisfying to “reclaim and rebuild” a trashed item than run with a new one. Well done. 👍

Outstanding job ! Nice fabrication job 👍

I enjoy doing this sort of work myself and its nice to watch someone else doing it as well. Thanks for making this video.

Great work on the resurrection of this loco. I realize this is an old post and I don't know if you have addressed this point, but regarding the low speed and startup, I noticed that the brushes were not perfectly aligned with the commutator. They were slightly below the level of the armature shaft. This would affect timing. Perhaps a shim under the brush bracket to bring the brushes back into alignment?

It's great that you gave that old girl a second chance

I was horrified at first when I saw the spring and brush plate, the brush plate looked like the slots for the brushes were too far and a safety pin seemed like too strong a spring... but lo and behold, after the right adjustments, it seems to have worked out perfectly! Nicely done- I was under the impression Varney made some pretty nice stuff, this thing probably just suffered from a little abuse and a lot of neglect. Nicely done getting it all patched up!

you never fail to impress me with your model train skills

Great work. The loco had a nice paint scheme. Would obviously benefit from a shell restoration. Or maybe not - leaving it grungy is cool also. I’d like to see you tackle an N scale loco.

Well done, kid. You're pretty good with these antique train cars.

I remember back in the 1980's, my father handed over all his Athearn HO scaled stuff from when he was younger. In a weird kind of way, I liked the smell the electric motors make when they were running for the first time after a couple of decades of sitting.

Strange orange CNW livery, good work restoring!

Kinda surprised that proper sized machine screws weren't available from a hobby shop or even a hardware store to fasten the top and bottom of the train together. Props for the improvisation.

Great job restoring that that's one of my favorite locomotives🚂👍👍

The zamac body with a single powered truck indicates an original Varney F3, introduced about 1950. Later models powered both trucks, and in 1956 the body was plastic. The orange and green was Varney's version of the Great Northern, although the green is wrong. GN green was almost Pullman green, a drab color. Christmas 1955, I received my first HO train set, a Varney "Big Brute" freight set, with a plastic bodied GN F3 A and B units, seven freight cars: stock, Swift reefer, tank, outside braced boxcar, flat car, gondola; and a bay window caboose. It was equipped with Varney's stamped metal couplers.

A Message to all modelers - The Christmas Season is upon us & stores that sell Christmas decorations will stock the various replacement small, clear bulbs that are used for light strings, bubble lights, etc. There are bulbs rated for 15 volts that would work good for replacement locomotive headlights! When connected in parallel with the motor, the maximum output voltage that you use for " top speed " would be below 15 volts. I think the Canadian Radio Shack stores are still the same, or in the U.S. you may have a local Hobby Town hobby shop with a Radio Shack section inside. If you can measure voltage & current, you can look up Ohm's Law to determine a resistor value to drop excess voltage to the bulb; buy the resistor with the needed resistance value and connect it in series with the bulb. The bulbs can also be replacements for Model Power, Life-Like, Tyco, & A.H.M. streetlights, gas station signs, billboards, highway signs, flood lights; as well as lighting the interiors of buildings. The lower voltage Christmas decoration light bulbs will work if you have a power supply with the proper voltage. The colored replacement bulbs can be used for railroad signals & traffic lights. Radio Shack also offers various small bulbs; they used to have sets of red, green, & yellow lights with wire leads that would work for non-illuminated railroad signals & traffic lights!

The parts you made are awesome, great work!

I like Varney. I think you could have figured out the thread of the main screw and gone to Lowe’s or Tactor Supply and picked up a correct screw for 20 cents instead of forcing a wood screw into the frame. But, I really liked the Mcgyver to the commutator. I would never have thought of doing that myself. I would have tried to find a parts motor to replace it. So for that I give you a thumbs up and good job!

I'm new to this channel. I've been enjoying it a lot! Great work!!!

The patience! Well done, Sir.

Great video I always want to restore locomotives from varney revell life like tyco Bachmann ahm ihc and Cox and athearn blue box and pemco but the hard part is oil grease and lubing locomotives and soldering wiring along with finding parts

One thing to remember is the kind of screws you are using should be for the material you're using them in. The screw you used to put the body on was a wood screw not a machine screw.

Nice job! Now time to break out the paint stripper, rattle cans, and the masking tape and make her a little more presentable!

This is heartwarming content. To you, it's just some old junk you decided to take pity on. Yet, clearly, that train was used. It was loved. It could tell you stories if only it could speak. Perhaps a bond between parent a child, around a mutual love of the railroad. Perhaps endless days running the rails as some kind of background prop somewhere. Whoever tried to fix it probably wasn't the original owner. Perhaps it belonged to Dad or Grandma and they just wanted to see it run again. An object carries the sum of its years. It gains a sort of resonance. Almost like a spirit. Curious to know if you did anything more with this one. I'd think the next logical step might be to recharge the magnets?

SMT repair manual Advance Chapter. Good job Harrison🚂🇨🇦

Nice to see an old engine come back to life!

Wow did i get something out of this. I now know how to fix a Varney engine. It was a stubborn old engine. Now for its restoration & paint job. As i was watching i was trying to figure out it's original railroad owner paint scheme. My guess is CHICAGO , BURLINGTON & QUINCY or GREEN BAY & WESTERN 🤔 Otherwise Harrison you did an amazing job on this engine very encouraging & inspiring! 👋

excellent idea, great effort, fair execution. spend the time to do things right the first time. soldering is becoming a lost art, but find someone to help you learn correctly.

Rescued from the scrap yard! Excellent work, Harrison, and hopefully we’ll see this one after some paint restoration. How is Nerf Cat? Haven’t seen him on the layout for a long time… 😻🐈‍⬛

One of my favorite videos!!

It's painted like a lot of 1950's through 1960's diecast. No primer and shiny paint.

Wonderful job, BUT I have to make two comments: (1) Get smaller diameter heat shrink tubing for an application like this. Get as small as you possibly can. (2) NEVER shrink heat shrink tubing with a lighter, as you might catch something else (like your fingers, maybe) on fire. Use the heat from your soldering iron or gun instead.

Harrison golden hands comes through again. Was there ever a doubt?

I have been waiting for you to do a video on this locomotive

Oh man... a SHEET METAL SCREW????? Wow. And you were doing so well too.

Nice job!!! The only thing i would have done different was for insulating the brush spring. If the heat shrink was still too loose, I would have stripped a piece of some thick gauge wire and slid it on.

Yes Another Repair video of A F unit SMT nice Video keep up the Good Work Harrison.

While the front truch was off, a Dremel with a wire brush would do the trick nicely, its like having the wheels under power and using something to clean them.

Another great video congratulations on reviving that old loco. That motor is a Pittman DC60 which powered a lot of old locos from that era it seems. Do you have a Varney Docksider?

That's pretty cool. To honest I was not too sure about this one. Great job Harrison. 💕😊💕🇺🇸

Very cool and nice fabrication work!! All the best!!

It would be cool to see the fixed train run without its cover on the first run.

These old locos may be "agricultural" compared to today's models but given some TLC they will probably outlive today's offerings! I've done the same but have updated the model with windows, respray etc. From a scrap yard loco to a runner. Nice one.

Nice. I would love to see you give it a repaint.

A very interesting video. Fun to watch.

I have a couple of these and some have the band drive and some have the gears, anyone know the years of production for those variations?

That motor is similar to the motor in the Marx HO trains. The cast metal top and frame make it a pretty hearty train engine...

I'd like to see two power trucks on the single frame. Betcha it would pull like an ox! Well, sort of, anyway.

great job. I would leave the patina as it is as to me it looks and is a reminder of a childs dream.

Harrison, do a "Lead Test" on the paint. Especially red paint... while it may stick to the metal very well, it might be due to the lead content. Congrats on the revival of this very vintage F-3 Varney! John BC

You are really good at fixing trains :)

Nice job i have a couple 50 ton yugo switchers i am trying to get working i like the challenge of resurrecting locos. Thanks for your videos.

Well done Harrison!!!

Nice job in saving it. Please clean, degrease the mechanism. Remove to rotor.... Don't put oil on dirty bearings.

You shuold use like a rust remover for the wheels so the overall model looks new

Just a question. Over in the uk, the older loco's motor magnets tend to lose strength which affects performance and can burn out the engine. Doesn't that happen with American models? And if it does can you get replacement magnets or re-magnetize them? Can't say I've seen you do one?

Should repaint it in the future of an old defunct railroad maybe the only Canadian National paint scheme!!🤩

I have an old Mantua B&O Pacific that needs some work. it used to be my Granfather's. I want to get it running again. I need to actually get some rails first as I have none.

A 3D printer would be awesome for stuff like this. I find it invaluable for making small one off parts for R/C stuff.

I worked on one of these for a month ( the one I have is from 1948 according to a catalog) and it still won’t run but the paint is in nice shape so I put it by my tv so every time I play video games I can remind myself of the time I bought a loco for $1 usd. The other varney locos I have is a Florida east coast, and a f unit painted in the cedar point and Lake Erie railroad livery. What did you make the brush plate out of? The ones on my older engines dicentegrated

Man you are a freaking mastermind!

@7:19 in the video you can clearly that your makeshift contacts are out of alignment on the camera side (too low). Depending on the positioning of the opposite side's contact point it could be making contact then it shouldn't. As for their replacement, you could scavenge new factory made contacts (with housings & springs & everything) from any hobby motor available online. As for attaching the body, try epoxy welding an aircraft-nut just over the stripped out hole in the body and then using a comparable bold ... all cheap and available at your local hardware store or on-line.

Great job that's awesome

i love old varneys great job

I think its great you do these videos, way too many videos on DCC, also that drive is the same they use in their yard locos

Use paint stripper on he body shell and it can be rinsed, painted, and decaled into a stunning model.

Wow, that really is in bad condition, hope to see what you can do with it!

You Sir have Fantastic Skills

I kinda like the paint on it

Nice restoration there!

Now don't get me wrong. I like your channel and it's amusing to watch, however. "compared to some of the things I've seen, this is nothing" Then why is it the worst locomotive you've ever seen?

Nice work, the paint is patina it wouldn’t look 70 years old with perfect paint

These are the old Great Northern colors. Glacier Green & Orange.