How Old Is Your Oldest "Working" Locomotive?

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To show you what I'm talking about, here are a couple of photos showing the horseshoe magnet and later designs of motor. Both these examples are Duchesses:

Duchess 5.jpg


Duchess 6.jpg
 
I forgot about this beastie.

DSC00890-001.JPG


In 1950 when this loco was produced the "Trix Twin" system was AC powered with a 3-rail track where the centre rail was common and each running rail was separately controlled so that two trains could run on the same track.
This loco was produced for the North American market and was only supplied as an unpainted kit for about 4 years from 1959 to 1953.
It is for 2-rail track and has a DC motor and finer scale wheels than the standard Trix product.
Fairly rare in the UK. I know of one in Canada but are there any others ?
Colin..
 


I have several Rivarossi’s from the late 60’s. As long as the gearing is good, the motors can be changed out to cans. Most of them I have installed decoders with sound as well.

The thing about old dc locos is that many only had 1 pickup for left and right rail and some used the frame for one side continuity. It takes some creativity on some models.
 


Big difference between "working" and "running". All my locos are DCC...except one; a PFM Ma&Pa 2-8-0. It runs; but not in DCC. I think this was one of the first engines on the G&D. Don't know why I still have it...over 30+ years now; it's got tarnish; but I have never gotten around to tearing it apart to paint...then there's that DCC thing. I have thought about having a reliable source strip it, paint it and add DCC; but never got around to doing it. I have hooked an old DC Bachmann transformer up to my track and it runs rather well and surprisingly quiet. I do have some old Mantua locos; but I think this engine predates those
 

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This is my oldest I wrote about a few pages ago. It's a Roco Br.111 in München 850 Jahr anniversary livery. It is DCC and has the 8-pin header so it's not ancient. I think Roco produced this in the early 00s sometime. The actual 027-9 locomotive retained this paint for about two years before being repainted in Traffic Red like the rest of the fleet. I bought this second-hand and it runs like a top. Never a days problem with this locomotive.

These locomotives are like the Air Force B-52. They have been in service since 1974 with no retirement in sight. It is one of the oldest locomotives in DB inventory. Many private railroads have purchased surplus DB locomotives. They are a workhorse and pull freight and passenger service. The Br.120 which I'm also very fond of and have two, was designed to replace this locomotive, but that never happened. Now the Br.120 itself was retire a few years ago, but can also be found in private service.

4317 - UPBVCOb.jpg
 
RhB Michael said:
This is my oldest I wrote about a few pages ago. It's a Roco Br.111 in München 850 Jahr anniversary livery. It is DCC and has the 8-pin header so it's not ancient. I think Roco produced this in the early 00s sometime. The actual 027-9 locomotive retained this paint for about two years before being repainted in Traffic Red like the rest of the fleet. I bought this second-hand and it runs like a top. Never a days problem with this locomotive.

These locomotives are like the Air Force B-52. They have been in service since 1974 with no retirement in sight. It is one of the oldest locomotives in DB inventory. Many private railroads have purchased surplus DB locomotives. They are a workhorse and pull freight and passenger service. The Br.120 which I'm also very fond of and have two, was designed to replace this locomotive, but that never happened. Now the Br.120 itself was retire a few years ago, but can also be found in private service.

View attachment 247995
Click to expand...
It's kind of like the EU07 in Poland. Several hundred have been produced since 1960s into late 1980s. Build to last and many examples are still in front line service, with passenger, freight and private sectors.
 
Here is my latest fix to the tender pickup issues. This is for a Varney 4-6-0, manufactured from the 1950's to about 1962. I purchased a kit which sold pickup axles with a copper sleeve. Worked stellar until it didn't.

I realized the sleeve would not actually make good contact with the axle. I had an old Rivarossi spring kit for the trucks for axle pickup, I put that on one of the axles, then decided to make a simple one from some aluminum I had laying around, first curving it around a round object to create the spring so both trucks have a springs holding the sleeve against the axle:

trucks 1.JPG


simple piece of aluminum fix

trucks 2.JPG
All the pickups are on the same track, The locomotive adequately picks up the other side. The old Varney loco's are very heavy.

tender floor.JPG


Stops and starts like a new locomotive now, no stuttering either

tender hookup.JPG


handy disconnect as well.

Dave LASM
 
logandsawman said:
Here is my latest fix to the tender pickup issues. This is for a Varney 4-6-0, manufactured from the 1950's to about 1962. I purchased a kit which sold pickup axles with a copper sleeve. Worked stellar until it didn't.

I realized the sleeve would not actually make good contact with the axle. I had an old Rivarossi spring kit for the trucks for axle pickup, I put that on one of the axles, then decided to make a simple one from some aluminum I had laying around, first curving it around a round object to create the spring so both trucks have a springs holding the sleeve against the axle:

View attachment 248067

simple piece of aluminum fix

View attachment 248068All the pickups are on the same track, The locomotive adequately picks up the other side. The old Varney loco's are very heavy.

View attachment 248069

Stops and starts like a new locomotive now, no stuttering either

View attachment 248070

handy disconnect as well.

Dave LASM
Click to expand...

Great idea to get it working!
 
logandsawman said:
Here is my latest fix to the tender pickup issues. This is for a Varney 4-6-0, manufactured from the 1950's to about 1962. I purchased a kit which sold pickup axles with a copper sleeve. Worked stellar until it didn't.
Click to expand...
Also try putting some electrically conductive lubricant into the copper sleeves. That did the trick for one of my old Bowser kits.
 
The Hall-Scott interurban coach in the middle of this consist is from the late 1980s, but the two Model Engineering Works Holman combines leading up the train date from 1967. I repowered all three with NWSL Stanton drives and operate them as my featured passenger trains, the Sacramento Northern's "Comet" or "Meteor" (depending on the schedule), along with a Suydam SN Niles coach, and the SN's legendary "Bidwell" parlor car (which, sadly, doesn't have a light-up drumhead yet), both of which are likely 1970s imports, based on the nickel-silver wheelsets they came with (earlier cars had brass wheels.)

20250914_131820.jpg


In the freight department, this Model Engineering Works General Electric steeplecab dates from 1968, but it's just the brass body; the undercarriage is a Bachmann 44-tonner (3rd version); I was able to fit a DCC decoder and keep-alive in the cab, but not a speaker, so no sound (I managed to cram an N scale decoder into a Bachmann, but found them susceptible to overheating & resulting damage.)

20251016_215050.jpg


Also repowered but using the original undercarriage is this Suydam Sacramento Northern 1010. I replaced the open frame motor with a can motor, isolated for DCC, but kept the original spring drive, which makes a wonderful noise like a coffee grinder. Its slow gearing means it runs slowly like the prototype (which topped out at 36 MPH, or 24 MPH pulling a train), while pulling a substantial load. The prototypical SN cut this box motor down to 39 feet, and modelers more daring than me have sliced these brass imports down to the post-conversion size, but I'm nowhere near skilled enough and really like the solid heft of the big brass motor and its robust, noisy mechanism. To the right is a 1990s Bachmann 44 tonner body (as mentioned above, converted to DCC), and in the background is a late 2010s 3D-printed GE steeplecab body (details & lighting applied) on a Bachmann 44 tonner chassis.
20251029_211249.jpg
 
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William Burg said:
The Hall-Scott interurban coach in the middle of this consist is from the late 1980s, but the two Model Engineering Works Holman combines leading up the train date from 1967. I repowered all three with NWSL Stanton drives and operate them as my featured passenger trains, the Sacramento Northern's "Comet" or "Meteor" (depending on the schedule), along with a Suydam SN Niles coach, and the SN's legendary "Bidwell" parlor car (which, sadly, doesn't have a light-up drumhead yet), both of which are likely 1970s imports, based on the nickel-silver wheelsets they came with (earlier cars had brass wheels.)

View attachment 248215

In the freight department, this Model Engineering Works General Electric steeplecab dates from 1968, but it's just the brass body; the undercarriage is a Bachmann 44-tonner (3rd version); I was able to fit a DCC decoder and keep-alive in the cab, but not a speaker, so no sound (I managed to cram an N scale decoder into a Bachmann, but found them susceptible to overheating & resulting damage.)

View attachment 248216

Also repowered but using the original undercarriage is this Suydam Sacramento Northern 1010. I replaced the open frame motor with a can motor, isolated for DCC, but kept the original spring drive, which makes a wonderful noise like a coffee grinder. Its slow gearing means it runs slowly like the prototype (which topped out at 36 MPH, or 24 MPH pulling a train), while pulling a substantial load. The prototypical SN cut this box motor down to 39 feet, and modelers more daring than me have sliced these brass imports down to the post-conversion size, but I'm nowhere near skilled enough and really like the solid heft of the big brass motor and its robust, noisy mechanism. To the right is a 1990s Bachmann 44 tonner body (as mentioned above, converted to DCC), and in the background is a late 2010s 3D-printed GE steeplecab body (details & lighting applied) on a Bachmann 44 tonner chassis.
View attachment 248217
Click to expand...
These are awesome. We just don't see enough interurbans here👌
 
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