Varney "Little Joe" Dockside

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NP2626

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This is one of my prized possessions! I realize I could still buy one on Ebay or elsewhere (one is for sale right now in a "Buy it Now" auction for $24.99 on Ebay. However, mine is special to me because I received it as a Christmas present in 1961 when I was 10 years old. Previous to this, it had been owned by one of my neighbors and had likely been purchased new in the mid 1950s.

Does anyone know when Varney went to the plastic body for this locomotive? The one that John Allen showed on his Gorre & Dephited had a cast metal body. Mine is plastic and up until 10 years or so ago, had a chip off the cab roof missing and had this defect since I first got it. I finally decided to repair this and my "Little Joe" looks as good as new. I have a valve gear kit that I bought from Bowser at that time, which still needs to be added.

Like John Allen said, for it' size this locomotive can pull more cars than any other I have! Although it is the only 0-4-0 I have. It still works and it works well. Also need to figure out where I can put a decoder.
 
If there isn't enough room in the loco for a decoder, you could put one in a permanently coupled boxcar with a speaker for sound. Only drawback is being permanently coupled.
 
The TCS M1 DCC decoder is quite small - I fit the larger MC2 decoder in a Roundhouse 2-Truck shay:

http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Products/Decoders/HO-Scale/M-Series/M-Series.htm

Here's a picture of the larger MC2 decoder I installed:

DSC00037.JPG
 
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NP2626 said:
This is one of my prized possessions! I realize I could still buy one on Ebay or elsewhere (one is for sale right now in a "Buy it Now" auction for $24.99 on Ebay. However, mine is special to me because I received it as a Christmas present in 1961 when I was 10 years old. Previous to this, it had been owned by one of my neighbors and had likely been purchased new in the mid 1950s.

Does anyone know when Varney went to the plastic body for this locomotive? The one that John Allen showed on his Gorre & Dephited had a cast metal body. Mine is plastic and up until 10 years or so ago, had a chip off the cab roof missing and had this defect since I first got it. I finally decided to repair this and my "Little Joe" looks as good as new. I have a valve gear kit that I bought from Bowser at that time, which still needs to be added.

Like John Allen said, for it' size this locomotive can pull more cars than any other I have! Although it is the only 0-4-0 I have. It still works and it works well. Also need to figure out where I can put a decoder.
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Hey NP, :)

It's neat to treasure items with a history. Although mine is a IHC, it also has a chip off the roof. (not visible in pic) :)

IMG_4555.jpg


Can you offer any tips on how you repaired it? I'd like to do mine too. I have John Allen's Railroad book, and it has really cool pics of his little puffer.

Found this pic from someone who has more than 30 Varneys...http://www.flickr.com/photos/9977705@N05/5879037540/

If you wanted a die cast shell, maybe he'd sell one to you. Metal shells make them heavier and they can pull more cars.
 
I made the chipped off area straight with a file and glued a small piece of styrene on to where the chip was. Filed this so it mated with the rest of the roof's line and filled the joint with Squadran Signal's green putty, then smoothed the whole thing so that the repair disapeared and painted the whole thing engine black.

If I replaced my plastic body with the metal one, It would not be my loco anymore.
 
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Who has any Varney freight car kits, still?
 
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My first HO train set was a Varney with the B&O Dockside. That would have been Christmas 1965 I think, and it was plastic. I know I read somewhere there was only two real ones.
 
Per George Drury's book: Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, B&O had four C-16 class, saddle tank, oil-burning 0-4-0s built by Baldwin in 1912. Two were converted to coal-burning 0-4-0s of conventional configuration in 1826. The book does not say how long they stayed in service.

The accompanying photo shows a C-16; what we modelers call the "Dockside", or "Little Joe"!

Would be interesting to find out what the B&O called them?
 
John P said:
All those Docksiders--and how many did the B&O ever own?
Click to expand...

At the time that Varney introduced the "Little Joe", HO was sort of in it's infancy. Good running locos that stayed together were a good thing and somewhat rare!

Obviously the "Little Joe" had a strong following as your right, many were sold and it was such a good thing that other companies chose to copy the "Docksider" with their own renditions. This was at a time when most toy/Model railroad manufacturers thought the Pennsylvania RR was the only game in town!

I guess I don't see why there would be a correlation between what modeler's wanted and what the real railroads had?
 
NP2626 said:
Does anyone know when Varney went to the plastic body for this locomotive?
Click to expand...
In the 1957 catalog it is listed for $15 plus $3.50 for valve gear, while in the 1962 catalog it is listed for $7.95 w no option for valve gear. Just based on the price, I would bet that it changed between those years. My father's was cast metal and that was 1961-1963ish. I don't know when he bought it, but he had installed the valve gear.
 
I know that is was previous to 1962 as I had owned it a couple of years by then. I also know that it had been owned by a neighbor kid who was maybe 8-10 years older than I was. The year I got it for Chrsitmas, I got his power pack, which was made by Varney, also.
 
If anyone is interested, PSC (Precision Scale Company), offers some detail parts so you can turn the docksider into a baby cab forward. On some parts I got off of E-bay, there was everything except the small 4 wheel pilot truck, and 2 wheel trailing truck for it. I'm debating on whether or not to get one and do the conversion.
 


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