This model popped up for sale on eBay. It looks a lot like a Hustler to me, but I cannot make out what is written on the front of the locomotive.
It looks old. It has a vertical motor and a spring belt drive. Did this model predate the Hustler? Is it based on the Hustler? Is there a prototype for this thing?
I have so many questions.
-Kevin
I’ve found pictures of others out there and the letter on the front is OPICO.
It even has the fat hood like a hustler. It looks to be a lower quality of brass manufacturing, but if it’s cheap enough, it would be an easy rebuild.
I’m glad they didn’t fully abandon the rubber band drive.
Ed
I thought it was a rubber band, but I magnified the photo and it looks like a spring.
It’s a very early brass import and I believe by GEM. It’s pretty crude compared to the Athearn or Lionel models and doesn’t run as well as the Athearn Hi-F drive or the geared versions. It also won’t do Mach 3 like the Hi-F versions.
It’s a nice collectable but if you want to run the engine I’d recommend the Athearn body with either an Ernst drive or the NWSL Stanton drive they make.
oldline1
I believe it’s supposed to be a Plymouth prototype but not sure.
I’m no fan of the spring drive! Some early Varney locos used spring band drives. I recall seeing one that had stepped pulleys so you could “choose” three speed ranges. A clever idea!
NYC_T3_Alco-works by Edmund, on Flickr
I could never get this NYC T3 to run, bought a second one just to get the spare springs. Can’t find the 1.2mm spring stock. Mamod and Wilesco have some but they are 1.5 and 2mm. Paid $60 to have 12" worth sent from UK. Too big.
NYC_T3_Alco by Edmund, on Flickr
I’d love to fit a Stanton drive (2) under there but the axle centers are shorter than what’s available.
Good Luck, Ed
Weird, for the longest time I thought Athearn (and the marx/model power/lionel) hustlers were based on a complete fantasy prototype.
For a brass manufacturer to make one though, would imply that it was indeed a real loco.
Can anyone find a photo of the prototype?
Charles
This Whitcomb is close. It’s even brass [:-^]
The “Hustler” possibly follows the lines of the H. K. Porter industrial models:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel100.html
Cheers, Ed
It also has the twin stacks of the Athearn Hustler, which in turn was also offered by Lionel in a geared version (and I think a working headlight). The Hustler had that EMD style fan on the hood which is another oddity.
The Hustler most resembled, sort of, some of the Porter “critters” in terms of the overall lines and the two axles with external sideframe, but very over-sized, both the body and the frame, more like S scale, assuming a 1/64 scale person could fit into the cab. There were other small switchers that had the look of the Hustler body, but had two trucks underneath; a local industry in my hometown had one which reportedly was the last locomotive ever produced by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton.
On a related topic: Athearn’s Little Monster O-4-2T steam locomotive was a genuine prototype (plans published years earlier in MR, drawn by a young Linn Westcott) but it too was made oversized to fit the motor and drive. And there was a parallel brass version too but it was more correctly scaled.
Dave Nelson
What was the prototype?
Ed
Charles
That certainly is very similiar to my Athearn Little Monster. Though undoubtedly smaller.
Thanks!
Ed
Those two features, the round fan and twin stacks, are what give the Hustler much of its appeal for me.
I now have a geared version, and two more to build a Huster Center-Cab.
-Kevin
Athearn offered a Hustler in gold painted plastic
This one looks like it could have been repowered and the normally black running gear painted gold as well - are you sure it’s brass?
And despite claims otherwise (“It’s a Porter” “No, it’s a…”) the Hustler was a product of Uncle Irv’s imagination
Your first impression was correct, it’s a figment of old Uncle Irv’s imagination
Just because some brass importer had it made doesn’t mean a prototype existed - see the “Brute”
HO Brass Model Train - WMC Westside Freelance Series 2-10-0 The Brute | BRASSTRAINS.COM
I guess they had some extra parts lying around on Friday afternoon
Do you mean the model in the original post?
If so, yes it is brass. In the bottom view the folded sheet metal is very obvious.
-Kevin
Northwest Short Line’s Stanton drives are the best to replace spring belt drives in electic and traction models. Some guys have used rubber O rings instead of spring belts, but I found those added more bind/resistance and took more power to run the model if the O ring was tight enough not to slip under a load. You might join or search some of the trolley/traction modeling forums and sites for a source of those smaller spring belts. Mike
Or you might try the sprocket and link system I linked to earlier.
I’ve not tried it, but it looks promising. Come to think of it, I have a Sunset 2-8-8-0 that I think has some sort of O-ring drive. Maybe if I ever work on it, I’ll try that route.
I suspect this system is kind of noisy when running fast. But this is a UP 2-8-8-0, which NEVER ran fast.
Ed