I bought a couple of empty gondola cars at a train show this past Sunday. One vendor actually threw in 4 cars, saying the gondola I wanted was part of a set. He only charged me $10 for all of them, and threw the locomotive in my bag too. At first I thought he made a mistake but he didn’t seem to care. Anyway, the engine is pretty beat up, and I was wondering if it would be worth trying to fix up, or if I should just continue to let my daughter roll it around on the floor like she is. When I asked what it was, he merely told me “post war”. Thanks,
As Bubba has already stated, it is a scout. They are not really worth much. It does seem to have some issues. If it were mine, I would make it a project engine, take it down, clean, lube and put new brushes and springs in it. Then, you can paint it and enjoy…also, I would still let the daughter play with it. Who knows, you may want a engine that she can run on the rails and crash. Beats having her wreck a $400 engine, and she will have fun.
Dennis
Thank you for the info, guys. I think I will just let this be a crasher for my daughter to play with. I’ll just try to clean it up a little, as I dont have the know how to try to restore it. I’d probably end up spending as much on a new engine anyways.
That is the 1110 Scout from 1949 and 1951. After looking at the pictures I have no idea why you would want to restore that. If you cleaned it up it looks like C5 condition which is what 1/2 of the people on this forum are operating. Not C1 which is basically junk and should be restored. I see engines in that condition that people have on their layout and they considered that their “pride and joy.”
LS1, I agree that a full restoration would not be worth it, but I do see some rust and to just do a quick clean up job with lube/brushes and a bit of scrub/paint to stop the rust would be in order. If it is to be played with, you don’t want the rust all over it, or your child. Something like that would be a great project for a beginner, and not very hard to do. Besides, he could paint it pink for his daughter, or any other color.
That’s right. If I still had my Scout engine I had when I was a kid, I would refer to it as my pride & joy too . Nice some people can be above that stage. Awful loose with the word JUNK IN MY OPINION.
A Lionel Scout Steam Engine-If it runs now be happy . If not do not try to repair it or purchase parts as it is virtually impossible to put back together once it is apart. Trainsopray1
Here, here csxt30 I still have old #1110 - my first train and, like you, still my pride and joy some 50 years and many dozens of trains later. I might also mention #1110 still runs just fine.
Skullie, the loco is absolutely worth fixing if… the big if:
Try giving some power and see if anything happens. If the wheels spark or there’s just poor contact, clean the wheels and rollers and try it again. If you have luck on this, goody for you.
Now, if you don’t have the Greenburg Repair Guide, check your loco library: my local library has them both for AF and Lionel. This loco was a bottom line cheap loco of its’ day. The motor is an enclosed bakelight assembly: if you take the shell off the loco you will see the drive wheels attached into a boxed in enclosure. The motor is inside this and is a REAL CHALLENGE to work on if you have never done it before. It certainly can be a learning experience, BUT get the repair guide first. The probelm is when you take the side cover off, all the parts tend to spring out and fly all over the place. The reverse unit is basically a mechanical cam that changes position when power is cut off, thus changing direction of the loco.
The big operational drawback of these locos is because of the small space between the motor chassis assembly, in particular the center rollers and the center rail, the loco bounces and jerks over uncoupling tracks and switches, thus automatically (and undesirably) changing direction. This problem can be solved by remvoing the roller pickups from the loco and adding a roller pickup assembly to a tender and using a tether (a male/female spade connector will do) and soldering a wire from the copper strip on the loco to the center roller on the pickup assembly on the tender. This works because I’ve done it.
If the loco runs without having to pull the “guts” out of the motor, it would be easy enough to custom paint the loco either existing fresh black or another color, like pink as suggested above. A pal of mine did this and his daugher just loved that loco because it was “hers.” He added some cheap gondolas and added some small figures from cartoons like Garfield, Dora and Sponge Bob… I&
The scout’s Achilles’s heel is that the reversing mechanism is operated by a hinged part of the motor-field magnetic circuit. This mechanism is none too reliable; and, when it fails to step fully, the motor is open-circuited, preventing it from stepping no matter how many times the power is cycled, until it is corrected manually. I think the scout is best locked into forward (or reverse, if you prefer!).
I bought this from a fellow on a forum, well actually it was a throw in. He had a Railway Express Agency freight car in very nice shape and a few flat cars THat I wouldn’t mind having and he threw in the Scout.
When I first got it, I put it on the tracks and it was an absolute flamethrower - sparks everywhere, Bob’s aforementioned forward/reverse issue and all.
I sent it to a friend of mine who was a Lionel repair man and a while later he sent it back and I was shocked at how well and surprisingly quietly it ran.
I have no “pride and joy” factor in this one, but it is a dandy little engine. Unfortunately, I had it in a box that was a little too close to where I was painting some fence and it has some overspray on it. I am thinking of either doing a full repaint on it, or trying to remove teh overspray, or trying my hand at engine weathering.
As an aside, there are many folks here, myself included, who greatly enjoy relatively common items. For some it is nostalgia and the stories wrapped up in the trains we had as kids, others have different reasons. Being insulting to others over what is important to them is never a good idea.
Have you ever used Claybar to remove overspray? It works. You may beable to get it at Wal-mart in Meguires brand or at any Pro auto body supply shop. It is AMAZING. I used it to take oil based house paint of of clear coat coverd car paint. Worked great, didn’t hurt the clear coat and actualy made the paint shine better.
Here’s one of our pride and joys. A 2034 from 1952. No marker lights (broken off long ago), plenty of scratches and patina, but it runs like a top and we love it!
If push came to shove and I had to get rid of all my trains except one, I’d probably keep my Scout set from the early 60’s. My 246 engine still runs nicely and it’s priceless to me - it’s what got me started in this wonderful hobby.
Hello Skullie! I think your 1110 is worth a restoration. You will not hurt its value as that is long gone & you might as well have it look & run nice also. Dr.Tinker’s Toy Train Parts has what you need to get it running again & if you want to re-paint it, many here can help you out with that as well & since it has a Diecast shell that is a plus also & some of those Scouts had Magn-Traction as well. Check the Drive Wheels with a screwdriver to see if it is attracted to the wheels. If so, then you’re in luck. Take Care.
