Flying Zoo brass GE 16-Tonner

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

A recent acquisition:

Here it is with a US 25-cent piece:

It’s 16’-9’’ long over the footboards, HO scale. Flying Zoo tell me they made around 250 of them in 1985, and they sold like hotcakes. They even supplied them with a pair of tiny fuel tanks, loose, so the modeller could have the option of removing the trolley pole and making it a gas-electric. This is probably what I’ll do- the tanks were included with mine.

This is the smallest HO-scale brass locomotive I’ve ever seen. Having held it in my hand and taken it apart, I can see no reason why someone could not commission and import an HO GE 25-Tonner in brass. Probably wouldn’t have to cost more than a Spectrum Shay.

All three of my locomotives (this one, a nominally 16-ton NWSL Dunkirk, and a really old NWSL 18-ton Shay) are under 20 tons. Guess I like 'em small.

2

Wow, that is tiny. How does it run? I would imagine it has some dificulty with turnouts. I was wondering, could you post a picture of it with the shell off? I am working on building some GE 25ton engines and am still open to ideas for the drive. Here are some pictures of what I have done so far. The first one is the cast hood and the decond picture is the cast hood with the master.

Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com

3

My faux 25 tonner (actually a cut-down Bachmann 44-tonner) is powered by a NWSL “PDT” drive–they do have trouble on turnouts but are otherwise very reliable.

4

Absolutely beautiful. I too wish someone would produce a quality GE, I’d even settle for a 44 tonner. But it would be huge compared to your little gem.