I just got a bunch of Old items from EBAY. They are Hobbytown drives with Pitman Motors. Metal bodies. Any Idea about what erea to research them? I have some OLD MRM 1949 to about 1965 , not a complete set by no means, but a possible source.
One of the bodies is an E8 the other is a RD plus and F7? not a diesel person.
Any idea where to research this stuff would be great. I need to post pictures but need to shrink then for publication even to my site.
Take Care
George P.
“No trainds till after the car show”
Show is 11/12/2005 Trains after the 15th!!!
I think I’ve only had one grey hair so far but… What information are you trying to find in your research? Most of the Hobbytown stuff is still available/for sale from Bear Locomotive Works.
http://www.bearlocomotive.com/
I wonder if you were one of the people bidding against me? There has been lots of hobbytown stuff lately. Going much higher than I’ve been expecting. There was one RS-3 that started at $35. No one bid. It was relisted and went for $50…
I am ALL GREY HAIR and guseed that it would be some one from my era. I got the LOT of HO for $90.00. This was all in it. The box for on of the cars was 1955. The box cars are Varney and the passenger cars are Metal sides and all wood construction with springs in the trucks, fulll interior with METAL figures. I am trying to figure out if all this is for the 1955 era. The track is True Scale brass from that era. And enough spares to start a hobby shop.
Looking for articels and such on this stuff.
Probably prior to 1955.
There were metal-bodied dismals, Varney for one, but early Athearn with drives that you could use Hobbytown.
I have a history of Athearn that goes into the metal stuff before they bought Globe and did them in plastic (have one of those, too).
If I was looking, 90 bucks would be a good price for me to pay.
Those things are strong.
Varney had wood roof passenger cars. Have a couple still.
TOC
HobbyTown is as posted above still around, and they were the Mercedes of drives in their day, and still strong today. The E 8 body casing sounds like it may have been a Cary casting that was available in th '90s and earlier if I recall. For some reason I think that there is a connection between Cary and Bowser.
If you get those drives fired up, don’t bolt them to the walls unless you want to move the building. Good luck in the search for their “history”.
Will
How about some rubber-band drive Athearn locomotives, box cars with cardboard sides and wood floors and roofs, unpainted lead alloy castings of box-cab locomotive shells, or hand-painted sheet metal boxcars. A man in his 90’s who began in the hobby back in the late 1930’s, when practically everything had to be scratch built, recently gave his old rolling stock and locomotives to our HO-scale club, and many items were of this vintage. He said he lost interest in trains in the 1950’s, and they had been stuffed away in boxes in a barn ever since.
Unfortunately, there were no brand names on HO scale products back then and none of them were in their original boxes. There were some unassembled wood and metal kits in the lot.
Hobbytown of Boston was in production in the late '50s - I have seen some reviews of their locomotives/drives from MR of that era. They continued to refine their drives over the years - being among the first to use flywheels. They tried clutches and other refinements to get smooth starts and stops. For a while (not sure if they still do), Hobbytown used helical rather than worm gears to enable better coasting and smoother stops.
When Athearn came out with their plastic diesels with outstanding detail for the time and price, Hobbytown pretty much stopped refinement of their metal diesel body castings and concentrated on replacement chassis/drives for Athearn and other plastic diesels.
Cary was one of Bowser’s earlier acquisitions - don’t remember when it happened. Bowser still produces the full line of Cary body castings - including the Pittsburg boiler for the Mantua General (probably their most famous product) and detail parts.
yours in die casting
Fred Wright
Hobbytown drives whine like mad, but have great slow speed capabilities and on a multi-drive lash-up can be weighted to incredible amounts, they can outpull just about any other diesel model.
Dave H.
George,Those engines could be from the 50s-60s…That Pittman motor could be the stock motor or a upgrade motor as many modelers change motors for more pulling power…The RD as you call it is more then likely the RSD4/5 IF it has 6 axles…If not then its a RS3…That F7 could be the RF16 Shark nose.
Dave H.Nobody had to add weight to a Hobbytown engine.You see they was heavy once built…We did use more powerful motors though and some found ways to quiet those engines down some.
Grey Hairs? That’s me I guess. (sob)
The Hobbytown E7 was reviewed twice in MR Jan 1951 page 58
July 1965 page 8
EMC A&B reviewed MR June 1948 (I do not have this issue)
The F unit chassis was reviewed MR March 1955 page 14
and January 1958 page 10
Alco roadswitcher reviewed MR Jan 1954 page 20
and August 1957 page 15
Those old reviews might give you some useful information and photos
Dave Nelson