Yesterday the model railroad club I belong to was cleaning out underneath our HO scale layout (almost all trash, whatever we found and liked we could take home), and I found a bunch Varney HO scale Aerotrain undecorated car, observation car, and dummy locomotive kits - new in the box! I now have dummy 2 locomotives, 9 passenger cars, and 3 observation cars, plus most of the parts for another dummy locomotive (I think the windshield and headlight castings are missing).
EDIT - I dug through the bottom of the kit box and found the headlight and windshield. I have parts for 3 complete dummy locmotives.
I have several questions.
What wheelbase drive unit do I need to use for the locomotives? What was the wheel diameter used?
Is there a way to replace the plastic wheels included in the kits with metal wheels? The current plastic wheels have non-tapering ends that fit into plastic clips, and I don’t think they are big enough to ream out.
When comparing the model to the real train, I notice that the molded bearings on the model are nearly even with the outside of the shell, and the bearings on the real train are inset. What kind of sideframes are they, and is there a good way to make or modify them so that they are inset?
Is there someplace to get decals for an Aerotrain?
Finally, how many passenger cars were there between the engine and observation car in a real Aerotrain unit?
Sorry for all the questions - I just got the kits and it’s not like it was something that I’ve been looking for, but it was too good to pass up. I suppose I should add one last question: Is there anyone out there who as built a Varney Aerotrain?
North West Short Line makes a wheel set that fits the Aerotrain. Part #37108-4 HO 36" scale wheels. The only modification needed is that you have to trim about 1/32" from the inside of the axle stands for the wheels to rotate smoothly:
Kemtron made a power conversion unit many years ago. There was also another mfr. who made a powered chassis. EDIT: According to Randy Rinker Kemtron made both types of powered drives. One has sideframes attached to the trucks. If you look at LenseCapOn’s post above and go to the thread he mentions, scroll down to Tomcat-13’s post you can see pictures of both types of power chassis.
My power unit is from the other mfr., not Kemtron. See EDIT above. The wheels are 40" dia. on the power truck but I used 36" wheels for the rear of the locomotive and the cars. I can’t tell you whether the car wheel size is correct or not. It has an open frame motor. I replaced the magnets in mine and it runs quite well. The current draw is low enough that a decoder can be installed. I have seen units like mine show up on eBay once in a blue moon. The last one I saw was in with a pile of junk so of course the seller wanted a fortune for his treasure trove. I had to pass.
Here are some pictures of my power unit:
There was no cover over the gears on the bottom of the truck so I installed the white styrene piece. The screw holes were already there so there must have been a cover at some point. The drive shaft was missing too.
The power truck wheel base is exactly 8 scale feet. A Bull Ant power truck would wo
Not sure what was in the old thread, but Kemtron made 2 different power units for the Aerotrain - one had nicely detailed brass sideframes and the other had rather cheap looking ones. Might find them on ebay once in a blue moon. Or if there is yet one more corner of the club to clean out, maybe there’s a power unit hiding there to match the formerly hidden Areotrain. It’s definitely something different - and I’ll bet a good many people today would think it was just something you made up and not a model of something real.
Thanks for the information on power units. I took a look at the BullAnt line of drives, and it looks like a BullAnt In-Line Bogie or a BullAnt Gozunder would work with a motor mounted where the Kemtron drive motor was mounted. I have a Proto Power West motor (probably from an Athearn repowering kit) and a Athearn-like motor of unknown make on hand that I could use…
I also found a site that says that the AeroTrain used a re-geared SW 1200 power truck. The SW 1200 had an 8’ truck wheelbase and 40" wheels. The rest of the wheels on the AeroTrain were 36" diameter. I might look into getting a power truck for an SW 1200 or SW7 and then use that.
rrinker, unfortunately all that is left under the layout is scenery products and lumber that has to be cleared out. No Kemtron units hiding there. [:(]
hon30critter, as to the iterior, I’m thinking of possibly making a model in SolidWorks and then having the interiors 3d printed.
I’ve been looking through the parts included the Varney kits, and it looks like the kits include plastic diaphram pieces with pins to hold them in place, but it seems to me that using the pins to loosely fit them in between the cars would not work well. What are these parts for?
I haven’t followed much on the Aerotrain. I do remember seeing some of the early Varney offerings at train shows.
What I’m going to throw out here is that I remember Con-Cor offering a version a few years back. I wonder if there are any drive components available in their parts inventory?
Probably not the same axel and wheel specs but it will be interesting to see if anyone uses the new Kato self contained coreless motorized trucks from their recent P-42 Genesis models?
It looks like you will have a fine model there… Ed
You can use your extra cars to extend the train. However, given the fact that the Con-Cor set went for more than $400.00 originally this might not turn out to be such a bargain.
NWSL does have their Stanton drive units available again. I wasn’t aware that they were back in the business or I would have suggested them too. They are a bit different from the originals but that really doesn’t matter if they do the job.
The NWSL unit is more compact than the Bull Ant. It looks to be about the same size as a regular non-powered truck. The NWSL unit is also a bit cheaper than the Bull Ant, and shipping will be less too.
I’m not sure how they compare in terms of pulling power. If you are only pulling a few cars that might not matter. However if you are going for a prototypical train with eight passenger cars plus the observation car, and with interiors and some weight added, pulling power might be an issue. In that case I might consider using a switcher drive system.
FWIW there is a Varney Aerotrain set available on eBay right now that apparently has got a powered drive. The engine looks a bit rough and the passenger cars are pretty much useless because someone has installed freight car trucks and they carved the shells out to make them fit, but the drive system is there:
Thanks for letting me know about the auction. I might look at getting one of the old drive units, but I don’t know how loud they are or how they run. In a description of the only Youtube video I could find of the Varney Aerotrain, the author said that it ran smoothly but it was noisy.
There’s still 5 days left in the auction. If on Sunday it’s still under $40, I’ll think I’ll seriously consider buying it.
I visited the e-bay auction cited above. I’m concerned that there is no evidence in the photos of a drive mechanism. And there is no photo of the mechanism outside the model, either. The seller does mention that it needs oil, but I remain wary. I recommend sending the seller a question resolving this. That is, after all, the reason you’d be buying this.
Looking at photos of the Varney drive, it looks like most any noise would come from the motor and/or the universal connection. Both of these possible noise generators could be easily resolved, I think: a Kato motor and a NWSL universal set.
Fixing up old stuff can be great fun. Improving it can be even more fun. But I suspect the new Con-Cor train is superior in every way. Just a thought.
