Please help rookie. I’m just starting to dabble in the idea of model railroading. A friend decided to help me get started and gave me a box of “stuff”. In the box was an HO scale SW-7. The body is pot metal, the undercarriage is nowhere near the prototype, and the drivegear is a plastic wormgear setup in the wheelhousing (just like traction motors ). Any one out there have any idea as to the vintage of this model?
You might want to try the “Model Railroading” section of this forum instead of the Toy Train section. I can’t tell for sure what make your engine is, as yet. Sounds like it’s from the early 50’s, and best bet could be a metal Varney.In 1953-54 Varney was selling an all-metal “1000HP yard switcher, dual drive” for $19.75, which had an SW body style, but I think the truck sideframes were F3 type.Couplers were probabaly dummy knuckle type, white metal. The engine could also be a “hybrid” from late 50’s-early 60’s…back then you could get metal bodies from Cary to replace plastic bodies on Athearn, Mantua, Lindsay etc., but offhand I don’t remember a Cary SW body.
Thing is, you could also get Hobbytown drives, or drive components to replace or modify the drives of those mentioned.So it’s also possible to have a Cary body on a Hobbytown drive in addition to modified, or fully “OEM” units???