This review is on Penn Line’s Whitcomb D-1 “Midget” switcher, made in the late 40’s and early 50’s.[:D]
Through the company’s life, I believe Penn Line made three different Whitcomb “Midgets”. This is the earliest version, made for only a few years before they replaced it with the D-2.
The D-1 wins no awards whatsoever for detail, but it still does well at capturing the overall look of the Whitcomb D-1. Although oversized, it is scaled much better than the cheaper plastic switchers from manufacturers such as Athearn and Mehano (AHM, Model Power, etc.). The solid lead body is cast smoothly, but the detail is minimal and crude. All of the handrails and grab irons are separate wire parts, the whistles are turned brass, and the steps are stamped brass (I had to replace the damaged steps on mine). The headlight, bell, exhaust stack, air tanks, and sand dome are all cast on. The cab is as simple as can be, and there’s an opening in the back to make room for the large motor. These were unpainted kits, so the quality of the paint depends on who did it.[:D] I think mine turned out good![:D]
The D-1 more than makes up for the lack of detail with its running quality![:D] The chassis is made with high-quality turned brass wheels, all metal gearing, a spring-belt drive (the spring belt on mine was missing, so I used an Athearn belt) with balanced brass pulleys, and a big Pittman DC-60 motor. That combined with the lead body and solid brass frame make this a very powerful engine.</
Hi Darth, So, this is what my son found in a vendor’s shoe box up in Du Page. He spotted this little critter and asked the lady how much she wanted for it. She said the motor was replaced by her son and it looked like a Pittman DC-71 knockoff. Got the thing for a buck! It was in terrible shape. Looked like someone painted it Safety Yellow with a wall roller and we never did get it to run any slower than ballistic speed. Needed plenty of juice to push the power thru all the crud. Your’s is really nice, especially the wheels. Have you given any thought to replacing the block magnet with some of the rare earth ones? Or maybe an Athearn Genesis motor? Thank’s a lot for the flashback and identifying the engine for us. Bill and Bill Jr.
Hmm, that would be a challenge to convert to DCC. I love little critters though, so I might try it if I come across one.
Some rare earth magnets would really tame it, as old as it is, the original magnet is probably well weakened.
As for the replaced motor one, wonder if it’s a REAL Pittman DC-71 or one of the cheap knockoffs? By the late 60’s/early 70’s there were a lot of motors that LOOKED like the Pittman but were to put it bluntly, hunks of junk.
BRAKIE, you’d be surprised at what’s still around! If you really look at the junk piles, you can find some really rare and uncommon stuff, and often get a decent price! My power pack can switch between filtered DC and pulse power, so I like to do tests with the filtered DC to find what my engines are really capable of.[:D] On pulse power, the low speed control is improved a lot.
PARTSGUY, $1 for one of these is a really good deal, even if it is in poor shape! The magnet on mine is still strong, so I’ve decided to leave it in. If I ever want it to run better, I’ll use a good quality can or coreles motor, but I’m keeping it as-is for now.[:)]
kbkchooch, nice Midgets you’ve got there! Those both look like D-2s, since they have more detail and a transfer gear system instead of the belt drive. I’ll bet the two of those together can pull anything you’ve got!
rrinker, both of the motor’s brushes are actually isolated from the frame, so DCC wouldn’t be too hard with this one. Well, if there was room for it anyway.[:D] The DC-71 is way too big to fit, but there are plenty of look-alikes that are about the same size as the DC-60.
Some notes on Pittman motors and how to identify them:
The DC-60 had the brushes back by the magnet (see Darth’s photo above)
The DC-70 was a bit bigger and had the brushes at the other end of the armature.
The DC-71 was still a bit bigger than that. It had a bevelled front end (as did the DC-91) for angle mounting in a steam engine.
I doubt a motor of the dimensions of the DC-71 would fit in the Penn Line loco. A 70 might. Or not. Take a look at Darth’s photos and see if it looks like there’s room for a bigger motor.
If one is describing a knockoff of the DC-71, Tenshodo used a motor they called an MH-2 that was interchangeable with the 71, 'cause I dropped a DC-71B into a Tenshodo GN S-1. It ran a bit slower–a good thing. I don’t have one of the Tenshodo motors handy, but one difference I recall between it and the Pittman motor is that I THINK that the Tenshodo used coil brush springs rather than the Pittman’s clothespin style.
I always thought those little Penn Line switchers were so neat. This is somewhat OT but if any of you get to railfan the park in Rochelle IL there are two Whitcombs on display there, and the actual Whitcomb factory still stands north and east of downtown Rochelle – it is no longer rail served but at one time the C&NW had a spur that served the plant. North Western Lines, the publication of the C&NW Historical Society, devoted an entire issue to Rochelle with much info on Whitcomb, in the 2006 #1 issue. It appears copies remain available from the Society.
Looking at the photo of the prototype engine, if you wanted to modify the Penn Line casting (which would of course destroy any collector value it might have – note that I said “might have”) it looks to me like the biggest improvement and actual prototype enhancement would be to file off the rivets on the cab.
On the model it looks like someone has glued grapefruit halves in neat lines around the edges of the cab and there are no grapefruit halves on the prototype. If there are rivets they appear to be the size of nail heads and thus are best not modeled at all rather than so crudely as to stand out.
Someone mentioned pulse power from an old MRC power pack. I remember how much hotter my models would get if you used pulse power for an entire operating session, as you might want to do with a switcher. They’d even start to smell hot. And pulse power increased the buzzing sound of an open frame motor as well.
Thanks for the photos and info on the original Penn Line switcher! Over the years I picked up two of the switcher shells, but had never seen what the original locos looked like.
Here’s what I did with one of the shells - shortened the cab, removed the stack and bell, and added handrails. It is powered by a PFM SPUD power truck. My smallest critter!
At the risk of getting annoyed comments about reviving an old thread, I just received a notice about this proposed new release: very similar to the old Penn Line!
Its not that old a thread,certainly not as old as the locos! [:D]
Mine are undergoing a transformation,pizza cutter flanges are gone,wheels replace with P2K parts, new motor fitted to the gears. My original planned flywheel was too big, so a smaller one has been ordered,considering a belt drive for noise reduction and maybe sound. Both shells will be redetailed to be NYS&W 150 & 151.
dknelson, nice to see someone’s making more industrial power! There are a lot of small industrial RRs out there, and too few who care to make even generic models of their equipment. BLI, Roundhouse, Grandt Line, and Bachmann are some of the only ones making any sort of powered units right now.
kbkchooch, very nice! I bet that GSB Tan Can makes it a really smooth runner. Penn Line had a good chassis in these, and a belt drive should work great for you. My early model, as shown in the review, has a belt drive, and it’s smooth, quiet, and more than powerful enough to pull a load far beyond what’s realistic for something this size.
BRAKIE, I get some of my favorite stuff from the junk dealers. They’re often the ones who also have older brass at decent prices, and they’re usually willing to negotiate quite a bit. There are some who’ve let me buy brass pieces for as much as $100 off the marked price, because their main concern is simply moving stock out rather than making top dollar on every item.
OK, thanks Darth! That explains my seniors’ moment. Glad to hear that we are both still with it![swg][(-D][(-D] Your work deserves to be brought up regularly on the forums!
