One of my fondest childhood memories was visiting my grandfather and running his impressive train set. On one of these visits, he informed me that he had bought a new locomotive, just for me. Over the years, anytime I think of or see a train, I remembered this little engine. My grandfather is 82 now, and in a nursing home. He has Alzheimer’s, and doesn’t even know who I am anymore. Today I revisited that basement I hadn’t been to for ages. The yard portion of his layout was dismantled years ago, but sure enough, front and center, was my little engine…and I brought it home with me.
My knowledge of prototypes is very limited, and there are no markings on the bottom of this loco or the coal car. I assume it is an Atlas brand, because of the dozens of engines, most of them were Atlas. This is N scale, and would likely be around 20+ years old. If anyone can identify this loco, it would mean a lot to me. I would like to know:
Is this a model of a real prototype?
Who is the manufacturer?
Limited production or fairly common?
4-6-0 or whatever, I don’t know much about that stuff?
It’s hard to see in the picture, but the # in yellow is 5300. President Polk is beneath the window on each side. B&O RR.
It’s an Atlas/Rivarossi USRA light 4-6-2. Atlas imported the things starting in the late 60’s, but the manufacturer was Rivarossi. The locomotive was quite common in N scale.
Cyborg: I’m pretty sure that this is a Rivarossi. My dad was into N scale about 20 years ago, and he bought several steamers. At that time, Rivarossi was marketing a 2-8-2, 4-6-2 (which is the loco in your photo) and 0-8-0 locomotives that were basically N scale versions of their HO steamers. Does your locomotive have traction tires on one set of the drivers (probably the rear set)? I’m not sure, but I think that Atlas didn’t come out with their first steamers until a couple of years ago. The Rivarossi were very lightweight models, hence the traction tires, but they ran very smoothly, as I remember.
Tom
My own research finally yielded some results on the prototype as well. Figures, I wasn’t searching for the right thing. This class of locomotive built for the B&O RR started around 1927, and was known as the President Class, as all the locos were named after Presidents. #5300 was President Washington…#5309 was the President Polk. So the model isn’t accurate.
From what I’ve read, the prototype #5300 is on display at the B&O Museum, and is the only survivor of the class. As for the paint scheme, it was hard to locate any solid information. The trains were manufactured in olive green and gold. It’s hard to tell from black and white photos, but in some pictures you can definitely see a scheme similar to mine.
[EDIT]
I’m such a dork. Upon inspecting the loco for traction tires (there are none by the way), I discovered the manufacturer’s name. As I turned it upside down, the non drive wheels fell to the side revealing “Rivarossi ITALY”.
