This review is on Rivarossi’s HO scale E8A. The version reviewed here is from the mid 70s to early 90s production.[:D]
Rivarossi started making their E8s in the late 60s and continued making them until Rivarossi went bankrupt and was purchased by Hornby. The different versions can be told apart fairly easily. The first version had a square pancake motor and large wheel flanges. The second version (the one reviewed) had a better can/pancake motor, but they still had the large flanges. The third version had an improved can/pancake motor, RP-25 flanges, and possibly more weight, and also had a single spiral worm which caused the engine to run at half the speed of the older versions, which had double spiral worms.
The E8 is pretty well detailed, even if everything is cast onto the shell.[:D] All the grab irons (not including the 4 I added on the front) are very finely molded and look pretty decent. The roof has a lot of molded-on detail which looks very good and is cast very smoothly. The front pilot is open to make room for the truck mounted coupler, along with the rear pilot. The only detail cast onto the front pilot is the rivets and steps, which look OK, but not as good as what’s on the rest of the shell. The rear pilot has more detail that is done much better than the front pilot’s detail, and includes MU hose detail that looks very nice. The windshield has a nice realistic shape and flush fitting glass, which I don’t think anyone else did on a plastic engine with this type of cab until Stewert came out with their HO F units in the 80s.[:D] The nose is pretty well detailed, with dual headlights, marker lights, a nose door, and number boards. The number boards are oval shaped, but I’m pretty sure the real E8s had more rectangular number boards, so the ones on this engine may not be realistic. The ladders are all too short, but they can probably be replaced or modified easily. The fuel tank is nicely det