Just found news of this on the Tyco forum; it looks like Hobbytown of Boston is under new ownership and coming back!
I really hope he can make this work out, because there’s been a severe lack of kits in the last 10 years! And of course, there are few drives as smooth and dependable as Hobbytown’s, so they’d of course be great for repowering.
Good news, that. I look forward to pushing my money at them!
Stu
Thanks for the link Darth. I’ve subscribed to their newsletter and am looking forward to seeing what they are going to offer.
Joe
I see they will offer the repower kits for Athearn so,I am tempted to repower 2 of my Athearn BB GP7s with Hobbytown drives just for the rememberance of my Dad.
The only thing I remember Hobbytown from was the chassis kits.
Best wishes to the new owner of Hobbytown. I still have four locomtives with Hobbytown power, but they are not converted to DCC.
Quite apart from the waves of nostalgia this news brings, those Hobbytown of Boston drive trains pulled like crazy regardless of whether the shells were metal or plastic.
For those unfamiliar with Hobbytown but with old issues of MR or access to the digital archives, take a look at the photos in the MR Trade Topics reviews January 1954 page 20 (Alco road switcher) and the May 1953 page 54 (Alco PA). Whoever did the original tool and die work for Hobbytown was years ahead of his (or her?) time in terms of capturing detail in die cast metal. The handrails on the Alco roadswitcher are about the only obvious thing to improve, and they are by no means bad as is.
Dave Nelson
Hello all,
Thank you for the information and link.
I am restoring an Aerotrain and their chassis power kit will fit the bill. I’ve signed up for the newsletter.
Again, thank you for the information.
I’ve been a fan of Hobbytown since I bought my first in 1960: an RSD road switcher.
I’m not sure they’re as relevant as they used to be. There are some awfully nice drives out there now, and they come free when you buy the detailed body on top.
To me, they have four problems:
They’re a bit noisy because of the spur gearing. Actually, considering that, they are not as noisy as they “should” be. The sound is a sort of a metallic slithery noise that I rather fancy.
Not all wheel pickup. That can be fixed, of course, by the modeler.
The drive shaft underneath that shows.
Because there isn’t a worm gear, the drive can be turned “backwards”. The locomotive(s) likely won’t hold on a steep hill without the air brakes. I’ve never operated mine on a hill, so it’s not been a problem. I predict you WILL have a problem holding a long train on a helix, though. Of course, there’s predictions and reality.
All that said, my favorite Hobbytown drives (I have two) are their low-speed switcher drive. Sure, a prototype switcher CAN go 65. Just not in the yard. My switchers don’t get out on the main. I LOVE how these guys move. But they’re due for some improvement: Kato motors, DCC with sound, and keep-alive (see note 2, above). And I think the sound will adequately cover up the “slither”.
I do wish the “new guy” the best on this project.
Ed
Best of luck to them!
[:-^]
Signed up for their news-letter. Hope they don’t sell their mailing lists.
Looking forward to their offerings.
Best of luck in your renewed endevor Hobbytown.
Johnboy out…
The standard ratio as of 2005 was 12:1, which is the same as Athearn BB, so the torque of the driveline would perform the same on a grade as your typical worm drive. I’ve found the setup of the tower gearing makes it just stiff enough to prevent free coasting.
Maybe some updates will be made eventually to have a chassis option with both trucks geared instead of running a drive shaft underneath? There are already some updates being made for DCC and such, so I don’t see why he couldn’t look into other modernizations in the future. There is also mention of a retooled open-frame motor with both brushes insulated, so I wonder if maybe it’s the Bowser skewed DC-71?
Thanks for the news Darth!
I have a Varney Aerotrain with an old drive system which works but doesn’t have the truck sideframe details that I believe the Hobbytown units had.
Dave
I just got an email from the new owner, and he’ll be sending out a newsletter this week with some new details. He apparently is also using a photo of my Hobbytown PA-1 from a little while back as his desktop background.[:D]
Ed,IIRC those Alco RS3 and RSD4/5 weigh in around a pound. I think you could power a Hobbyline RS3 with the Hobbytown drive which would cut the engine weight.
From a test we did at a club in the mid 80s the Hobbytown RS3 pulled a Atlas/Kato RS3 backward.This was to settle a bet made between two members.
Oh the bet? The looser would buy the winner’s pop for a month.Pop at the club was 25 cents a can.
I have quite a few Hobbytown drives . Most of them are the flywheel drive which came out in the 1960 and 1970s.
I have Athearn GP7s/9 in NH and B&M modified to more prototype specific details for the GP9 . Athearn F7 ABs in B&M including an AB Multidrive set.
I have Alco RS3s, RS11 Atlas shells and the old Pennsylvania Scale Models H-16-44 with drives adapted to fit.
I have a couple of the switcher drives that run very well.
Alco FAs with the Train Minature /Walthers and Hobbytown PA shells.
Two U28 Chassis modified to fit the Bowser U25b.
These drives operate extremely well throughout the speed range .They are great slow speed engines, MU together very well. Pulling power is outstanding.
Noise ,even with plastic shells sounds sort of like the sound of engines at work. I run DC only on my layout.
One improvement for the old DC 70 powered engines is to replace the stock magnets with Neodymium magnets. This drops the current by about 2 tenths of an amp gives even better slow speed and better control throughout the speed range as well as more pulling power .The cost is about 2.50 and 1/2 hour of your time. A lot but not all have the slow speed 21:1 gearing. Some that have the 12:1 gearing can be improved by using the Canon DN or EN can motors The Canon motors that I have about a 5400 RPM rating and run well with this gearing.
One poster speculated that they may slide back down on a hill when standing. I have not had that happen. They will start a good load on a hill with no problem.
These engines are fun to operate and as Darth has said fun to build. All that is required to build them a few simple tools ,time and some patience.
Ron High
Can’t wait to see Hobbytown back in production!
Wait! Hold the phone one cotton picking minute…You used Atlas shells with modified Hobbytown drives?
If so Wow! Double Wow! I’ve always like the Hobbytown drive and a fleet of Alcos with these drives would be very nice,very nice indeed.
Looks like a good thing to me, so I joined the group signing up for the news letter too.
Larry I purchased 2 Atlas NH painted shells a number of years back when they offered them.
the Hobbytown drives I used were the 77408a chassis . This is the newer universal road switcher chassis that has athree piece fram the middle piece being a splice plate to join the end pieces . These can be cut to different lengths and have multiple holes two allow you to make different lengths of chassis.
The 77408A is equipped with AAR type side frames it is listed for the U28B, U30B, U33B and Tyco C430.
The 77408a is listed for GP7,GP9, GP20 ,GP30,GP35 with EMD blomberg sideframes
The older 57408 is the old universal chassis for Athearn GP9 Tyco GP20 and Bachmann GP 30 I am not sure how well it would work for the Atlas RS11. I did make it fit 2 Penn Scale Models H-16-44 shells.
The Atlas RS11 needed only a couple of minor modifications. . The underside of the walkway needed the smalll round pads removed so it sat on the hobbytown frame at a good height. The body shell needs the walkway in the cab that goes from front to back of the cab removed to allow for clearance of the flywheels… The real critical need is building the frame to position the flywheels so there is clearance. the front flywheel is a larger diameter that has to fit in the cab. The other two flywheels will fit in the narrow hood behind the cab. As I typed I rememberd that I actually used the 77408 with the EMD fuel tank middle bridge plate . I cut the tank bulges off and had a flat surface to mount the sides of the cut up RS11 tank.
The 77408A has a bridge plate that has separate tank side that mount with screws this tank looks more like GE tanks.
Any more questions just ask.
Ron High
Wow, good news. Last winter, I was beginning to experiment with Hobbytown drive components for some critter drives, but finally decided to give it up, seeing the difficulty in finding them complete enough to do anything with. This could put these projects back on the bench.