I have just purchased a Varney Aerotrain in near perfect condition. It came with the Varney power conversion kit. The unit runs ok but I have ordered neodymium magnets to see if I can improve performance before I spend money on a new motor.
My question is about the plastic wheel sets and their mounting pins. The axles rotate in a hole in a plastic post. The axles are not tapered. There is a slot in the post to allow the wheel sets to be removed. I don’t think tapered axle wheel sets will work because if the posts were cored to fit tapered axles there would be very little material left. Also, the post is styrene so it would wear out over time. Here is what they look like. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry:
Any suggestions?
There is one other problem in that the rear windshield for the observation car is missing. I have e-mailed Bowser (they have the Varney molds) to see if they can supply one, but if anyone out there happens to have one available I would be happy to do business.
The engine and cars also require interiors, side window glazing and appropriate weight but those I can kitbash.
Kemtron once sold an upgrade kit that had metal wheels and much nicer sideframes both for the cars and the power truck, very nicely detailed. That would be one thing to look for if you could find one, probably a lot more rare than the Aerotrain itself though.
I think I got the Aerotrain for a reasonable price. I got two engines (one with the Varney motor kit, one dummy) and five cars including the observation car for around $90 including shipping. The powered engine has had some use and the glue job on the shell is a mess. However the dummy engine has never been assembled. I am missing one headlight set and one engine windshield but because one engine shell is a mess the missing engine parts don’t matter.
The cars are as new - no marks, almost no sign of wear on the wheels. As I mentioned in the first post, I need the observation car rear windshield. All have their original boxes in good condition.
Well I believe the Concor version is far superior in all aspects. That being said the Concor and Varney cars should be fairly close and the Concor window may be an easy conversion.
I’m sure you are right when you say the CON-COR version is superior in all respects. That is if you are looking for RTR. I like to model and I really like to kitbash, so the very primitive Varney version makes perfect fodder for me. The shell details are very shallow and what Varney passes for trucks are a joke. I now have the opportunity to make a silk purse (OK - maybe a cotton purse) out of a sow’s ear. To me, that is modeling!
I do hope the rear window will be close to a good fit if I can get one.
Most if not all of the Kemtron parts are available from Precision Scale Co. However, unlike Bowser, there is no online listing of parts, they claim over 14,000 total parts.
It wouldn’t hurt to order a catalog from them and see.
And I agree with you. No matter what, I’d rather build, than buy, any day. It adds just that something extra to the item.
Looking at the old Kemtron ads from back when, with the Kemtron deluxe upgrade kit installed, that old Varney will easily give the Con-Cor version a run for its money. You do have to cut off the plastic tabs with the spring ‘detail’ on the Varney to install the deluxe Kemtron kit, if you find one, so if you happen to approach this as a collector’s item you might not want to do that. Between the added details (which also gives significant weight down low to improve tracking) and changing out the motor magnets, it shoudl be a nice looking and running model.
Thanks for the NWSL lead. Looks like their wheels will fit. They also sell bearings but I don’t think there is space to mount them on the existing axle posts.
Thanks for the Precision Scale lead. I have their HO catalogue but I didn’t see anything in it related directly to the Aerotrain. I will send them a note to see if they have anything.
If there’s one thing I know about old Varney products, it’s that their freight/passenger car wheels are terrible! I don’t have a single Varney car that hasn’t had its trucks replaced. NWSL’s blunt or shoulder axles should fit well, and the steel axles should roll better than those molded plastic axles even with the stock mounting.
The neodymium magnet should definitely help the old motor. After working on some Mantua and Akane trains from the 50’s and 60’s, I found that the magnets can become very weak with age and cause poor performance. My Mantua metal Shark and my Akane 2-8-0 showed immediate and drastic improvement with new magnets installed.[:D]
I got this set about 10 years ago at the Boeing RR Clubs swap meet for $20. I forgot all about it till I read this post. I have never tried to run it & do not know much about it.
Looks like you made a very wise decision when you bought those trains. They appear to be in pretty good shape. Of course, they will take a lot of work to turn them into a proper train with interiors etc.
I will post results when I replace the motor magnets. I have also sent messages to Presicion Scale (who apparently bought up the Kemtron molds) and North West Short Line to see if they have wheel sets with axles and trucks that will fit the Varney cars.
I spent a little more time looking at your Varney Aerotrain pictures. It looks like you have one engine with the optional Varney power drive and one engine with the Kemtron upgrade power kit. The Varney drive appears to be missing the drive shaft from the motor to the truck as well as the geared shaft that drives the wheels in the truck. Hopefully the missing parts are among the loose bits.
The new motor magnets have made a huge improvement in performance. The engine runs very smoothly at low speeds. There is a bit of a limp when in reverse which is likely gear or drive shaft related but I hope that will smooth out with time. Besides, the train won’t be run in reverse very often so it is not a concern. Just to give an example of the difference in the strength of the new magnets vs the original, the original would barely stick to a medium size screwdriver and could not pick the screwdriver up. One of the five neodymium magnets lifted the screwdriver off the bench no problem.
The NWSL 36" wheel sets #37108-4 were a near perfect drop in. The only modification was a tiny bit of shaving of the inboard sides of the axle posts to clear the axles where the smaller diameter on the axle ends and the larger diameter axle starts outboard of the wheels. They spin relatively freely, but not nearly as smoothly as a tapered axle in a delrin truck. I am not sure if I should try to lubricate them or leave them be. Any suggestions in that regard would be appreciated.
I ordered an observation car rear window from Con-Cor and although it is a tiny bit wider than the Varney body I think it can be made to fit reasonably well. I had to file off the molded on mounting tabs and shorten the wrap around sides to get it to test fit. The challenge will be figuring out how to attach it since it is too wide to pop into the Varney body slots intended for that purpose. I am thinking I will try sparing amounts of Microscale Micro Krystal Klear to try to keep the glue from being too obvious. The other possibility is to cut it into three pieces along the original window joints so I can narrow it enough to fit into the body as the original Varney would have done. That could be a challenge to keep it from looking all “glued up”.
