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 Posted - April 29 2013 : 8:58:15 PM
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This is the latest Mantua Mikado. Unlettered as of now. Front mount bell, version 2 with gearbox screwed to frame. Friend was cleaning out junk, found it and gave it to me.
This is my first Mantua Mikado. We got it from family friends in, oh, 1960 after they'd outgrown it. We literally ran the rods off it. I replaced them and axle bearings in mid-60's. Odd, because it's a metal cab, metal tender, version 2 with a headlight. None of my others are drilled for it. And I didn't do it! Bell mounted on top of boiler.
The second one I got. From someone on a Yahoo group. Frame had gone bad, they had tried to make a Version 3 frame fit a Version 2, and I think they gave up.
I finished it. It has a modified Version 3 frame with the Version 2 gearbox screwed down to the frame. I actually plugged all the extra holes with steel 2-56 ready rod, locktited in, filed flush, glass beaded and painted. Metal tender, cab, just like the other two. Smokebox mounted bell.
They all run very nice. One day, I'll triple head them on the local club layout.
Dave
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Posted - April 30 2013 : 07:57:48 AM
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Dave ; Great photos and information. I thought there was just one type of original Mikado. Cant see much from the outside. I have a couple of original ones got to check for differences.
frank
toptrain
" It's a Heck of a Day " !!!
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Posted - April 30 2013 : 11:27:52 AM
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I always thought Mikados all had headlights. Since the one I had all those years did. Then, I found that Version 2's didn't seem to, yet Version 3's did.....usually.
I have always preferred the Version 2 gearbox over Version 3's.
Maybe because that's what I started out with...but, you can shim the worm and shaft inside the bearings, and the motor never racks back and forth on acceleration nor deceleration.
Something odd about the one I had first. When we dug it out, someone had crashed it and tweaked the cab (metal). Yardbird and I went round and round finding one that fit the same way.
Ended up being a metal cab from a specific Pacific (and I cannot remember now which). Almost like this engine was built by cleaning out all the leftover parts at Mantua.
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Posted - April 30 2013 : 12:36:12 PM
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This is the first version of the Mikado:
It is the early one with the brass crossheads.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9977705@N05/5736813199/in/set-72157623238233266
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9977705@N05/5873940057/in/set-72157623238233266
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9977705@N05/5874498278/in/set-72157623238233266
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9977705@N05/5873940247/in/set-72157623238233266
Here is a slightly later version of the first generation with diecast cross heads:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321107509753?ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1559.l2649
I just sold that one.
Sean
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
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Posted - May 08 2013 : 12:14:10 AM
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Really nice to see these early versions. I bought a box of Mantua parts at a trains show for $5 a few years back, and it had an early Pacific frame with the large Pittman motor, rubber coupling, and separate gearbox. I think the frame itself was version 2 at the latest, because it had no valve gear hangers on the casting, but neither did the gearbox cover. The cover must be a later run because it has recesses for the frame mounted hangers.
Unfortunately the frame had bowed and stretched in a way that wasn't readily apparent at first. When I tried screwing the axle cover to it, it cracked at the the center axles.
Those motors had a lot of torque. I'm sure those 3 Mikes of yours will pull stumps.
The Tyco Depot
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Posted - May 10 2013 : 02:55:30 AM
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got this 4 axle diecast tender, think its from a very early mike! _ Erich
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