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 Posted - June 16 2018 : 5:05:53 PM
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Dear All,
One of my happiest memories in my teens was visiting the US Bicentenial Exhibition in Greenwich with my school, so today when I saw this at a UK train fair I just had to have it.....
Although the vendor thought it was Tyco, (everything US HO and otherwise unmarked in the UK must be Tyco, surely?), I am convinced it is Life-Like, mainly because of the unglazed body and that I have a very similar mechanism inside a Life-Like F7 in British Rail blue, (yes I really did say that) which I date from the early 1970s. That loco has brass gears to transmit the drive to the layshaft, but this has Plastic, or had plastic....
As you can see, the lower gear is missing, can anyone please help? Happy to pay for the gear, a complete bogie or a trashed F7 to cannibalise.... including postage to he UK o course.
Either that or my BR blue F7 gets robbed!
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 16 2018 6:45:24 PM
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Posted - June 17 2018 : 01:25:27 AM
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I'm darned if I know that make. Never seen a gearing arrangement
such as that. Would you mind posting a pic of the Tyco in BR blue?
That is something else I've not heard of.
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Posted - June 17 2018 : 03:00:27 AM
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In answer to your question about the make of your loco, try here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicentennial-1776-F9-Lifelike-Vintage-HO-Spirit-america-SCL-Seaboard/123165557194?hash=item1cad3d41ca:g:JLMAAOSwZvFbEO6I
It is a Life-Like loco.
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Posted - June 17 2018 : 04:31:40 AM
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Here is the F7
The 1A28 number is a Headcode or reporting number that trains carried in the 60s and 70s, not a running number, that represents an express passenger train, in this case probably a Leeds to Kings Cross Express, so this F7 is pretending to be a Deltic;
https://pikka.users.tt-forums.net/wiki/index.php?title=File:Deltic.jpg
Life_like sold a lot of stuff in the UK with the British Tension Lock coupling, (The F7 had a British rear couling abut no front coupling of any sort) Tank Wagons and Thrall box cars with UK couplings abound, but here are some lettered for the UK:
I particularly love the BR Blue Caboose!
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 17 2018 05:08:56 AM
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Posted - June 17 2018 : 07:43:33 AM
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Wow, this is a very interesting assemblage. British road names,
British Tension Couplers, and American bogies and body
types. By contrast, there are the Tyco A Team, and such like,
sets, that sport European 4 wheel undercarriages and
a variant of a locking coupler.
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Posted - June 17 2018 : 08:41:12 AM
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that is cool
but irl the NA caboose with the cupola on top won't clear the tunnels or bridges in the UK 
I don't believe a F7 would either
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Posted - June 18 2018 : 06:18:11 AM
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Thanks Guys,
Although some preserved railways in the UK have imported locos etc from around the world, I don't think we have an F7 here, which is a pity. You are quite right though, apart from the Channel Tunnel Rail link I doubt if US sized trains could run anywhere!
In model form we always got over this size difference with the rather silly 00 scale we used, so when stood next to European or US Ho Model our 00 models were roughly the same size!
We used to have good guards vans on unfited trains with things called side duckets, that allowed the guard to look along the train, but not cupolas, as there was no room, so we used periscopes instead to view the top of the train from inside!
Incidentally, that odd double deck mechanism, with a motor mouted on the bogie and driving through a gear train was tried by Tri-ang in the UK in the mid 1950s in their F7 (ish) type diesel that was sold in Canada and Australia and Britain too....
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/58911-vintage-00-motor-bogies/
(you need to scroll down six images when the link opens)
I am still after a spare gear or wrecked loco to rob. My brass geared version is rather noisy so I am hoping the plastic geared version would be quieter, although it obviously not running at present...
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 18 2018 06:20:07 AM
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Posted - June 18 2018 : 9:31:38 PM
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NA had those types of cabooses
We called them Bayside Cabooses!
though somewhere there was a caboose that had both a cupola AND bayside windows
well even though OO & HO uses the same HO gauge track
The OO scale trains are bigger than HO
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Posted - June 19 2018 : 05:31:27 AM
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Thanks,
I have a Marx one here in this road rail set....
One day I hope to get the set working as intended - Cars stopping for trains, barriers going up and down etc. At present I have just got the loco running, found the missing car and got both working....
James
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Posted - June 19 2018 : 08:39:01 AM
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A remarkable article documenting the development of the
OO motor. And the Marx set- what an astonishing find.
Those are slot cars??? By Marx???
Didn't Northwest Shortline used to make a variety of
gears? I they still in production?
Alternatively, that Life Like on eBay is a pretty fair deal;
I'd grab it myself if I wasn't already overstocked.
I read somewhere that the OO size, a 0.5 mm increase
over HO, was to accomodate the early motors readily
available for these "tiny" locomotives of the the early
1/87th age.
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Posted - June 19 2018 : 8:19:30 PM
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Thanks Chops,
As enthusiastic and supportive as ever!
Not sure about South West Shortline, but I will look out for another Life-Like Loco of similar vintage to 'rob'. On checking my BR blue one, I note that the gears are plastic too, so I will borrow that chassis until I get the other one fixed.
I have two 1776 state cars and the caboose too. Did they really do a car for all the 50 states? That is a long train and I reckon that I will need some powered B units to shift it! I have had trains of 20 to 25 cars run on my Life-Like, but this is something else!
Yes, the Marx set contains slot cars - two now. It dates from the slot car boom years of the early 60s. The barriers raise and lower and the cars stop and start automatically, although I have yet to try to do all that....
Here is the box:
Although I have played around with combining slot cars and trains for 30 years now (Minic, Playcraft/Aurora, Life-Like, Faller, Tyco US-1 and recently Carrera with LGB) I have never seen barriers that work with automatic isolation of the cars....
This will be fun, but remains on the 'To do' list for the time being.....
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 19 2018 8:25:06 PM
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Posted - June 19 2018 : 10:38:29 PM
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That certainly looks like a unique train set....and Marx's "Rail N' Road" is a word-mixup of Tyco's later "Road and Rail."
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - June 20 2018 : 5:40:43 PM
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quote:Dear All,
One of my happiest memories in my teens was visiting the US Bicentenial Exhibition in Greenwich with my school, so today when I saw this at a UK train fair I just had to have it.....
Although the vendor thought it was Tyco, (everything US HO and otherwise unmarked in the UK must be Tyco, surely?), I am convinced it is Life-Like, mainly because of the unglazed body and that I have a very similar mechanism inside a Life-Like F7 in British Rail blue, (yes I really did say that) which I date from the early 1970s. That loco has brass gears to transmit the drive to the layshaft, but this has Plastic, or had plastic....
The price on a replacement unit is down to $12. I am half tempted to buy it and sell it back to
you double! . Seriously, I am quite tempted to get it myself just because it is such a nice
vintage unit. But, I am overstocked. I would feel the need to sell something off.
As you can see, the lower gear is missing, can anyone please help? Happy to pay for the gear, a complete bogie or a trashed F7 to cannibalise.... including postage to he UK o course.
Either that or my BR blue F7 gets robbed!
James
Originally posted by Highwayman97Â -Â June 16 2018Â :Â 5:05:53 PM
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https://www.ebay.com/i/123165557194?ul_noapp=true
Edited by - Chops124 on June 20 2018 5:41:32 PM
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Posted - June 20 2018 : 8:24:55 PM
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Thanks Chops,
Yes I saw that, and thought about it.
If I were your side of the pond it would be a bargain. However postage and customs would make it the price of a Life-like Proto unit....
Also I would feel guilty robbing such a nice loco.
I will wait for a second BR blue F7 to appear on UK e-bay. I can't imagine many people would want it.......
As my BR Blue F7 is more ornament than use, I have 'borrowed' the chassis from that for the time being. It is excatly the same as the Bicentenial loco even down to the plastic gears (Not brass as I recalled, - more mind tricks?).
On these vintage F7s the chassis is in three parts, each part clips in seperately.... Very odd.
Need to run it properly soon, but my time is currently devoted to the early stages of developing a Playcraft Highways Layout to celebrate it 60th Birthday next year! Yes HO slot cars really are going to be 60 at Christmas 2019!
I feel even older than I already did!
James
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