|
|
 Posted - June 02 2024 : 8:05:01 PM
|
I have a Mantua/Tyco Pacific and a Hudson on my layout. These are probably from sometime in the late 1960s through the early 1980s. They were sold either with the same little motor that goes in the switch engines or with "Power Drive" which is not to be mistaken with Power Torque. It was just a bigger motor, a flexible shaft and a separate worm shaft and gear box. The Hudson I converted to Power Drive with the 810 Retrofit Kit. The Pacific I got with Power Drive already in it.
I also own an older, probably 1950s Mantua Pacific. Presently, it does not live on my layout, but runs on a model railroad display at the Silver Creek Museum in Freeport, IL. Lately, I brought it home to clean and oil it, so I took some pictures showing the changes between the old and less old versions.
Here's the old Pacific:
It looks a lot like the newer ones, but there are some real differences.
The old one (bottom) has a lot more Diecast parts. The tender is hollow underneath and is all one piece. The new one above it has a plastic shell on a diecast chassis.
The old one has pizza cutter flanges. Its worm gear is smaller. You can see that the gear on the upper, newer one is bigger around. This means more torque on the newer design. The pilot and cab are cast metal, unlike the plastic ones on the newer engine and the pilot rides lower, so if your track profile is not really flat, the pilot will touch and short out the rails.
The old engine is closer to the camera. The gear box is bigger and blockier. It also sits too low for proper gear mesh, so I put fiber washers on all the mounting screws to lift the worm so the weight of the whole locomotive does not ride on the worm. The old motor is essentially the same as the new one, but I upgraded it with a rare earth magnet to make up for the torque lost to the smaller gear on the axle.
The flexible shaft on the old one used to be a big fat black rubber tube that had gotten a bit stiff with age, so I substituted a piece of model airplane fuel line.
You may notice some non-original parts on the newer model. Those are my own electrical improvements and have nothing to do with this comparison.
There is just one other difference just barely visible in this pictured. The old-fashioned wheels with the pizza cutter flanges result in a little narrower gauge. This means the engine can get cocked diagonally to the track. On sharp curves, that makes more overhang on the front so that the pilot truck is more likely to hit the cylinders and derail. It's not a problem at the museum, but if I were using it at home, I'd modify the pilot truck with more side play.
For engines that look about alike, they do have their differences.
Carpe Manana!
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 2405 ~
Member Since: September 17 2013 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
