|
|
 Posted - October 14 2024 : 12:38:40 AM
|
Picked one of these up a while back, and I finally got to doing a full restoration of the model! And while I was at it, I thought I'd also give it a review.
Darth Santa Fe, doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it!
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 248 ~
Member Since: September 13 2011 ~
Last Visit: January 23 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
 Posted - October 14 2024 : 02:21:43 AM
|
Beautiful job on that rebuild! The Varney F3 is one of my favourite HO engines, especially from that era. I have a number of them, but not with that Lindsay-style motor. I always assumed those were aftermarket motor kits (good to know they were the original motor). As far as the Pittman motors go there were two different sizes and they appear to improve the performance significantly over the powertruck in your engine. The running quality of the Lindsay engines still edge the later Varney motors out slightly, but the Varney is more robust, and more easily serviceable. That's my opinion anyway! 
Here's a video showing the running quality of the later Pittman motors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd0keWQVfdw
|
Country:  Canada ~
Posts: 3412 ~
Member Since: September 22 2006 ~
Last Visit: April 10 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
 Posted - October 14 2024 : 4:55:20 PM
|
Very nice. Both of you.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 7041 ~
Member Since: February 12 2014 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 16 2024 : 6:48:58 PM
|
Regarding the Varney with the double-threaded worm, I'm curious what advantage anyone saw in it. Seemingly, the only advantage would be a higher top speed if there were any reason to want that, but at 190 scale mph, it would seem that half that speed would be more than enough. The old AHM-Rivarossi steam locomotives had double threaded worms and excessive top speeds, too.
Does anyone here know what the attraction was?
Carpe Manana!
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 2405 ~
Member Since: September 17 2013 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 16 2024 : 11:45:34 PM
|
| Could it have been a manufacturing limitation of the time regarding the size of the threads? Later Varney engines that had the motor mounted on top of the truck had a reduction gear (or pulley) which probably cut the ratio down to 13:1 like what Darth mentioned. That is assuming the wormshaft remained double threaded throughout production....
|
|
Country: Canada ~
Posts: 3412 ~
Member Since: September 22 2006 ~
Last Visit: April 10 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 17 2024 : 10:28:36 AM
|
If the worm and worm gear were sourced from an outside supplier, it might simply have been a matter of cost or availability.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1561 ~
Member Since: December 13 2008 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 17 2024 : 12:39:32 PM
|
| When did you start with Tyco, Gmoney?
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 11501 ~
Member Since: December 09 2013 ~
Last Visit: April 04 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 17 2024 : 11:18:15 PM
|
1975. As far back as I can remember, I always got a train set for Christmas. In the beginning they were the inexpensive battery powered jobs running on plastic track, but at some point, probably in 1974, I got my first “electric train,” as they were called, Lionel’s Kickapoo Valley & Northern. Then I started seeing the Tyco sets with their realistic appearance (relative to Lionel anyway) and I was hooked. I acquired Tyco sets (along with one Life-Like set and one AHM set) from 1975 to 1980. Then I became a teenager and probably thought I was “too old” for train sets, but I came to my senses in the ’90s and started replacing the Tyco of my youth that had been lost or destroyed. Of course, I couldn’t stop with just replacing what I used to have, so I have been collecting Tyco (and a little bit of other brands) ever since.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1561 ~
Member Since: December 13 2008 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 18 2024 : 01:41:24 AM
|
Thanks!
DaCheez, those metal ones with the bigger Pittman motor and 8-wheel drive were probably the best version they ever made. All the weigh and traction you could ever want, plenty of torque, metal wormshaft bearings in both trucks, and they're easy enough to service and keep going! The V4 is a little more difficult because you have to watch the motor bearing alignment and make sure it's assembled really tightly.
I think the idea for the dual thread worms was to make the mechanism smoother, quieter and more efficient since they technically have lower friction. The gear system is definitely very smooth and quiet running, and that was also the case for many of Rivarossi's older gear systems, but it definitely came at the cost of torque and low speed control. There definitely wasn't any limitation in manufacturing since I've worked on mechanisms older than this one (including from Varney) with single threaded worms and even a finer gear pitch, so this was a design choice.
Darth Santa Fe, doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it!
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 248 ~
Member Since: September 13 2011 ~
Last Visit: January 23 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 18 2024 : 11:47:42 PM
|
| That's what I love about the Varney F3s, virtually all-metal construction, everything is assembled with screws, and the build quality on them is better than just about any other engine.
|
|
Country: Canada ~
Posts: 3412 ~
Member Since: September 22 2006 ~
Last Visit: April 10 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - October 19 2024 : 8:57:24 PM
|
Darth, great job on restoring / painting the engine. Kind of reminds me of the New Orleans Saints colors.
Cheez - I've always liked your atomic layout.
Keep up the good work, guys!
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 547 ~
Member Since: February 18 2013 ~
Last Visit: April 25 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 28 2025 : 2:58:04 PM
|
quote:…Kind of reminds me of the New Orleans Saints colors…
Originally posted by Brian4321Â -Â October 19 2024Â :Â 8:57:24 PM
|
The colors actually come from the black and gold used by both DePauw University and Purdue University.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1561 ~
Member Since: December 13 2008 ~
Last Visit: April 29 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
