An Interesting Day at the TCA Meet

[R.K. Maroon]

The DFW O-scale club took our portable traction layout to the local TCA meet last weekend. We do this every year, and though it is not generally a scale show, everybody likes to see live-wire action. Here we see (Nortonville) Phil Randall's very nice Lake Shore Electric #111 in a run-by:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fd0p3mi0mfttvifw38c71/Lake-Shore-Electric.jpg?rlkey=dkzp0h37860yoy4q52maerx0p

John Fisher's Ohio Public Service freight motor is seen here with Phil's recently restored Trinity Valley Traction express reefer just behind:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/v2mfn7lg86k8gbfkcn6or/John-Fisher-OPS-86.jpg?rlkey=al26gvfyjtylwkb5kf13vjclf

One never expects to find anything but toy trains and a smattering of HO and N on the sales tables at this meet, but to our surprise, there was a large collection of two-rail O-scale on one of the sales tables. Even more surprising, most of it was pre-war or early post war. Sadly many of the cars were cardstock-sided Westbrooks in throw-away condition. However, there were some nice finds among the junk, such as this Lobaugh 0-6-0:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u54rokt0nmwr49y5zxtmm/Lobaugh-0-6-0_01.jpg?rlkey=q0lz195uya4jgiy9v6tflrea9

https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/og2zpf3eza3fa6qhezav7/Lobaugh-0-6-0_02.jpg?rlkey=vrbfsd8w9sqtzrrcfyvow96vb

https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rg22gjgzdusp7agkim9l9/Lobaugh-0-6-0_05.jpg?rlkey=sg933xo3s114nw56hlihumt8z

https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1vsjxo0i8ieh0z6ucb9x0/Lobaugh-0-6-0_06.jpg?rlkey=eo4ll2dwvw6xw3bam0e9m8rps

https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rrjd994qjsuuab20ds0eu/Lobaugh-0-6-0_07.jpg?rlkey=0fgl2adie6xgm4rj56t72lq6n

I love the big-bulb backup light in the tender, but only as a mark of its era. I see a modern constant-brightness light in its future.

Jim

[SWrailroader]

Nifty! Gotta love traction! Nice Lobaugh!

[up148]

It really looks well assembled and very complete. Certainly was somebodies baby. If only they could talk.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nifty! Gotta love traction!

Yup! Love that steeple cab....wish someone would 3D print some of those off,

[bob turner]

EBay notwithstanding, these things seemed to be a dime a dozen. I had a difficult time passing up bodies, some with trucks and trolley poles, at shows for $65 each.

And best of all, they are, unlike a lot of International stuff, well soldered, substantial brass.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

EBay notwithstanding, these things seemed to be a dime a dozen. I had a difficult time passing up bodies, some with trucks and trolley poles, at shows for $65 each.

What century was that they were $65? Just a drive under a trolley/steeplecab has not been less than $100 for as long as I've been an O scale modeler buying them from Quentin.

And best of all, they are, unlike a lot of International stuff, well soldered, substantial brass.

The IMP stuff is bringing crazy money prices.....I sold off all mine but 1 that I wanted to rebuild. I'm getting close to abandoning that project and selling off the body, and the Overland drive trucks.

[R.K. Maroon]

The OPS steeplecab is distinct in several ways. First, it was scratch-built many years ago by a modeler, now unknown, who lived in the Portland area. Second, the prototype was shop-built by the Portland Traction Company (PEPCo). Here is the model and prototype for comparison. Note the photo attribution to the Don Ross Collection:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kzlu86rypdr4fter3355f/Custom-SKU-Steeplecab-Portland-Traction-Proto-OPS-86_01.jpg?rlkey=ce5r4rfyj9lmwf36qddlb34wi


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/c4unaklmcpdovlw43kxmt/pep1412.jpg?rlkey=gi3wus9jt3bd1k2xq8rvfonfh

The chassis and drive assembly is also a custom build. This photo was from the as-arrived inspection. The pulleys are for O-rings, which, along with one of the lower jackshaft to truck wire couplings, was missing:



Even though there are pulleys have two grooves, experiments revealed that adding the second O-ring more than doubled the no-load current draw. I have had no operational issues with a single O-ring installed:



To be honest, I would prefer to have this model in the PEPCo paint scheme, but John Fisher finished it for Ohio Public Service, which was a real railroad that served his boyhood home of Toledo, and I am not ready to strip that nice paint job.

Portland Traction, though jointly acquired in by UP and SP in the 1960s, operated under its own name all the way to 1991. A short section of the original 1890s route is still in operation.

Jim