Dorfan Lines Trains

Sounds like you need Steve "Papa" Eastman. You can see some of his Dorfan work here:

 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...-dorfan-on-the-rails

 

Papa, this is right up your alley!

 

ARNO

Steve is the guy.

I had seen the video from Steve before.  The engine I have is different from the video, I think I'm going to take some pictures and check the box for the model number.  I have a full set with some accessories,  Station House, signal light, wooden farm animals etc, have original transformer in original box.

 

Not sure if it is a steam loco or electric type, but the electric types are prone to poor castings. In some cases, it might be wise to leave it alone. If you mess with it you can possibly create more problems. If you are not planning of running it, I might just leave it be. If you want to run it, then you need to weigh the possibilities of what could happen.

 

ARNO

Jerry

Post a few pictures of your engine, include some from underneath and we can begin the process of determining if it can be made to run as an original, converted to Williams or used for display.

 

Steve

Papa is in the house!

 

Arno
Are you coming out in November for Cal Stewart?

 

I had the trains displayed in the past, engine & 3 cars on a few tracks,  will try to get some pictures next week going to Vegas for Frozen Fury, ( Hockey at MGM)

Jerry
Is it a steam engine or electric cab type?

electric cab, 4 drive wheels in the middle with 4 wheels front and back,  lights front and back, all cars are lighted

Jerry

Being as it has pony trucks, I assume it is Standard Gauge. Have not worked on one of them yet, but the motor layout is the same as O gauge.

 

Steve

 

Talked with Jerry quite a while this morning. Here are pictures of his set. As I suspected, it is a Std Gauge 3930.

If this were mine, working on it would be a no brainer, but it is not mine and a 3930 with this nice of a casting is pretty rare, so I may be a bit reluctant to tackle it. One wrong move and a gear mounting post will snap off.

The loco only needs the one driver to be slid over to put in great display condition. A tiny dab of crazy glue to keep it from sliding around. I gave him Midges phone number to try MTH for repro trucks on the cars, although if the final decision is to only display it, I'd think an epoxy repair of the original truck would be best, keeping it all original parts.

I only recall one of these coming across e-bay, but I have not really been following Dorfan faithfully for very long. That one had the insides filled with epoxy.

For Jerry's insurance purposes, what is a SWAG at the value of one in this nice of condition?

Anyone know of someone with experience repairing them?

 

Steve

 

 

that;s a great looking set.

Have not seen a 4-4-4 Crocodile in a long time. I believe Stout sold one back in 2010. I have seen less than a handful of these since I started showing interest in Fandor/Dorfan.

Bertoia sold one in 2014 that was in very nice condition. The castings looked solid and only a small amount of cracking. Sold for $1700. Of course, maybe the Dorfan tape measure that was included with it brought most of that!

 

 

 

 

Stout sold one in 2014, the castings were pretty rough... on the edge of falling apart. Sold for $275.

 

 

 

 

Prices for Dorfan are all over the place, mainly because of the destiny of most of these pieces. It's hard to invest in something that might not be around for much longer. A buddy of mine once told me that "collecting Dorfan was like adopting a cat with Lukemia" and I totally got it.

 

If it were me, I would leave Jerry's set alone. It is only original once and like Steve said, you never know what is going to happen once you start messing with it. It is a fine looker right now. If Jerry want something he can run, by a repro Croc.

 

ARNO