M.E.W. Standard Gauge Blind Drivers 384 / 400 style

CMC/CMT made a number of engines with six drivers, the middle set being blind. They used MEW drivers.

Steve

Harry, by "blind" I assume you mean with no flange?

Lee Lines made a Daylight with 8 drivers, some of them flangeless.

Lionel used the flangeless wheels on its Standard Gauge Hiawatha and Commodore Vanderbilt Hudsons.  McCoy used them on the 3-axle motor for their Chief Cle Elum 10-wheeler, and McCoy also sold these motors to others; Roberts Lines used these motors in some of his Challengers.  Harlen Creswell's Liberty Lines Hudson used the flangeless wheels on the center axle.  These all look to me like the Lionel 384 wheel.  

Steve, I'm not sure.  CMT's Moguls and 10-wheelers had flangeless drivers in the center; but to me, none of the drivers on my Classic Model Trains look like Lionel wheels.  They are distinctive, sharper castings, more square-edged, and the infill to balance the drive rod lug is different.  If MEW made these, did they make a special wheel just for CMT? 

Some other 6-driver standard gauge locos, like Thorley Hoople and Glenn Gerhart, definitely used a different, thinner rimmed and thinner spoked drive wheel.  Also my Creswell Liberty Lines 0-6-0 switcher oddly uses flanged wheels on all 3 axles, and they also look different from Lionel wheels.

d

Lionel used the flangeless wheels on its Standard Gauge Hiawatha and Commodore Vanderbilt Hudsons.

When did Lionel make those?

C W Burfle posted:

Lionel used the flangeless wheels on its Standard Gauge Hiawatha and Commodore Vanderbilt Hudsons.

When did Lionel make those?

Lionel Classics 2002.

6-13004

6-13008

http://www.lionel.com/products...ssenger-set-6-13008/

Hojack,

          Thank you, That is what I needed to know.  The fella that called also mentioned putting together some SP GS-4 epoxy boiler locomotives. His phone went 'dead' before I received any info. I hope he calls back or reads this forum.   Harry

The Lee Lines GS-4  was an aluminum casting.  John Daniels played around with cast resin for his GG-1 and heavyweight cars.

Arno was involved with Lee Lines and his garage was full of boxes of Lee Lines parts, boiler castings, the long aluminum extrusions for the passenger car bodies, boxes of motors and gears... But he emailed me earlier this summer that his partner in Lee Lines had come and taken all the Lee inventory and parts, so maybe this is the individual that called you.

I'll watch your online store listings and take a handful of the blind drive wheels off your hands when they become available.  I have ground the flanges off drive wheels when I needed to, but these would be much more convenient!

david

McCoy used them on their 6-wheel super motors. Chief Cle Elumn steamer. I think their axle diameter is even .187 where Lionel used .180. Bring some to York and I would be interested in buying a few, as the wheels on my Cle Elum have succumbed to the zinc pest. Would surely beat having to try to machine the flange off.

If someone is planning to resurrect the Lee lines GS-4 then sign me up for one in the Daylight colors and one in AFT colors.

The blind drivers are available now. I have NOT reamed for the axle hole, nor tapped for the rod screw. Lionel's are 4:36 or 8:32, and McCoy is 6:32. We would normally ream the axle holes to .177 for Lionel or .187 for McCoy   . Will depend on who orders for what use. As of now they are painted our Lionel normal red and the nickel rims are installed. Price is $20.00 a pair, or $84.00 a dozen.  I can offer them in red or black, either reamed or not, same as tapping.  What I bring to York would be red rimmed castings, not reamed or tapped. I would be glad to take orders for York delivery.   Harry

Harry, please sign me up for a dozen, red, not tapped, not reamed, I will come by your booth in the Orange Hall at York next month and pick them up.  I will send you an email to confirm this.

Thank you, great to have these available!

david

I will put a dz. aside for you for York.  Thank you.  Harry

hojack posted:

Harry, please sign me up for a dozen, red, not tapped, not reamed, I will come by your booth in the Orange Hall at York next month and pick them up.  I will send you an email to confirm this.

Thank you, great to have these available!

david

 

David - contact me off line. I may have some parts for you courtesy of Arno Baars.

Jim Waterman (watermaj(at)comcast(dot)net

hojack posted:

The Lee Lines GS-4  was an aluminum casting.  John Daniels played around with cast resin for his GG-1 and heavyweight cars.

Arno was involved with Lee Lines and his garage was full of boxes of Lee Lines parts, boiler castings, the long aluminum extrusions for the passenger car bodies, boxes of motors and gears... But he emailed me earlier this summer that his partner in Lee Lines had come and taken all the Lee inventory and parts, so maybe this is the individual that called you.

I'll watch your online store listings and take a handful of the blind drive wheels off your hands when they become available.  I have ground the flanges off drive wheels when I needed to, but these would be much more convenient!

david

David, I am that guy that picked up the Lee Lines stuff from Arno. We were going to be partners in the venture, but by the time I picked it up, he was too sick to participate, so offered me the whole deal. I am making a very small number of the GS4's, and also making the Lee Lines passenger cars. Have a limited amount of material for each, but having fun doing it. Turns out that there are enough of almost every part to build 6-8 engines and about 60 cars. I have delivered 2 engines and 17 cars, and built 2 engines and 12 cars for myself.

Jim Waterman

A couple of notes on the Lee Lines GS4: the drivers are smaller than standard Lionel wheels (1-7/8" diameter vs 2-7/16"  on the wheel face). Drivers also coupled together with aluminum cast side rods.  The boiler is assembled from 5 pieces of sand cast aluminum, machined, drilled and tapped to fit together. Same for the tender, all aluminum castings, except for the baseplate which is sheet metal.  Has 2 KTM motors, dual shafted, one powers the front driver, the other, the back driver and they are connected by a universal joint between the motors. Original Lee Lines engines only have a manual reversing switch and a bridge rectifier. The ones I'm building have a Dallee 12 amp reversing unit which works wonderfully.  As I learned, he used a number of parts from MEW that are also available at Hennings for the piston rod, lead/trailing truck wheels and some of the valve gear.  I will likely have leftover flanged and unflanged drivers, and maybe some geared axles beyond what I will build.

Not to be too wordy on this Sunday morning, but I will mention another product that was in the Lee Lines inventory - a larger, better detailed set of boiler and tender resin castings for the GS4. I suspect that he was going to produce a 'scale' (whatever that means) G scale GS 4. The detail on these is first rate, much better than the original. The engine is also about 2.5 inches longer, and the tender over an inch longer than the original, so a 40" long engine.

I am contemplating building up a mechanism and offering these larger better detailed engines in Standard (will be similar to the existing engine, two motors, but using the larger Lionel wheels. Let me know if there is any interest. There will only be 5 of them.

Jim