Great Northern railway

New Delivery; or shall I say deliveries!

Let me say, first off, that I bought 6 engines at an auction last Sunday and, I must say, I would call it a ‘crap shoot’. The auction house was not familiar with HO trains, especially, brass engines. I checked all their past auctions back to 2019 and, under their miscellaneous section was 3 or 4 Lionel, etc trains. Their area of expertise is in other areas so this appears to be their first large HO listing. The owner must have been a GN guy as the bulk of the lots were GN. Like most auctions, one puts bids on several items and, if we win one, we were ‘lucky’ only this time it was 6. All the engines are Tenshodo, by chance. Back when I was young (70’s, 80’s which is also around my age!) I really enjoyed seeing what PFM was producing which was always on the back cover of Model Railroader (back when the magazine had a lot of pages!). The owner of PFM was a GN nut so he imported a lot of GN engines. Tenshodo was my favorite: they were beautiful engines, factory painted and ran well; the Tenshodo owner, being a jeweler, made sense why they looked so good.

HO items on ebay or at an auction, normally, have several pictures of the items so one can get a ‘good idea’ of what they are buying. Pictures for this auction were, usually, just one or two: one of the label and one of the box content. Most were wrapped in the usual clear plastic but reflections and creases in the plastic, usually, made it difficult to analyze the item. This is why I called buying these engines a ‘crap shoot’. The engines appeared to be in excellent condition, there were a lot of high end engines so I made the assumption (you know that word when broken into its parts) that the owner took very good care of the items. Some lots had Items that had ‘high price differences’ were ‘lumped’ into one lot and had unusual combinations. Also, since there were no lots for track, turnouts or power sources, the owner may have been just a ‘collector’.

All that said; you as well as I will be seeing these engines that I bought for the first time as I open up the boxes. Kind of like Christmas

Arrival via FEDEX: only took 3 days.

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Tenshodo Y-1 electric.

Tenshodo made several runs of this engine. Fortunately, I could tell it was one of the last runs as it is painted in ‘Empire Builder’ colors plus it has the MU connectors at the ends of the engine mounted on the roof. The auction picture of the engine looked in excellent condition so I purchased it.

Auction picture:

Arrival:

The owner replaced all the foam with reboxx which is no longer in business. This is a 1985 run. I have two earlier runs, first was done in olive green and the 2nd is in 'empire builders' colors but no MU connectors.

No couplers and very little run time.

The pantographs got damage in transit but easy fix (see later picture). The front MU bar screw needs to be tighten.

Same detail as my earlier versions except the mu bar.

The Y-1 to the right is by Key which was made in 1995. Surprised that both ran together at the same speed.

The Tenshodo has orange pantographs (which I believe is correct) and the Key has a green running gear (which I don't think is correct).

The Key has an LED going to the light where the Tenshodo does not.

Easy fix on the pantographs. As one can see in the picture, the brass is 'forked' shape and were 'spread out'; just had to use some needle nose pliers to squeeze them together.

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Tenshodo SF 4-6-4 blue goose.

Tenshodo produced this engine in about 4 different runs. As seen in the picture, it is ‘tissue wrapped’ so I have no idea which run I have bought. Each run is critical as improvement were made for each ‘run’. The ‘tissue wrap’ looks like it was done at the factory so I’m assuming the engine is in excellent condition. A lot of these engines, especially the Blue Goose, have damaged paint due to the corrosive yellow foam that was used in Tenshodo boxes. If the plastic wrap doesn’t, completely, cover the entire engine, over time, if the engine is stored in the box, the paint is damaged resulting in a complete stripping and new paint application. The foam vapors may, also, dull and discolor the light blue paint which is not noticeable on the black engines.

Auction picture.

Arrival:

All foam replaced with Rebox.

About 4 different runs of this engine by Tenshodo.

This engine is the first run made in 1971. Around 1974, Tenshodo starting installing sound cams and drilling holes in the tender bottom.

No coupler and this engine appears to have not been run.

The important item is that the paint is in excellent condition. As mentioned, previously, a lot of these have damaged paint.

Not sure if that 'stainless steel' is paint or metal; probably paint but very realistic 'stainless steel'!

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Tenshodo UP 4-12-2.

Tenshodo only made one run of this engine. It was around 1995 which was getting to the end of any Tenshodo models being imported into the USA. The auction picture looked ‘good’ plus the foam looked ‘good’ so, again, one more chance with the purchase.

Auction picture.

Arrival.

Another engine that doesn't appear to have been run.

This engine had 3 cylinders and the third cylinder (in the center between the other two cylinders) was operated by what is called a Greasley valve. This engine has a functioning Greasley valve where there is an offset cam on the 2nd driver that rotates and moves the valve; cool.

The Greasley valve rocks back and forth on each side.

Not the 'normal' driver retaining plate. This is more like O gauge where the frame is open (more like the full size) and each driver has its own retaining device. I've seen this on contemporary high end models (ie Division Point); here I thought DP was one of the first to do this and it appears that Tenshodo was the 'first'.

No coupler, again. No holes in the tender bottom but see later picture.

Tenshodo started using these 'scissor' type draw bars around 1974. Put engine and tender on track and then just push the tender into the draw bar.

Around 1974, Tenshodo also started to replace the slotted side rod pins with hex pins as on the prototype.

Center driver is blind. Also, looks like I have the 2nd driver off the rails!

Screws securing the coal area plate; must be to insert your decoder.

Unusual in that there is an ash pan cover. This area is always open on all other models that I've seen.

Sprung trailing truck which is unusual for HO.

Nice cab detail. Always like when Phillip screws are used for ease of re-inserting them.

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Tenshodo GN S-1 4-8-4.

Tenshodo must have made at least a 1000 of these over several runs and improvements were drastic from the early 50’s to the last run in the 80’s. This was a real ‘crap shoot’ as the clear plastic was folded over the last two numbers on the side of the cab making it hard to diagnose which run this is, plus the shine of the plastic. Tenshodo, sometimes, used different numbers on different runs so one can determine when the engine was made via that method. Also, sound cams and number plates were added which will determine ‘runs’. With only one auction picture, though, who ‘knows’.

Auction picture.

Arrival.

Well, I definitely 'lucked out' on this engine. It is the 1979 run. The second to last run of 1985. This engine has the power reverse lever, coast drive, lagging clamps, etc. Interesting in that there is suppose to be a 'number' plate at the front of the driver retaining plate. There are no marks indicating that it fell off. Either Tenshodo forgot to add one or maybe this was to be sold in Japan but arrived over here. From what I have read, only 50 were imported into the USA.

What I've read is this is a high torque rare earth magnet motor. From the test run I did, it must be very efficient as the engine went about 3 times as fast as testing the other engines.

The offset cam in the 2nd driver moves the functional 'power reverse'. There is a screw to adjust the 'clam shell' type clamp where the axle moves the cam slightly forward or backward without stopping the axle from moving.

Nice cab detail. Fixed the handrail as it goes into a hole but is not soldered so the boiler can be removed from the frame.

Not much run time.

The 'scissors' draw bar.

Cool. Coast drive. All my engines that have coast drive have a very wide gear box. Just like Lionel!

A little inaccurate: only the S-2 4-8-4 had the cylinder heads painted silver.

Hex pins.

The drivers seem to be more 'crisp' than on my older S-1.

Pictures are always good: just noticed the piping bent: easy fix as brass is very pliable.

Just noticed the hand rails are bend. Another easy fix. Another thing I like about Tenshodo; they make the engines sturdy. I've had brass engines where I've tried to straighten out some piping and it has come loose ('out' comes the resistance soldering).

Domes black; good.

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Tenshodo GN R-2 2-8-8-2.

There were 2 engines (one in each lot) and the engines and tenders were in different boxes. Tenshodo went to one box in the early 70’s so these engines were from the late 60’s. Unfortunately, the auction house put the tenders in another lot so if one didn’t win those two lots, one has engines with no tender and vise versa. I was figuring that the person who bought the lot with the tenders, bought the lot for the engine that was included and didn’t want the tenders. I lucked out in that I contacted the purchaser and we agreed on a price on the tenders. What’s really cool is the person lives in Piqua, Ohio (only 60 miles away) so I’ll go there to pick them up when they arrive at his house. Again, the one auction picture doesn’t show a lot on the condition of the engines but, again, I took a chance and bought them. A lot of work will be needed on them as new gear boxes and can motors will be installed along with LED’s and a decoder.

I've run all the engines and they run fine. These last two (R-2's) have the older gears in them but I was surprised at how quiet they were. Not bad for a 53 year old engine. I'll still replace the gears plus can motor.

Test video: The black engine was quieter. Probably, a lot of the noise is the open frame motor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOMduhOpssM

Auction pictures.

Arrival.

Old gears plus no sound cam so 1969 runs.

Both have low mileage on them.

First engine.

These engines have excellent detail. They look the same as my 1974 run (see later picture). They were factory painted black.

The detail parts are nice and crisp. Tenshodo was 'way ahead' of other brass engine back in the 60's as a lot of the castings were, sometimes, crude on other builders.