This all began when I set out to expand my small collection of Unique Art tinplate and the Rock Island diesel was high on my list. Mr Bargain hunter waited for the right opportunity to strike and sure enough, a more than reasonably priced unit popped up and I bought it. The lithography looked decent enough. I got it out of the box and what struck me immediately was how heavy the front end was. Someone had created a lead clobster and screwed it to the shell.
When I opened the shell, I found this nifty arrangement, the power pick up was attached to a lopsided block of wood.
Instead of the usual bearing placed where the armature sits in the housing, I was surprised to find no bearing. UA had simply drilled a hole through the insulating bracket for the brushes.
Examining the trucks I discovered no bearings as well, instead there were lock washers. The gear drive was pop riveted to the truck frame..
Then of course there was the mounting for the reverse unit and this is what I found..
Then there was a slight problem with the windshield diameter in relation to where the two halves of the shell met and the former owner, to make matters worse, had broken two of the four tabs that held the shield in place that held the two ends together. The gap was ridiculous...
To add insult to injury, a portion of the windshield was chipped away..
Where did this come from?
Our above pictured friend is well on the way to being restored but..I am sure others have had similar surprises..
, it would have ended up in the junk box, never to be seen again. 
