American Flyer HO Hudson, Smoke & Sound in the 40's!

Your Hudson makes a lot of smoke! I will take a look at mine; the chugger makes sound but does not smoke.

Regards

Fred 

great looking Hudson Brian

Briaan,

If you run it much be sure and grease the smoke unit gears in tender.

Gunny

sncf231e posted:

Your Hudson makes a lot of smoke! I will take a look at mine; the chugger makes sound but does not smoke.

Have you tried putting any smoke in it? If it's been ran without it the heating element might be kaput.

Gunny, I've serviced both motors and all the moving parts. All I have left is to re-glue the tires back on.

That's pretty cool, even if it is HO.   Old school tech wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be!   LOL

I need to find me a couple of O-gauge smoker/chugger tenders. To run with my Marx locos!

Nice loco there Brian!  I have the prewar one and it needs some work

The prewar ones I think all have the remote directional reverse unit in the tender.

Dennis Holler posted:

Nice loco there Brian!  I have the prewar one and it needs some work

Get to it then!

have you seen Dennis's project closet? 

handyandy posted:

That's pretty cool, even if it is HO.   Old school tech wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be!   LOL

 

I need to find me a couple of O-gauge smoker/chugger tenders. To run with my Marx locos!

Chugging tenders were available before WW2 in the Flyer 3/16ths O gauge line, but you'll have to get a postwar S gauge tender if you want a smoking model. It will take some work to figure out how to get the tubing from the smoking tender through a Marx shell and then up through the stack. Gilbert's original smoke unit produced copius amounts of smoke (and could puff great clouds when the reverse unit was in neutral), but the early bellows assembly was finicky. A replacement for the bellows assembly was developed, but the cost of having 2 motors in a model wasn't ideal from the accounting department's bottom line, so the more dependable smoke unit with chugger assembly that fit inside the locomotive's shell came about. Unfortunately, the neat smoke puffing in neutral feature was lost.

The 1946 Hudson with the 5318 Cab number is a model 151. It came with either a bellows or a piston type smoke unit in the tender. Most were marked with either a P or a W scratched under the tender to indicate which it was.

The 443 came either with or without an electronic steam whistle in the tender. Some had an illuminated headlight, some did not. The smoke and choo choo piston unit is in the engine. Moving it to the engine provided a cost advantage eliminating one motor, the tubing and simplified assembly. It provided an advantage in that the smoke and choo choo were then synchronized to the drive wheels.

These are DC permanent magnet engines, the prewar Gilbert HO were universal motors.

MTN posted:

handyandy posted:

That's pretty cool, even if it is HO.   Old school tech wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be!   LOL

 

I need to find me a couple of O-gauge smoker/chugger tenders. To run with my Marx locos!

Chugging tenders were available before WW2 in the Flyer 3/16ths O gauge line, but you'll have to get a postwar S gauge tender if you want a smoking model. It will take some work to figure out how to get the tubing from the smoking tender through a Marx shell and then up through the stack. Gilbert's original smoke unit produced copius amounts of smoke (and could puff great clouds when the reverse unit was in neutral), but the early bellows assembly was finicky. A replacement for the bellows assembly was developed, but the cost of having 2 motors in a model wasn't ideal from the accounting department's bottom line, so the more dependable smoke unit with chugger assembly that fit inside the locomotive's shell came about. Unfortunately, the neat smoke puffing in neutral feature was lost.

A few of my Marx buddies have done it with 999’s

I used to collect ho flyer. The 443 never came with a whistle. Only 446 did and it takes a special controller to blow it. The 443 ,446, 31005, and Wabash Hudson's run a lot better than the older ones with smoke in tender. Later years also have pullmor wheels which make them really pull. On a layout the smoke in tender draws so much power it' almost worthless in pulling.  My ho flyer layout was 8x24. Even the biggest transformer in ho hated those smoke in tenders.

Little update on this, it all back to-gether & working now.

Here is a quick video:

Hey Brian, could you post a picture showing the attachment of the rear coupler on the tender? What transformer are you using? I got one of these engines in January. The tender coupler is missing and the HO transformer does not have the power to run the smoke unit and engine without degraded performance. Thanks!

Brian,

That was my first HO set I got when switching over from lionel to ho when I was 13 in 1959.  Long time ago!

Dmax,

Pretty sure this is the set I had.  Is this a good smoker and chuffer (don't remember) and is it  a good deal?

It would have been bought in 1959.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GILBE...p2055119.m1438.l2649

thanks,

Sam

@Stew

Mine had a European coupler on it when I got it. I found a small bolt & nut in my box of parts and a cover plate. I just sandwiched the coupler on like you would most HO trains and it seems to work fine.

@Samparfitt

That is the set I originally bought, in my original post I said how I was disappointed in the 443's smoking & chuffing. The smoke just dribbles out and the chuffing is a bit quiet and way too slow. I paid $85 for my set in better condition than the one you posted (but I don't know what the average price for them is).

It appears my tender has something broke off. Any idea where I can get a rear truck?