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Lionel's 700e NYC Hudson was the company's zenith prewar production piece...the less detailed 763 at half the price paid the bills on the production .
The Lionel 763 retailing for 37.50 (1938-41) was a bargain for many emerging O scale modelers ....Robert J Foster of East St Louis ,IL was perhaps Lionel's favorite customer buying 20+ 763's modifying them into Jubilee's up to articulated engines and writing articles for others to do the same.
Imagine if WW2 had not happened ..would a Northern been produced by Lionel ? Foster did all the r&d and had several running Northern's based on Lionel components in 1942.
Foster's articles appear in Model Railroader June 1941 & Model Builder Dec 1942.
To see a video of the Northern running pulling some of Foster's cars from his Atlantic & Pacific Railroad..please see link
https://youtu.be/uyC48Agz-FQ



Cheers Carey

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@RamblerDon posted:

Posts like this always make me a little sad that Lionel didn't chase after the scale stuff. The 700e and 763e seemed to do well enough. A scale Northern or even a K4 Pacific would have been a great follow up. What could have been...

Not so sure we can blame Lionel on that, …..Hitler, Mussolini, & Hitto, had other plans that redirected Lionel’s plans,……😉

Pat

Hey Pat there is a splice in the connecting rod between the 3rd and 4th driving axle.  In Cary's video on YouTube, he shows images from a 1941 Model Builder magazine where Mr. Foster went into detail about how he changed a Hudson into a Northern.  Don't worry, the giant Lionel back-driveable worm wheel and worm survived the rebuild!  He had to get creative though, because he didn't have any of your heavy-duty double universal drive shafts handy!  No Pittmans were available, so he had to make do with a K&D #3 motor (which I think still has 4 more poles than Lionel's motor!)  :-D

So, Carey Williams, I follow Leonard Williams on You Tube and see your posts here on OGF as well. What is the relationship between the two of you?  Please share more about your project to collect and share classic and historical models. I have enjoyed many of your posts, including from Frank Ellison's Delta Lines, Chicago MSI, Bill Lenoir, Ickes, this Foster thread, and many others. Collecting these items is not my passion, but I'm glad it's yours! Appreciate you and keep it up!

Thank you Ken Wing for you for your kind words.

Leonard is my first name ..but everyone knows me by Carey .

I enjoy collecting early , odd and unusual....along with researching to get the rest of the story .

Videos and postings help to share the hobby with others ...just exposing the wide variety of models that make up the collective " model / toy train world"

Cheers Carey "Leonard C Williams"

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800-980-OGRR (6477)
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