Modern era standard gauge just found.........

MrAllied: This rare find gets my WOW today!

Thanks for sharing.  Looking forward to see the G!

Well, here's the GG1.  She is about 30" long and weighs about 30 pounds.  Everything appears to have been designed so that it could run 24/7 for years.  I cannot imagine any model locomotive, other than a big, live steamer, that has been engineered like these Gold Standard Engineering GG1's.   The fellow who produced these, Robert C. Hendrich, actually lived in Glendora, a suburb of Los Angeles.  I believe we were both members of TCA Western Division at the time, but I have no memory of ever having met him or seeing him display these gorgeous models at a meet.  Only 58 of these GG1's were built, available in Brunswick Green as mine is or Tuscan Red.  I wonder if one is rarer than the other?

Wow! What a beautiful engine and great set of cars. Thanks for sharing this find with us all. I know from experience that this isn't your first great find, and I'm sure it won't be your last. Please share with us all more often! I only wish I lived closer so we could video the beast running on the 084 loop on my standard gauge layout. It would dwarf the E2's and JAD Hiawatha's! Glad you decided to start this thread and I hope to "see" you on here more often. Eric

A TRUE GEM, and probably almost worth its weight in the proverbial gold!

Well today, I rigged up a test stand, so I could put power to the GG1, as I didn't have any standard gauge track.  I hooked up a tiny, 60 watt, Lionel transformer to the beast and at the slightest movement of the throttle, her twelve drive wheels began to spin.  There is a 3-position, toggle switch mounted on one of the power trucks, with which you can select forward, off and reverse.  The headlights are directional and both still work.  I was amazed at the smoothness and relative quietness of the motors and the geared trucks.  True engineering excellence!

Many of you have been very helpful in sharing information about this Gold Standard Engineering GG1 and I thank you very much.  I knew pretty much nothing about these models, but am learning more every day.   I learned that Bill Hendrich serialized these models by stamping a serial number in the bottom edge of the body casting, right between the two power trucks.  Knowing that his glorious machines were quite heavy, he made it easy for folks to see the serial numbers, by stamping them in REVERSE, so that one can simply put a small mirror below the number and read it.  My model is No. 25, which puts it in the "later" period of the run.  This is significant, as the builder continued to improve the models as he went along, with No. 20 being a significant turning point.

The first models were delivered with 20:1 gearing and the two motors were wired in series, so the loco required 20 to 30 volts to run.  After serial No. 20, the motors were changed from the original Dayton motors to Redmond motors, which were then wired in parallel, so they only required 12 to 20 volts to operate.  In addition, the gearing was changed to 10:1, which gave the model a bit more speed.  Pulling power was NEVER an issue!

It would appear that the best information is that a total of 62 Gold Standard Engineering GG1's were produced, but only 40 or so were standard gauge, with the Tuscan Red model being more common than this Brunswick Green example.  The remaining models were delivered with G Scale running gear.  

So, only a very few operators of standard gauge trains will ever have one of these jewels on their layout.  Only 40 or so out there and I have already heard of at least two fellows who own multiple examples.

Hope you are all doing well,

Allen Drucker

Allen- Nice to see you are still "playing" with trains. I remember you when I was a kid and you were the auctioneer at the monthly MTA (Model Train Association) meetings in Bellflower and TCA Western Division meetings at Bateman Hall in Lynwood. (I think those were the locations if memory serves correct?)

I had visited your store several times and attended a few of the auctions at the store-those were really great events.

Great memories of great times. The hobby was certainly different back then!!

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

Mr.Allied: A magnificent machine if ever there was one.  Thanks for sharing the photos.  It's well out of my range (and distance, as I reside in Germany) but who ever ends up with this model I already envy the person.

"Papa", are you listening?

I have a green Waterman GG1, same number.

Steve

@GZ posted:

Allen- Nice to see you are still "playing" with trains. I remember you when I was a kid and you were the auctioneer at the monthly MTA (Model Train Association) meetings in Bellflower and TCA Western Division meetings at Bateman Hall in Lynwood. (I think those were the locations if memory serves correct?)

I had visited your store several times and attended a few of the auctions at the store-those were really great events.

Great memories of great times. The hobby was certainly different back then!!

Those were great days at those old club meets.  You probably remember my dear friend John King, who was the main auctioneer back then.  We all loved to watch him do the auctions.  Then, one meet, he didn’t show up, and then at the next, he wasn’t there either.  He had found a new girlfriend!  So, the auction was done by old Bill Harris.  He would take a 400E loco and start the bidding with “Dollar, dollar, dollar.....and a half and a half and a half......”

Back then—well before I had my store—I was chasing old trains and would always run a bunch of stuff through the auctions.  With John King, it was great, but with old Bill, it was a disaster.  I was getting killed, so one meet, scared to death, I said to myself “I can do better than old Bill,” so I gave it a try, auctioning my own stuff.  I thought I was horrible, but then the next seller said “You’re way better than Bill, would you please sell my stuff?”  And that’s how it started.

I got my State Auctioneer’s License and did the auctions for decades.  My last auction was in October of 2006.  Had I known it would be my last, well, I might have said something to the audience, but who knew?  These days, live auctions, with no internet presence, just don’t work anymore, which is very sad.

John King. A name I haven't heard in a long time. I was lucky enough (on more than one occasion) to have him give me $1.00 to draw raffle tickets at TTOS meets in Arcadia at the Masonic Lodge. It was always great fun watching him auction off trains until late in the night. At least it seemed late, I don't think I was more than 10 at the time. Auctions have certainly changed since those days! But I still have some of the trains I bought in those auctions! Great memories!

I used to absolutely LIVE for those auctions!  When, around 1971, I went for my basic training up at Ft. Ord, once I was able to get a weekend pass, I would fly out of Monterey, into LAX, where my girlfriend would pick me up and we would drive straight to the Friday night train meet.  Those were the days, long before LAX became so ridiculously congested and overcrowded.

I remember John King and Bill Harris. I think Bill Harris even started an Antique Toy Club that he ran.

Other names I remember were Don Ladenberger, Chuck Stone, Jerry Rokas, Lyle Kane, Ron Wade, John Daniels, Ed White, Colonel Bragg,  the Stearns family, John Parker etc. I wonder how many of these people are still around or still active in the train world? I was a teenager at the time and these people were a lot older than I was!

Those Friday night train meets were epic. You never knew what was going to turn up. It was so exciting in those days because the vintage trains were coming straight from homes, garage sales, antique markets, etc. I also remember them running very late into the night.

I left SoCal in about 1990, and that is also when I got out of train collecting and sold my prewar standard gauge collection. I just got back into prewar standard gauge about five years ago after having been completely removed from the toy train world for nearly 25 years. It sure is a different collecting world than when I first collected.

It is interesting to think that there was a train world where the new Lionel MPC trains were the latest and greatest in terms of new technology and there were no reproductions or re-issues. Prewar standard gauge was king back then.

Don Ladenberger lives in San Diego now.  Chuck Stone and Ron Wade are still kicking, but everyone else you mentioned is no longer with us, with the possible exception of Ed White, for whom I have no info.

Yes, it was so different and so exciting back then.   I was strongly opposed to the reproductions, as I felt they diluted the hobby.  When you saw a President’s Special at a show, you were just thrilled, knowing what a rare sight it was.  After my dear friend, George Sirus teamed up with Art Varney, to reproduce the PS and other AF & Ives 19” sets, it really changed things, at least in my eyes.  I even ended up owning a “one off,” Hamiltonian two-tone red President’s Special that George made just for me.  I had always commented on how AF should have made the set as pictured on the cover of the 1928 AF catalog, so George did one set for me.  That said, I wish none of the classic trains had ever been reproduced.

SORRY, but I have to respectfully disagree about your dislike of reproductions. Many of us without the advantage of having been there in the "good early days" of collecting, or not having the financial ability to buy pristine examples of the original classic standard gauge, would not have been able to own them were it not for folks like Mike Wolf, John Daniels, Sirus and Varney and many others. There are many approaches to this hobby of ours and ALL are valid, but we will have to agree to disagree! :-)

@Tinplate Art posted:

SORRY, but I have to respectfully disagree about your dislike of reproductions. Many of us without the advantage of having been there in the "good early days" of collecting, or not having the financial ability to buy pristine examples of the original classic standard gauge, would not have been able.to own them were it not for folks like Mike Wolf, John Daniels, Sirus and Varney and many others. There are many approaches to this hobby of ours and ALL are valid, but we will have to agree to disagree! :-)

This ^^^, and I also enjoy reproductions because I can run beautiful trains without fear of destroying the value of an original.

Mallard4468: Point well taken! :-)

@Tinplate Art posted:

SORRY, but I have to respectfully disagree about your dislike of reproductions. Many of us without the advantage of having been there in the "good early days" of collecting, or not having the financial ability to buy pristine examples of the original classic standard gauge, would not have been able to own them were it not for folks like Mike Wolf, John Daniels, Sirus and Varney and many others. There are many approaches to this hobby of ours and ALL are valid, but we will have to agree to disagree! :-)

Well, I certainly understand your point of view and also realize that my feelings on the subject are not shared by very many others.  To me, there were so many wonderful models that could have been built, WHY copy something from a previous manufacturer?  Even though I felt his models were cheap looking, I had no problem with the pieces John Daniel made, such as his standard gauge Hiawatha, as it was something that had never been done before.  Yes, we will agree to disagree.

:-) :-) :-)

OK, lets get this back on track to the original discussion.  If you all want to discuss the merits of the making of reproductions, then start a different thread with an appropriate title so that others can find and participate in that discussion.

I always love it when something that is supposed to be a fun hobby, has to be hemmed in and stifled at every turn, just to make sure that everyone follows the “rules.”  This thread evolved naturally, just like a group of guys at a train show, talking.  It’s not like, out of left field (sorry, didn’t mean to throw a baseball term in there) someone here decided to talk national politics or something.  What is wrong with a thread starting out with a topic of modern era standard gauge, evolving into a discussion of reproductions?