Is the MTH Baldwin switcher made from the former Weaver VO-1000 carbody dies? Or does Atlas have them as part of it's purchase of Weaver dies?
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Tom,
From what I remember about the Weaver "sale", any product that Weaver was having made "over seas" (China), that tooling was purchased by Atlas. Any product that was being manufactured in the U.S. was obtained by Lionel.
I recently read that Atlas has the tooling.
My Weaver CB&Q Baldwin came with high and low stacks (the Q had both styles). If you find an ATSF version with the wrong stacks, I can help you with that.
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The diesels that Weaver models sold to MTH were:
The SD40-2
E8
ALCo "C628"
BLW RF16 "sharks"
Possibly ALCo RS11/RSD12?
Thanks, fellows. The reason for my curiosity is that I am in hope that the owner will decide to produce a zebra stripe, high stack "new and improved" VO-1000 with excellent Baldwin sound. Maybe one of these days . . .
We have the tooling for the VO-1000s. As we get caught up with the backlog of O scale locomotives, getting some of the former Weaver locomotives into production is in our plans.
Mike had his own. They have been around for a long time.
Tom...
I hear you on the VO-1000's, ATSF Zebra-striped. This was the last Weaver engine I bought...from Ebay. Still sealed, it had never seen the rails.....and it would barely move!
A quick call to Gary.....who was yet on staff at that time...and he knew immediately the problem, giving me the hints on how to fix (dried old grease in the truck gearboxes).
Runs like a Swiss watch, now....
And VERY shortly thereafter, Gary was gone. And, as we all know, shortly-shortly thereafter, so was Weaver in its entirety
.
Ergo, I feel fortunate to have the engine...and I do, indeed, hope that Atlas will re-release...same road/paint scheme...but with updated drive/sound/details. I believe they will. Mold dies sitting around earn no money.
KD
Could be a long wait for this engine to be produced, Atlas currently has 10 engines listed on their A-Z shipping schedule, at their current rate of 1 a quarter thats 2 1/2 years before a model not currently on the list would get built unless they choose to cut in a new model into the current schedule. The 4Q 16 engine the Tman RS3 has just delivered to dealers and customers, the F7 and then the F3 should take us close to 3Q 17 unless Atlas production on motive power improves. Just saying!
Marty Fitzhenry posted:Mike had his own. They have been around for a long time.
Who is Mike? 
J Daddy posted:Marty Fitzhenry posted:Mike had his own. They have been around for a long time.
Who is Mike?
MTH Electric Trains (Mike's Train House), i.e. Mike Wolf. How many well known Mikes are there in the 3-Rail O train world?
dkdkrd posted:Tom...
I hear you on the VO-1000's, ATSF Zebra-striped. This was the last Weaver engine I bought...from Ebay. Still sealed, it had never seen the rails.....and it would barely move!
Gary was a great asset at Weaver.
Talked to the Atlas guys at Trainfest. They are excited about having the Baldwin, and when they do release it, it'll have the proper sound chip.
Thanks to all who responded in this thread. Good information.
It seemed natural to me that Weaver focused on northeastern railroads. You tend to know railroading by the railroads around you. Nothing wrong with that. They did produce a couple of Santa Fe prototype locomotives: the Valley Flyer 4-6-2 in brass, and the Baldwin VO-1000 in plastic. I must have had a couple of dumb spells that corresponded with the timing on these two, since I didn't buy either. Oh, well, now I know that I'll have a second chance with the VO. The Valley Flyer was not really for me. I'd have purchased a Santa Fe 4-6-2 without the skirting and special paint, but the Valley Flyer engine really has no appeal to me.
The zebra striped VO with the 4 tall stacks sold out almost immediately, as do most Santa Fe zebra striped diesels. Weaver probably underestimated the demand, but there was no justification for a second run, and they were gone. So, I will look forward to Atlas' future release of a Santa Fe VO, with improvements made possible by advances in on-board electronics which have occurred since Weaver's model was produced.
Weaver deserves a tip of the hat for having originated this affordable O gauge Baldwin VO.
