Another interesting item...........

[herronpeter]

.........which is a "mystery"!!!!!!!!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/All-Brass-Myst ... SwIVhaKTLX

Peter

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Perhaps even more interesting:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/O-SCALE-STEAME ... 0005.m1851

[sarge]

Perhaps even more interesting:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/O-SCALE-STEAME ... 0005.m1851

Polydrive?

I've actually never seen one complete in the flesh (lucky me in over fifty years of O scale!), so its a guess.

[Jay Criswell]

Yeppers! That's a Walther's 0-6-0 w/Polydrive. I have most of the pieces (including the superstructure) for their 4-8-2 but the plastic in the center of the drivers is crumbling.

Some feel these drives would/will never operate well but I think it could be done. The secret would be better drive components and getting the drivers lined up properly (like the timing of a DOHC engine).

While examining the 4-8-2 I came away with the opinion it might be 17/64". It just looked larger than I thought it should.

Jay

[Carey Williams]

Hello Poly People

1940 Bill Walthers makes a big splash with his introduction of snap together drive trains ... fully covered in the 1940 catalog ... claiming that the engines he provided for the 1939/40 World's Fair were equipped the Poly drive ...
Below photos of the 1940 Walthers catalog .... a photo of the poly drive stolen from the http://WWW...and a photo of my Mikado with Poly Drive .... it runs after a fashion ...Walthers strong hand was never engines ( in my opinion) .....however I'm liking the stream-liner ..has anyone ever seen one of these ? it was carried in the catalog for several years ...all cast body ...there has to be a pile of them somewhere ...

1/4" or 17/64ths ? ....the Mikado leans more 1/4" ...
Jay can you please post photo of your Northern ?

Cheers Carey

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polymor drive units 1940.jpg (379.53 KiB) Viewed 8498 times

IMG_6891.JPG (1.53 MiB) Viewed 8498 times

[Jay Criswell]

Carey,

Next time I go by the storage unit I'll see if I can find them (boiler in one box, mechanism in another). BTW, I think it's a Mountain.

Jay

[bob turner]

Lionel used that general idea for years. My little (? -17/64?) B6 0-6-0 runs fine with all drivers geared together.

[Carey Williams]

Hello Jay ...storage unit .... I thought trains were suppose to be on a layout running past your fine Model Structures buildings ....thank you for hunting down the bits for photographic documentation

Hello Bob ....you have a Poly drive 060 ? or a Lionel 060 ? ..... yes the Lionel 060 certainly seems at least 17/64ths as it towers over the little 700E ... Lionel always made such big deal promoting their use of scale .... they failed to use the "same" scale on any two models ... details

If you have a Walthers 060 please post a photo for the world to gaze at it's beauty .
Cheers Carey

[herronpeter]

Hey Rufus,

Yours ended up being more interesting than mine! I'm crushed.............I'm going home and taking my ball with me!!

Peter

[robert.]

this auction goes off tomorrow. not much if any 2 rail.
http://www.auctionzip.com/auction-catal ... &keywords=

[Jay Criswell]

May just be the absolute zenith in basket cases!












Jay

[Carey Williams]

Thank you very much Jay for documenting your Poly Walthers ..... it is a big engine ....once all put together ....

Those plastic drivers did not hold up for the durability tests ...

Cheers Carey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Hey Rufus,

Yours ended up being more interesting than mine! I'm crushed.............I'm going home and taking my ball with me!!

Peter

When I saw the polydrive, yup!

[herronpeter]

My opinion of the Polydrive (bearing in mind I’m way to young in O scale to have ever seen one) is that you multiply the noise from one old gear box time 4 for a real coffee grinder sound. All that complexity just to get plastic drivers. Makes no sense to me and others if the modern practice of one gear box per one steam locomotive is any measure.

Peter

[Rufus T. Firefly]

My opinion of the Polydrive (bearing in mind I’m way to young in O scale to have ever seen one) is that you multiply the noise from one old gear box time 4 for a real coffee grinder sound. All that complexity just to get plastic drivers. Makes no sense to me and others if the modern practice of one gear box per one steam locomotive is any measure.

My opinion is limited to this being a historical curiosity item,