Model Train Journal

My friend and fellow doorstop historian John Fisher recently sent me a list of questions regarding models I have or have written about in my OST column. A good answer to just the first question required a bit of effort, so I thought I would get some mileage out of it and post it here. The answer to this first question is actually pretty long and involves links to on-line photos, so it will take two or three posts to get it all here. I will post answers to his other questions as I get them done.

Q #1: Regarding the Megow/Scale Model Rys NYC 2-8-0: They are said to have two different boilers -- The first by Jack Ferris and the second by Megow. Have you one of these model? Do they run well? And do both have the same type drive mechanism?

A: As best I can tell, Megow never moved the SMR factory from Huntington, Indiana, so I like to think of all models produced in Huntington as SMRs (not Megows). Megow's advertisements used the phrase "Scale Model Railways, a Megow Plant" to acknowledge SMR. However, I do use the term "Megow/SMR" to refer to models that only appeared in Megow ads and catalogs (that is, that never appeared before the acquisition of SMR by Megow, which occurred in early 1940 (again, as best I can tell). I mention this because I have found no evidence that SMR offered an NYC 2-8-0 before the acquisition by Megow. Further, I have never seen one of these that did not have the cast boiler. That doesn't mean that SMR didn't build them, or they aren't out there, but only that I haven't seen any evidence. I guess there is also the possibility that Jack Ferris himself built them himself after selling SMR, but again I have seen no evidence of this.

I was very fortunate to have had the chance a few years back to acquire a very nice example of the Megow/SMR version with the cast boiler:



I think this may actually be the model shown in the factory ads and catalogs. It is hand lettered and the lettering matches very closely:



To be continued...

Jim

No info from me, but that is a very nice example. One came through here for work three decades ago - I was not particularly impressed.

Hello Jim and the world

Nice NYC 2-8-0 ... this engine is a bit unique with the cast boiler ...as the Scale Model Railway engines that I've seen may have a cast chassis but built up boiler .... considering the cast freight car line surfaced with Megow about the same time ...Jack Ferris may have designed an "easier" line for folks to assemble and spun it off to Megow ...... Jack Ferris was still advertising under his own name ... so a bit confusing .

Here is my example which ran on the Smokey Mountain RR layout for years . runs like a charm .. ... Frank Ellison on Delta Lines also had a Megow / Ferris/ SMR 2-8-0 ..his peddler freight steamer .

Cheers Carey

Hello all ..another ad November 1940 Model Railroader ...here Megow has purchased the SMR line



Same magazine ....Jack Ferris is in business for himself ......Huntington must have been one busy engine building town ...




Cheers Carey

Thanks, Carey. I think my brother Pete has a model from the Smokey Mountain LInes, an All Nation F that he picked up in Chicago, if I recall correctly.

Here is the second half of my answer to John Fisher's questions regarding the Megow/SMR 2-8-0:

The model I have is a solid runner, but noisy. This is not a surprise, as the worm is directly mounted to the motor shaft with no bearing on the far side of the worm:



This is a common configuration, especially in lower-cost production models of the years before and just after the war.

Here it is pulling a short string of old cars, including three Lionel semi-scale cars and a ScaleCraft stock car, all sent to me by a 91-year-old reader of my column, along with a Lionel flyer listing these cars.



I was unaware of the semi-scale cars before this. If I understand the story, these are closely related to the Lionel 700-series of scale cars but were sold for the three-rail market. I don't know how hard they are to convert to two-rail, but they make neat cars.

Finally, here is the full page of the catalog listing for the 2-8-0 from the Megow #10 catalog. The cast boiler construction can be clearly seen:



I have some video of this locomotive running. If I get a chance I will edit it and post it.

Jim

I finally got the video I had of the Megow/SMR Consolidation edited and posted on YouTube. See link below. This was from a test run of the locomotive in its "as arrived" condition. In retrospect I should have taken the time to put some cars and a caboose behind it. The test run was on the DFW O-Scale Club layout. The club lost our space (in the basement of an old Sears warehouse) in December 2015, and that was the end of the layout. The video was shot as the layout was starting to be torn down. Much of the scenery has already been removed.

https://youtu.be/N0rpPw0qrJk

Question #2 next
Jim

Nice Consolidation Jim, it's a shame that layout lost it's space, it was nice place to run and take photos.
These Megow/SMR's are great looking models, I would imagine they inhabited most of the local , secondary and branch freight runs throughout the system for a time. Note #1052 here on George Elwood's excellent site is lettered B&A , and sports that distinctive cut-away coal bunker tender so common on Central's switcher fleet, like the Alco-Brooks 0-8-0's

Interestingly the tender style on your model is employed on another member of the same class here

Something to know about these locos if it adds to the discussion:

Pete, the photos you show are of the NYC and B&A G5 and G6/G16, many many of which were rebuilt into H5 Mikados. The H5 was a ubiquitous "jeep" loco on NYC; the entire class one of the largest in the US as far as numbers, some were the rebuilds, some built as Mikes as new.

A few G6 on B&A were rebuilt instead with superheating to G16. They ran pretty much east of Springfield Mass while locals and helpers west of Springfield got H5s.

Now, the Megow is actually a G46, a somewhat different yet also well thought of Consolidation originally built for Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, smaller drivers the big tip-off.

The design was a pretty stock Alco product, and several railroads bought that basic design with their own spec of appliances, tenders, driver sizes, &c.

Did Megow also make rolling stock, probably HO, kits that were mostly wood with cardboard sides?
I think I remember building some HO Megow kits in the late 1940s. Could be wrong.

rogruth wrote:Did Megow also make rolling stock, probably HO, kits that were mostly wood with cardboard sides?
I think I remember building some HO Megow kits in the late 1940s. Could be wrong.

Yep. I have a Megow PRR hopper kit buried around here somewhere

rex desilets wrote:

rogruth wrote:Did Megow also make rolling stock, probably HO, kits that were mostly wood with cardboard sides?
I think I remember building some HO Megow kits in the late 1940s. Could be wrong.

Yep. I have a Megow PRR hopper kit buried around here somewhere

So my memory is still fairly good. Glad to hear that.

Hello all ...Megow had it's fingers in many things ...planes HO, and a short romance with O scale .... bought out / took over / carried the Scale Model Railways engines ...then developed the NYC 2-8-0, a diesel , line of cast aluminum freight cars offered a few buildings in O scale ...then WW2 and O scale line was gone ....post war the cast freight cars were again offered by a new Scale Railways company out of Wheaton , Il ... Jack Ferris who was the head of Scale Railways Models ... after selling ..or ? continued selling under his own name ..... and post war developed the AMT line .
Cheers Carey