I confess to a total "restore" on this one some twenty years ago. Not much more than a bucket of parts when I got it, with quite a few missing. What was left of the paint was gunmetal, but I decided to go for a crackle-black look. Turns out, a black satin finish doesn't really look like crackle-black, lol. Whatever, many repro parts here, including the trailing truck which occasionally shorts to the motor, tripping the e-unit. I still need to sort that out. The big eff-up on my part was not quartering the wheels when I reassembled the motor...what a dip.
Here's the 1689E tumbling around the layout quite a few years ago:
The small red marker lights have always struck me as a bit ingenious, given the era. A sort of early light-pipe tech, as they draw their illumination from the bulb for the headlight. The photo reminds me I need to get things back up and running down in the basement. Hmmm...that signal looks a bit duplicitous.
Lastly, I'd been looking for one of MTH's Lionel Corp repros of the Flying Yankee in green or red since they stopped pushing out the tinplate line. Most originals you find are the gunmetal version, and a lot of those have had the hell beaten out of them. The red-nosed ones seem to be especially beat up, as they were painted silver, not chromed like the two earlier versions. Regardless, I managed to find one over at Marios, no PS-whatever but a traditional motor like I wanted, nicely discounted. Should roll in this weekend. The wife will intercept, no doubt, asserting it's a Christmas present.
Who wants to bet it's DOA? Whatever...the layout's not up and running anyway.
Healey
