1939 NYC World's Fair Alexander S1

[Carey Williams]

Hello all
Here are some pictures of the Alexander S1 lettered American Railroads ...as was the prototype on display during the 1939 /40 World's Fair in NYC. This example is for outside 3rd rail ... and second one was made for running on the "Railroads at Work" layout ... seen below pulling circus cars !
The S1 was built as the largest ridge frame steamer ever made ..... this model is 35 1/2" long ...and has no interest in negotiating my curves (48" radius) .... same problem the prototype had in the real world . To see a video of it running and a bit more info please see link

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/193 ... ylvania-s1

Cheers Carey

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[Dennis Holler]

Carey, that is most impressive and a great find! Maybe some of us doorstop nutz should get together and make a few patters for some of these locos and see about getting some duplicates cast. It would be a lot of pain and wouldn't yield any profit, but it could probably be done... Did you pick this up at the Chicago show?

[ScaleCraft]

Wasn't the 1939 NYWF "Eastern Railroads"?
Provenance is a hard thing to actually prove one would guess.

[Erik C Lindgren]

Wow what a model that’s awesome

[Carey Williams]

Hello all
Thank you for your kind words
The best part of the March Meet is talking with all the folks . When you have a table filled with odd old things folks are happy to remember when they saw one or an ad or they knew someone or ask "what's this stuff ?"
Gentlemen at the show mentioned he had the engine ... my jaw dropped ... so much for poker face in negotiations. He bought about 25 years ago out of a hobby shop in Pittsburgh, the son of the gentlemen in the Craftsman article has sold it to the hobby shop.
Yes Dave the two big layouts at the fair were lettered Eastern Railroads ...and they were both two rail. There were numerous layouts at the Fair , being lettered American Railroads Guessing it would used as a promotional piece near the prototype engine , which was run under steam with drivers turning on rollers
Here is the sister Eastern Railroads engine on the cover of Alexander's book. ... book also contains drawings of the engine .. just encase Dennis you wish to build one .
Cheers Carey

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[Dennis Holler]

Ha, so after reading your post, I looked and found the book for $10 buy it now and it's on its way.....That is a neat story and is why "networking" is a worthwhile activity I guess. No way you would have ever gotten the opportunity to buy that engine otherwise.