Trying to ID this recent mystery buy from garage sale. Just locomotive, no box, no manufacturer brand or model markings on the engine. Under the plastic cover, there is a single lead weight at the rear of the engine. Removing the weight shows a shaft coupling to the motor. There is no front coupling. Single bulb light wired to the front tracks. Train is an EMD F unit with Southern Green and White markings. I would guess Bachmann F9. What is confusing me is all the pics I can find online has motor with front and back shafts and the weight surrounding the entire motor unit. Some pics of the engine: https://imgur.com/zYvUT8k https://imgur.com/Xe2X3VN
Looks closest to a LifeLike F7, but with the front drive and weight removed, and motor rotated 90 degrees around longitudinal axis
It is an early FA unit. The spring powered truck drive line gives it away. Limited pulling power and the most common thing is to have the spring break. Then you find a nice old fat ball point pen and maybe if you are lucky the spring will fit. I used to have some and they were replaced by the Lifelike FA-1 and FA-2 a far superior loco.
Thanks for the info everyone. It does look like a modified Life-Like FA without the front coupling. On my DC track it does work, forward, back, front light. The front end of the motor is mounted to a white plastic spacer, but the metal rod stops before it comes out of the spacer in front. There is a magnet placed there touching the plastic, no noticeable places to mount a front coupling. The front trucks are soldered directly to the light. Interesting to see such big differences in the early manufacture of these engines. Will keep it has a historical model, no reason to DCC this one.
I think I found it on the TroveStar site. Has the same Road or Reporting Number 810. It doesn't have the 'Made in Yugoslavia' or 'Made in Slovenia' markings on the tank underside, so it was MRC, AHM or Life-Like from 1969 thru mid-1970's. https://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=162399
Cool to see the differences based on the manufacturer. Looks like the version that appeared shortly after Model Power took over the line is closest to my model. http://www.spookshow.net/loco/yugofa2.html Thanks for everyone's help! Nice to track this down. Makes it more fun to run!
There is NO question that it is a Mehano FA-2 Tehachapifan is correct. And, TF, I saw your first post. I guess others didn't or... Doug
Thanks for the look inside your museum piece. It's even more fun than side valves, an updraft carb and contact points.
Also, there are even more variations than Mark indicates because Mehano used various parts at any time. Yours, for example, still has the earlier motor (with a "chrome" frame instead of the more common black) but the spring between the motor shaft fitting and the gear tower fitting. Doug
Points... HA! I bought an older motorcycle that the previous owner couldn’t get running. He bought a new carb, had the head rebuilt, new battery and a few other things. He was asking $500, I got it for $350. After money exchanged hands and I had the title in my hand, I took off the points cover and seen the corrosion, took out a file, cleaned the corrosion off, kicked it over a few times and ended up riding it home! The look on his face was priceless. He had no clue what points were, how to check them or even what they did. Funny thing is he took them out of the head to get the head rebuilt! I talked to him later he thought that they were part of the charging system. It’s funny how so mane mechanics today have no clue what points are or how they work... on and let’s not even mention dwell or the o-scope engine analyzer. Lol.
My 1959 Chevy had NO pollution control on it, at all. The crankcase just vented to the outside air through a tube that ran down toward the ground. The only vacuum tube was to operate the vacuum advance in the distributor. Exhaust gas recirculation? Right. Doug Doug