Do Parts Sources Exist for OLD N-Scale?

Hi, All;

With the O-gauge side of my railroading hobby, I can find parts for my trains with very little difficulty, even for trains back to the WWII era.

Do such venues exist for N? I'm trying to find a front truck assy for a ~1968-1970 Revell / Rapido F-3 Pennsy diesel dummy that is part of my first-ever N-scale set. It's not so much for monetary value as it is for sentimental purposes. I'd even consider purchasing the same unit with a different road name just so I could swap-out the shell.

Thanks for any guidance you might have;
Carl
DFW Area

 

While the parts support for N scale will most likely never approach the level that you find with the old tinplate, and Lionel stuff some does exist in N scale. Kato has about the best parts support for some older stuff followed by Atlas. Then Bachmann is a close third. ConCor now has a limited parts support. Used to be that Lifelike had a decent parts support until taken over by Walthers. Best thing is to try and see who was the importer in the U.S. back when it was made. Companies like Atlas had earlier stuff that was imported from European manufactures, and for instance the parts need to be ordered depending on who made the model originally if parts still exist.

Check Mark's site Spookshow http://www.spookshow.net/trainstuff.html both under the manufacturer or importer and it might give you a start as to which company had them in the U.S. which would then give you a idea of which company to check for parts support. Most likely though as you said you might have to try and find another to use as a parts donor.

 

Ditto what John and Ken wrote. Many of the early importers considered these as Christmas tree toys, or just as toys, so there was no effort whatsoever to stock repair parts. Many importers considered them as Matchbox items--in fact, I think some were sold under the Matchbox brand (Aurora Matchbox?). I knew a senior exec at Matchbox quite well (he was an early mentor), and I can say he wouldn't and didn't give a whit about spare parts. So buy a duplicate and use the parts.

 

You can try Feebay. Sometimes I have bid on a junk or parts engine to get just one part. I just got a non split frame LL BL 2 complete engine and a shell ( bid on and won both )because I just needed a front hand rail for one of mine.( It seems that they break very easily) The parts or junk BL 2s on Ebay seem to always be missing this part.

 

Doing a little digging around in my spare time and you may want to search under Arnold Rapido which was later acquired by Rivarossi.

 

Yard Queen? Re-purpose? Some of my non-running older stock will be used for small 'scenes'.
Just an idea.

 

Well, just to clarify my OP a bit, this was a set sold under the Revell name, but Arnold Rapido was stamped all over the engine, track, and cars which is why I called it a Revell/Rapido unit. I just don't want to relegate an F3A unit to yard queen status while the powered unit still runs so well. They just look better when paired.

Good suggestions on the forum buy/sell area; I was just hoping that there'd be some niche retailer out there that might have some of the parts available. Guess I'm going to have to be more diligent going thru the odds n ends boxes at shows!

Thanks for the suggestions thus far;
Carl

 

One thing we do have is a guy that has made his life's work into documenting all the stuff that's been made, along with mechanism variations, and reviews. Mark's site is one of those 'welcome to N scale, now here's what you need' posts:

http://www.spookshow.net/locos.html

What's different about N is that the relationship between a manufacturer and a distributor was tenuous at best so the 'same locomotive' may have been sold as MRC, Rivarossi, Con-Cor, Model Power or Atlas at different times. Knowing that, particularly for 1960's-70's stuff you're trying to get operational, can be invaluable.

You also need to know that old N scale is chronically misidentified in Ebay. One of my favorites was the Lima FP45, you'd see that out there as AHM (the importer), PMI, an F-unit, by the locomotive number, with and without dashes (FP-45, FP45). That's just an example. Revell imported from Rapido, Aurora imported from Minitrix, then both Minitrix and Rapido severed those ties and ran under their own names. While in O gauge you end up memorizing Lionel part numbers and years, here you'll end up memorizing the DNA chart of manufacturers vs. importers and put Marks site on your cell phone when you're out at yard sales. And, you'll often find that 'stuff' is lumped together in sales with that one you want in with a transformer, two unrelated plastic buildings, and an HO bridge and is sold as a set of 'N gage trains'.

I get most of my old parts via Ebay and antique/junk stores at little expense to myself but assuming that people generally have no idea at all what they are listing or selling so you'll have to. Unlike Lionel, most of this used/vintage stuff is not considered worth much, and you can actually afford to buy extras for parts. I just picked up a vintage Fleischmann 2-6-0 at a yard sale, restored and cleaned it, relisted it on the auction site and made a nice profit.

 

Thanks for the additional insight, Randgust; I had checked out Mark's site earlier in the day; interesting stuff on there; I was going to send some photos to him as I don't think what I have lines up with anything in his list. Of course, it could just be one of the items under the "various" header. ;-)

 

Had I known this a few weeks ago, I just sold several of those F unit dummies in a "parts group" on Feepay. I have been selling off all of my older stuff that has been laying around for 25+ years. I will look and see if I have any more of those.

Bob

 

Thanks Bob!

 

Not this, huh?
http://www.spookshow.net/loco/arnoldf.html

Or this?
http://www.spookshow.net/loco/arnoldfp9.html

I'm betting the latter. Which is perhaps good, because the clues that it was adapted from a European prototype greatly increases the potential parts pool for that application. Most of the Arnold stuff was really well-made, if sometimes oddball engineering, and I suspect there's a lot of European parts sources and vintage fans.

Have you possibly stumped Mark?

 

It has to be one of those two Rapidos Randy linked because those are the only two F units they ever made, in those days, and Revell, of course, was the same stuff.

Actually, it has to be the second if it's a dummy.

Rapido always designated them F9 or FP9, not F3.

Doug

 

Well, the other day when I looked at Mark's website, I thought the second link was a bit different. Sitting here with the hoods off both the powered and dummy units, I can confirm they're the FP9 units in Randgust's second link.

Main difference is that my chassis is still the original (?) black anodized. Mark's picture (to me at least) made it seem like some of the details were more rounded on his, but I was wrong.

The dummy is the same as in Mark's website, but with a rounded nose since it's an "A" unit dummy.

So....if this opens up European parts sources, where would one start?

thanks so much!

 

Check you PM box, parts found

 

Thanks, Randgust;

However, I'm not sure that's what I need. I understand your point about don't look for parts, look for used similar products; I get it.

However, I need the FRONT truck for the dummy "A" FP9 unit. MINE has the cowcatcher/whatever the diesel term is as part of the truck. The one in the link you provided has the "apron" / cowcatcher / ??? as part of the body.

Saw the same link last night. So...In all ignorance and sincerity, is there something I'm missing about that offering on the bay?

Thanks again!
Carl

 

Mechanism parts - motors, brushes, gears, etc. are typically shared between a lot of models in the same era. The Arnold GP7 and GP30 are identical internally. The Trix 4-6-2, 0-6-0, U28, U30 and FM has essentially the same motor. It's useful to know that a model was adapted (like the Arnold FP7) to fit an existing European mechanism, because all they likely did was make a new body and truck sideframes to fit. And if anything is still in stock anyplace its most likely to be the mechanism parts like motor, brushes, contacts and gears.

In this case, if you're looking for the cosmetic parts - the front truck with the integral pilot - for a phase of a US-market model, you're very unlikely to ever find that in a parts store or someplace else.

On your photo - it looks like the left rear corner of the shell (lower edge) is broken out. I wonder if that other shell with the pilot would still fit over the frame. Hard to say how they designed the revision with the pilot on the truck, but a lot of them were simply a clip-on part and they didn't change anything else - the real change was on the shell casting.

The moral of the story is (and you're learning fast) that if you can find the darn things they aren't particularly expensive to buy just for parts, but finding one, with all the variations in manufacturer/importer name and model identifications by sellers, is the real challenge. FYI I did a search just on "Rapido" in N scale, nothing else, and that one was buried inside 4 pages worth. I've learned to be patient on that auction site, everything comes up for sale sooner or later.

 

Thanks, Randgust, for the encouragement (and I mean that sincerely!). I'll keep looking; like you said, sooner or later....

 

You might start here: http://www.arnold-ersatzteile.de/
They claim to have bought up the remaining stock of spare parts from the original Arnold company: http://www.arnold-ersatzteile.de/ersatzteile-frueher.html
It seems that what you seek is "order-number" 0212-005, according to this drawing: http://www.arnold-ersatzteile.de/mediapool/60/605716/data/0212_D_USA.pdf