On the smallest side, the tiniest critters in the italian state FS inventory- Di Horatius di Wikipedia in italiano, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9140814 Built form the late 30s licensed by the german factory Breuer, these 70hp machines were used in light shunting for 40 years and over..... some were also used by the italian military in Africa or in Italy itaself and ended up being used by USATC. So small and light that there is provision to tranfer part of the car weight coupled on the critter to increase the tractive effort. Wiki (in italian) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotore_FS_208 Even smaller critters from Breuer here (in german) https://web.archive.org/web/20181005213314/http://www.werkbahn.de/eisenbahn/lokbau/breuer.htm
while most of the critters shown are prototype, these are HO models from my small layout .. Eb 002 by wvgca posted Jun 1, 2021 at 9:36 AM
The tiny critter had also been produced by rivarossi in HO scale The tiny motor is inside the cabin, hidden by the side curtains; it is also DCC ready. As you can imagine, it can pull no more than 3 or four cars and is a nightmare with regards to current pickup and slippage.
Hocritter1 by wvgca posted Nov 29, 2022 at 1:18 PM Hocritter by wvgca posted Nov 29, 2022 at 1:18 PM couple more critters on my layout [HO size]
I have no information on this one. Could be as late as the 50s or 60s judging by the cars in the scrap yard and the condition of the box cars.
I like that paint scheme, looks like it's under a little maintenance though. That'd be the perfect paint scheme when BNSF and NS merge.....
Almost International Harvester colors. Not much air pressure in those rubber tires huh. Trying to get all the traction they and get. Kinda a neat looking critter. Didn't CR or one of the predecessor RR's have a rubber tired car mover, the tires fit outside the rails with couplers on either end? Seems to me I remember seeing an image in a magazine years ago. Thanks Tom Holley
Found this site for looking at some really unique rubber tire switchers, a couple of the later model ones on the page are the critters I remember I'm pretty sure. http://prr.railfan.net/RubberTiredSwitchers.html
