Help identifying photos

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mbassini
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by mbassini »

Location is PVLS & that loco I’m running is 1”scale, 3.5” narrow gauge Friends Dinky that my father bought from the builder Bob Hannum in fall of 1966. I would say this was from 1967.
Mark
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LVRR2095
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by LVRR2095 »

Steve Bratina wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:49 am I will leave it at this. I took some pictures off the TV from a DVD given to me by a chum. He took these films at the PLS around the mid to late 60's. This is the engine I am thinking of. It looks like that engine. Can anyone identify the guy?
Steve, I believe the RDG in your video capture was the 3/4” RDG camelback that was the first built by Elmer Nuskey and inspired him to collaborate with Ben Nixon, Bud Kremers and Gil Rittenburg on the 7 - 1/4” gauge versions. The reason I feel that the photo on the IBLS page is the 7 - 1/4” gauge version is that is the 1- 1/2” scale 999 right behind it.
The 3/4” and 1 - 1/2” locos look identical because they were built by the same person.
I suppose the photo on the ibls page “could” be the 3/4” version.....but I don’t know of a 3/4” 999 at that time. George Murray didn’t finish his until the 1980’s.
Keith
Andy R
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a 3/4” 999

Post by Andy R »

Keith,
There's photo on page 101 of the "Live Steam of Years Gone By" book that shows a 999.
It appears to be 3/4-in. scale. Is it?
The caption credits Ed Bergh as the builder, and it's at Danvers in 1948.
Regards,
Andy
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by Glenn Brooks »

LVRR2095 wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 4:34 pm Photo 12 is NOT a 3/4” scale RDG center cab. It is one of the four built by Bud Kremers, Elmer Nuskey, Gil Rittenburg and Ben Nixon.
It is on the elevated UNLOADING tracks that lead to the steaming bays. It is 7 - 1/4” gauge.

Keith
Keith, this is a bit off thread, but have you ever run across any of the early day 3/4” scale locos that Al Campbell used to sell circa 1900?

I keep looking for any of his machines, but nothing much ever turns up. I know he sold around 20 built engines and another 80 casting sets over the years leading up to WW1...

Thanks
Glenn
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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LVRR2095
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by LVRR2095 »

Ed Bergh’s 999 was from his own patterns and not the Campbell castings as they were for the smaller drivered locomotives like the 870.
I have seen two of the Campbell NYC&HR RR 4-4-0’s in 3/4” scale. One is owned by a member of the NJLS. (New Jersey Live Steamers)
And the other was on a shelf in a hardware store in Newark, New Jersey. The store was right across the street from Barringer High School in Newark. I spoke to the owner and he said that it was acquired back in the 1930’s from a renter of an apartment above the hardware store. The renter was behind in his rent by quite a bit and was able to find a job in another state. To settle his back rent, he gave the store owner the locomotive. The last I knew (many, many years ago) the locomotive was still in the family of the store’s owner. The hardware store is long gone.
Keith
Steve Bratina
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by Steve Bratina »

This may solve the mystery. Here is a picture of the four Reading engines. They are numbered in the 117x series. The one in question is a different number. The picture was from a post several months ago.
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IMG_4305.PNG
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LVRR2095
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by LVRR2095 »

Steve,
You solved that one! Now that begs the question.....who built the 999 in the unidentified photo!
I’m still sure that the engine in question was built by Elmer Nuskey.....just apparently the 3/4” scale version.
Keith
hptwin
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by hptwin »

Keith,
Just to further muddy the waters, there was yet another Reading Camelback a-5-a at Pennsylvania Livesteamers built in the 1960's by Jim Ziegler who lived in Devon, Pa. not far from the old PLS track in Paoli on Ken Souser's property. The engine was built 1" scale and had an unusual screw reverse. I built a Puryear 1" Camelback, later taken over by Little Engines, that I finished in 1965. I remember taking it to the old PLS track and running for a wonderful day. It was here that I met Jim.

Jim died in the late 80's. The last time I saw the engine was when I was removing the remaining track at his home when his widow was preparing to sell the house and move in with her son. The number of Jim's engine was 1157, mine is 1158. The engine in the video capture is most likely the same one as in the slide. Is it possible that both those engines, the 1157 and the 999 behind it are in fact 1" scale? There is something peculiar about the proportions of the 1157 shown in the slide. I agree with you that it does not look like one of the 1-1/2" scale build, it also does not look like a Little engines 1" scale Camelback either. I also can't tell from the mystery photo whether the engine has a screw reverse.

I was not aware that Elmer Nuskey built a 3/4" Camelback. I do remember a visit by Nuskey, Kremers, Rittenburg and Nixon while I was still in high school and living in New Jersey. They were planning to build a group of four Camelbacks and wanted to see mine to get an idea of what their project would look like in three dimensions. At the end of the visit they extended an invitation to me to join them and build a fifth engine. I seriously thought about it but with all that was going on at the time I felt I would not be able to contribute enough time and money to the project and so I declined. Interesting to think what might have been.....

Hope this adds something to the search for names, places and locomotives. Best regards, Mike
hptwin
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by hptwin »

A quick post script.
The photo caption of George Hoopes 176 is in error, that is a 1" scale loco.
The other thing is that photo number twelve of No.1157 is also in error. That is most definitely Jim Ziegler's 1" scale Camelback. If you enlarge the shot as much as possible you will see the valve wheel at the outer edge of the walkway, that was for the axle pump bypass and just a little bit higher on the side of the firebox is a larger hand wheel with a hand peg or more correctly a finger peg for the screw reverse. It is mounted on a horizontal shaft going through the back wall of the cab. At some point Jim considered a small servo in the cab for the screw but I don't think he ever found a motor small enough with sufficient power. The last time I saw the engine it still had the rear mounted wheel.
Hope this helps, best regards, Mike
Steve Bratina
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by Steve Bratina »

Could this be the engine behind the camelback?
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From the IBLS site
From the IBLS site
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LVRR2095
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by LVRR2095 »

Steve Bratina wrote: Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:15 pm Could this be the engine behind the camelback?
Close...but no cigar. That is a 3/4” 800 class loco, not the 999.
I know that Frank Desantis built a 3/4” 999 but I have never seen a picture of it.
In the picture that is George Murray leaning over the engine and Tom Noonan to the right.
Mr. Noonan was also an accomplished builder.

Keith
hptwin
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Re: Help identifying photos

Post by hptwin »

Keith,
On close inspection the engine behind the camelback 1157 seems pretty clearly to be "999" , without the quotation marks of course. From the size of it I can see how it could be a large 3/4" scale or a small 1" scale. It just doesn't look like a 1-1/2" scale locomotive. In my limited knowledge of long ago history of livesteam I can't recall a NYC&HRR 999 in 1" scale. Any thoughts?
Whose steaming tracks have those rather distinctive concrete pylons for support and heavy steel barstock for rail? Really no way to tell if it is dual gauge 3-1/2" & 4-3/4" or 4-3/4" & 7-14" since the common rail appears to be on camera side.
Really makes you wonder where so many of the engines of yesteryear have gone.
Best regards, Mike.
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