# Kalamazoo locomotive detail question



## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Just received a Kalamazoo 4-4-0 locomotive I bought through ebay that arrived busted up. It had been customized with a cast resin cab and other parts. The backhead came off the boiler and had a large lead weight on it and it bounced around and broke things up. What I wanted to find out is if there is supped to be any part on the bottom to perhaps keep the pilot truck from moving around. Up in front there I see where it looks like a part may have been glued on. 

Doug


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Do you know if it was for a fact a custom modification, I ask as the prototype Kalamazoo models were made of resin. 

There is a vendor on eBay with leftover Kalamazoo parts.


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

This had a sticker on the bottom with something like "LJS Coach Works". It has wood plank castings glued to the areas under the boiler including one side having a box of tools in the casting. The cab looks different from pictures i have seen of the Kalamazoo. It is the look of wood planks. Has a plank looking vent on the roof and the roof is covered with a plastic that has a textured surface to look like roofing material. Has an out of scale engineer and pieces of wood in the cab. Well at least it used to have all that until it spent time bouncing around in the box with the loose lead weight. It also has a decent weathering job. I suspect at some time some guy decided to modify the Kalamazoo loco and made molds and started casting parts and trying to sell modified locomotives. Never heard of them but got this at a good price on ebay, especially as the seller refunded the money as he insured it. 

Doug


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## ntpntpntp (Jan 14, 2008)

Was it this one ? 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/L-J-S-American-Coach-Works-4-4-0-Custom-Old-Timer-/310340887992 

Looks quite a nice customise. 


I have a plain old Kalamazoo 4-4-0 in green that I bought on ebay a few years ago. Toy-like may be, but it runs very nicely on my little line! 

Nick (in the UK)


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Nick, guilty as charged. That is the one. 

I had fully planned to pull it all apart and add inner scribed plastic walls to make it look better and add strength and to add more details and more paint work and a final matte finish protective job. So getting reimbursed for the full amount due to the lead weight coming loose and doing some wrecking was somewhat of a blessing and really didn't add that much to the needed work. 

Did you notice in the description that he said it was mostly scratch built? I had asked about it while the auction was on and he told me that all those resin cast wood planks were real wood and that most or all of it was scratch built. I could see that it was a modified Kalamazoo. But I looked at the guy's other items and he pretty much sells car repair manuals. Expect this is another case of a person selling something they found at a yard sale or the like and know nothing about the item and just make up a description that sounds pleasing and tempting to them. Like one I saw not long ago for an LGB Bachmann locomotive. 

Doug


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

"This is a beautiful rare custom built L.J.S. American Coach Works G-Scale 4-4-0 Old Timer Locomotive. This looks to be mostly scratch-built, with wonderful detail. Condition is absolutely like-new. This is the locomotive only - there is no tender. Buyer pays actual insured shipping, payment by PayPal." 

"Beautiful" - maybe..but thats subjective (personally I think it looks nice!) 

"Rare" - ok..in the sense that its "one of a kind"..I suppose that qualifies as "rare"..but I could hit a locomotive with a hammer and then say its "rare" in the sense that locomotives hit by hammers are rare!  "rare" doesnt really mean much in this case.. 

"Custom built" - ok..technically true-ish. 

""L.J.S. Coach Works" - to me, this sounds like a name the builder just made up for himself, not a real company or business..its like if I wrote on the bottom of my locomotives: "Customized by the Lawrence Locomotive Works of Rochester, NY"  the seller wasnt lying about it being built by the "L.J.S Coach works"..it actually says that on the locomotive!  but it basically means nothing.. 

"mostly scratch-built, with wonderful detail" - scratch built? partly, but not much of it..wonderful detail? maybe..but again, very subjective. 

"Condition is absolutely like-new" - hmmm..definately the most "stretching of the truth" in the whole description!  that one he should have left out..nothing on this locomotive can truthfully be said to be "absolutely like new" 

Expect this is another case of a person selling something they found at a yard sale or the like and know nothing about the item and just make up a description that sounds pleasing and tempting to them. 

yep, I agree.. it sounds like a guy who had no idea what he had..I would guess the seller isnt the builder, probably doesnt even know the builder, and knows nothing about trains..he made up a somewhat overly-flamboyant description for the locomotive..80% true, but with some definatate over-exaggerations in it as well.. 

having said that, its still a neat looking locomotive! if you like the customizations, then its worth it.. 
in cases like this, you have to pretty much ignore the sellers description, and just focus on the photos..the photos tell the truth much better than the seller's words!  

Scot


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Scottychaos on 22 Sep 2011 06:37 AM 



Expect this is another case of a person selling something they found at a yard sale or the like and know nothing about the item and just make up a description that sounds pleasing and tempting to them. 



yep, I agree.. it sounds like a guy who had no idea what he had



Scot 


Sometimes it works to an advantage, how I got an LGB rack loco for $55 on eBay once!


OK, for sure not one of the factory prototypes, but a good find regardless. A scan of the 1980s/1990s issues of Gardne Railways would tell you if this was a one time deal or a commercial effort... There was a whole rash of "mom and pop" builders back then.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Scottychaos on 22 Sep 2011 06:37 AM 
"This is a beautiful rare custom built L.J.S. American Coach Works G-Scale 4-4-0 Old Timer Locomotive. 

Scot 
Hmmmm, LJS...LJS?......Oh yeah! Isn't that Long John Silver's? Does that perhaps mean it's both really greasy AND pretty fishy?.....


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Yup, that is part of the bad of ebay, people that are selling stuff they know nothing about and make stuff up to sell it. Like I recently bought what was supposed to be a piece for a G layout that was hand made of stone. It was cast resin. And I bought a truck that was supposed to be metal and it was plastic. But it can work to one's advantage if the seller describes a good thing as something of no particular note and they put in a bad picture and nobody else that knows G stuff sees it and ya get the big score on the cheap. 

Don't get me going on mom and pop builders. There are plenty today that get a good looking ad in Garden Railways and makes you think you are dealing with a professional organization that will give good customer service and turns out it is just pop and he will take your money and not keep you updated with what is going on and maybe get around to making your stuff in a few months if he doesn't have anything else to do and then maybe get around to mailing it to you in a couple more months. And some people seem to think that this is normal business and we all should accept it. Think this sort of vendor should state that they are really slow and don't expect much. Reminds me of a talk on small business I attended where the speaker said that most small businesses don't fail due to problems with the product or service they offer, they fail due to bad management and business practices. 

But back to this locomotive, still wonder if it is normal for the bar part that holds the front pilot truck to be able to go all the way to each side, like this loco could run with the rear wheels on one track and the front pilot on another? Wonder if any Hartland locomotive parts would work on it and wonder if the Hartland tender that goes with the similar locomotive would work with it?


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

And remember one more thing, when I started to disassemble the locomotive I noticed that the screw that held the boiler to the frame was loose. Perhaps that is what the boiler backhead with the lead weight came loose and played wrecking ball with the cab and such. Maybe it wasn't the Postal Service's fault even if he did have a big "fragile" sticker on the box. The box itself showed no signs of rough treatment. Perhaps someone that understood model trains would have known to tighten that up. But then I wouldn't have gotten the project for free.


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## ntpntpntp (Jan 14, 2008)

Posted By bmwr71 on 24 Sep 2011 12:11 AM 
... still wonder if it is normal for the bar part that holds the front pilot truck to be able to go all the way to each side, like this loco could run with the rear wheels on one track and the front pilot on another? Wonder if any Hartland locomotive parts would work on it and wonder if the Hartland tender that goes with the similar locomotive would work with it? 


On mine (unmodified "out of the box" condition),


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## ntpntpntp (Jan 14, 2008)

hmm... don't know why my quoted reply isn't showing up in full? What I said was... 

On mine (unmodified "out of the box" condition), the bar is limited by two pips either side of where it screws to the chassis. Thids allows the pilot end of the bar to swing out as far as the chassis frames only. The bar then mounts in a splot in the pilot truck, this extra sideplay then allows the pilot wheels to swing out as far as and parallel to the outside of the cylinders. 

Nick.


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## ntpntpntp (Jan 14, 2008)

(why can't I edit the typo's out of my previous post? Tried but it's ignoring my re-submissions!) "Thids" should read "This", and "splot" should read "slot" of course!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

what does your handle mean? 

To me it's Network Time Protocol ... 

Greg


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## ntpntpntp (Jan 14, 2008)

Hi Greg 

yes I know NTP means Network Time Protocol to many folk. In my case NTP is "Nick The Programmer". This was a nickname (no pun intended!) given to me back in the 1980's by someone in my company's office in Boston when I was working on a project transferring data from UK to US. Somehow it stuck, and now I sign most emails as NTP! 

Nick


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## nutcrackers (Nov 19, 2012)

I noticed many comments on the ljs. The company was LJS American coachworks. I have two of the work trains and I think there great. They were made by a fellow in Illinois as a hobby. He used the kalamzoo engine and built the cars from scratch. 
I would very much like to buy the Christmas train he made. If anyone has an info on where I might find one it would be greatly appreciated. 

K


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