Model Train Journal

Hi, Any ideas on who made this Hudson.

Hello Chilidog

Thank you for posting the photos of your interesting Hudson ...is the body / boiler a casting ? brass ? aluminum ?

Not Scalecraft , Mi-Loco, Miniscale , Acme, Birch, Alexander ( based on ads , photos and remaining engines) ... tender looks scratch built ? .... if the boiler is a casting pushes the meter towards a production piece but who ?

Thank you
Cheers Carey

Hi Carey, Thanks for the interest.The boiler seems to be sheet brass but some of the detail appears to be stamped especially on the cab?

Now THAT is a doorstop!

Thank you Chiledog for the additional info ...very unique piece ... cheers Carey

Carey and all,

My guess would be International Models. The smokebox front has separately applied smokebox dogs and the frame is made from thin brass bar stock. It looks like someone added Max Gray/US Hobbies style bearings for the drivers(soldered in place) at some point. Driver appear to be all brass. If the boiler shell is formed brass there is no question in my mind.

Joe

rrjjf wrote:My guess would be International Models

I thought about IMP too but I don't think so. As far as I know, IMP made only one Hudson, and that was the JNR C62 Swallow:











There is very little here that is common to Chilidog's model. Note also that IMP mounted a worm to the motor. The model here has a shaft to a separate gearbox (look closely at the side view in the first photo). Also, from what little you can see, the motor looks like a stout K&D. The IMP motors were less substantial.

I think it is most likely a scratchbuild. The wide wheel treads make me think it is from the mid-1930s. However, much of the workmanship looks very good to me, which makes me think it could also be a Crovan (Minton Chronkhite's company) or some other now forgotten custom builder or cottage manufacturer.

Jim

Thank you Jim for posting the IMP Hudson ..that is one different Hudson ...

I'd vote for mid 30's scratch built ...talent builder .... Minton / Crovan would not be caught dead with a center rail pick up .... you can hear them rolling in the grave at the mere thought .

Cheers Carey

Another option would be an example of Occupied Japan "shell" brass, where an American (often a GI) gives a set of drawings to an artisan (often an out-of-work jeweler) to reproduce in model form. This was the predecessor to importer contracting of models for the states; where it all started. If memory serves, that was how Tenshodo got in the model building game for example.

I've seen several of these sorts of models, all Occupation and Korean War era in HO and O. They aren't all that common in the grand scheme of things, but every one I've had my in hands show a remarkably "even" build consistency from end-to-end and very rarely any identifiable components from American models (like, say, Scalecraft drivers or a 700e trailing truck) which very often show up in domestic scratchbuilds.

This one looks like it could be a candidate.

No way of proving it without the owner passing the history along.

A late friend of mine Charles Lynch served in the Army occupation of Japan after the war and had two examples of "shell" brass type 1:48 models he "commissioned" while stationed there in Osaka. One was a brass PE "blimp" car body and the other a Westinghouse Electric Box Cab fashioned out of can metal, shaped and soldiered; both were very well done and I regret not making him an offer or trade for the Box cab in particular. As I recall he said the builder was in the electric lamp trade, built and sold from his shop/home, and that Charlie paid for the models in barter for a variety of cigarettes, lighter fluid and canned goods obtained from the PX which the shop owner preferred over the provisional script currency.