This looks like something interesting for discussion

[herronpeter]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/O-scale-Megow- ... Swl9RZ7BLH

Peter

[rrjjf]

In over 45 years of attending O scale meets I do not believe I have ever seen a Megow loco. Looking at the frame from the underside it looks a lot like an early Hines Lines/Pearce 0-8-0 mechanism prior to the introduction of the Pearce ball bearing gearbox which was a great improvement to these drives. Perhaps Hines purchased the molds from Megow in the late 1940s. Certainly the boiler casting with all of the cast on details is unique to Megow.

Another survivor from the bronze age of O scale! It it were my loco I would install a proper brass pilot on the model. The one on the model now looks like a diecast Varney/All Nation pilot from the B&O Ten Wheeler.

I do not plan on bidding on this.

Joe

[herronpeter]

Is this the company that made it? Didn't look at everything they had but seemed to be ships and planes.

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?manu=Megow

Peter

[bob turner]

I had one here decades ago for rework. I remember it as a lead casting.

[sarge]

I've had a couple through here, a pretty decent model of a NYC G43. Change the wheels out to 63" and you have the G5 and G6, which were pretty common NYC locos. It was also a Alco catalog design, so seen on several other railroads with some cab and furniture differences.

Boiler is cast brass, solid and good runners with little effort.

I believe Jim aka Maroon researched these back to Scale Model Railways, though he can clarify if my memory is flawed. Megow sold many things under their banner, few of which they actually manufactured but many they caused to be manufactured. They were a typical model engineering house of the era, not specific to railroads, ships, aircraft modelling as many are used to today, but more in the earlier mould of suppliers for the entire model engineering community.

[stephen neill]

All of the O scale items that Megow sold were made by Scale Model Railways (SMR). SMR became a "division" of Megow, but the production stayed in Huntington IN, and within a short time, about 2 years or maybe less, Megow discontinued selling O scale.

Not too long after that SMR went to a pharmacist in Wheaton, Il; he marketed the items under the SMR name. And then to All Nation not too long after Bill Pope had acquired AN. Bill continued to produce a few SMR items under the AN name; a caboose kit being the item that comes most readily to mind.

Some, but not all, of the tooling for the steam engines went to Babbit Railway Supply Company along with some tooling for AN steam engines. Etc, etc.

So what is germane to this discussion, other than a little history, is that I believe it is misleading to refer to an O scale engine as a Megow engine, though you see this fairly often. To my knowledge the SMR engines sold during the brief Megow interval are indistinguishable from those sold before or after that time, so how do you know a particular engine was sold during the Megow period?.

Note that George Sennhauser, the owner of Babbit did make some modifications to the SMR engines and the AN engines, so it seems appropriate to refer to them as Babbit engines.

So you know, SMR is my favorite early manufacturer. Not a comment on whether they were better or worse than anybody else, just that they are my favorite.

And yes, in answer to the question, the Megow that sold the airplane kits and the HO kits is the same Megow that sold SMR items.

Steve

[bob turner]

Now that is news! I always thought the ten-wheeler was Varney, and assumed that the Mountain, at least, was All Nation. I think I am delighted to learn that at least some of these models have a more colorful past.

[stephen neill]

I was mainly commenting on SMR and saying why I consider it inappropriate to refer to any of their locos as Megow. I was mentioning All-Nation only in passing as another line that has gone through several hands. But I may have caused some confusion, so I feel I should clarify some things.

The 10 wheeler was developed and sold by Varney. In a November, 1947 2 page ad, General Models says it has purchased "the complete O gauge line of Varney! B&O 10-Wheelers, complete stock of locomotive parts and car parts." I don't believe I have seen any Varney car parts other than some 4 wheel passenger car trucks. In early 1948 GM brought out the Atlantic, later in 1948 or early 1949 the Pacific, in 1949 the Mountain, and in 1950 the Articulated. In December, 1950 GM declared bankruptcy, and by April, 1951 All-Nation had "purchased the inventory, dies and patterns of General Models Corp." I have a Mountain with GM stamped into the side of the boiler, and I have seen one with AN stamped into it. This group of engines have several parts in common, and it MAY be that Varney had intended to produce some or all of them, I don't know, but as GM was able to quickly introduce several new engines, I wonder.

GM produced the engines for a short time, AN produced them for a long time. It seems reasonable to call them GM engines; and it seems reasonable to call them AN engines; and yes it seems reasonable to call the 10-Wheeler Varney, GM or AN. Note that there is also a Prairie engine which was produced only after AN bought the line.

Steve

[Carey Williams]

Hello all
Interesting engine ....the marriage between Megow and Scale Model Railways ( Ferris) .. was very short .... 1940 Megow catalog only the lovely cast freight cars , 1941 cast freight cars plus Scale Models engines ( Lenoir, Ferris) , 1942 cast freight cars , wood cars , parts including nose for diesel .
Later part of 1941, Jack Ferris, located in Huntington ,Ind , is running ads for his own line of engines in MR .

Here is the illustration of engine from the 1941 catalog ...
Cheers Carey

Consolidation.jpg (1.57 MiB) Viewed 5957 times

[R.K. Maroon]

A couple of years ago Sarge gave me the contact information for a gentleman who had a nice version of the Scale Model Railways / Megow Consolidation (Thank you, Brian). It is one of the locomotives shown and discussed in part one of my OST column on entry level steam (issue #92) earlier this year. Here is another photo:

SMR-Megow NYC G43 2-8-0.png (342.36 KiB) Viewed 5925 times

The lettering on the cab was done by hand but was preserved when the engine model was repainted. I believe the tender has the original paint but I would have to double check. I had previously noticed that the number on the model in the catalog is the same as the number on my model, but now that I look at it I think maybe it's actually the very same model.

G43 Catalog Shot.png (213.64 KiB) Viewed 5925 times

This model runs very well but is noisy -- the worm is attached directly to the motor shaft and has no support at the tip of the shaft (like the Hines USRA 0-8-0). I have video somewhere but not posted yet. I'll dig it out as time allows.

Jim

[E7]

Nice looking engine Jim!

Rich

[Carey Williams]

Wow just like the photo !!! Great piece Jim ..