Folks... Those F-units would have been very nice indeed if they were actually produced. I know Jesse Bennett had a set of prior earlier Enhorning F-units complete with aluminum wheels (poor electrical contact problems) with one vertical motor powering one axle on each truck and a rubber band belt connecting the two axles of the same truck. There were probably some small number of units like that out there in the real world. I arrived on the S scale scene in 1969 and the talk at that time was regarding an improved redesigned drive design.
My recollections are generally the same as Tom Hawley's. I did speak with the Enhornings once on the telephone back in the early 1970s when long distance phone calls cost genuine money. I was told they were not really train guys, but were machinists and/or tool & die makers who had won a contract to supply EMD with unpowered display models which EMD would give to their customers as a thank you gift. The ratio of 1:64 was chosen since it was considered ideal for a desk top display when mounted on a wooden base. After that contract was completed, they realized that merely by adding some gears and a motor, they could be in the model train business. The hard part was already done. The original S GAUGE HERALD ran continuous ads for years (late '60s and/or early '70s) with photos always claiming these models were just around the corner. But they never arrived. Then the new news came out that the Enhornings were going to make their own motors instead of purchasing them from Pittman or someone else. After that, the news came out that they were going to make their own magnets instead of buying them. Research with rare earth materials was going to begin "soon". Soon after that, an upset angry reader wrote a letter to the Editor of the S GAUGE HERALD complaining that the advertisements were misleading and should be made accurate or discontinued. The irate letter actually got published. Soon after that, the Enhorning ads ceased and not much was heard from then on. It is amazing how much history one remembers when all your hair falls out. Cheers...Ed L. --- In [email protected], "Tom Hawley" <t.haw...@...> wrote: > Maybe because none were made to begin with. > > When I got into S as a hobby the Herald had lots of advertisements for > Enhornings' diesels. They were going to make EMD F7 A & B locos, and a > GP40. Many gallons of ink were poured into discussions of what might be > going on with that company, and if they would every deliver a product. The > story was that the Enhornings, an older man & his father, were from Chicago > originally and had got the idea to make desk-top models for the EMD company > of LaGrange IL to distribute to potential customers. They then got the idea > to also power them and sell them to modellers, since they would be 1/64 > scale. > > They were then located near Traverse City Michigan, and, it being within > driving distance, I went to see them one day. They actually let me in and > sold me some unpainted shells and some odds & ends for the drive unit. > Apparently they didn't believe in buying supplies "off the shelf." John > told me they were going to make their own rare-earth magnet motors. I could > be wrong, but I don't think a complete RTR painted & deocrated loco ever > came out from them. Eventually we just forgot about them. > > John Beveridge - Cascade Models or something like that - (here's another one > for the S historians) made a drive unit kit for people like me who had > managed to secure shells. I put an A and B drive unit together, powered > both from two motors in the B unit via the Multi-Drive system. A custom > painter friend painted them NYC with HO decals, said he had never seen such > plactic before - extremely hard to find a paint that would adhere. The nose > of the A unit can be seen on the cover of the Nov/Dec 1978 S Gaugian. Back > on page 8 there's a picture of George Cummings, John Armstrong, & myself > when we were young, good-looking guys, but that's another story. > > Years later somebody (Wabash?) got the dies and reran the shells without the > hump and dimples, and Omnicon sold a drive-unit consisting mostly of NWSL > parts. Tom Lennon painted the shells. Getting back to the original > question, those must be findable today. > > Tom Hawley -- Lansing Mich > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
