What you see above is a real blast from the past, a Lionel die-cast steam engine still doing what it was built to do over 60 years ago. Completely analog — no computer chips anywhere. The only plastic in it is the headlight lens and maybe insulation on the wiring. According to Tandem Associates,
The Lionel Hudson Type 4-6-4-Locomotive No. 2055 introduced in 1953 and would continue to be available until 1955. Based on a Santa Fe prototype, this engine was equipped with Magnetraction, smoke, drive rod connecting rod valve gear, and there was a whistle in the tender. This locomotive is identical to the No. 685 except for the number change. It shares the same boiler casting with the O gauge No. 665 and the O27 Gauge No. 2065.
It’s referred to as a “Baby Hudson” because it’s a smaller version of a 4-6-4 Hudson steam engine; the Scale Hudson from Lionel is bigger, more detailed — and more expensive!
I found this on eBay. I think it was from an estate sale. That was just the beginning of the fun. The boiler front is supposed to have two marker lights — those little green things. One had broken off somewhere in the distant past. It also ran grudgingly, for short distances with lots of sparks. I took it to a local train shop, who sent it out to fix the e-unit which was loose, replace the boiler front, and the smoke unit — and to getting it running smoothly. Three weeks later I got it back — and it ran beautifully. For about 5 minutes — then it locked up.
I called another local train store for another try. (Did I mention how important it is to keep brick and mortar stores going? Support your local hobby shops! Online shopping can only take you so far, as I’m demonstrating here.) I explained what I had, and they gave me the phone number of the place that does their repairs. Several phone calls later, I had arranged a meet to get my Baby Hudson back in the game.
Ever hear of the ancient temple complex of Karnak? This was like that — except it was alive and well and AMAZING if you love toy trains. I’m not going to get too specific about the location for obvious reasons. You’d never know it was there to see it from outside, and I can understand why the proprietor wants to keep it that way. He advertises in select magazines, and has plenty of business.
Down steps into the underground complex following the Master of things Lionel (and other train makers), I found a vast room-filling railroad layout with all kinds of details, shelves all around the room of trains and train related objects, an office space filled with more objects of desire, a room of nothing but several hundred small bins containing parts all systematically classified, and an altar of a work bench equipped with the arcane tools of train repair.
I was allowed to wait and watch while he worked on the engine. He disassembled it. The first thing he found was a small brad nail that had somehow been caught up by the magnetraction, and ended up in the gears — but that wasn’t it. He kept looking. He took the motor apart, and found a small spring had somehow ended up inside. With all that cleared out, the engine ran just fine on the test track — and the smoke unit put out a vigorous cloud of smoke.
Modern toy trains are increasingly digital, full of computers. They do everything, from allowing remote control, playing back the sounds of the real thing in action, coupling and uncoupling by remote control, and more. It’s the circle of technology — many of the people who were critical in the early days of computers could have been found in their days at M.I.T. working on the model railroad layout at the school. They were the guys who really got into the wiring, signals, and controls. They went on to help create the computer industry — and now that tech is getting back into the toy trains that helped inspire them.
A modern smoke unit has a heating element to vaporize smoke fluid, control circuits, and a small fan to puff out the smoke. It will even match how hard the engine (steam or diesel) is working. This engine? A lever from the valve gear works a small bellows under the heating element to send puffs of smoke out the stack — it’s all analog. (The smoke fluid is a non-toxic liquid. You can now get it in all kinds of scents.)
(The video will give you an idea of why living next to the tracks in the days of steam involved air quality issues. It will also let you hear how good model railroad sound systems are these days.)
Reassembling the valve gear proved tricky. He consulted a well-worn hard cover copy of Greenberg’s Repair and Operating Manual for Lionel Trains. Several of the tiny screws were stripped and or bent; he replaced them. He got it all back together and working, all for a quite reasonable sum.
Watching it in action is fascinating. The wheels, rods, and cranks in motion make you marvel at the calculated intricacy of it all. It’s a simple idea in theory. Heat water in a boiler to make steam. Use the steam pressure to turn heat energy into mechanical motion. Use that to move people and freight. From looking at a small toy, you can get an idea of how the monsters of steam that once ruled the rails worked.
I left a No. 6026W tender with him for reconditioning. It’s one of the two tender choices that engine originally shipped with. It has a nice two-tone whistle. There’s no computer chips or speakers inside. Instead, a small motor pulls air through a plastic box with the whistles built into it. That box and the shell of the tender are the only plastic parts. Like the engine, it should be possible to repair it and get it back into operation just as it first came from the factory.
Now maybe you’re not into model trains, but consider this. If you walked into a store today, how much of what you see for sale could reasonably be expected to still be working 60 years later? How much of it could be repaired if it broke — and could you find someone to repair it and the parts as well? How much of it could still work in the world 60 years from now? That engine of mine will operate on the track and systems now available today. It’s something to think about in a world where so much is ‘disposable’, as is the fact that Lionel Trains is still around when so many companies have disappeared.