TT scale trains and models

The only brass loco produced by HP Products. It came as a kit or RTR, and was the last new locomotive produced by HP. It's shown with it's 4700 tender, unique to this locomotive. It was a small locomotive, it's shown next to an an HP 4-4-2 Atlantic.

(Update, thanks to Photobucket)

This is the catalog page from the "blue" HP catalog, I can't be sure of the date without digging but I think it was 1958 or 59? If you look at the late HP Ads in RMC they keep promising that the Ten Wheeler will be back in stock soon, so they must have been limited in production for whatever reason.
I have the original tender for ole' number 28 but my model area is in a state of chaos right now- not much getting done there! But the tender is similar in construction to the HP 5000 tender, with a brass wrap, cast base and details. The last pic shows some of the major parts of the Ten Wheeler, the only white metal pieces were the domes and headlight and they even included brass tender trucks.. I think the only HP model that didn't use the stamped brass ones.

John Harmon told me that a stamping die broke during production and they didn't want to pay for a new one to be made. It was for the running board over the drive wheels. The piece is stamped as a unit, but could be soldered from 3 separate pieces with a bit of work. John said he cobbled the die together and made a few more to finish the kits he had and that ended production. I am pretty sure that is the story, but will ask him the next time I can talk with him.
Tom

from the 4-6-2 thread:

Graandpa wrote:I didn't remember the ten wheeler as being brass which it is obviously.

Richard-B wrote:I don't either...
Dennis; Are you SURE it is an HP product??? It is a great-looking project!

The only thing that screams "HP' is the BIG worm on the motor shaft...
the rest of the engine is devoid of the 'regular suspects' of interchangeable HP parts.

It is also interesting that the boiler material is so copper'ish', in comparison to the half-hard brass we see more often... and the drivers are really 'delicate', when compared to other HP parts (disc -or- spoked).

All said, this is a really nice ToC - early 20th century engine!!!

Al's description tells the story: It -was- an entirely new direction for HP...

Al's description tells the story: It -was- an entirely new direction for HP...

Can one imagine what things would have been like had this "new direction" taken off for HP Products and TT in general?

Richard-B wrote:Al's description tells the story: It -was- an entirely new direction for HP...

But I think the very last line at the bottom says a lot- "ALL METAL- NO PLASTICS! " I think if Mr. Joyce had been thinking more about plastics things might have gone better? Hal Joyce didn't pass away until 1984 at age 92, I wish someone could have gotten his side of the story!

areibel wrote:I think if Mr. Joyce had been thinking more about plastics things might have gone better?

Accept for a moment that the current interest in North American prototype TT was sparked by the availability of the Lionel die-cast dummy F3 and GP9 engines circa-1998...
What impact indeed would a 'reasonably good' injection-molded plastic F-unit and/or Geep have had on the 1960s-80s era of TT???

NB: We still don't have them!!!!

"Hindsight is NOT a sign of intelligence...!"

Lionel models are only scraps grabbed by hungry TT modelers because there is nothing better offered. No credit to Lionel, because they could have done TT properly if they wanted to. I think what sparked current interest in TT was TTNut and Conductor's efforts.

And I think this is going off topic once again.

-Terry C

dileTTante wrote: I think what sparked current interest in TT was TTNut and Conductor's efforts.

Terry
I think TTnut is NOW the go-to place for North American TT... but there were sparks of life before 2009.

Below is the 25th Anniversary Edition of the TT-Empire... with a terse year by year chronology from 1982 to 2007. As far as I can determine... the HP Ten Wheeler 4-6-0 (this thread) and the FED Spartan 4-4-0 (HOn3 - gauged for TT) were the only new production NA engines for TT between the late 1960s and 1999. The other offers were re-issued Kemtron or HP (i.e. Allegheny Models) or never-realized promises (~ RailTech). The new millennium brought the first resin-cast cars (PVM, CER, Exquisite, etc...) and the German and PVM power chassis for the Lionel die-cast.
I am just trying to put the history into perspective....

Thanks for providing this download, Richard. I'm sure I'll learn much from it, and the information is useful for promoting TT at train shows.

-Terry C