Who DIDN'T make a hustler?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jon, I studied the photos very carefully and my expert opinion is that it runs by having a motor inside make those little wheels go around.
No need to thank me, I'm just glad to help out...:D :p

I didn't even realize Lionel MADE HO gauge stuff. Shows you how much I know. But, I will say this--being a confirmed "critter" fan and feeling sorry for every homeless and abused little switcher I see in the real world (I want to take them home but the blasted city council won't let me), how could your heart not go out for this little spud? C'mon, fork out the dough and give the little nipper a warm and cozy home with lots of love, or I WILL...
(sniff... Poor little dude... sniff...):(

Tom F
 

Voice

New Member
Its not in that great a shape...someone may bid it higher...but its NOT going to be ME!!!!
Same basic drive as Athearn had at that time....a rubber band down to the worm gear that drives the axles.....

Lionel only made HO stuff for a few years...well relatively a few.....like from the late '50s til maybe the mid '60s. As MPC. they made some HO stuff...most notably the Freedom train set.
 

Voice

New Member
Yeah, Marx did make HO for a while, but it wasn't all that great. They had some neat stuff, though. I've got an old Pacific from the early '60s that has a smoke unit in it!!!
American Flyer made it for a while, too.

Actually, Athearn and Rivarrosi were making the early Lionel HO stuff!!!
 

60103

Pooh Bah
This is taking my memory back over 40 years (to when it actually worked) but I remember a diagram of a Lionel drive unit where the rubber band went from the motor to a drive shaft lengthwise on the trucks and the drive shaft had worm gears onto the axles.
This is different to Athearn's where the rubber band went all the way down to and around the oversize axles. (Lionel's was closer to the spring belt drives used in some trolley models).
I don't know if this is what was applied to their hustler.
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by tomfassett
Jon, I studied the photos very carefully and my expert opinion is that it runs by having a motor inside make those little wheels go around.
No need to thank me, I'm just glad to help out...:D :p

I didn't even realize Lionel MADE HO gauge stuff. Shows you how much I know. But, I will say this--being a confirmed "critter" fan and feeling sorry for every homeless and abused little switcher I see in the real world (I want to take them home but the blasted city council won't let me), how could your heart not go out for this little spud? C'mon, fork out the dough and give the little nipper a warm and cozy home with lots of love, or I WILL...
(sniff... Poor little dude... sniff...):(

Tom F

OK, Tom, I think I'm going to miss the Lionel because it's up over $15. But look at what I built! It's powered. The picture showns a common object in front of it to show size and the two gandy dancers who were, um, displaced by the restructering necessary to power the new Mack. Don't ask me what they're holding. I guess they don't have much else to do, being unemployed and all. No making fun of the fancy yeller paint, or you might find yourself beside those gandy dancers; old man Knudson's wife likes it. Yeller is her favort color.
 

Attachments

  • mack3.jpg
    mack3.jpg
    15 KB · Views: 107
Hey jon, that is a neat little unit:cool:

I remember in one of your post's you talked about using the gandydancer mech. to power a switcher and by golly you did it.:D

Uh... you might should give them fella's a fishing rod to hold or something.:eek: :D

t.
 
Hey, I like it! Great little critter!
As to the color, yellow is my favorite color as well. I have $10,000 worth of Snap-On tools and everything is yellow handled (when I could get it ;) ) I almost bought a truck this color but the price was too high.
I have a bunch of old Bachman drive wheels somewhere. I've got to find them and build some critters out of them...:D

Tom F
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by t. alexander
Hey jon, that is a neat little unit:cool:

I remember in one of your post's you talked about using the gandydancer mech. to power a switcher and by golly you did it.:D

Uh... you might should give them fella's a fishing rod to hold or something.:eek: :D

t.

LOL, that's a good unemployment passtime!
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by Voice
Its not in that great a shape...someone may bid it higher...but its NOT going to be ME!!!!
Same basic drive as Athearn had at that time....a rubber band down to the worm gear that drives the axles.....

Lionel only made HO stuff for a few years...well relatively a few.....like from the late '50s til maybe the mid '60s. As MPC. they made some HO stuff...most notably the Freedom train set.

lionel1.jpg


This one is in a lot nicer shape, but boy did my bid get stomped! I bid $15, that's $20 w/ship., just because I thought it would be cool to have a Lionel. Well, I guess someone thought it would be a lot cooler than I did! No thanks. I can probably get two atherns and gear them for that price...
 
Hey Jon, I was at the local craft store getting glue sticks and guess what they had on the sale table for 8 bucks? The little Bachman hand car! He, he, I had to get it... It actually doesn't run that bad--pretty well geared down. It can even push a 40 foot boxcar on a level surface... I already removed the little dudes (you want I should send 'em to you so's you can start an gandy dancer unemployment support group?). I still have to see how I can remove the eccentric mount for the up/down motion of the bar. I hate to take the axle apart. I'm also still trying to figure out how to mount a flywheel on the top of the motor. Then, I'm gonna' kitbash an old wood burning boxcab out of it and run it around the mine spurs like a crazy man (Yeeehaaa)...:D :p

To heck with Hustler racing... We can start a midget class just like the circle track racers...:p

Tom F
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Good price. I'm not so sure we should get too many of those fellers together, they might picket! Great idea on the race, we can knock off points for size! Lookin forward to seeing your boxcab. I want to get another to laeve assembled. I'll never forget the first time I fired that up and ran it full speed; me'en wifey 'bout split a seam watchin' those boys jumpin' up and down on the cart. Hey that up down bar; I just kept wigglin it and it came out without dissassebling the axle.
 
Thanks for the info on the bar. I tried it and it did come off like you said. Now I don't have to take it apart.
In a moment of weakness, I went back and picked up the other two cars. Now I have six guys out of work...
I've promised to retrain them, but it seems all they know how to do is pump up and down. I'm thinking of building a manual pump station just to keep them working (for PR purposes). I figure they'll get bored of being in the same place all day and move on. The Eagle Mountain Mine is in a small town and I don't want to make too many enemies of the townsfolk...;) :p

Tom F
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by tomfassett
Thanks for the info on the bar. I tried it and it did come off like you said. Now I don't have to take it apart.
In a moment of weakness, I went back and picked up the other two cars. Now I have six guys out of work...
I've promised to retrain them, but it seems all they know how to do is pump up and down. I'm thinking of building a manual pump station just to keep them working (for PR purposes). I figure they'll get bored of being in the same place all day and move on. The Eagle Mountain Mine is in a small town and I don't want to make too many enemies of the townsfolk...;) :p

Tom F

Tom, just thot of another tip on these lil babies, maybe you already discovered it or maybe you out schmarted it in the first place, but if you have the motor out, then after you assemble it, you find it runs backwards, you have to take it back apart and rotate the motor 180 degrees. :eek:
 

toptrain1

Well-Known Member
John English and HObbyline didn't make a Hustler.
Well, a Lionel hustler first came out in 1958 that was a year that Lionel was being supplied with some Locos and cars from Athearn. This is the first year they had the Hustler. #0560 was a D&RG black diesel with a yellow cab side. It had a snowplow attached to where the front coupler would have attached. A second Hustler, a blue U.S. Navy, lionel # 0570 came out the same year. Both of these were in parts 100% Athearn, with Lionel paint schemes and lettering applied. These were identical to Athearn's HI-Fi Hustlers with traction belt drives ( rubber band).
The following year 1959 Lionel released their own small diesel and called it a Huskey. It has a geared drive made by Lionel. It came out in #0056 a Huskey in M.& St. L. with a rotary snowplow attached to the front end, and # 0561 AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) Huskey. Also listed for sale again in 1959 were the 2 1958 Hustlers 0570 US Navy and 0560 D&RG.


IMG_6073 L.JPG

Here is my U.S. Navy one.
 
Last edited:

zathros

*****SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR*****
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Toptrain, this thread is from 2002!! We try to stay to topics no older than 6 months. The older ones are for reference. Please stay in the more current threads.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top