Spur 0 - alles außer Märklin und Bing » Ives No. 11, 1901. Marklin-Inspired

This is a locomotive which I acquired out of pure luck, while browsing the TCA facebook group I came across this post, where somebody was curiously asking for identification for this locomotive, spotted in an antique mall. I quickly replied and told them what it was and that I would be happy to give them three times whatever it costed, if they chose to buy it. I was incredibly lucky it was only 45 dollars!

The locomotive was damaged, poorly treated but mostly intact. It was missing it's tender peg and it's cowcatcher, and the body was held in place by a single, oversized screw. It's luck that the engine was not thrown out, as this variation of the engine is the rarest known! In 1901 when Ives rebuilt their factory and began to produce tracked trains, they planned on implementing a new brake design, one which clamped onto the top of the drive wheel. This design, however, did not function well. To counteract this, they decided it would be best to produce the engines with a Marklin style brake. This required that they scrap the tooling entirely and start over. My locomotive, the No. 11, sported no brake but was produced with the same tooling as the No. 17, which did. While the new tooling was in production a number of 11's were cast using the outdating design until the new tooling was finished. What's facinating about mine is that

These were likely produced for a couple weeks at most, and when the new tooling was finished they proceeded to use that for both the 11 and 17. To my knowledge there is only one other known locomotive produced with this casting. Here it is compared alongside a loco with the updated design

My locomotive needed a lot of preservation work when it arrived, I first started by carving replacement parts out of wood to replace those that were missing. I made a tender peg first, affixing it to the underside of the cab with epoxy. Next was the large chunk missing in the front, which I carved, glued into place, and began to shave and carve down. It was during this the replacement peg broke off and I lost it (how embarrassing)


It was after this that I stumbled across some spare screws in an ebay lot of wheels and such that fit perfectly, much better than the oversized one that was keeping the shell to the body. Here they are with the old one, you could barely tell they are replacements


I have yet to make a new cowcatcher, I have attempted but I have been so busy with other tasks (procrastination) that I haven't gotten around to it. My current goal is to find it a replacement tender, I know of two different people who made a number of tenders for these early engines, and i was lucky enough to find one at a show
(But that was before I ever had the engine and knew I would need one qwq)
The engine appeals greatly to me because I have a fascination with early Marklin-esque model railroading, and this represents the beginning of American-Made O gauge Model Railroading. It is clearly influenced by the Marklin 1020 of the same period. as well as quite possibly being influenced by another tracked clockwork train being produced in America at the time, the Hubley Elevated Railroad. The No. 11 appears to be the child of these two locomotives, but it's relation to the Hubley locomotive could very well be correlation and not causation. If only the pharmacy sold DNA tests for trains, we could tell for sure.

All in all, I am incredibly thankful to own this locomotive, It is the pride of my collection and I am hoping that you all find it as fascinating as I do.



Edit: While writing this I noticed that one of the screw holes on mine was positioned further back than on the other surviving example, positioned in it's proper place. This is one of the only differences I've noticed between mine and his.

Maybe No. 11 first series 1901 til 1902
https://www.ivestrains.org/CD/O_Gauge/lo...iles/No11_1.htm

Cheers

Knockando

Look closely at the locomotives on that page, they are all different to mine. Higher running boards, no cast iron skirt, they are later. Mine is earlier than even the earliest he shows on that page

Another link with some Ives vintage items
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/price-re...-lve-train-set/

pls watch
https://www.ivestrains.org/webonly/publi...s/tracks319.pdf
site 19 fyi

Another way for further information about your rare loco ivesboy@roadrunner.com (Dave McEntarfer Ives Train Society)


Cheers

Knockando