My Crocodile Locomotives

    I was born and raised in Austria, imigrated to Canada in 1955. Where I grew up, it was not the scenario of switching from steam to diesel but from steam to electric which started my early interest in electrics (hence my interest in the Mailwaukee Road and GG-1s)

    When I was about 10 years old, a Hungarian gentleman who had come to Austria as a refugee, who had been a lawyer by profession, but could not follow his vocation in Austria. So he built model train layouts and taught tennis. To this day (70 years later) I consider him one of the ultimate model builders I have ever known. He taught me how to build and hand-wire electro-magnetic switch machines from scratch. I have a couple I made then to this day. Anyway, he took me along when he set up a HO Marklin layout which he had built for a customer.  This gentleman pulled out a Marklin Crocodile (remember it's 1952), zinc alloy, only one truck powered, original AC style and all. Well, I was hooked and really wanted to have one. We were very poor, barely enough to eat, so model trains were certainly out of the question. But I made up my mind, when I came to Canada, I was going to have lots of model trains AND crocodile locomotives. Well folks, so here I am today, lots of model trains and a lot of crocodiles, in all Scales !

    Now a brief background on crocodiles. There were the long nosed ones, invented by the Swiss and adapted by Austria, these with the drive shafts and all. The reason for the driveshafts, at that time they were only able to build large elecrtric motors rather than smaller individual motors as used today with one per axle. So there was a single large motor which the connected to 3 driving axles, similar to steam locomotives.

    Then there was the German model, with MUCH shorter hoods, named either BR-94 (Baureihe) or E-94, and adapted to Austria as Class 1024.

    Below is a small overview of a few of my crocodiles (I have over 25). This is a display module. No 1 Gauge in the very back and Z Scale in the very front. There is no O Scale Crocodile. MTH had one in their catalogue, but then Mike (from MTH) decided to retire and the DCC model he had advertised will not be. I am really searching for an analogue version of one, especially after I saw one at the OR&L museum in Ewa, Oahu.

Any Leads appreciated !!!!!

 

I have been asked what makes these are. All are classed as 1C/C1. In Europe it is not a 4-6-2 (Pacific), it is a 2-C-1

    No 1 Scale in the back is a Marklin. HO on left is the just released Trix Croc w Sound & DCC (marvellous model)

    The 2 HO models to the right are both Roco.

    In N Scale, all the green Crocs are Arnold Rapido, whereas the brown one is a Minitrix. Z Scale is a Marklin. (Biggest and smallest)

And I just got 3 more Crocs at GETS/22.

And a view of the short nosed E-94s (no z Scale here, not made).

    I do have the MTH E-94, fully DCC, a marvellous model. In the back, no it's not No1 Scale, it's an LGB RH&B Swiss narrow gauge crocodile. The HO model is a Liliput, (I also have a Kleinbahn and three ESUs) and in N Scale it's an Arnold-Rapido

And in a different display, Austrian (OBB) only crocodiles in OBB colours along with a gold-plated (Yes. 24k gold!) Croc (and some of my GG-1s)

Both HO models are Roco. The 1C/C1 is DCC. The N Scale E-94 is Arnold-Rapido and the 1C/C1 is Jagernsdorfer with full DCC and Sound.

The Gold plated Croc was in a gold-plated series Arnold Rapido produced. I have a number of other models in this series. The gold locos are not powered but do roll along. The display below the OBB Crocs are matched sets of GG-1s, HO by BLI and N by Kato.

While visiting a friend recently, he asked,"What about your Lego Croc?" I had forgotten all about it so here it is, an afterthought.

And here is a display of what is known as the most famous face in North American Railroading - EMDs F Series. My display of North American EMD F Series locomotives: FTs, F-3s, F-7s and F-9s. Many of these are custom painted and a few have DCC and Sound. The maroon and Gray CP A-A Set dates from the late 60s and is Auroroa Postage Stamp, which were made by Minitrix and imporeted by Aurora plastic models at the beginning of N Scale in North America. Revel imported the Arnold Rapido line.Whereas the two ABA Milw Rd sets in the second row are Kato with DCC & Sound. The front Milw RD ABA Set is also Kato but before they offered it and is a custom paint job.

"Trains" Magazine in August 1996 had an article: "The most famous name in railroading" referring of course to General Motor's (EMD Divn) series of F Locomotives. Over 5000 were produced between 1940 and 1960.