Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

The Weeden #666 came in today and I got it running.  While it is a reverser, it only really runs kind okay in one direction.  So not very powerful at all but its better than not running at all - right?

I believe this little electric engine is kind of rare, the #666 line started in 1931 and ended 3 years later from what I read from Weedensteam.  If this isn't a knock off of a Empire #43, then I'd be rather surprised!  From the piston's little hut to the balanced wheel standoff and even the main base's shape, it nearly a Empire.  I am pretty sure I could take the hut/standoffs and put them on a Empire!

While I was worried the tank would be tin, it doesn't seem to be or at least it passed my magnet test.  The heater tests a good 55ohms, though there is something rattling around.  It isn't in the tank but around the heater area, likely ceramic.   

Regardless, I like the little guy and think I got pretty lucky.

Major Congrats!

Yes, I think you did get rather lucky to get that rare bird, and have it actually work right off is probably even rarer!!!

Thank you!

I found I have some little leaks, the 1st one was around the whistle base so I put some Permatex 59235 on the treads - which I should have done anyways.  The next two on are on the outlet/inlet on the seam pipe.  I am going to put a dab of Superglue around the seams but I don't have any, so I need to pick some up.  Not really a proper fix but I learned tend to work pretty good.

Then I gave the tank a little polish and considering the shape of the nickel plating, it came out pretty nice.   The smoke stack, isn't ever going to look better unless I get into re-nickeling.  But it is better to have a smoke stack in bad shape then none at all!

My latest steam up (with whistle base sealed) and using less water, I was able to get much better forward speed.  When when I tried reversing the engine, it went in that direction slight less than my video's forward speed.   So that was really nice being able to see the engine run in both directions.  Perhaps I'll get even better performance once I seal up the steam pipes seams.

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