Friday, May 19, 2006

The 600E by HK Creswell

On with the mid-day refresh -

I've always thought there should be a standard gauge Hudson. I guess H.K. Creswell thought so as well. This is yet another article from a 31 year old TTOS Newsletter.

This Hudson is gorgeous, still retains its' toy like charm and (from what I have heard) is one of the best pullers anywhere.

You all can read the article, it is very interesting and it makes me wish I knew about these trains when Mr. Creswell was producing them (I was 10 years old so my Dad would have probably understood why I would want to acquire such an item but most likely would used the cash to pay for food for a family that seemed to grow larger weekly).

What really intrigued me after reading this article was the fact that this was not some hacked up 400E. Many repro parts and pieces were figured into the production of these units and they were done in different colors. However all of these were hand done and with new parts, nothing rehashed or baked from old loco's. The color schemes also intrigued me: gunmetal, black, Blue Comet colors and two tone green. The two tone green one's must be downright amazing.

So who has one of these with some color pics so I can post it for everyone to see? The funny thing is that I have heard about this loco for some time but I never had a chance to see one. Now that I know it is real, it's only a matter of time! I wish I could have met Mr. Creswell, his writing is a hoot and he really knew his way around metal!



M

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spectacular article and listing. The 600E is beyond compare!!! Wish there were some more photos.

Thanks again,

lionelsuperotrack

Anonymous said...

Very nice article, thank you so much. I just did a Google this evening for "Liberty Lines" and only my own website's Liberty Lines page showed up. A little work and I found your very nice site with the TTOS article. I wrote to Creswell after I purchased a green-and-coppertrim 600E at the Purple Hall in the early 1990s. It was simply hypnotising to see it, "I had to have it." It needs work mechanically, but it is so visually stunning the mechanical issues are irrelevant. MTH contacted me in October 2006 and I brought it to TCA York to be photographed by them. Wonderful that they have even a shred of interest in this, but the outcome is yet unknown. Thanks again so much for posting this old article. It really is "all we know" about these wonderful few machines.
Ed Sterling
TCA member

Standard Gauge Blogger said...

You are welcome Ed. For further info, contact Arno Baars. He's a TCA member and very knowledgable on topics such as Liberty Lines and Harlen Creswell. He's publishing a book that will cover all of the great manufacturers that weren't or aren't Lionel.

This is a growing segment of the hobby, predominantly because of the ingenuity a few people like Creswell, Bob McCoy and Dick Mayer and many others had. They made things Lionel and others would not have pursued and the 600e is a perfect example.

Believe it or not, the 600E is not the only standard gauge Hudson. There are absolutely gorgeous Hudsons out there in Standard Gauge as well as Big Boys, Dreyfus Hudsons, N&W J's and the like. All of them are absolutely glorious in standard gauge (trust me, I've seen them) and they look amazing in front of ANY set of cars including typical Lionel passenger and freights.

Marc