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Paul Moore's Little Scoot cars used an Athearn Hustler mechanism for their power. Starting in the early 1950's, Athearn (a California model train manufacturer) began producing a small industrial locomotive called the "Hustler". This locomotive was inexpensive, since it involved very few parts and was easy to manufacture. Although based upon no known prototype, the Hustler has the look and feel of an industrial switching locomotive.
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Although most of the Hustlers were produced in different colors of red, yellow, black and silver, Athearn also offered the Hustler in a Denver & Rio Grande Western paint scheme. The D&RGW did not have any similar units......
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One of the downsides to the Hustler was its direct belt drive mechanism . Although the motor shaft was considerably smaller than the axles which it powered, the Hustler, and any other similarly equipped Athearn locomotive, was impossibly fast. Scale speed of hundreds of miles per hour was possible with the Hustler, and a variety of approaches were tried to slow this unit down to a realistic pace. Most successful were the mechanism upgrades which were manufactured by Ernst and by Northwest Short Line.
Other manufacturers also offered similar industrial units. Bowser manufactured this gas electric locomotive. Made of heavy cast metal, it was designed to fit onto the Hustler mechanism. The heavy weight of the shell was partially successful in slowing down the speedy Hustler mechanism
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Other manufacturers produced industrial locomotives. Notable was the accurate model of a Plymouth CR4 by Mantua.
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Although the Santa Fe never had such a locomotive, many small industrial concerns such as steel mills did. The Mantua model features a geared mechanism and is a scale representation of a locomotive manufactured by the Plymouth Locomotive Works of Plymouth, Ohio.
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