Badoni, ADA / R & C: the “puppies” Rivarossi
(Written by P.G.)
In response to repeated requests by small locomotives of all brands to be accepted as “puppies” on this web site, we present here the little Rivarossi pretenders to this title ….
ย In the catalog of 1955 appears for the first time with the initials ABL / R the “puppy” of the house of Como, the small diesel locomotive with two axles called “Badoni”.
The first loco arrived in the stores on Christmas of that year and it differs from the image of the catalog
for the presence of grid, trumpets and tanks on the roof ….
.of This little machine, affectionately nicknamed “Scarpetta” has been a rare version with tanks on colored white plastic mass in the roof …
… And here is with the “Green Puppy” Conti , if our friend Carlo Costamagna allows us to call it so,
The ABL / R, despite the name and description, is actually a locomotive freelance inspired to locomotives built for industrial use at the time by Antonio Badoni of Lecco.
The first pieces producted do not carry numbers on planks, later appear “215,011”.
A curiosity is the coupling rods, with a design that does not match that of any real locomotive … Perhaps their purpose is only to make the model a bit more attractive ….
The body can be in plastic green colored in mass or painted, the frame is black with red planks. It remains in the catalog until 1961, and apart from the machines derived from the mounting box of the series “rr”, is hard to say what the criteria are: mounted painted bodies, or colored in the mass. There are, for example, specimens with plastic body gray painted green.
The rounded shape of the case make it possible to a use of a mold highly simplified and inexpensive in addition to the grid on the roof, the double horn and the four lights: the superstructure is then formed over all nine parts to be assembled ….The electrical version can have also the plastic frame red or that of the diesel version …
… And from the 1955 is sold a package with two or three cars “centoporte” green plastic, first as the ABL P / R, then as the set of the series “rr”.
Here it is with an “Electric Puppy” Conti FS 554 ….
… Conti after all, with his ” Electric little puppy ” proposes, as Rivarossi, a pack with two cars
It existed a version in kit form (series “rr”) announced on catalog 1961 -1962 with the opportunity to realize the diesel version or the electric adopting the “new” pantograph plate with sliced โโdouble creeping
The ABL / R is the first locomotive Rivarossi with all-plastic frame designed to be adapted to various locomotives. His mold is in fact made up of six pieces, just replace those matching planks for versions with or without buffers or enriched with running boards and accessories.
The first practical application of that possibility is “Badoni American” ABL A / R, built in very few units in 1956 and that does not appear in any European catalog
It bears the American hook, or the classic hook
and has the four running boards glued to the internal planks
The ABL A / R did not have any success and it is now very rare.
For this reason, probably, Rivarossi then tried to give a more American footprint to its two axes. In 1956 the KMT produces a small number of two-axle locomotives brass for the shop Haffner in Chicago.
In fact this ” blue puppy” served in the 40s-50s on fittings port of the Lake Michigan.
Note that the KMT has a small transmission rather original …..
…
And here it is together with other “blue Puppies” (in the middle the rare blue version of the V60 Lima)
Rivarossi model inspired by the KMT to achieve its ADA / R in 1958, adapting anyway case painted black with the frame of ABLA / R this time colored in red and white stripes.
The first version has a casing in burnished brass, trumpets and metal supports for a handrail to drill holes performed with mask and …
the two later versions have steel casings, holes for rails produced in the mold, plastic trumpets and hook American on back ….
… Or hooks hitched …
Here is the image of the three versions together
This little engine is well suited to trains-work and that’s how it is in this rare package of 1958 named ADA Work / R, never appeared in European catalogs
The ADA / R also passed in 1959 in the collectors catalog and finally disappeared at the end of the year.
The superstructure of these small locomotives is assembled from 13 parts: body, two trumpets, pipe muffler with four covers on the hood, a handrail and four supports.
The mold of the case is made of seven parts, the red version we see then, is made by replacing or modifying the constituent parts of the roof and the hood.
The version “US Army” is produced in the 1962-1963 and only appears in the AHM catalog of that year
The first units are equipped with handrails on the hood and have the writings in yellow, then handrails disappear, the writings turn white and the latest pieces with white characters a little closer
They can be equipped with hook-shaped, or, for the most part, the standard hook US at rear, the front could be obtained in a separate sachet with the reference SFN 18887A.
Even some European stores, as Baby-Train Paris and Mastro Geppetto in Milan offer it as exclusive 1963 news .
ADA / R is replaced in the Catalog 1959 with the AA / R silver obtained by replacing again the front parts of the mold frame
The AA / R silver normally have the frame of the same color with red trim …
… However, from 1961 to 1964 in the US was joined by a version with black frame with black plastic frame,
ordinary hooks or type American hooks
This variant is sold in exclusive shops also above-mentioned European and, probably for this reason it is provided with holes for the buffers
The version with plastic body colored red in the mass of 1966 -1967 and it is intended to department stores Kaufhaus Germans, but it is offered only in 1970 and then also in the “junior series” in a pack with three freight cars or two wagoons .
It is an economic machine without any reported detail, today become quite rare.
There are three variations: with no frame buffers …
….. Equipped with bumpers.
… And with writings “DB” …
Below a “family photo” of the last three descendants of this “Puppies” Rivarossi began in 1955 and ended in 1970 …
… And finally one of these small locomotives together with
a 1306 Fleischmann liveried dark red and a real “red Puppy” of Conti
And now we go to Lecco where began the production of Badoni
that branch of Lake ……….. at noon between two unbroken chains of mountains ……….
or back to Home Page
(@ May 23, 2015)