Alessandro Manzoni – Badoni , ADA/R & C : the โ€œ puppies โ€œ Rivarossi

Badoni, ADA / R & C: the “puppies” Rivarossi

44 gatti

(Written by P.G.)

Gatti sposi

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 ….

Pretendente
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”.

fig 00 Badoni
The first loco arrived in the stores on Christmas of that year and it differs from the image of the catalog

fig 01 Badoni

for the presence of grid, trumpets and tanks on the roof ….

fig 02 Badoni

.of This little machine, affectionately nicknamed “Scarpetta” has been a rare version with tanks on colored white plastic mass in the roof …

Badoni tubi bianchi

… And here is with the “Green Puppy” Conti , if our friend Carlo Costamagna allows us to call it so,

fig 02a Badoni
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.

fig 03 Badoni
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 ….

attraente
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.

cucciolo cervo
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 …

fig 04 Badoni
… 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”.

fig 05 Badoni
Here it is with an “Electric Puppy” Conti FS 554 ….

fig 05a Badoni

… Conti after all, with his ” Electric little puppy ” proposes, as Rivarossi, a pack with two cars

Cucciolino Conti
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 โ€‹โ€‹double creeping

fig 05b Badoni
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.

sbadiglio
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

fig 06 Badoni
It bears the American hook, or the classic hook

fig 07 Badoni

and has the four running boards glued to the internal planks

fig 08 Badoni
The ABL A / R did not have any success and it is now very rare.

Pinguini
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.

Cucciolo daino
In fact this ” blue puppy” served in the 40s-50s on fittings port of the Lake Michigan.

fig 08a Badoni
Note that the KMT has a small transmission rather original …..

fig 08b Badoni

And here it is together with other “blue Puppies” (in the middle the rare blue version of the V60 Lima)

fig 08c Badoni
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.

cuccioli volpe

The first version has a casing in burnished brass, trumpets and metal supports for a handrail to drill holes performed with mask and …

fig 09 Badoni
the two later versions have steel casings, holes for rails produced in the mold, plastic trumpets and hook American on back ….

fig 10 Badoni
… Or hooks hitched …

fig 11 Badoni
Here is the image of the three versions together

fig 12 Badoni
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

fig 13 Badoni
The ADA / R also passed in 1959 in the collectors catalog and finally disappeared at the end of the year.

fig 14 Badoni
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.

fig 15 Badoni
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.

fig 16 Badoni

The version “US Army” is produced in the 1962-1963 and only appears in the AHM catalog of that year

fig 16a Badoni
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

fig 17 Badoni
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.

cuccioli pantera
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

fig 17a Badoni
The AA / R silver normally have the frame of the same color with red trim …

fig 18 Badoni
… However, from 1961 to 1964 in the US was joined by a version with black frame with black plastic frame,

fig 19 Badoni

ordinary hooks or type American hooks

fig 20 Badoni
This variant is sold in exclusive shops also above-mentioned European and, probably for this reason it is provided with holes for the buffers

fig 21 Badoni
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.

Karin Zeller red
There are three variations: with no frame buffers …

fig 22 Badoni

….. Equipped with bumpers.

fig 23 Badoni
… And with writings “DB” …

fig 24 Badoni
Below a “family photo” of the last three descendants of this “Puppies” Rivarossi began in 1955 and ended in 1970 …

fig 25 Badoni
… And finally one of these small locomotives together with

Aristogatti Disney

a 1306 Fleischmann liveried dark red and a real “red Puppy” of Conti

fig 26 Badoni

And now we go to Lecco where began the production of Badoni

that branch of Lake ……….. at noon between two unbroken chains of mountains ……….

Lago Como

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(@ May 23, 2015)