This is my Pocher CC7107 loco. I was lucky enough to purchase two from Count Giansanti Colluzi in Lausanne some years ago. I dold one to a friend who is a Pocher devotee.
I was reading recently as much as I could regarding this iconic manufacturer and of course in the process the subject of zincpest arose.
I checked my loco and all was well as it was a later batch I suspect.
I remembered I had bought a complete drive train bogie with clutch etc from the US on eBay a few years ago for a bargain, to have as a spare part.
When I checked it, it was fine but to my amazement I noticed a yellow gleam under some small paint chips and lo and behold it is a complete brass casting.




Has anyone come across this before? It would be no mean feat to cast brass at home and I am sure Pocher never did it. I have posted a photo and one of my loco's bogies for comparison. The detail is very good but the paint has been applied a little too thickly and has blurred some detail.



I have replaced the simple Marklin switch with the double change over type and built a small connector plate so I can easily remove the body. The jumper allows running with the top off. I have worked on an earlier CC7107 with zincpest but it did have Pocher's lovely mechanical reversing switch in it.



Otherwise it is a rather tedious job of undoing several small screws to look at the mechanism. I have retained all the original parts of course.
Cheers,
Howard.

Hi Markus,
Thanks for the info. Seems a shame it never took off as I am sure there would be a lot of CC7107 owners looking to replace their damaged parts.
Unfortunately I have also seen zincpest in the frames carrying the motor, so not only the bogies.
Regards,
Howard.

Hi John,
They were promoted in the late 50's but not marketed until the early sixties. Therefore these locos are usually 50 or more years old now.
I have read the article you mentioned and there is quite an amount of information on the net.

Pocher was always a specialty item and more expensive by far than contemporary Marklin .( 2½ times the price of a CCS 800). Both 2 rail and 3 rail CC7107 were produced.
The man was a perfectionist and delighted in detail ,sometimes not even easily visible to the user. The fit and finish can vary within versions of the same model.

The models were not without fault, the worst being zincpest which in my opinion reflects the problems of post war manufacturers rather than Pocher himself.
The railway models are a niche collectors market but are lovely pieces. The later versions marketed by Rivarossi are considered a bit less desirable.
The items he made for Metropolitan are exquisite.

I think most of the CC7107 locos without zincpest and a good body would sell in the high hundreds of Ozzie dollars.
The ravages of initial cost, time and use are the real problems with this loco. His rolling stock fared much better and are a delight.

Regards and thanks for the interest,
Howard.