About that 4-6-0

 

A while back I mentioned an AristoCraft (New One) 4-6-0 I'd considered to pull my Selley passenger train, when the day arrived to need it.  Well, the Selley passenger cars are still in kit form, in their boxes, awaiting their turn on the workbench.  But another reason emerged for needing this engine, and one that's more apropos.

While searching for that elusive (and now suddenly everywhere!) New One "Supply Car", I ended up with a whole train of New One cars, nearly ready-to-run.  It's a long story, and might find its way onto this blog someday.  For now, suffice it to say that I've got a five-car "Open Enders" (New One's name for its cars) passenger train with one of each type plus an extra coach.

That brings us back to the 4-6-0.  The poor old gal had a broken tender truck, a broken drawbar spring, and two broken main rods.  After some cogitation I figured I could repair that truck, ditto the spring, and begin hunting for replacement main rods - more on that in a moment.  I managed to "weld" the truck back together with the same two-part metal epoxy I had used on the frame of the 2-8-0 kit-mingle.  I bent a new spring for the drawbar and soldered it in place.

With those repairs the thing should have run, and it did, briefly.  After cleaning the wheel treads and oiling the motor bearings the performance improved but not by much.  So I turned to what any reasonably skilled modeler would have done back in the day; I bought pickup shoes from Tomar and installed one under the loco.  I try to follow the troubleshooter's creed of "fix one thing at a time - then test - then repeat as necessary"*

With that solitary change and more wheel cleaning the thing now runs reasonably well.  Well enough, in fact, to pull the New One cars around Pine Branch Park without much difficulty.  Of course it still needs those main rods and I may have the solution.  Finding original parts will be less likely than a close-enough replacement, so I selected a pair of rods from an MDC 4-4-2.  As you can see from the photos they're pretty close.  Crucially, they're longer and I can drill a new hole (hopefully) in the beam and make it work.  Fingers crossed.

*I don't know if that really is a troubleshooter's creed, it just sounds like it could be.  Please don't come after me, members of the troubleshooter's guild.  If there is such an organization.  I'm just guessing.

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Fit Check VIDEO!

After gluing the cab floor and boiler backhead into one unit and adding styrene strips to the cab walls to hold it in place against the frame, I decided to do a fit check of the whole thing at this point.  So, I reassembled the loco and took it for a quick spin.  As I suspected, the longer Aristocraft boiler and cab closes the gap between engine and tender by approximately 1/8".  Even with the closer spacing the engine will still successfully navigate my 15" to 16" radius curves.  YES!!  That means I don't have to make a new drawbar.  I also decided I'm going to add a plug to the headlight wires so I can mount the light up through the boiler into the headlight housing and not have to fiddle with jamming it up in there each time I reassemble the engine.

Okay, enough blabbing.  On with the video:

Like, Subscribe and all that jazz, because when this thing is done I'll be making a follow-up video for sure.  I'm just tickled with how this project is coming along.  After the struggles of the 2-6-0 project, this one is a breeze.  On to the detailing.

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Boiler Swap

Oh my poor Shifter.  This little 0-4-0 has been put off for over 12 years now through moves and shifting locales and all sorts of reasons.  I had claimed in my end-of-year goals that this time would be different and for sure I'd finish it by Christmas, but alas, it may not be so.  One thing I've learned about how I approach my hobby during lockdown is to follow the muse and pursue the passion even at the cost of delaying a project yet again.  Momentum is precious when the anchor of settled inertia takes so much effort to weigh.  Best to change tack and sail with the wind.

No, I'm not building a ship - lest the nautical references mislead you.  I'm swapping a boiler and cab to create a unique locomotive.  John Allen, of Gorre & Daphetid fame, was fond of heavily modifying locomotives to make them different from everyone else's.  I have always felt the same way.  The 2-6-0 I modified last year got a shortened tender and a high headlight; for fitting on a short turntable and to give the engine a 'family' appearance, respectively.  This time I'm applying a boiler and cab from an AristoCraft/New One 2-8-0 to the smooth running mechanism of an Athearn (nee MDC/Roundhouse) 2-8-0.  

The donor boiler is slightly longer than the original but offers a few features that make the conversion worth it for me.  Not visible in this image are the open cab doors on the front of the cab - a thing often seen in real life but rarely on the model, something I've always wanted to include on a model engine.  Like the 2-6-0, (and the Shifter) this engine has an auxiliary dome just in front of the cab and a side-mounted whistle (family likeness, again).  I also like the brass detailing already built-in and will be featuring that in the finished model.  

I'll be borrowing the backhead detail from the original boiler using Oyumaru thermoplastic and superfine Miliput to make a copy.  The great thing about this thermoplastic material is that the mold can be remade if it doesn't turn out well on the first try.  I was fortunate and got it right first time.  Here you can see two castings in Miliput.  I'll use the top one but it will need a little more Miliput to fill a couple imperfections.  It smooths easily with water.  The little side tabs will be cut away before it is installed.

I'll have to make a boiler segment for inside the cab along with a rudimentary floor and of course a place for a skinny engineer to sit.  The fireman may end up living on the deck behind the cab.  We'll see.  Brass for the bits to attach the new boiler to the old frame (or is that the other way around?) has already been cut and shaped, and I have all the detail parts I'll want to use.

More on this project as I hit new milestones.