Smaller Loco Suggestions

[J3a-614]

This list would also have to include the S-160, otherwise known as the GI 2-8-0 and its postwar variants.  Thousands were built, and they literally ran in locations all around the world, including a number of places in the USA.  A wartime engine (Great Smokey Mountain 1702) and a postwar version (Tennessee Valley 610) run today, along with a WWI "Pershing" predecessor (Texas State 300).  Such a model would likely be an international seller!

An earlier discussion of this engine is here:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12534.0.html

[J3a-614]

Finally stumbled onto that CNJ 4-6-0 excursion footage. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmNAu0v__g&NR=1

Enjoy.

[pdlethbridge]

Did you notice the huge light and pilot on the tender? She was designed for running in reverse a lot.

[J3a-614]

Sure did!  That's part of the reason I was so glad to find this again.  And take a look again at that large cylindrical object on the top of the tender.  At first glance, it looks like an air tank, but it has an exhaust pipe and muffler that looks a little like a spark catcher on a woodburner.  It's a huge turbogenerator, used for train lighting.  CNJ commuter trains made so many stops that the traditional axle-driven generators on cars could not keep the batteries charged, so the CNJ went in for what we would now call "head-end power."  Somebody (Kemtron? PIA?) once offered this as a detail part in brass.  

I wonder how many people think this is a diesel-era inovation?  Actually, the very first electrically lighted trains ran with a generator car, or an engine-generator (reciprocating steam engine) set in a baggage car that ran off steam piped from the locomotive through a connection like those used for steam heating.  And the Milwaukee Road, in the 1890's, actually had steam generator cars (like what would be later used with freight diesels) for train heat to supplement the capacity of the relatively small 4-4-0s in service at the time.

It simply amazes me how long some supposedly modern technical fixes for operating problems or special conditions have been around.  And while I'm a strong C&O fan, I like those Camelbacks, too.

In fact, I like about anything with a firebox at one end and a smokestack at the other!

A photo of this same engine, from earlier in this thread:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?//march99/03-26-99/crd90597.jpg

Sadly, she did not make it into preserrvation, despite efforts by some railfans back then.  CNJ managment at the time thought they had done enough by donating the relatively rare 592 (Camelback 4-4-2) to the B&O Museum in Baltimore.  I'm grateful for this, of course, but I wonder if the 592 wishes she had a sister to keep her company. . .

http://saulnadler.railfan.net/display.cgi?CNJ_592.jpg

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=58514

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=58514&Page=2

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=58514&Page=3

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_cnj592.jpg

Amazing what you sometimes stumble across on the internet.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/cnj_steam1.html

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/cnj_atr.html

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnj/cnj.html

Enjoy.

[J3a-614]

One of the problems in model railroading (if it is a problem) is making a choice about what to model.  There is always something new to discover, even in the steam era which has been gone for over 50 years, or a shortline that has been gone for about 70 years--and yet, one of its engines survives today.  As a bit of trivia, its construction number is 33333!

http://www.wva-usa.com/history/mthope/kgje.php

http://www.wvepostcards.com/kgj-and-e/

http://www.wvepostcards.com/kgj-and-e/index2.php

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/prairie/?page=kgje

http://remembercliffside.com/documents/pdfs/engine_brochure.pdf

Other material from this site to explore:

http://www.wva-usa.com/history/mthope/whiteoak.php

http://www.wva-usa.com/history/mthope/loupckbr.php

http://www.wvepostcards.com/index.php#railroads

A reference to the town of Cliffside in the notes on Kanawha Glen Jean & Eastern 200 lead to a site on the town, and some interesting links on railroads there.  Explore and enjoy:

http://remembercliffside.com/index.html

http://remembercliffside.com/galleries/railroad/crrindex.html

http://remembercliffside.com/photoofmonth/2008/picmonthfeb2008.html

http://remembercliffside.com/galleries/railroad/crrindex.html

Those who love decrepit shortlines and the affectionate and artful carricature style of John Allen will appreciate Jim Scancarelli (current "Gasoline Alley" cartoonist) and his interpretation of Cliffside in HO scale:

http://remembercliffside.com/galleries/model/modelhome.html

Enjoy.

[NWsteam]

I'm a steam fan through and through. But those camelback are hideous.

[ebtnut]

Camelbacks are an acquired taste.  You sort of have to have been exposed to them early on to appreciate them. 

[jettrainfan]

i still want a ho scale 4-4-0 camel back 

[J3a-614]

Hard to find photos of IHC engines since the firm went out of business, but here are some shots by a fellow who likes Camelbacks, and of course went to work with IHC 2-6-0s (which, to my eye, most closely resemble an engine from the NYO&W, except for the  piston-valve cylinders of the SP prototype that was the basis of the mechanism).  He also went and swapped superstructures on IHC 4-4-0s to get himself some 4-4-0 Camelbacks.

http://www.railroad-line.com/discussion/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=16740

Of course, Camelbacks were considered dangerous locomotives with the fireman and engineer seperated like that, and with the engineer right over that clanking machinery (not a good place to be if the engine decides to throw its rods, which did happen once in a while), while the fireman usually had to stand on the tender and fire through two firedoors, with minimal shelter--and imagine doing so on a 4-6-0 running tender-first at high speed, in the winter, in rain. . .the men on those engines must have been of iron, like the locomotives themselves. . .

Jet Train, I have to ask, are you an anthracite road modeler?  If you are, it's not something everyone does. . .

Interestingly, the N&W once owned a Camelback, a chunky 2-6-2 inherited from a shortline that was bought out; seems it served in a very small area that had hard coal in Virginia.  Didn't last long, but still an interesting footnote in the N&W steam roster.

[J3a-614]

This one's for P. D. Lethbridge and Rye Guy; a double-ender in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqAmm5WaZ-I&NR=1

[Guilford Guy]

Poor 47. Last time I saw that engine, it was rusting away in the open at Steamtown.

[pdlethbridge]

It was a good runner, but not big enough for fan trips at Steamtown.

[Clear Block]

There are a lot of PRR Modelers out there,  A H9/10 2-8-0 and G5 4-6-0 are a definite necessity for PRR modelers.
You have the E6 4-4-0 too.
These are all small steam locomotives that have yet to be modeled on a mass scale.
The Lackawanna and CNJ Camel backs would be great too!
Bachmann has the K4 model, How much retooling would be needed to make a mold for a G5/H9/10?

[pdlethbridge]

Bowser made 2 of them, the H9 and G5. You can still find them around like on ebay.

[J3a-614]

I'll also add that Bowser also made the E6s, as well, although some would argue that it was not as accurate as it might have been.  At least one article on assembling and detailing one of these engines involved replacing the superstructure and tender with the more-accurate counterparts from Model Die Casting (Tender trucks, though, were Bowser's aftermarket Dauphin or Dolphin trucks).  Ironically, MDC had a (relatively) inferior mechanism in that the drivers were too small, the valve gear was missing, and most ironic of all, a gear-reduction system that made this speedster too slow!

There is a thread on "Early-Time Kits;" Bowser is present there:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12480.0.html

If you check the "Obsessed with Heavy Metal " thread, you can also see a Bowser G5 in progress:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12823.0.html

There is also an earlier comment on this thread about a Pennsy H6 (which was also B&O's E-24)and what appear to be stock Alco cousins.

Point to consider:  Bowser's 4-4-2 mechanism, like its standardized racehorse prototype, shared many common parts with the K4s; the K4s, in fact, was developed from the E6s rather than the predecessor K2 and K3s.  This suggests the possibility of reduced tooling costs in the mechanism department.  And this in turn would suggest the possibility not only of a B&O P-7 4-6-2 (mentioned in another thread), but also a PRR K-3s, NYC K-3s and K-5s, and even Reading G-1s, 2s, and 3s (all 4-6-2s with 80-inch drivers and similar wheelbases and driver spacing).

I wonder if anybody in management has been reading anything in these posts?